Revolution is not a one-time event
WE SEE THE HORIZON: ABOLITION NOW!
Abolition is a perennial and open invitation to take the potential of revolutionary love seriously. In direct opposition to carcerality, abolition is a life-making principle: one concerned with creating new practices, spells and rhythms that make planetary life habitable for all. Abolition is the desire for more; a rejection of all the tenets of the world sustained by the catastrophe of policing, carcerality and their rootedness in anti-Black, anti-queer, anti-trans, white heteropatriarchal, racial capitalist state power. As this moment of upheaval unfolds, abolition has taken centre stage, expanding the realm and threshold of potential. This state of emergency has always been forever. Abolition reminds us that the world has never been habitable and that everything is possible.
In daring us to demand more for ourselves and others, abolition orientates us towards what Mariame Kaba describes as a horizon. We see the abolitionist horizon just beyond burning police cars, abandoned prisons and open borders. The time of abolition is both in the distance and already present. In the words of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “abolition is presence”: a form of faith that we can and will change everything. Abolition is the gift of the unfinished Black freedom struggle and its constant radicalisation, its ceaseless extension.
Join activists, academics and artists as they reflect on abolitionist praxis and thought, exploring covergences with gender, poetry, technology, performance, speculation, aesthetics, film and culture. This online series of events commemorates Black August and is for anyone who wishes to answer the abolitionist call to action and thought.
Each Monday in August, starting at 7pm BST, 2pm EDT, 11am PDT.
3 August: The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House: Abolitionist Feminist Futures — Gail Lewis, Miss Major, Zoé Samudzi and Hortense Spillers, chaired by Akwugo Emejulu
10 August: Poetry is Not a Luxury: The Poetics of Abolition — Saidiya Hartman, Canisia Lubrin, Nat Raha and Christina Sharpe, chaired by Nydia A. Swaby
17 August: System Errors: Abolitionist Technologies and Aesthetics — American Artist, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley and Sondra Perry, chaired by Legacy Russell
24 August: Happy Birthday, Marsha! — adrienne maree brown, Black Obsidian Sound System and Tourmaline, chaired by Lola Olufemi
No cost options are available.
Revolution is not a one-time event is organised by Che Gossett, Lola Olufemi and Sarah Shin in collaboration with Arika and hosted by Silver Press.
Proceeds from the ticket sales will be put towards the programme next year.
Visit Burley Fisher one of London’s best independent bookshops, to browse books by participants.
