Over the summer/during the uprisings I taught a free community/pol education seminar in black radical thought as a way to augment the organizing efforts of my friends and comrades. if you’re interested in how I did it without creating a ton of work for myself, a little thread..

first I had people sign up-I had a beginners slot and a more advanced slot. I then built a reading list based on texts that 1. I already knew like the back of my hand (meaning almost no prep needed!), and 2. texts that spoke to our current moment (abolition, decolonization etc)

during each class I gave some brief remarks to open up then we dove into the text collectively. like a book club but more structured and with more guidance for those that were new to the texts. my friends helped me keep track of emails so that it didn’t overwhelm me.

I was still able to submit to journals, work on my manuscript and do my “job.” Again, I did it because I had the capacity, and because I felt this was the best way to lend my energies to all the righteous organizing happening around me.

let me tell you, the way people created bonds/were transformed simply by reading together during a time of tumult. I would do it again in a heartbeat. yes it’s about spreading resources/access but also recognizing that people need to gather: reading is the BEST way to gather imo

just wanted to add that it was over zoom, not in person okay

the books we read included, Black reconstruction, black Marxism, souls of black folk, wayward lives/beautiful experiments, wretched of the earth, black skin white masks, Venus in two acts+

an end to the neglect of the problems of the negro woman (Claudia Jones), excerpts from Capital vol. 1, the black jacobins, how we mistook the map for the territory (wynter), ujamaa: the basis of african socialism (Nyerere) and more!

many of the people were in book clubs already but felt they needed some additional theoretical contextualization and help reading the texts on their own for organizing. pol education y’all!