The Lit Review Podcast

A hyper-local conversation: Who knew that the Chicago neighborhood 'Old Town' was actually part of Lincoln Park? Who knew it was a site of transformation, displacement, resistance, gentrification, AND urban renewal? ​Monica and Page sat down with author and policy analyst Daniel Kay Hertz to talk about his new book, The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago, published by Belt.

Monica has a phone conversation with dear friend, poet and incarcerated activist, Patrice Lumumba Daniels, currently serving life without parole in IDOC for a crime he committed at 18 years old. Patrice and Monica talk about one of his favorite books, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Banned from prisons in North Carolina and Florida, The New Jim Crow book dives deep into the ways that the U.S. Government has created a new, contemporary system of racial control through the prison system.

Join Frank Chapman, a community organizer and the Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression, as he dives into W.E.B. Du Bois's 'Black Reconstruction in America.' He shares powerful insights on the role of Black labor in shaping capitalism and the challenges faced during Radical Reconstruction. Chapman discusses the historical erosion of rights, the rise of the prison industrial complex, and the need to reclaim the narratives of history. His reflections highlight the ongoing struggles for racial justice and the transformative power of collective action.

In this episode, Monica and Page bring you the Lit Review LIVE from Hairpin Arts Center, the site of For the People Artists Collective’s first city-wide exhibition, Do Not Resist? 100 Years of Chicago Police Violence. Monica and Page chatted with Simon Balto and Toussaint Losier, two radical authors and professors, about Simon’s upcoming book, Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power, coming out in the fall of 2018. ​In this history of Chicago from 1919 to Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s, Simon breaks down the racially repressive policing that occurred in Black neighborhoods as well as how Black citizen-activists challenged that repression.

Monica and Page sat down with Dan Berger via Skype and Toussaint Losier in Chicago to chat about their latest book, Rethinking the American Prison Movement, which provides a short and accessible overview of the transformational and ongoing struggles against America's prison system. From forced labor camps of the 19th century, to rebellious protests of the 1960's, to the rise of mass incarceration, this book is for anyone interested in the history of American prisons and the struggles for justice still echoing today.

So often we hear anarchy equated with chaos and collapse: a complete breakdown of society. This hour, we're rejecting that. We sat down with Jason Lydon to help us understand what anarchy is and isn't. We define terms, talk through principles, and take seriously the anarchist vision for collective liberation. To help us ground our conversation, we talked about Kuwasi Balagoon: A Soldier's Story. Kuwasi was one of the Panther 21 that the State tried to frame in 1969. Subsequently a member of the Black Liberation Army, he escaped prison twice prior to being arrested following a failed Brink's expropriation in 1981. He died in prison of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1986. A Soldier's Story is the first ever collection of his writings.

In the final episode of the first season, Monica and Page reflect on a year of the Lit Review podcast! They share some of their favorite episode excerpts from conversations in Season 1 with Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie, Bill Ayers, and Debbie Southorn. They also make a surprise phone call to a very dear abolitionist friend and mentor, Mariame Kaba, who recently moved to New York City. Together, they reflect on the podcast's significance.

When we are taught about the civil rights movement, the narratives of communities trained up in armed self-defense and grandmas with guns sitting on their porch are definitely left out. In Charles E. Cobbs Jr.’s book, This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible, we are face-to-face with the vital role that armed self-defense played in the liberation and survival of Black communities. Monica and Page sat down with educator and social justice activist, Mia Henry. Mia is one of the many founders of the Chicago Freedom School and also runs Freedom Lifted, a small social enterprise that hosts Civil Rights Movement tours in the deep South.

In Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, co-edited by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, we are gifted twenty short stories exploring the connections between radical speculative fiction and movements for social change. ​For this episode, Monica and Page sat down with Chicago-based playwright, dramaturge, and ceramic artist Tanuja Jagernauth to discuss one of her favorite books.

Did you know that the first mass clemency won in 1990 for 25 domestic violence survivors incarcerated for self-defense happened because of incarcerated women organizing themselves on the inside? Or did you know that in the 1970's, a California women's prison cancelled a Christmas visit with incarcerated women & their children with no explanation. The women then broke windows, dragged Christmas trees outside into the yard, set them on fire, and refused to go back inside in protest! Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women provides much-needed documentation of collective organizing and the daily struggles inside women's prisons. For this episode, Monica and Page sat down with the author of this book, Victoria Law, and discussed her process in compiling these important, hidden stories of resistance and survival of incarcerated women in the U.S. ​​