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This essay was originally posted on Nadine Naber’s blog, Liberate Your Research. Since I launched Liberate Your Research, one thing is now more clear to me than ever before. Radical scholars, especially interdisciplinary activist scholars, face disproportionate levels of overwhelm and anxiety in academia. Lacking go-to theories, or theoretical blueprints, contributes to these challenges.  Compounding matters, fields like Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies, and/or Gender Studies often lack training in how to claim and name your theoretical approach and interventions. The struggle to name and claim our ideas can lead to confusion over where our interventions begin or end. Even worse, we…

HYPERTENSION Righteous rage delivered me to this world as I am, a Black man. My living, here, has always been illegal, and my fight preordained    for an always-later time    when I’ll whisk the blade    away from its hiding place on my wrist. Then, with just a quick, outward thrust and a slow, intimate twist,    a spoonful of justice shall finally permit the blood       to flow                        freely    with all the force of my beating heart. Already I can feel it,       pulsing in my wrist,       pulsing in my grip             on my dripping blade. PHANTOM LIMBS The good doctor brings me to consciousness…

We, the undersigned human rights and humanitarian organizations, call on all stakeholders to ensure people in Iran have swift, unencumbered, and equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable Covid-19 vaccines. We particularly call on the government of the United States to provide assurances to financial institutions that they will not be subject to US sanctions for facilitating transfers of Iran’s foreign currency for the purpose of purchasing vaccines. We urge the Iranian government to use funds, distribute vaccines, and fight the pandemic in an equitable and transparent manner, in line with recognized due diligence standards.   Iran has seen some of…

In the 2020 presidential election, Black women, Indigenous women and people of color across the country delivered the votes to throw Donald Trump out of office. These voters want a new era in policy priorities, requiring radical change to the status quo—not just when it comes to U.S. domestic affairs but foreign policy as well. After decades of flawed and failed U.S. foreign policy, Joe Biden has the opportunity to chart a new direction, one that can advance the conversation of achieving basic human rights and a secure future for the nation and the world. The stakes have never been higher: Diplomatic relationships have been…

These pieces are being made available by artist Molly Costello to support the movement for abolition, to challenge the culture of white supremacy and to help imagine a world beyond capitalism. For all of you out there working to build our healed future, thank you for your commitment to this world. Molly is a queer illustrator, food grower, bee tender and a seeker of mysticism. Through their creative work they explore themes of interconnectedness, cosmology, and resilience, and are interested in cultivating a radical imagination for our emergent new world. As a white person, Molly is committed to the work…

Dr Sunil Abhiman Awachar is a poet, painter and Assistant Professor at the Department of Marathi, University of Mumbai, India. He is a full-time activist in the Dalit human rights movement. He has published four anthologies of poetry in Marathi, that include ‘Global vartamanachya kavita (2008)’ ‘Mi mahasattechya darashi katora gheun ubha rahanaar nahi,’ ‘Bravo! Fox minds of capitalist’ and ‘Poems of the occupied everything’. One of these anthologies was translated into English as ‘Our world is not for sale’. His poems, written in a unique blend of local Indian languages—Mahari, Gondi and Banjara, are political statements which demand social justice. He is also on…

By now, you may have heard about the most recent cases of horrifying rapes and murders of Dalit women and their terrorization and traumatization by the police in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. We are reaching out to individuals and organizations located outside India to sign a statement to express in the strongest possible collective voice our outrage at this horrific violence, to express our solidarity with all the families of survivors and victims of caste-based violence in India, and to join organizations, movements, and concerned citizens across India and the world to demand accountability and justice for…

These times; Coronavirus now called COVID-19. The whole world is on lockdown. People are fearful, confused, defiant and restless. Somebody must have cried out from the wilderness, “What next, God?” I asked myself privately, “Is this when Hell freezes over?” I am sleepless with such questions. I am concerned but not scared. Worldwide protests ignited (again) by the brutal, livestreamed and televised murder of another Black man, George Floyd. These times. I live in north Minneapolis. I watched people engage their rage to mobilize and take to the streets. I had seen this before, August 1965, during the Watts riots….

कुठली मेथडॉलॉजी… -विनायक लष्कर कुठली मेथडॉलॉजी वापरून आमच्या जिवंतपणाचं तुम्ही संशोधन करताय गुर्जीतुमच्या मेलेल्या सिद्धांतांनीआमचं जिवंत असणं कधीच नाकारून टाकलंय…संख्या फेकण्यात तर तुम्ही सराईत तज्ञ आहात गुर्जीपण कोणत्या पद्धती वापरून तुम्ही करणार आहातआमच्या शोषलेल्या रक्ताचं गुणात्मक विश्लेषण…संशोधन पेपरांचे तर तुम्ही ढिगावर ढिग रचतच चाललाय गुर्जीपण आमच्या घामाची शाई तुम्हाला कधीच उमटवता येणार नाही कागदावर…राष्ट्रीय, आंतरराष्ट्रीय पातळीवर टाय कोट घालून तुम्ही पेपर प्रेझेंट कराल गुर्जीपण आमचं रिकामं प्वॉटतुम्ही कधीच भरू शकणार नाही…तुमच्या संदर्भ सुचीत नामांकित नावंतुम्ही शोधून शोधून टाकाल गुर्जीपण ही पृथ्वी समृद्ध करण्यासाठी आमच्या झिजलेल्या भाऊबंदांची नावं तुम्ही कधीच टाकू शकणार नाही…पण एक फुटनोट द्यायला मात्र तुम्ही कधीच ईसरू नका गुर्जीतुमच्या या सगळ्या सिद्धांत पद्धतीशास्त्रांनीआमची सामान्य जगण्याची गृहीतकं सिद्ध करण्याच्या नादातसमदी जिंदगीच ईस्कटून टाकली… Which…

Red skies erupt as the sun escapes prying eyes. Glass lake surface distorts the shape of the canoes upon them from top down views. Vagina shaped vessels pulsing between the pressures of the lake and sky. Fish glance jump to spot who are the stewards of the birchbark cloud in their midst. Black fur covered land loving bullfrog? Oh yes. It’s a rez dog, knows her way around a canoe because the manoomin is ready to harvest. Customary knocking sticks in paw. Nothing unusual on this dreamy day to her at all – let them deny the possibility that she…

Translated by Carmela Zigoni1 I. When I provoke a debate about colonization, the quilombos2, their manners and their meanings, I do not want to position myself as a thinker. Instead, I am positioning myself as a translator. My elders formed me first through orality, but they put me in school to learn through written language so that I could translate the contracts3 we were forced to make. I went to the school of written language at the age of nine but since I started to speak, I have also been trained by ‘craft masters’ in our community activities. When I…

On 4 June, 2020, our department chair informed graduate students that two of the officers charged in George Floyd’s murder “appear to have ties to our department, college, and university.” After expressing sadness and outrage, we were asked to “direct any media inquiries to CLA, UMN (College of Liberal Arts).” As graduate students in the department, we feel disbelief, anger, and disappointment at the handling and communication of this news and believe that it is our responsibility to address this conversation ourselves.  The murder of George Floyd has brought to light our department’s complicity in systemic racism and anti-Blackness. An…

unité de temps And the students saidin their surreal utopian worldthere will be no currencyno one will be put to work to live andcontaining students between walls toturn them into docile citizens will be punishedthere will be a reorder of genderwalls and lands andthe young will choose their learning in alignment with their calling in alignment with their vision in alignment with community needs andthere will be no prisonsno demokrasi pépéonly witches and mad womento govern the cityall times made equal Covid dix-neuf pourl’an deux mille vingtschools’ doors are closedno one goes to workgrocery shelves are down andmy neighbor knock…

In February, three organizations — MADRE, Women Cross DMZ, and Grassroots Global Justice Alliance — convened a group of 23 women and gender nonconforming people from across the United States in order to engage in a cross-movement dialogue on our collective work against militarism and war in order to examine, challenge, and reimagine US foreign policy. While our convening occurred before the coronavirus became a global pandemic, this public health crisis has only amplified the need to redistribute resources, restructure society, and create long-term solutions that prioritize the true needs of all people. The following statement represents the beginning of a larger conversation to…

When did the breath of life start to kill? As Quechua people, we are taught about the power of one’s breath. The fresh Andean air that we take in is a gift that we have been given to live in this world. Each breath is a reminder that we are alive and most importantly, that with our aliveness comes a responsibility to do good with each thought and each physical movement fueled by this breath. Our breath is powerful because it holds the ability to offer thanks, express reverence and awe, to transfer strength and healing, and to carry the…

This is an urgent call for global action. For the last three days, large violent mobs of right-wing Hindu nationalists have unleashed a spate of violent attacks in Delhi which have led to at least twenty three deaths recorded so far and injured more than 100. Vehicles and commercial establishments owned by members of the Muslim community have been specifically targeted and burned or vandalized. Mobs have been threatening women and children with physical violence and rape, and Northeast Delhi is burning. In the meantime, the Delhi police has played a silent spectator, and other times has actively aided the…

Malice against children is emblematic of evil in the Abrahamic religious tradition. The Old Testament tells the story of how the Pharaoh ordered the murder of every male Hebrew child born in Egypt to protect himself against the Messiah—Moses (es)—that the shamans had foretold would destroy him. Ironically, he ended up raising Moses (es) in his own house, and was destroyed by him anyway. One can read the story literally or allegorically, but in either case the intent of the Egyptian empire was to destroy the Hebrew, either through a campaign of genocide or through acculturation. Pharaoh tried both—by attempting…

The Gulmohar and I are losing a companion. May 5th, 2016 Until yesterday, if you looked outside where we work, you would find a beautiful mango tree on the plot next to us. In the respectful form of Tamil or Kannada, my mother tongue and the language that is spoken around me right now, pronouns and sentence conjugations are agender; like English’s plural pronoun. Perhaps this is why using they, them, theirs as pronouns to refer to my friend, this Mango tree, feels the most appropriate while communicating in English. Just taller than our two story building, they were reaching…