Kite Line

This week, we have a conversation between Toussaint Losier and Micol Seigel.

This is part one of a series in which we hear Losier, author of Rethinking the American Prison Movement, speak to Seigel about his research while writing his book, in which he builds a cohesive picture of the long history of resistance to slavery and incarceration.  In this episode, we hear him speak about forms of resistance during the so-called “workhouse” period of incarceration, from approximately 1865 to 1940 – the post-slavery Jim Crow period – during which prison served largely as a method of forcibly extracting labor from recently freed slaves.

This week, Kite Line welcomes the continued contributions of Mark Cook, who we recorded in conversation with Alejo Stark.  Mark is a former prison rebel, dating back to ambitious organizing on the inside in the 1960s.  Following his release from prison, he co-founded the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and later went underground with the George Jackson Brigade.  Due to his guerrilla activities, he served another quarter century in prison before being released in the year 2000.  Since then, he has continued to organize and contribute to the prisoners’ movement.

Mark continues to reflect on prison organizing and struggling against prison both inside and outside the prison walls. He also speaks on the importance of communication as fundamental right for everyone, and emphasizes the importance of communication for prisoners.

You can here previous episodes with Mark Cook on our website, https://kitelineradio.noblogs.org/

This week, Kite Line welcomes the contributions of Mark Cook for a second time.  Mark is a former prison rebel, dating back to ambitious organizing on the inside in the 1960s.  Following his release from prison, he co-founded the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party and later went underground with the George Jackson Brigade.  Due to his guerrilla activities, he served another quarter century in prison before being released in the year 2000.  Since then, he has continued to organize and contribute to the prisoners’ movement.

This time, Mark speaks about how college classes in prison helped them to organize and talk to one another. As mentioned in his previous Kite Line interview, he was one of the prisoners who constructed a homemade printing press inside, used to make a newsletter that spread agitation. He also talks about the importance of prison newsletters, and communication between the inside and outside- how it’s the heart of any movement. Mark then moves onto current situations, including #metoo and the current prisoners’ movement, and the newsletter that they recently started prior to last year’s National Prisoner Strike, called The Kite.

We will have more with Mark next week, and you can hear previous episodes from Mark here, here, and here.

Last week, we heard the first part of a lecture by Max Felker-Kantor on policing in Los Angeles, from the Watts Rebellion in the 60s to the brutal police beating of Rodney King in the 90s. This week, he continues to talk about the police murder of Eula Love, and how her death affected the growing anti-police sentiment and protest in 1970s Los Angeles. Felker-Kantor talks about how the chokehold, a once common police restraint tactic, was shown to be used predominantly on Black Los Angeles residents. He also walks us through how anti-police protests continued to shape the landscape of policing in the area, as the LAPD focused on perceived gang and drug activity in the 1980s. He ends with the 1991 beating of Rodney King, and its aftermath. You can hear the first part of his talk on last week’s show.

This week, we air the first of two episodes tracking the rise of police racism and militarization in Los Angeles, from the Watts Uprising of 1965 to the 1992 L.A. Riots after Rodney King’s beating.

Max Felker-Kantor, author of the book, Policing Los Angeles, walks us through the changes in policing, as well as the ways in which anti-police activism grew during this time. Starting with the 1960s siege of the Black Panther Party headquarters to the many police murders of Black residents such as the death of Eula Love in 1979, Felker-Kantor traces how these events led to both modern policing and anti-police movements. As one L.A. resident noted at the time, “the police’s role is to uphold community standards, and in this community- that includes segregation.”