ENGAGE: Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous Futures

by Joy James (Editor)

Overview

“Essential reading for those of us working in the university and inside institutions that help the state wage war...While the conversations are informed by histories of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous struggle, they unfold in unexpected ways and in the real-time of our perilous and shifting grounds” -  Tiffany Lethabo King, author of The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies

This dynamic collection of conversations includes reflections by Black and Indigenous organizers and educators on the historical and ongoing violence and theft that they have endured and continue to resist.

Both raw and disciplined, the wide-ranging discussions explore spirituality, environmentalism, security, freedom, autonomy, anti-Blackness, and family. The volume is an invitation to dismantle colonial oppressions and a step towards building a future free from the harmful legacies of racism and genocide.

ENGAGE includes contributions from under-platformed writers from diverse political perspectives. It emphasizes the role of non-academic collaborators as stewards of progressive, radical projects to realize better and more just futures.

Joy James, Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College, is a political philosopher who works with organizers. She is editor of The Angela Y. Davis Reader and Imprisoned Intellectuals, and co-editor of The Black Feminist Reader. James’s recent books include In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love: New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner; and Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon. James is editor of Beyond Cop Cities: Dismantling State and Corporate-Funded Armies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745350301
Publisher:	Pluto Press
Publication date:	12/20/2024
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Joy James is a political philosopher who works with organizers. Her books include In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; New Bones Abolition: Captive Maternal Agency and the (After)Life of Erica Garner; and Contextualizing Angela Davis: The Agency and Identity of an Icon. Her edited volumes with Pluto include Beyond Cop Cities: Dismantling State and Corporate-Funded Armies and Prisons and ENGAGE: Indigenous, Black, Afro-Indigenous Futures.

Table of Contents

Land and Labor Acknowledgments
Introduction - Joy James
I. Entwined?
1. Spiritualities - Akeia de Barros Gomes, Whitney Battle-Baptiste, Leah Hopkins, Rebecca Wilcox, and Christine DeLucia (moderator)
2. Security - Brittany Meché, Paul Gallay, Mary McNeil, José Constantine, and Tom Van Winkle (moderator)
3. Sovereignties - Ernest Tollerson, Brad Lopes, Katy Robinson Hall, and Ngoni Munemo (moderator)
II. "Study and Struggle"
4. Freedom - Anthony Bogues, Barbara Krauthamer, Kyle Mays, Jasmine Seydullah, and Joy James (moderator)
5. Abolition, Care, and Indigenous Liberation - Dian Million, Stephanie Lumsden, Joy James, Margaux Kristjansson (moderator)
6. An Ontology of Betrayal - Selemawit Terrefe, Frank Wilderson, Joy James, and Taija Mars-McDougall (moderator)
7. Family, Freedom, and Security - Joyce McMillan, Samaria Rice, Amanda Wallace, Dawn Wooten, and Joy James (moderator)
III. Liberation Education
8. Indigenous Pedagogies - Chadwick Allen, Sandra Barton, Américo Mendoza-Mori, endawnis Spears, Tesia Zientek, and Christine DeLucia (moderator)
9. Panther Pedagogy: Kim Holder 
10. Black Liberation: Rosemari Mealy 
11. BIPOC Pedagogy: Roberta Alexander and Khalid Alexander
Conclusion - Christine DeLucia
Contributor Bios
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

'This “counter-archive” is essential reading for those of us working in the university and inside institutions that help the state wage war. The students, faculty (bus drivers and librarians), cultural workers, parents, and organizers send us dispatches from their specific locations of struggle. The conversations—sometimes direct, sometimes oblique—are examples of how we talk to each other under institutional surveillance and subject to the reins of philanthropic funding. While the conversations are informed by histories of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous struggle, they unfold in unexpected ways and in the real time of our perilous and shifting grounds. These are conversations to turn and return to' - Tiffany Lethabo King, author of The Black Shoals: Offshore Formations of Black and Native Studies

'A diverse collection of urgent dialogs on the past, present, and future of rebellious Indigenous and Black life in a world structured by genocide' - Orisanmi Burton, author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt

'Joy James has given us a gift. Community-engaged and dialogic, ENGAGE brings us a powerful set of conversations that are rich with all the complexities entailed by diverse and yet intertwined histories of oppression and multiple visions for the future within and between these communities. A must-read for anyone concerned with Indigenous and Black liberation' - Shannon Speed, Director of American Indian Studies Center and Professor of Gender Studies and Anthropology, UCLA

From the Publisher