Season 3
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Episode 53: Borderlands with Trina Reynolds-Tyler
This was a hard book to talk about, but we’re so glad that we did. The late Gloria Anzaldúa’s book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza is beloved to many and considered a fundamental text in Chicana and Latinx studies. With gorgeous prose, she richly captures the unique experiences of those who inhabit the borderlands; of place, gender, class, and identity. Anzaldúa's book offers a poetic description of what it’s like to be caught between worlds. At the same time, this work is rightly called-out for those that it erases: Black, Indigenous, and trans people —all also existing and resisting in the borderlands. We were lucky to have Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute on the podcast to talk about the ongoing influence this book has had on her as a Black woman living on the borderlands of Chicago’s south side. Key Questions:
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Trina Reynolds-Tyler is a south side Chicago native and an abolitionist investigating violence against women and girls at the hands of the state. She is the Director of Data at the Invisible Institute—a nonprofit known for investigating police misconduct. She is an auntie, a sister, and an organizer.
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Episode 52: Discourse on Colonialism with Asha Ransby-Sporn
Originally published in 1950, Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire directly and dramatically influenced the liberation struggles happening in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. This book/essay/poem/manifesto is a blazing collection of thoughts that affirms Black identity and culture, embraces surrealism as revolt, and demands decolonization movements that “decolonize our minds, our inner life, at the same time that we decolonize society.” Césaire exposes the hypocrisy and emptiness of colonialism and capitalism, and the antiblackness and brutality inherent to western notions of “progress,” “reason,” and “civilization.” In this episode, we talk to our long-time comrade Asha Ransby-Sporn the Black Abolitionist Network (BAN) and Dissenters to learn more about what Césaire challenges readers to think through and how we might apply its lessons to today’s ongoing struggles against empire. Key Questions:
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Asha Ransby-Sporn is a Black queer abolitionist and organizer from Chicago. She is the co-founder and previous national organizing co-chair for BYP 100. As a student she led the campaign that successfully pushed Columbia College to divest from prisons. She was part of the We Charge Genocide youth delegation to the United Nations in 2014 where she testified on police violence in Chicago. Currently she is organizing with the Black Abolitionist Network (BAN) and Dissenters. Asha is committed to movements that embrace the transformative potential of a radical/Black/queer imagination towards the abolition of police and prisons.
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Episode 51: Rules for Radicals with
Maira Khwaja Have you ever heard of the term “Alinsky-style organizing” and the rules that are involved? For example, “A tactic that drags on too long is a drag” and “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Here in Chicago, Saul Alinsky is often mentioned both for what his analysis is missing, as well as for the helpful basics his tradition offers. Written shortly before his death in 1972, Saul Alinsky was a community organizer in Chicago who wrote about the power of place-based organizing and collective action in the book Rules for Radicals. Since he lacked a radical analysis, this book can be hard to sit with and take seriously. However, we were so grateful to sit down with Maira Khwaja of the Invisible Institute to talk about the highlights, lessons learned, and ways we might incorporate Alinsky’s approach as community organizers committed to abolition. Maybe skip reading this one and instead tune in for highlights, critiques, and salvageable gems! Key Questions:
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Maira Khwaja is an educator, multimedia producer, and part of the Invisible Institute, where she directs public impact strategy & outreach. Maira’s work centers on the Youth / Police Project, which primarily builds conversations with young people (ages 16-22) on the South Side about their everyday encounters with policing.
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Episode 50: Blood, Marriage, Wine and Glitter with Stephanie Skora
Ready to learn and get in your feelings? This week, we connected with Stephanie Skora, Associate Executive Director of Brave Space Alliance and author of the Girl, I Guess voter guide. Stephanie shared her love and learnings from S Bear Bergman’s book Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter, a book of personal essays about their queer and trans experiences of family. Join us for this episode to laugh about voting, gag about heteronormativity, and tear up about the importance of storytelling. This is a moving conversation about joy, resilience, memory, love, and softness. As Stephanie reminds us “these are some things we all need more of right now.” Key Questions:
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Stephanie Skora is a writer, educator, speaker, organizer, and non-profiteer based in Chicago, Illinois. She lives as a femme lesbian, trans woman, and working-class anti-Zionist Ashkenazi Jew, and mobilizes her identities to work in solidarity with Palestinians, to queer Jewish spaces, and to fight for justice and liberation for all trans people. Stephanie is currently the Associate Executive Director of Brave Space Alliance, serves as Board President for the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, and is the author of the "Girl, I Guess" Progressive Voter Guide. When not working or organizing, Stephanie can be found enjoying the pleasures of life for a Virgo: food, love, and being right.
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Episode 49: Hammer & Hoe
with Bettina Johnson There’s importance in collaboration and experimentation when it comes to organizing. But what does organizing around super radical ideas in very practical and grounded ways in a community you’re not from look like? We chat with Bettina Johnson, co-founder of Liberation Library and member of Chicago Afrosocialists & Socialists of Color of the DSA, about the book Hammer & Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression by Robin D.G. Kelly. Tune in to our first episode of the season to hear what the Alabama Communist Party can teach us about our social movements today. Key Questions:
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Bettina Johnson was born and raised in Chicago and hasn’t ever left—she’s an alum of Chicago Public Schools and University of Illinois at Chicago. Bettina is a co-founder of Liberation Library, an abolitionist books-to-incarcerated young people project and a core member of Chicago Afrosocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus of the DSA.
