City Lights joins Ericka Huggins and Stephen Shames with Katherine Campbell and Judy Juanita Hart in celebrating the launch for the publication of "Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party" with photographs by Stephen Shames
, text by Ericka Huggins, and published by ACC Art Books. This live event took place in Kerouac Alley, between City Lights and Vesuvio Cafe, and was hosted by Peter Maravelis.
You can purchase copies of "Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/art-hardcover/sister-comrade/
Ericka Huggins is an educator, Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate, and poet. For 50 years, Ericka has used her life experiences in service to community. From 1973-1981, she was director of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School. From 1990-2004 Ericka managed HIV/AIDS Volunteer and Education programs. She also supported innovative mindfulness programs for women and youth in schools, jails and prisons. Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2008 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. From 2003 to 2011 she was professor of Women and Gender Studies at California State Universities- East Bay and San Francisco. Ericka is a Racial Equity Learning Lab facilitator for WORLD TRUST Educational Services. She curates conversations focused on the individual and collective work of becoming equitable in all areas of our daily lives. Additionally, she facilitates workshops on the benefit of self care in sustaining social change.
Stephen Shames has authored over 10 monographs, and his images are in the permanent collections of 40 museums and foundations. His work is dedicated to promoting social change, and sharing the stories of those who are frequently overlooked by society. His previous monographs include "Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers" coauthored with Bobby Seale (Abrams, 2016) and "The Black Panthers" (Aperture, 2006). With the complete trust of the Black Panther Party, Shames took intimate, behind-the-scenes photographs that fully portrayed Party members’ lives. This marks his third photo book about the Black Panthers and includes many never before published images.
Katherine Campbell was born in Sacramento, California, and grew up with a strong foundation of Christianity and a belief in serving the people. She joined the Black Panther Party because it had the same commitment to serve the people. She started by working in the Free Breakfast Program and, later, with the BPP newspaper and other programs. Campbell served as a nutritionist at the Oakland Community School and she still serves the people through community leadership building as a community specialist and through creating breakfast for schoolchildren programs in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Judy Juanita is a novelist, poet, and essayist. Her poetry collection, "Manhattan my ass, you’re in Oakland," won the American Book Award in 2021. Her semi-autobiographical novel, "Virgin Soul," was published by Viking (2013;) its protagonist joins the Black Panther Party in the sixties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her collection of short stories, "The High Price of Freeways," won the 2021 Tartt Fiction Award is published in 2022. Her poem “Bling” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012. Her essay, “The Gun as Performance Poem,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2014. She teaches writing at University of California, Berkeley.
This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation