Past Episodes

We've had the honor of chatting with long-time Latinx community organizers, Black professors, disability justice activists, gender justice attorneys, intersex artists, Black Lives Matter leaders, elders, and more. Check out all of our past episodes! 
Summer Episode!
Host: Monica Trinidad
Guests: Patrice Lumumba Daniels
Date: Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Length: 45:50
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Episode 43: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Due to popular demand, we're back with a summer episode!

We've been super busy working on the #NoCopAcademy campaign, which is why you haven't from us, but we'll be back in the late fall with a whole new season of spark notes for the movement!

In this special summer episode, Lit review co-host Monica Trinidad has a phone conversation with dear friend and incarcerated activist, Patrice Lumumba Daniels, about one of his favorite books, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander.  

Banned from prisons in North Carolina and Florida, The New Jim Crow book dives deep into the ways that the U.S. Government has created a new, contemporary system of racial control through the prison system. By targeting Black men through the "War on Drugs" and decimating communities of color, Michelle Alexander argues that “we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it.” Tune in to hear how this book has transformed Patrice's life, and many others.

In Patrice's words: Patrice Lumumba Daniels is an African-American, seriously mentally-ill male, age 43, serving a life without parole sentence in IDOC for a crime he committed at 18 years old. He is an activist, humanitarian, poet, advocate, motivational speaker, and revolutionary. 

Key Questions:

1. How does Michelle Alexander use data to prove Jim Crow has simply been redesigned?

2. What is the "War on Drugs", when did it come into fruition, and how did it affect Black communities? 

3. How does this book talk about mass incarceration different from other books?

4. Has this book been well-received on this inside? What are people's reactions to it?

5. How has the landscape changed on the inside (and outside) around prisoner-led organizing since this book was released?

ESSENTIAL READING: Charlottesville

IN THE MEDIA:

New Podcast 'The Lit Review' On Black Liberation & More (NPR Illinois, Mar 15, 2017) 

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