Under the Tree: A Seminar on Freedom with Bill Ayers

The word “racism” can apply to a specific person or to the social structure, and in our hyper-individualistic culture, the word most commonly devolves to a singular individual who did something obviously prejudiced: Cliven Bundy, the Nevada cattle rancher, Amy Cooper, the New York person who called the cops on a bird-watcher who’d asked her to keep her dog on a leash. Racism is this or that person or particular act or behavior, and it means“bigoted, backward, stupid, and offensive.” But since I’m not backward and bigoted and stupid like them, “I’m not racist.” Convenient for white liberals, but not helpful in repairing the harm. We dive into that  wreckage with the brilliant thinker, writer, and teacher, Janine de Novais who explores and engages human liberation as a cultural project. Her book, Brave Community: Teaching for a Post-Racist Imagination, illuminates practices that confront racism and empower and edify everyone involved.

This is the country we live in…no doubt about it: white nationalists well-organized and rising; a fascist in the white house surrounded by his loyal Renfields; a preannounced genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza underway, funded and fueled by our taxes; raging, racialized police violence unchecked; capitalist-induced climate collapse on full display; fragile and anemic democratic institutions on life support; religious authoritarianism on the rise; women’s bodily integrity under sustained assault. The day after the recent election, the 10 richest Americans added $64 billion to their personal wealth, and extreme right-wing para-militaries armed up. The overlapping crises threaten to overwhelm us. We’re joined in conversation with Davarian Baldwin, a leading historian and cultural critic from Trinity College, and David Stovall, engaged scholar and legendary teacher/activist from the University of Illinois at Chicago, to reckon with the wreckage, and to discuss  where we might go from here.

Let’s talk about teaching, which means let’s also talk about racism—attitudes, stereotypes, prejudices, for sure, and much, much more. Let’s talk about structures and institutions, as well, about laws and legacies, cultures and the dogma of common sense. Co-host Adam Bush and I are joined in conversation with Christopher Emdin and Sam Seidel. After Chris published the wildly successful and useful book, For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood . . . and the Rest of Y’all Too, he and Sam, long-time friends and comrades, decided to reach out to over twenty white anti-racist teachers—including my brother Rick—to tell their own stories, creating From White Folks Who Teach in the Hood: Reflections on Race, Culture, and Identity,  a dazzling companion text and a powerful guide to teaching toward enlightenment and liberation.

Abolition can perhaps best be understood as a collection of creative and complex acts of world-building—what kind of world would we need to build in order to have no slavery? our forebears asked. And what kind of world could we begin to create today that would render prisons and police and militarism obsolete, predation and exploitation relics of a cruel past? Abolition is not simply a policy, it’s an entire politics—the politics of realizing our freedom dreams by building the world we want and need. All of us—workers, teachers, nurses, midwives, parents—can reimagine and rebuild our worlds. Everything can change. And abolition work—changing everything—is the practice of freedom. We’re joined Under the Tree by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson, co-editors of We Grow Together: Parenting Toward Abolition, an anthology focussed on  connecting liberatory parenting and movements for freedom. 

We’re in conversation today with Lawrence Grandpre from the group Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a grassroots think-tank that advances the public policy interests of Black people in Baltimore through youth leadership development, political advocacy, and autonomous intellectual innovation. Founded by young freedom fighters, you can find them and follow their work at lbsbaltimore.com

Amos Kennedy, self-described “humble negro printer” and author of Citizen Printer, is a visionary treasure, an imaginative freedom-fighter, and the creator of type-driven messages of justice, freedom, and Black Power. He understands that freedom comes to life in action, and that we are most truly (and paradoxically) free when we name the obstacles to our humanity, and then throw ourselves against the imposing wall of unfreedom. His weapon of choice, the sledgehammer with which he bangs away day by day, is letterpress printing, and every image he brings to life urges voyages—wobbly rambles away from the cold reality of the world we inhabit into worlds that could be or should be but are not yet. Join Bill Ayers and Amos Kennedy “under the tree”—in this case, amidst the unique randomness and studied messiness of his Detroit studio, seated on folding chairs between presses and with stacks of paper and trays of type as far as the eye can see—as we dance the dialectic, discussing history and the future, politics and  resistance, inspiration and aspiration, justice and freedom. His book is available here: https://www.madejacksonhole.com/products/amos-paul-kennedy-jr-citizen-printer?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu-63BhC9ARIsAMMTLXRHIz_eZ1HcQf5xLPBaPxLz2TfhEVDJa-44hPfEkEaWZvTFBuUquMsaAl7rEALw_wcB

At a time when women’s bodily integrity is under sustained assault, and simultaneously huge numbers of women across a wide political spectrum have rallied, mobilized, ands refused to accept a medieval definition of their rights, we sit down with Alicia Hurtado, a Chicago-based grass-roots organizer, activist, and advocate to discuss the state of the movement and where we need to go from here.

with Guest Hosts Lisa Lee and Adam Bush interviewing Bill Ayers, and with surprise interventions from Light Ayli, Barbara Ransby, and Tom Morello.What is freedom? What are the "freedom dreams" that encourage us and move us forward? How do we get free? Join our brilliant guest hosts as they chop these questions up in dialogue with Bill Ayers.

The activists from the militant peace organization Code Pink—in conjunction with the Dissenters, Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and a host of others—are calling for mass mobilizations in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention, which will be held from August 19-22, 2024. Their goal is to issue a thundering response to the US-sponsored, Israeli-led and preannounced genocide in Gaza, and to shine an illuminating light on US complicity with Israel in destroying Palestinian lives and communities. This episode is a broadcast of a webinar with Eleanor Stein, Medea Benjamin, and Bill Ayers organized by Code Pink earlier this month. We urge everyone to come to Chicago if at all possible, and to contribute to building an irresistible peace and justice movement NOW!

Years of coordinated effort by the reactionary Heritage Foundation has culminated in a frighteningly dystopian document describing the future society they hope to build: Project 2025. At 900-plus pages, it’s been described as a blueprint for a second Trump presidential term, but it's so much more than that. It is in fact a sweeping manifesto, and a massive mapping of the key issues facing society. Project 2025 will outlive Trump by decades, providing a vision, guidance, and energy for organizing campaigns based on authoritarian themes and Christian Dominionist theology well into the future. Significantly, this effort has organized 110 disparate right-wing organizations and thousands of individuals into a united front. Attention peace activists, freedom fighters, and justice  organizers: this is what we’re up against! Our comrade and dear friend Kevin Kumashiro, author of several books including a new edition of his classic Against Common Sense, joins Under the Tree for a record third time to help us unpack the significance of Project 2025.