-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [MumiaNYC] BLACK POLITICAL IMPRISONMENT SYMPOSIUM ...UNV.
TEXAS,AUSTIN
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 15:50:44 -0000
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via sis Marpessa:
http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com/general/black-political-imprisonmen\
t/
<http://www.peopleofcolororganize.com/general/black-political-imprisonme\
nt/>
Black Political Imprisonment, Here and Now!
There will be a critical symposium on the subject of Black Political
Imprisonment held on April 23rd, 2011 at the African and African
Diaspora Studies Department in the GRG building, 2nd floor at the
University of Texas, Austin. The symposium will serve as a gathering
point for Black people to discuss the continued imprisonment of Black
radical activist, discuss key questions surrounding their imprisonment,
and develop practical steps toward freeing these leaders immediately.
To all Black people who are concerned about our conditions in America,
your unique perspectives on the struggle, trials and incarceration of
Black political activists in the US would make a significant
contribution to a dialogue with activists and scholars seeking to build
on historical social justice endeavors.
Millions of Black people are ensnared (in prisons, jails, half-way
houses, wearing ankle bracelets, on parole) within the United States.
Incarceration itself is political and its constituent element, the truth
though not the totality of incarceration, is anti-Black racism and
gendered violence. We also recognize that debates abound among Black
activists and scholars, inside and outside the Prison Industrial
Complex, about political prisoners and social prisoners, reformist and
radical responses to the prison industrial complex's racial-sexual
impetus.
This symposium recognizes that debate, and supports our focusing on that
sector of the Black incarcerated population imprisoned for its
deliberate, organized, opposition to state violence; and those
politicized while incarcerated who become activists. We hope to come to
grips not only with the history and topics surrounding mobilizations and
insurrections dating from the 1970s but also to address forms of
violence that dictate new mobilizations for today. We hope to
collectively develop a constructive critique to animate the activism and
scholarship around political prisoners, something that we have not been
able or willing to yet do in order to address the plight of Black
political prisoners and the levels of anti-black violence.
We need to think the "unthought"; to move beyond the museum of
political imprisonment as we seek to better comprehend why Black
political incarceration remains so unchallenged, and what it means in
terms of our relation to violence from the state, from sexual-gendered
oppression, and among ourselves.
The organizers of this symposium also invite the community to contribute
on the topic of "Black Political Imprisonment, Here and Now!" to
the HTLC digital repository<[log in to unmask]>:
http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/7828
<http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/7828>
They are interested in any relevant articles/essays, art, poetry, music,
theoretical and/or cultural contributions that you have authored and
would permit to be posted on the digital repository. The aim is to
upload contributions before the April 23rdgathering in order to have
better informed discussions and debates.
Mumia Abu Jamal, Assata Shakur, and Safiyah Bukhari, as well as hundreds
and thousands of others, have struggled for justice despite rejection
and repression. In Black traditions, repression and resistance appear on
the same path. We gather to discuss and debate our options.
Symposium Organizers
Joao Costa Vargas, Anthropology, UT Austin [log in to unmask]
Joy James, Humanities, Williams College [log in to unmask]
Frank B. Wilderson III, African American Studies and Drama, UC Irvine
[log in to unmask]
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