Scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation examines the historical and modern moments and movements that have exposed the deep, structurally unequal roots of police violence and larger systems of mass incarceration. The recently released second edition expands on her original analysis of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and its potential to usher forward larger movements for Black liberation with a new chapter and a foreword from Angela Y. Davis. Join us for our free virtual event September 21st, at 5pm PST / 8pm EST, where Dr. Taylor, activist and creative Nikkita Oliver, and Marguerite Casey Foundation CEO Carmen Rojas, will discuss this fight for Black liberation and the role philanthropy can play in supporting how we get there.
This event is part of our MCF Book Club: Reading for a Liberated Future series. The MCF Book Club shares the ideas of leaders who encourage us to imagine how we can radically transform our democracy, economy, and society.
The eruption of mass protests in the wake of the police murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City have challenged the impunity with which officers of the law carry out violence against Black people and punctured the illusion of a postracial America. The Black Lives Matter movement has awakened a new generation of activists. In this stirring and insightful analysis, activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the historical and contemporary ravages of racism and persistence of structural inequality such as mass incarceration and Black unemployment. In this context, she argues that this new struggle against police violence holds the potential to reignite a broader push for Black liberation.
Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is a Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. She is a scholar of racism and inequality in U.S. housing policies in addition to studying radical politics and Black social movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. She is the author of three books, including the award-winning From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation and Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership. She is a contributing writer for The New Yorker.
Nikkita Oliver (they/them) is a Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, educator, and attorney. Working at the intersections of arts, law, education, and community organizing Nikkita strives to create experiences which draw us closer to our humanity and invites us to imagine what we hope to see in the future. Nikkita is the executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration and a healing engaged youth-led community-based program. Nikkita speaks and performs for events at universities and conferences, and facilitates trainings on equity, law and justice, education, and arts activism all over the United States.
