Ellen & Rachel Meeropol and Boots Riley on Art and Resistance

Fighting government repression through art and action: Laura interviews Ellen and Rachel Meeropol, a mother and daughter each seeking change -- one through the litigation and one through fiction. Ellen Meeropol is the author of two novels that deal with law, justice and government surveillance. Her most recent book, On Hurricane Island, explores a fictional secret domestic detention camp for citizens.  Ellen's daughter, Rachel Meeropol, is the senior staff attorney at Center for Constitutional Rights, where she works on prisoners’ rights, Muslim profiling, and the criminalization of dissent. These issues have affected both of their lives. Ellen’s father and mother in-law, Rachel’s grandparents, were Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed by the US government as spies. Also on this episode: Part one of our interview with Boots Riley, a poet, lyricist, MC, screenwriter, activist, organizer, radical, and founder and frontman of Oakland based hip hop group The Coup. Boots Riley was also one of the most influential voices and leaders of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and is the only known musical artist whose surveillance by intelligence agents has been exposed due to Wikileaks documents. All this, and Laura takes a look back at Occupy Wall Street...and the politicians getting slandered now.

Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer;  Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O’Conner-Senior Consulting Producer.

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