If America Fails?

See “Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America,” by David Ikard and Martell Teasley

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG #NationOfCowards a @Diopian winner by @blkeducator @Dr_Teasley & @IUPress, considers ways of coping w/oppression & inspires questions on @HandmaidsOnHulu. Dr. David H. Ikard joins Thurs., 8 pm ET, 1/13, “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.”

“They urge the black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization,” writes the publisher of Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America (2012), by David Ikard and Martell Teasley.

What are some effective coping strategies when the victimization is not self-imposed?

What are the ways in which the Black community has coped with the oppression seen in extrajudicial police killings and voter suppression tactics, for example, rampant since 2012?

What suggestions does Dr. Ikard have for responding to threats to democracy and what it connotes for Black America?

Which coping strategies does Dr. Ikard detect in The Handmaid’s Tale, and which ones does he see as most effective?

What differences does Dr. Ikard see in the ways black and white characters in the show respond to oppression?

What can African Americans do to fight back the anti-Critical Race Theory attacks we are seeing?

Come on…let’s get our questions ready for the professor now!

Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America won the Best Scholarly Book Award by the Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement (DISA) in 2013. — LMO

WATCH Dr. David H. Ikard, Professor and Chair, African-American and Diaspora Studies, Vanderbilt University– LIVE – Thursday, January 13, 2022, 8 pm ET, on the TruthWorks Network YouTube channel, when he joins the PREMIERE of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” in discussion on democracy as seen in The Handmaid’s Tale and threats to America’s system.

“In a speech from which Nation of Cowards derives its title, Attorney General Eric Holder argued forcefully that Americans today need to talk more―not less―about racism. This appeal for candid talk about race exposes the paradox of Barack Obama’s historic rise to the US presidency and the ever-increasing social and economic instability of African American communities. David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley maintain that such a conversation can take place only with passionate and organized pressure from black Americans, and that neither Obama nor any political figure is likely to be in the forefront of addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice. The authors caution blacks not to slip into an accommodating and self-defeating ‘post-racial’ political posture, settling for the symbolic capital of a black president instead of demanding structural change. They urge the black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization.” — Publisher

“Professor Ikard is Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies. His research and teaching interests include African American Literature, black feminist criticism, hip hop culture, black masculinity and whiteness studies. He is the author/co-author of four books, including Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism (2007), Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America (2012), co-authored with Martell Teasley and winner of the Best Scholarly Book Award by DISA in 2013, Blinded by the Whites: Why Race Still Matters in 21st-Century America (2013), and Lovable Racists, Magical Negroes, and White Messiahs (2017). His essays have appeared in African American Review, MELUS, Palimpsest, African and Black Diaspora Journal, The Journal of Black Studies, and Obsidian III.” — Vanderbilt University

David Ikard also has a passion for creating Black art. Inspired largely by the motherland – Africa – and using acrylics, oils, wood, cloth, and archival paper for mixed media, Ikard focuses on creating images that have “something to do with black folks, social justice, self-determination, nature, and the rawness of our collective humanity.” You may see his artwork online at the Ikard Gallery. — If America Fails: The Coming Tyranny, a TruthWorks Network Production

CONTACT US “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny” for access to the Zoom chatroom—L. Michelle Odom, Senior Producer
LMOdom@OurCommonGround.com or TWN@TruthWorksNetwork.com
Watch Thursdays, 8 pm ET, January 13 to April 7, 2022, on the TruthWorks Network YouTube Channel. All Are Welcome!

READ | Nation of Cowards: Black Activism in Barack Obama’s Post-Racial America | by David Ikard and Martell Teasley | Indiana University Press | 9/4/2012

INVITATION: Thurs., 1/13/22, 8 pm ET, If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny | “American Democracy Under Siege: The Color of Autocracy”

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG @AtwoodSociety @HandmaidsOnHulu Thurs., 8 pm ET, 1/13/22 is PREMIERE of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.” Join Dr. David H. Ikard & Prof. Jared Yates Sexton in discussion on “American Democracy Under Siege: The Color of Autocracy.”

YOU ARE INVITED to watch the LIVE webcast, Thursday, 1/13/2022, 8:00 pm ET, of Season 1 of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.” This discussion group explores themes presented by The Handmaid’s Tale Hulu Series, which is an adaptation of the book, The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Co-hosted by Janice Graham and L. Michelle Odom, “If America Fails?” is a production of TruthWorks Network.

This week’s chat reflects upon “American Democracy Under Siege: The Color of Autocracy.” Dr. David H. Ikard and Prof. Jared Yates Sexton join “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny” in discussion on democracy as seen in The Handmaid’s Tale and threats to America’s system. Now’s our chance to explore with these experts exactly what is happening in the divisive environment we’re living in, in the U.S., and more saliently, what it is likely to mean for Black people and other people of color.

Where are we heading as a nation?

What can be done to preserve and protect the democracy we have?

Will people of color survive this season?

We have many questions for these two expert guest panelists and #DemocracyDefenders.

Jared Yates Sexton is the author of three nonfiction books – The People Are Going To Rise Like The Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage, The Man They Wanted Me to Be: Toxic Masculinity and a Crisis of Our Making, and American Rule: How A Nation Conquered the World But Failed Its People – as well as four works of fiction. He co-hosts The Muckrake Political Podcast with Nick Hauselnan, has a newsletter on Substack, live streams from YouTube, and is Associate Professor of Writing and Linguistics at Georgia Southern University-Statesboro. Sexton has gone undercover into the fascist world and documented the 2016 Presidential Election, gaining himself a national profile after a tweet on the campaign went viral. His political writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The New Republic, Politico, and Salon.com, and he is a strong voice warning Americans on threats to democracy. He is now working on a new book. — If America Fails: The Coming Tyranny, a TruthWorks Network Production

Let’s put all this talent and knowledge to work in service of democracy. Mark your calendars and we hope you will join us on Thursday, January 13, 2022 at 8 pm ET, on the TruthWorks Network YouTube channel, for the PREMIERE of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” as we explore the evening’s theme – “American Democracy Under Siege: The Color of Autocracy.” — LMO

WATCH LIVE WEBCAST | Thurs., 1/13/22, 8 pm ET | “American Democracy Under Siege: The Color of Autocracy” | If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny

“Are Trump & His Cronies Guilty of Mass Murder? Where is the Media?” Thom Hartmann Asks

@JaniceOCG Trump’s indifference to death of Black Americans during early days of coronavirus should be seen & investigated as murder, @Thom_Hartmann urges in recent rant. Indifference also allows tyranny to flourish. We’ll explore thru lens of @HandmaidsOnHulu, Thursdays, 8 pm ET, 1/13 – 4/7/22, as “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.”

Thom Hartmann asks: “Are Trump & His Cronies Guilty of Mass Murder? Where is the Media?” in his daily rant, between 40:08 and 51:33 of the linked podcast. I believe these continue to be important and unanswered questions.

As Sweden and Brazil put together special panels to investigate their government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Americans, it seems, have moved on. Hartmann reminds us that until the New York Times reported how Black people were taking the brunt of the rising death toll from COVID-19, in April 2020, the Trump administration was attempting to respond to the crisis. Once the demographic news broke, we swiftly saw the change in tone and policy – now ordering people to get back to work. Hartmann sees this change as evidence of murder – and I agree.

So where is the media? Where are our political leaders? Where are Americans on this issue? Why does it seem it’s not even an issue on most people’s radar? Why, among the long list of legal problems “the former guy” is facing, the murder of Black Americans is not even making the list?

Yes, I know. We’re all overwhelmed and have way too much to care about and focus on. We’re only human! Yet I also know, in a time of rising fascism, our lack of response to atrocities, primarily impacting those we see as “others,” is precisely the way in which the disease of indifference spreads and grows. Despite word to the contrary, Black people are in fact humans, and actual citizens of the U.S. So where is the media?. . . — LMO

Quote from "On Tyranny," by Dr. Timothy Snyder — Quote from “On Tyranny,” by Dr. Timothy Snyder

“As COP 26 continues, can oil companies continue funding climate disinformation to their advantage and the disadvantage to the planet? Is it all about corporate profit and hang the planet? Thom is joined by Richard Wiles of the Center for Climate Integrity. Former Chair of the California Democratic Party, Bill Press joins Thom to discuss where the Build Back Better Bill stands. Are Trump & His Cronies Guilty of Mass Murder? Where is the Media?” — The Hartmann Report

LISTEN TO 40:08 – 51:33 | Stopping Big Oil from Funding Climate Disinformation? | by Thom Hartmann | The Hartmann Report | 11/2/2021

See “Reframing Screen Performance,” by Cynthia Baron and Sharon Marie Carnicke

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG How would we feel about @HandmaidsOnHulu if @samirawiley – a Black woman – played lead? Book by #CynthiaAnnBaron – Reframing Screen Performance – inspires questions on impact of acting. Dr. Baron joins Thurs., 8 pm ET, 1/20, “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.”

One book published by Dr. Cynthia Ann Baron – Reframing Screen Performance – is described by its publisher as “a groundbreaking study of film acting” which “argues that screen acting is a vital component of film and that it can be understood in the same way as theatrical performance.” This leads me to want to question:

What it is about the performances of lead characters in The Handmaid’s Tale Hulu TV series that contribute to our experience of Margaret Atwood’s award-winning story?

Which characters do we identify with the most, and what is it that evokes this resonance?

How could we mix and match the actors who perform in this show and what impact would that likely have on the popularity of the show? For example, what if Moira (Samira Wiley), a Black woman, was cast as Offred, the lead character – would the show still have such resonance? Though Moira begins as a handmaid, she is quickly transformed into a “Jezebel” – another type of sex worker seen in the series. Is Moira more believable in this role than she was as a handmaid?

See the book description below and tell me –

What does Dr. Baron’s writing inspire in you?

— LMO

WATCH Dr. Cynthia Ann Baron, Associate Professor, Theatre and Film, Bowling Green State University – LIVE – Thursday, January 20, 2022, 8 pm ET, on the TruthWorks Network YouTube channel, when she joins “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” in discussion on Cults, Cultures and Religions in The Handmaid’s Tale, modern American culture and film.

“A significant contribution to the literature on screen performance studies, Reframing Screen Performance brings the study of film acting up to date. It should be of interest to those within cinema studies as well as general readers.” —Frank P. Tomasulo, Florida State University

“Challenges conventional approaches to film by advancing the simple yet revolutionary idea that acting is one of cinema’s essential aspects…

“Reframing Screen Performance is a groundbreaking study of film acting that challenges the long held belief that great cinematic performances are created in the editing room. Surveying the changing attitudes and practices of film acting—from the silent films of Charlie Chaplin to the rise of Lee Strasberg’s Actor’s Studio in the 1950s to the eclecticism found in contemporary cinema—this volume argues that screen acting is a vital component of film and that it can be understood in the same way as theatrical performance. This richly illustrated volume shows how and why the evocative details of actors’ voices, gestures, expressions, and actions are as significant as filmic narrative and audiovisual design. The book features in-depth studies of performances by Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, and Julianne Moore (among others) alongside subtle analyses of directors like Robert Altman and Akira Kurosawa, Sally Potter and Orson Welles. The book bridges the disparate fields of cinema studies and theater studies as it persuasively demonstrates…how theater theory can be illuminate the screen actor’s craft.

“Reframing Screen Performance brings the study of film acting into the twenty-first century and is an essential text for actors, directors, cinema studies scholars, and cinephiles eager to know more about the building blocks of memorable screen performance.

“Cynthia Baron is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Bowling Green State University and co-editor of More Than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance.

“Sharon Carnicke is Professor of Theater and Slavic Studies and Associate Dean of Theater at the University of Southern California and author of Stanislavsky in Focus.” — Publisher

Dr. Cynthia Ann Baron is an Associate Professor in Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University, where she researches and teaches; authors scholarly books and articles on subjects related to the discipline; and provides keynote speeches and other presentations at conferences both domestically and internationally. Her research and teaching interests include American Independent Cinema; Screenwriting; Taste Formation; Censorship; Food Studies; Women’s Cinema; and Actor Training, Stardom, and Screen Performance, among other subjects. She has taught courses on intersections between the film-media industry, national security, and cultural moments such as the Cold War and the Vietnam era. Some other courses Dr. Baron teaches are American Independent Cinema; Hollywood, Censorship, and American Culture; and Performance and Theatre in the Americas.

Most recently, she published Acting Indie: Industry, Aesthetics, and Performance (with Yannis Tzioumakis), (2020), which illustrates the many ways that actors contribute to American independent cinema and analyzes industrial developments; Modern Acting: The Lost Chapter of American Film and Theatre (2016), which, in part, highlights women’s key contributions to American film and theatre; and Denzel Washington (2015) where Baron traces the star’s persona and impact on mainstream society. Current book projects include: Recasting (White) Genres: Race, Ethnicity, and Performance in Contemporary Film and Television; Intersecting Aesthetics: Literary Adaptations and Cinematic Representations of Blackness, with co-editor Charlene Regester; and Imprisonment: Representation in Global Film and Media, with co-editor Karen Ritzenhoff. She is co-chair of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Caucus on Class and has participated in events such as the Rethinking Realist Acting Conference in New York, and the Acting in Film Conference in Potsdam. — If America Fails: The Coming Tyranny, a TruthWorks Network Production

READ | Reframing Screen Performance | by Cynthia Baron and Sharon Marie Carnicke | (University of Michigan Press, 2008)

See “Bring Me the Head of Yorkie Goodman” by Rowdy Yates (Jared Yates Sexton)

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG #BringMeTheHeadOfYorkieGoodman is a fiction by @jysexton & @NewPulpPress1. Jared Yates Sexton / “Rowdy Yates,” joins premiere on Thurs., 8 pm ET, 1/13, of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” focused on democracy’s threats. See you then!

Bring Me the Head of Yorkie Goodman is another fiction work by Jared Yates Sexton / “Rowdy Yates.” — LMO

WATCH Prof. Jared Yates Sexton, Associate Professor, Writing and Linguistics, Georgia Southern University-Statesboro – LIVE – Thursday, January 13, 2022, 8 pm ET, on the TruthWorks Network YouTube channel, when he joins the PREMIERE of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” in discussion on democracy as seen in The Handmaid’s Tale and threats to America’s system.

“In this violent, darkly funny novel from the pseudonymous Yates (Jared Yates Sexton, editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Bull), Bill Wallace, an enforcer for a small-time East Coast drug lord known simply as Boss, has to collect an unpaid debt from Yorkie Goodman, a seemingly innocuous 62-year-old schlub. Goodman happens to live in Seymour, Ind., where 14 years earlier Wallace got into trouble and had to split town fast, leaving a broken-hearted woman behind. Boss pairs Wallace with Carp, a hit man who appears to be dying, and orders them to bring back macabre proof of a successful mission: Goodman’s head. Naturally, things go south quickly, as Wallace has plans of his own. Carp, meanwhile, proves himself to be indestructible. The duo quickly end up on the radar of the local police chief, whose laconic old-school commentary addressed to his deputy provides comic relief. Yates (An End to All Things) gives obvious nods to the works of Cormac McCarthy and the Coen brothers (Fargo, in particular) in an over-the-top tale whose infectious energy will prove irresistible to devotees of modern noir.” — Publishers Weekly

Hacked Members’ List of Violent Extremist Group – the Oath Keepers – Reveals Several Government Reps Involved in J6

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG Names of gov’t reps involved in J6 revealed by @propublica & @iarnsdorf teaching us more about these #DemocracyDestroyers. Join Thurs., 8 pm ET, 1/13 – 4/7/22, “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.”

People working to destroy democracy – like the fictional Serena Joy and Fred Waterford of The Handmaid’s Tale – may look perfectly normal…even, straight-laced. It may be challenging to know if our teachers, doctors, attorneys and other professionals are affiliated with ideas and organizations we would find abhorrent, if we knew the truth. Black Americans are familiar with this experience. It’s much easier to spot a racist in a Klan costume, than a business suit. However, when the racist or the #DemocracyDestroyer joins a club – and the membership list is revealed – things should get a whole lot easier to figure out.

“A membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a violent extremist group whose followers have been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, includes state lawmakers, congressional candidates, and local government and GOP officials,” according to the article by Isaac Arnsdorf linked below.

I don’t know who hacked the list…but…er…thank you! — LMO

READ | Oath Keepers in the State House: How a Militia Movement Took Root in the Republican Mainstream | by Isaac Arnsdorf | ProPublica | 10/20/2021

“The Hook and The Haymaker” by Jared Yates Sexton

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG #TheHookAndTheHaymaker is an early work of fiction by @jysexton & @SplitLipPress. Watch a great creative mind at work when Jared Yates Sexton joins 1/13/22, 8 pm ET, on the TWN YouTube channel, PREMIERE of “If America Fails?” in chat on democracy as seen in @HandmaidsOnHulu & threats to America’s system.

Jared Yates Sexton started his writing career producing works of fiction – making good use of his active imagination. The Hook and The Haymaker is one of his early works. — LMO

“In the follow-up to his critically lauded debut An End To All Things, Jared Yates Sexton presents twenty-three new stories that pick up where his first book left off. Whether they’re set in a sweat-saturated sparring ring, the backroom of a gas station speakeasy, or in the kitchen of the house down the street, these are glimpses into an America that too-often goes unseen. Witness here the untold tales of the losers and the should’ve-beens, the dreamers and the hustlers, all of them just spoiling for their turn at glory or the inevitable one-two punch that puts them down for good.” — Publisher

“From Hannah’s Airships-style stars on the cover to the Carhartt jacket Sexton’s rocking on the back-cover, this one nails the drawl, sets the stage equal-parts Southern and Midwestern, rushes the tempo, beefs up the characters, and lets them loose. These stories work as a unit, and Sexton is to thank. This collection is built Ford tough. It’s Rocky Mountain cold. Book clocks in somewhere between Brown’s Big Bad Love and Altman’s film-adaptation of Carver’s Short Cuts. Gauge reads true-blue.” – Austin Hayden, Entropy Mag

See “Subversive Fictions” by Cynthia Ann Baron

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG #CynthiaAnnBaron wrote an article on how our media consumption habits are being manipulated & undermine real-life political resistance. We’ll chat w/her on 1/20/22 at 8 pm ET, on the TWN YouTube channel, when she joins “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” discussing Cults, Cultures and Religions in @HandmaidsOnHulu.

IAF guest expert, Cynthia Ann Baron, wrote the 2011 article, Subversive Fictions, and raises some important questions about the impact of our media consumption on our role, place and effectiveness as citizens. For example, Baron asks:

“. . . what is the attraction of ‘subversive’ movies and media stars; how could fictional representations be subversive acts; how did contact with ‘subversive’ movies become a politically radical gesture; why have ‘counterculture’ audiences come to value ‘subversive’ fictions?”

“Work by Raymond Williams,” Baron continues, “suggests that one way to answer questions like these is to consider, first, the degree to which we have become spectators of a world out there and, second, the way that industrial/post-industrial experience has channeled the expression of subjectivity into acts of consumption, to choices about what one watches and listens to, to decisions about what we value enough to bring into ‘private’ space. . .”

“…these safe forms of resistance have been given an inordinate amount of attention because they do not threaten the status quo.”

Living in insular worlds it’s as if our viewing of subversive media has become a substitute for actual resistance to oppression. Dr. Baron notes: “…these safe forms of resistance have been given an inordinate amount of attention because they do not threaten the status quo.”

She also refers to work “such as Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, 1988)” which shows how “the convergence of corporate ownership, massive bureaucracy, government interests, advertisers, and well placed private constituencies frame the world we are allowed and directed to see.”

Clearly Dr. Baron shares our concern about the limits on what we see in popular media, the need to seek alternative, independent media, and the fragmentation of media today. She points out, “. . .given the convergence of forces that have gained increased control over what we see in the world, today a person could go a lifetime without hearing any news about collective political action and extra-parliamentary opposition…Institutional powers have learned from their ‘mistakes’ in the 1960s; the only public protests that should be covered are ones fomented and orchestrated by the powers themselves. Anything else must be demonized, ridiculed, or censored.”

“. . .It is possible that prosaic political resistance is currently coalescing and increasing;” she wrote, “while invisible in mainstream media, challenges posed and solutions created by environmental groups, peace activists, human rights supporters, and others are discussed in small press publications and on independent media programs like Democracy Now. At the same time, it is very possible that absorption in the spectacle of corporate media culture is also on the rise.”

“Media culture amplifies the likelihood for and influence of apolitical cultural resistance. With corporate media regulating access to the world out there, rebellion against the status quo through lifestyle and consumer choices is presented as the first, best, and only real option…” Baron concludes.

“Institutional powers have learned from their ‘mistakes’ in the 1960s; the only public protests that should be covered are ones fomented and orchestrated by the powers themselves.”

So I wonder what Dr. Baron thinks about a TV show like The Handmaid’s Tale – available only by subscription – and still limited in what it shares about the process of resistance. The good news is, we’ll have a chance to chat with her in the near future. If there are questions you’d like Dr. Baron to explore, please let me know ahead of time. — LMO

READ | Subversive Fictions: A Patina of Radicalism in Corporate Media Society | by Dr. Cynthia Ann Baron | Pure Movies | 8/14/2011

Freedom Dreaming: Robin DG Kelley & Maximillian Alvarez Seek Light in the Midst of Darkness

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG #RobinDGKelley & @maximillian_alv of @TheRealNews inspire “freedom dreaming” in dark times like dystopian realities coming into view. Join Thurs., 8 pm ET, 1/13 – 4/7/22, “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny.”

What is it that we’re dreaming of? What is it that we truly want?

There’s a 20th anniversary edition of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, by Robin DG Kelley, that reflects on the struggles of the past two decades – and is an occasion for the discussion with Maximillian Alvarez, Robin DG Kelley On Fighting for Freedom in the Darkness of Capitalist Dystopia, linked below.

When I think about the dystopia depicted in The Handmaid’s Tale – and the one unfolding in American culture before our eyes – I am reminded how important it is that we think clearly about what we want, lest a “Serena Joy” comes along with solutions to our problems.

In the video and transcript below, Dr. Robin DG Kelley offers a view we might do well to drink in as we respond and prepare to respond to Right wing attacks on America’s democracy. A couple of quotes from Robin DG Kelley:

“The worst conditions produce the necessity to imagine something other than what they’re living…”

“…if Freedom Dreams is anything, it’s about actually collectively enacting a vision of society that you think is not just liberatory, but sustainable.”

“So I think that if we always remember that freedom dreams is always collective, always related to social movements and social struggles, it’s discursive, in a sense. It’s always about trying to take back a narrative that says we have to be dependent on all these forces rather than we be the driver of these forces.”

“We need a pessimism that says this is a catastrophe so therefore we have no choice but to fight.”

“And I think it’s really important to recognize that once we know that we’re up against catastrophes that will…if we let the river flow, we know where we’re going to end up. We don’t have the luxury for defeat. What we can do though, is celebrate the wins, recognize that winning sometimes doesn’t mean winning a campaign, but it means finding ways to be together and stay together and engage in forms, in what Fred Moten and Stefano Harney called ‘fugitive planning,’ and then we live another day to keep that fight going. Because there’s something about the process that transforms us. It makes us in some ways, both steel, S-T-E-E-L, but also makes us soft, open hearts. Being able to absorb and love and care about one another. And sometimes in the middle of the barricades, your ability to care for another, or care for the community, or be cared for, and to accept that is the greatest victory you’re going to have.”

“. . . sometimes in the middle of the barricades, your ability to care for another, or care for the community, or be cared for, and to accept that is the greatest victory you’re going to have.”
Robin DG Kelley

— LMO

“World-renowned scholar and activist Robin DG Kelley discusses why we must continue dreaming of and fighting for a better world in the face of runaway capitalist pillage and climate catastrophe.

“The world was a very different place when Robin DG Kelley’s renowned book Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination was first published in 2002. As the reality of post-9/11 America and the war on terror hardened into a dystopian, jingoistic consensus, and as the global economy careened towards impending catastrophe, the possibility of a future in which peace, justice, and equality reigned had all but disappeared. And yet, as people in the darkest of times throughout human history have done, many still had the audacity to dream of—and fight for—something better. Now, 20 years later, as we face the reality that unchecked capitalist pillage, endless war, and climate catastrophe have put humanity on a path to mutually assured destruction, the future seems bleaker than ever, and the possibility of averting disaster feels more unattainable than ever. How do we confront the enormity of all this devastation and still keep fighting? How can we keep hope alive that we can save ourselves, humanity, and the planet when the world around us gives us so little cause for hope? As we continue the impossible struggle for a better world, how do we deal with constant failure without succumbing to defeat?

“In this special interview, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez and Kelley grapple with these questions and discuss the continued necessity of freedom dreaming—and fighting like hell—in the face of catastrophe. Robin DG Kelley is currently the Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History in the Department of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research has explored the history of social movements in the US, the African diaspora, and Africa; Black intellectuals; music and visual culture; surrealism, and Marxism, among other vital topics. His essays have been published in general publications and academic journals across the board, including the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, The Nation, Monthly Review, New York Times, Color Lines, Social Text, The Black Scholar, Journal of Palestine Studies, and Boston Review. He has authored and edited numerous influential books, including Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times; Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original; Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination; Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class; and Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression.” — Maximillian Alvarez | The Real News Network

See “Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism,” by David Ikard

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG BreakingTheSilenceTowardABlackMaleFeministCriticism is 2007 book by @blkeducator & @LSUPress. Dr. David H. Ikard is live on Thurs., Jan. 13th at 8 pm ET, for premiere of “If America Fails?” on the TruthWorks Network YouTube channel, for discussion on democracy.

Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism (2007), is the first book published by IAF Guest Expert, Dr. David H. Ikard, Professor and Chair, African-American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University.

You can see Dr. Ikard live on Thursday, January 13th at 8 pm ET, when he joins the premiere of “If America Fails?: The Coming Tyranny,” on the TruthWorks Network YouTube channel, for our discussion on the state of democracy. In the meantime, I’m wondering if feminists’ concerns and issues between Black women and men, fall away in the face of our crumbling democracy – or simply make it impossible for us to fight a common foe. What do you think? — LMO

“Can black males offer useful insights on black women and patriarchy? Many black feminists are doubtful. Their skepticism derives in part from a history of explosive encounters with black men who blamed feminism for stigmatizing black men and undermining racial solidarity and in part from a perception that black male feminists are opportunists capitalizing on the current popularity of black women’s writing and criticism. In Breaking the Silence, David Ikard goes boldly to the crux of this debate through a series of provocative readings of key African American texts that demonstrate the possibility and value of a viable black male feminist perspective…” — Publisher

READ | Breaking The Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism | by David Ikard | Louisiana State University Press | 2007

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