New Semester, New Books: Surviving the Future, A Visual Primer on Mass Incarceration, & more

“An essential movement tool. Tastrom convincingly shows that police and prison abolition and disability justice are core strategies for liberation and that we can’t win one without the other.” —Alex Vitale, professor of sociology and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and author of City of Disorder and The End of Policing

Though the mainstream media saturates us with the boring norms of queer representation (with a recent focus on trans visibility), the writers in this book ditch false hope to imagine collective visions of liberation that tell different stories, build alternate worlds, and refuse the legacies of racial capitalism, anti-Blackness, and settler colonialism. The work curated in this book spans Black queer life in the time of COVID-19 and uprising, assimilation and pinkwashing settler colonial projects, subversive and deviant forms of representation, building anarchist trans/queer infrastructures, and more. – From the publisher

“James Kilgore, one of my favorite commentators on mass incarceration, has joined with information artist Vic Liu to create a wonderfully attractive and accessible primer on the US carceral state. Grounded in empathy, this volume highlights the inspiring resistance that has emerged against this system of oppression and control.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

“Malkiel was a politically sophisticated and well-seasoned socialist organizer and propagandist, and she used the medium [of the diary] to draw out certain lessons about the relationship of class and gender from the events of the strike. Francoise Basch’s fine introduction provides the necessary context and makes Malkiel’s novel/political tract readily accessible to today’s readers.” – Mary Jo Buhle, Brown University

“Strongly recommended to those interested in the history of labour unions, women workers and socialism in North America, as well as to those interested in the origins of feminism in the United States.” – Relations Industrielles

For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry step inside. The show is about to begin. Cougar & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares. Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon. This new, definitive edition commemorates the novel with personal essays on its genesis by the author; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Stephen King, Seth Grahame-Smith, Margaret Atwood, and others; rare manuscript pages and sketches from Ray Bradbury’s personal archive; and much more. – From the publisher

Born in Portland in 1953, Weems lives and works in Syracuse, NY. “Carrie Mae Weems has spent over thirty years producing a unique body of work distinguished by its theoretical sophistication, its formal elegance, and its commitment to social justice. Her art has been widely recognized for its critical deconstruction of both the master narratives of history and the conventions of visual and textual representation. In her major contributions to cultural debates about the racial dynamics that dominate American culture, Weems has expanded those discussions to encompass the even more complex power relations at the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Bridging the gap between the particular and the universal, she reveals through the specificity of the varied lived experiences of black bodies in the world the common humanity shared by all.” – Robin Lydenberg.

The Sentences That Create Us provides a road map for incarcerated people and their allies to have a thriving writing life behind bars–and shared beyond the walls–that draws on the unique insights of more than fifty contributors, most themselves justice-involved, to offer advice, inspiration, and resources.

“This book, unlike any other I’ve read, takes seriously the beating hearts and curious minds behind bars.” – Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

“There are millions of stories locked behind bars, along with the millions of people our nation has caged. This astonishing book has the power to set those stories free.” – Michelle Alexander

This landmark book is a founding work in the literature of black protest. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) played a key role in developing the strategy and program that dominated early 20th-century black protest in America. In this collection of essays, first published together in 1903, he eloquently affirms that it is beneath the dignity of a human being to beg for those rights that belong inherently to all mankind. He also charges that the strategy of accommodation to white supremacy advanced by Booker T. Washington, then the most influential black leader in America, would only serve to perpetuate black oppression. Publication of The Souls of Black Folk was a dramatic event that helped to polarize black leaders into two groups: the more conservative followers of Washington and the more radical supporters of aggressive protest. Its influence cannot be overstated. It is essential reading for everyone interested in African-American history and the struggle for civil rights in America. – From the publisher

“When something is bothering you–a person is bugging you, a situation is irritating you, or physical pain is troubling you–you must work with your mind, and that is done through meditation. Working with our mind is the only means through which we’ll actually begin to feel happy and contented with the world that we live in.” – Pema Chodron

“We already have everything we need. There is no need for self-improvement. All these trips that we lay on ourselves–the heavy-duty fearing that we’re bad and hoping that we’re good, the identities that we so dearly cling to, the rage, the jealousy, and the addictions of all kinds–never touch our basic wealth. They are like clouds that temporarily block the sun. But all the time our warmth and brilliance are right here. This is who we really are. We are one blink of an eye away from being fully awake.” – from Start Where You Are

“Taking the leap involved making a commitment to ourselves and to the earth itself–making a commitment to let go of old grudges, to not avoid people and situations and emotions that make us feel uneasy, to not cling to our fears, our closedmindedness, our hard-heartedness, our hesitation. Now is the time to develop trust in our basic goodness and the basic goodness of our sisters and brothers on this earth; a time to develop confidence in our ability to drop our old ways of staying stuck and to choose wisely. We could do that right here and right now.” – from Taking the Leap

“Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it. Nothing ever sums itself up in the way that we like to dream about. The off-center, in-between state is an ideal situation, a situation in which we don’t get caught and we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit.” – from When Things Fall Apart

“Wren Tuatha’s poems are lively, rich in images and bold unexpected language. She writes especially well about love unrequited and satisfying.” – Marge Piercy