AirGo

The Abolition Suite is a series of AirGo episodes exploring the concepts and practices of policing and prison abolition with the thought leaders who have been pushing an abolitionist future forward for decades. The Abolitionist Suite is presented in support of the #DefundCPD campaign and the Black Abolitionist Network.

This episode's guest is scholar, author, and historian Robin D.G. Kelley. A true digger and chronicler of Black liberation history, he explores the roots and routes of abolition, defines the concept of racial capitalism, and even takes off his historian hat briefly to imagine a liberatory future.

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Show Notes:

Angela Davis Lectures on Liberation: https://archive.org/details/AngelaDavis-LecturesOnLiberation

Slavery and Social Death by Orlando Patterson: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674986909

Black Marxism by Cedric Robinson: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807848296/black-marxism/

Black Reconstruction by Du Bois: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/black-reconstruction-america/

Organization for Black Struggle in STL: https://www.obs-stl.org/

Jamala Rogers: http://jamalarogers.com/about/

Black Radical Congress Agenda: https://www.obs-stl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Black-Radical-Congress-FREEDOM-AGENDA.pdf

M4BL Policy Statement: https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/

Critical Resistance: http://criticalresistance.org/

CLR James: https://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/biograph.htm

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2785-how-europe-underdeveloped-africa

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America by Manning Marable: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/736-how-capitalism-underdeveloped-black-america

Groundings with my Brothers by Walter Rodney: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2787-the-groundings-with-my-brothers

Jah Kingdom by Monique A. Bedasse: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469633596/jah-kingdom/

Gina Dent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Dent

Combahee River Collective: https://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/the-combahee-river-collective-statement.html

Recorded 7/13/20

Music from this week's show:

Song 33 - Noname

Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy.

On this final episode of Climate Changemakers, Damon and Daniel are joined by Lissette Castañeda. A lifelong Logan Square resident, Lissette is the Interim Executive Director of LUCHA, an organization working to advance housing as a human right by empowering communities– particularly the Latino and Spanish-speaking populations–through advocacy, affordable housing development, and community building. She talks about the ways in which her work is connected to the Puerto Rican diaspora, how COVID is impacting the fight for housing as a human right, and much more.

Learn about LUCHA's Passive House: https://lucha.org/build-passive-house-institute-us/

Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: www.elevateenergy.org/

The Abolition Suite is a series of AirGo episodes exploring the concepts and practices of policing and prison abolition with the thought leaders who have been pushing an abolitionist future forward for decades. The Abolitionist Suite is presented in support of the #DefundCPD campaign and the Black Abolitionist Network.

Volume 3 features writer, organizer, and movement worker Andrea Ritchie. Andrea is the author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, and has devoted the last 25 years naming and advocating for women of color, especially LGBTQ women of color, who have been victims of police violence. Ritchie co-authored the report SayHerName: Police Violence against Black Women and Women of Color with Kimberle Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum. She and the guys talk about the portals opening in this moment, the ways that gender-based violence is an intrinsic tactic of policing, and much more.

SHOW NOTES:

CORRECTION: In this episode, we state that Congressman Elijah Cummings is still alive and well. The congressman passed away in 2019.

Sign on to the #DefundCPD campaign: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-on-to-demand-defunding-of-the-chicago-police-department

July 17 Black and Indigenous Solidarity Rally: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/black-indigenous-solidarity-ra/580611602644351/

Arrested Justice by Beth Ritchie: https://nyupress.org/9780814776223/arrested-justice/

INCITE!, a network of radical feminists of color organizing to end state violence and violence in our homes and communities. https://incite-national.org/

Blackness, Animality, and the Unsovereign by Che Gossett: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2228-che-gossett-blackness-animality-and-the-unsovereign

Dancing the Carceral Creep by Mimi Kim: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/804227k6

Ruthie Wilson Gilmore: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html

Breonna Taylor and Gentrification: https://www.salon.com/2020/07/06/breonna-taylor-lawsuit-claims-no-knock-warrant-was-part-of-louisville-gentrification-plan/

Octavia Butler: https://octaviabutler.org/

Nalo Hopkinson: http://nalohopkinson.com/index.html

Interrupting Criminalization: https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/

Vision 4 Black Lives 2020: https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/

In Our Names Network: https://www.inournamesnetwork.com/

Invisible No More: http://invisiblenomorebook.com/

Recorded 7/6/20

Music from this week's show:

Song 33 - Noname

I'll Do My Best - The Ritchie Family

On this bonus episode, Damon chops it up with AirGo alum and community visionary Bella Bahhs on her IG Live about intracommunity violence, and how abolition can best respond to and transform this harm.

Bella BAHHS (Black Ancestors Here Healing Society) is a 2017 Soros Justice Fellow and Architect of Community Construction at The Decarceration Collective, an anti-carceral law firm and consultancy.

The Abolition Suite is a series of AirGo episodes exploring the concepts and practices of policing and prison abolition with the thought leaders who have been pushing an abolitionist future forward for decades. The Abolitionist Suite is presented in support of the #DefundCPD campaign and the Black Abolitionist Network.

Volume 2 of the series is with abolitionist organizer, community builder, and mentor Mariame Kaba. A 3-time AirGo Alum, Mariame talks through what we all need to remember in this time of uprising, how we can unweave the police from our hearts and minds, and much more.

SHOW NOTES:

Read Mariame's recent NY Times Op-Ed "Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/opinion/sunday/floyd-abolish-defund-police.html

Explore her workbook Fumbling Towards Repair: https://www.akpress.org/fumbling-towards-repair.html

Other abolitionist projects mentioned by Mariame:

Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective: https://batjc.wordpress.com/

Anti Police-Terror Police Project: https://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/

CAT 911: https://cat-911.org/

The Northwest Network: https://www.nwnetwork.org/

Paola Rojas: https://sfonline.barnard.edu/navigating-neoliberalism-in-the-academy-nonprofits-and-beyond/paula-rojas-are-the-cops-in-our-heads-and-hearts/

Prison by Any Other Name: https://thenewpress.com/books/prison-by-any-other-name

Liat Ben-Moshe: https://www.liatbenmoshe.com/

Eddie Ellis: https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/451/the-run-on-sentence

DefundCPD Campaign: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-on-to-demand-defunding-of-the-chicago-police-department

Recorded 7/1/2020

A dialectic shows up in many settings. Turns out djing is no exception. AirGo resident DJ crossfades back and forth between the left and right, kicking and calming, lightning and rainbow. Enjoy the Both/And.

photo by Barry Butler (https://twitter.com/barrybutler9/)

Music in this mix:

Eterna Sunshine (The Pledge) - Jay Electronica

Outro - Saba x Benjamin Earl Turner

Raw - Smino

Buenos Aires - Nathy Peluso

Big Poppa - Notorious BIG

Between the sheets - Isley Brothers

Juke Juke - Chance the Rapper

Rebelión - Joe Arroyo

Rebelión - J. Balvin

untitled 07 - Kendrick Lamar

Kale - Koseph Chilliams x Noname

Song 33 - Noname

Oprah - Rapsody x Leikeli47

Lip Gloss - Lil Mama

Fight Like Ida B & Marsha P - Ric Wilson

Heaven All Around Me - Saba

Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 200+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This month, we're revisiting our convo with vocalist, musician, and songwriter bLAck pARty (aka Malik Flint) from February 2017. Recorded on the guys' first trip to LA together, they chopped it up heavy with the Childish Gambino and Kari Faux collaborator. Since the recording, Malik has released the excellent project Endless Summer (https://open.spotify.com/album/1i1hnI5ABCJE0CbbLsuIL1).

Follow bLAck pARty on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/black.party/

Recorded 2/2017 in Los Angeles, CA

Music from this episode:

Summerlove - bLAck pARty

Bloom - bLAck pARty

AirGo introduces The Abolition Suite, a month of episodes focusing on police and prison abolition, with this episode featuring AirGo fave Asha Ransby-Sporn. Asha and the guys talk about the upcoming Defund CPD Mass Resistance Trainings over Fourth of July weekend (https://actionnetwork.org/events/defund-cpd-mass-resistance-trainings), and go through the 11 demands of the Black Abolitionist Network and the DefundCPD campaign.

NOTE: The 7/4 and 7/5 trainings are for Black people only. White and non-Black POC folks can sign up for the 7/3 training.

Sign up HERE: https://actionnetwork.org/events/defund-cpd-mass-resistance-trainings

Can't make the training? Sign on to demand the defunding of CPD HERE: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-on-to-demand-defunding-of-the-chicago-police-department

This series of trainings is hosted by the Black Abolitionist Network as apart of the campaign to Defund CPD. Feel free to contact BAN at [email protected] with any accessibility needs or other concerns.

Recorded 6/25 in Chicago

Music from this week's show:

Song 33 - Noname

I Can See It - Darksunn

Black Youth Project has joined forces with AirGo for a year-long #BYPSpotlight series, featuring our favorite Black academics and activists. This special Juneteenth #BYPSpotlight episode is with poet Danez Smith. Danez is a Minneapolis native who has been intimately involved in the uprising that began in response to the murder of George Floyd by MPD officer Derek Chauvin. They are also the author of three award-winning collections of poetry, and the cohost of VS, a Poetry Foundation podcast produced by AirGo cohost Kiss. They talk about their experience over the last three weeks in the streets, how they contributed to demanding change from the Poetry Foundation, and much more.

DONATE to The Hallie Q Brown Community Center: http://www.hallieqbrown.org/site/

Support on-the-ground organizing by donating to Danez's venmo @danez-smith

Music from this week's episode:

Kiss – Prince

Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy. This month's Climate Changemaker is Patricia Abrams. Pat is the Executive Director of the Renaissance Collaborative, a social impact organization that has provided affordable housing, workforce development, employment, and educational services and solutions to over 1,000 individuals annually in Bronzeville and its adjacent communities for the past 27 years. She talks about how environmental sustainability became an important piece of her work, the transformation of the historic Wabash YMCA that houses the organization's office and housing, and how we can move forward in a more human direction.

Learn more about the organization: www.trcwabash.org/about-us.html

Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: www.elevateenergy.org/