What Art Can Do

We are such fans of X-TRA, a longtime bastion of critical cultural  discourse in Los Angeles. Last year, they launched the Artists and Rights podcast, featuring conversations with many artists LAND has had the luck of working with, including Nao Bustamante, Zackary Drucker, Vishal Jugdeo, and Mario Ybarra Jr.

In reflecting on the series, Sara Ellen Fowler spoke with co-producers Shana Lutker and Mario Ontiveros about how the project evolved and what lessons they took from the conversations in the midst of such a tumultuous year. The takeaways so tenderly express the significance of artists and conversations such as these as we collectively process the events of the past year.

Highly recommend reading the conversation here and listening to the series here.

Getty Issues Impact Report For Diversity Internship Program

We are so sad to say goodbye to Jocelyn Lopez-Anleu as her six month internship with LAND comes to an end. We asked Jocelyn to reflect on her time with LAND, and are happy to also be able to share this @spectrum1 news story highlighting her work. Thank you Jocelyn and the Getty for making this internship possible!

“I have spent the last few days reflecting on the last six months I was lucky to have spent at LAND as their Getty Marrow Curatorial Intern. Though it feels very bittersweet to write this, I am very grateful for how powerful, inspirational, and caring my time at LAND was. Coming into the space right as the city drastically altered due to COVID made the process of starting a new job a more compassionate and supportive one. Everyone at LAND put forth forms of support and understanding that I have rarely felt in a professional setting. That in itself set such a strong foundation for the next 6 months that I can only imagine how much harder the transition to working from home would have been if I had not been at LAND. I’m very grateful for the trust and recognition Laura and Hugo placed on me throughout my internship and more importantly for allowing me to be a part of two great projects- BLKNWS and Gatherings. I will continue to hold this gratitude especially close to my heart because it is due to these unique and important experiences that I feel ready and confident in my abilities as I continue my journey in the art world as a queer CentralAmerican arts professional. To close off, I just want to say one last thank you to everyone at LAND for giving me space to really reconfigure how care, intimacy, and knowledge make up smaller non-profit art spaces and for putting forth a practice that I hope to continue in my own work.” -Jocelyn Lopez- Anleu

To read the article click here.

Featured Reading: Georgia

We are big fans of Georgia, an online journal that looks to both artistic and organizing efforts for suggestions of a way forward, helmed by editors Anthony Carfello, Shohig Halajian, and Suzy Halajian.

Their recent article, Preserve: Perhaps, written by Carfello, outlines some critical architectural preservation issues in Los Angeles. From Irv’s Burgers to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall, the thoroughly-researched article asks us to consider the context for preservation and why certain sites are prioritized.

Read here.

Image: Former Irv’s Burger stand in West Hollywood, CA.

Watch Outside In

Outside In from Nima Nourizadeh on Vimeo.

We love this short film by Los Angeles-based filmmaker Nima Nourizadeh, which features many friends and members of the Los Angeles creative community (including LAND’s executive director, Laura Hyatt), all shot in their homes during quarantine. 
 
‘Outside In’ is a voyeuristic observation into people’s lives from afar. Scored by Alexis Taylor & Joe Goddard (Hot Chip), and Omid Nourizadeh (16B), the film is an intimate collection of moments intertwined, captured around Los Angeles after dark. 
 
The meditative short gives viewers space to impose their own narratives onto the characters and their lives.  Nima uses windows as the literal frame, guiding the audience’s attention, while making use of the “off-screen”, rewarding the imaginative and participatory viewers; Who are these characters? Where are they from? What are their relationships? It’s a piece that grows with each viewing, something more to be learned or gleaned from each experience.  
 
Inspired by Michael Snow’s Wavelength and Coppola’s The Conversation, the film also pays tribute to depictions of LA at night in countless films. The long lens photography creates a visual language reminiscent of The Long Goodbye, and a tone that pays homage to the opening sequences in De Palma films. However, Nima cleverly subverts expectations by not leaning into genre conventions, making a more considered and attentive, piece of observational film. The brilliant score adds another layer to the storytelling punctuated by the zooming sound of the telephoto lens, an instrument unto itself.  
 
“Outside In”, the film, is a companion piece to, Our Friends Through Windows, an art project and photography book Nima created as cities around the world instated “safer at home policies.”  The film compliments the book and functions as a time capsule of emotions we all experienced in the spring of 2020 but more importantly serves as a timeless celebration of connectedness and community.
 
Website:

Downtown Women’s Center Fundraiser

In partnership with our Downtown neighbors JOAN, ICA LA, and Redling Fine Art, join us in supporting the Downtown Women’s Center this holiday season! DWC is Los Angeles’ only organization focused exclusively on serving and empowering women experiencing homelessness and formerly homeless women. The DWC’s mission is to end homelessness for women in greater Los Angeles through housing, wellness, employment, and advocacy.

The first 70 donations of $100 or more to DWC will receive a handmade ornament produced by LA based artist Seth Bogart. 100% of the donations go to the DWC and can be made on their website at www.DowntownWomensCenter.org by clicking DONATE in the upper right corner. Once your donation is complete please send your receipt and mailing address to us@joanlosangeles.org and we will be in touch about your ornament to be shipped by 12/15 or sooner.

About the Downtown Women’s Center Founded in 1978, DWC was the first: 

  • Permanent supportive housing provider for women in the U.S. 
  • Health clinic exclusively serving women in Skid Row community (and remain the only one today)
  • Drop-in Day Center exclusively serving homeless women in the city of Los Angeles (and remain the only one today)

The Downtown Women’s Center’s mission is to end homelessness for women in greater Los Angeles through housing, wellness, employment, and advocacy. The DWC provides up to 1.000 to-go meals to women in skid row each day. 

The homelessness crisis in Los Angeles has been intensified by the current coronavirus pandemic making the DWC’s advocacy all the more necessary. Many women experiencing homelessness are reliant moon the Center for meals, basic hygiene needs, safety, and community. You can support the DWC as they have doubled their daily meal service, distributed thousands of hygiene kits and face coverings, and continue to move women into permanent housing.

Voter Guides, 2020

So many voter guides for the upcoming General Election are circulating on the internet. A number of LA-specific guides present over-lapping takes on progressive stances for Ballot Initiatives and Candidates. This helpful spreadsheet lays out where voter guides converge and where they differ. Be an informed voter with the aid of these guides, hopefully they can ease some of the overwhelming sensation that only multiple choice tests and ballot measures can inspire. Vote, vote early, vote safely, but please just vote!

The KNOCK.LA Los Angeles Progressive Voter Guide for the November 2020 General Election
We’ve sifted through every state, county, and federal race that touches LA County (and a few extras that don’t), every state proposition, every race in LA City, and a host of races in smaller cities to help you make an informed decision when you vote this October (or November, but seriously, please vote as early as possible).

Democratic Socialists of America Los Angeles November 3, 2020 Voter Guide
Thank you for using the DSA-LA 2020 General Election Voter Guide.This guide was written by members of the DSA-LA Electoral Politics Committee with contributions from the 2020 primary guide produced in collaboration with the Future Left. Authors approached writing this guide with socialist values and a progressive, pragmatic lens. We see this as an opportunity to share information with fellow DSA-LA members, LA voters, and other community members about political forces shaping the many communities that make up Los Angeles.

L.A. Podcast Voter Guide: 2020 General Election
It’s time to vote again, and LA Podcast is here for you. Here are our endorsements of local candidates and propositions in cheatsheet form. You can download a full-size image to save or share. We also have bite-sized Instagram images here.

If you want the explanations behind the endorsements—plus links to the podcast episodes where you can hear us discuss some picks in more detail—read on.

LA progressive community voter guide: a collaboration between the Future Left, People’s City Council, In This Together, and members of the LA community
The Future Left voter’s guide is not just a list of recommendations, to be consulted like a column of restaurant or movie reviews. Instead, we— the members of The Future Left— regard it as a gregarious model for social decision. It was a research project that brought together a multitude of community members, activists, scholars, cultural producers, and organizations like The Future Left, People’s City Council, SafeLAPL, In This Together, and Angelena Atlas, among others, to consider strategies for the November ballot and agree on a common direction, despite differences in origin, age, race, gender, sexuality, ability, and levels of political experience. The guide makes no pretense of authority. Rather, it should be understood as part of a longer conversation and political process, which is why this year’s guide will be released along with a series of articles, teach-ins, videos, and a variety of next-step sequences that can be pursued after all the ballots have been cast.

Two Evils Voter Guide 2020: Los Angeles + California + Washington DC
Thank goodness CA Dems took decisive action to protect residents during a pandemic by… banning menthol cigarettes??? I mean seriously the blue supermajority couldn’t manage to pass an eviction moratorium stronger than the Trump administration’s to keep tenants in their homes during a pandemic for which housing is the only prescription?!?! But green Capris, Newports, Camel Crush,met the #Resistance. Neverthe-ugh-less, we commit to no platform the GOP, and prevent the continued National Neoliberal emboldening of white supremacist vigilante murder & scapegoating non-citizens for problems Billionaires cause.

ACLU SOCAL 2020 BALLOT GUIDE
Being an ACLU voter in this election means voting for our communities and our shared future. It means voting through the ballot on state and local races, California propositions, and local measures. Support new laws that will promote racial and social justice. Reject those that will turn back the clock. Be an ACLU voter. Vote for our future.

The complete list of L.A. Times’ endorsements in the November 2020 election
Californians will have several weeks in which to vote in this year’s general election. The voting period is underway, as county registrars have started sending out ballots (although they may not arrive in mailboxes right away), and concludes on Nov. 3, the official election day. Voters can return their marked ballots by mail or drop them off at vote centers. Ballots postmarked by election day will be counted if they are received up to 17 days later.

LOS ANGELES AREA PROGRESSIVE VOTER GUIDE: November 3, 2020 General Election
The following are recommendations for the most progressive candidates and measures on the ballot based on reviewing resources listed at the bottom of this guide, news articles, and candidate statements. I encourage you to do your own research as well! After writing the date/your address on and signing your envelope, return your ballot via USPS or dropbox as early as possible. If you vote in person, bring your mail-in ballot with you. This guide was prepared by Kris Rehl.

A Guide to Voter Guides for LA Progressives
A comprehensive spreadsheet of each progressive voter guide circulating about California/Los Angeles. Directly compares the authors’ stances on ballot initiatives as well as candidates. Each guide mentioned in this document is included within this spreadsheet.

Participate in a National Movement for Black Lives

During this time, as our communities rally in the streets nationally, there are so many opportunities to play your part. From making donations to movements, to bailout funds, to supporting Black owned businesses, to educating yourself on how to be an ally and calling for large scale change– this is a time wherein your participation is crucial. The below list encompasses these factors as well as resources for mental health and wellness. Stay safe! Be helpful! We’re making tremendous change! 

-The LAND Team

Los Angeles Based Support

Black Lives Matter – Los Angeles

#BlackLivesMatter-Los Angeles is the original chapter of the global movement built to challenge state-sanctioned violence against Black people and to vision and build a just and free society. Since 2013, BLM organizers have been doing work to disrupt systems of oppression and work vision and build the kind of world in which we want to live. Please consider making a donation. 

Los Angeles Action Bail Fund

We are using existing systems for rapid response and 100% of funds raised go to those efforts. We work in solidarity and coalition with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

White People 4 Black Lives (WP4BL) is building power to challenge dominant institutions, shift racist policies, and create community-based alternatives to harmful systems as part of a global movement of grassroots organizations. Please consider making a donation.

LACAN

LA CAN was formed in 1999 when 25 residents of Downtown LA came together and acknowledged the problems that existed in their community and made a commitment to do something about those problems: to stand together, organize and become a force in the community that demands change.

Our overarching social change goals are to:

  • Organize and empower community residents to work collectively to change the relationships of power that affect our community.
  • Create an organization and organizing model that eradicate the race, class, gender barriers that are used to prevent communities from building true power.
  • Eliminate the multiple forms of violence used against and within our community to maintain status quo.

Please consider making a donation.

Peoples City Council Freedom Fund

As the mayor and city council have sought to increase the LAPD’s budget during a pandemic, and as police around the country continue to kill innocent people of color, we have taken to the street to protest the funding of state sanctioned murder. This fund will go towards:

  • Legal support, bail, fines, and court fees for arrested protesters
  • Medical bills and transportation for injured protesters
  • Medical supplies and PPE for Community Medics
  • Direct monetary support to Black Lives Matter Los Angeles
  • Supplies and support for protesters and organizers (megaphones, pamphlets, PPE, etc.)
  • Direct monetary support to National Lawyers Guild and other groups assisting protesters with legal support

Please consider making a donation.

Support Black Owned Restaurants

Spreadsheet compiled by Kat Hong listing many Black owned restaurants throughout LA. 

JusticeLA+WP4BL COVID-19 Rapid Response Text/Phone Banking SignUp

Join JLA COVID-19 Action TODAY! Sign up for text/phone banks. 

People’s Budget LA

CALL A SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING: Mayor Garcetti’s budget will go into effect by default if City Council does not vote on an amendment by June 1. City Council President Nury Martinez is refusing to bring the budget to a vote. The Community must have a chance to make their case to redistribute the LA budget to prioritize #CareNotCops — we want services that help and strengthen our communities especially during a pandemic, not more police to tear them apart.

JUSTICELA

The JusticeLA Coalition (JLA) was born in the Fall of 2017 from the community based advocacy of countless families separated by the largest jail system in the world. In partnership with grassroots organizations, advocates, directly impacted communities, and stakeholders, we work to reduce the footprint of incarceration by stopping jail expansion and reclaiming, reimagining and reinvesting dollars away from incarceration and into community-based systems of care. Since our launch, we have successfully stopped LA County’s $3.5 billion jail expansion plan and lead the development of LA County’s Alternatives to Incarceration Workgroup report. Please consider making a donation.

National Support

PETITION: Justice for George Floyd

Demand immediate arrest of the remaining 3 officers involved in George Floyd’s murder.

Demand appointment of an independent special prosecutor to lead the federal government’s full and impartial investigation of the murder of George Floyd.

Demand reinstitution by the Department of Justice of consent decrees on police departments and municipal governments across this country that have demonstrated patterns of racism towards and mistreatment of people of color.

Demand sweeping police reform–federal legislation mandating a zero-tolerance approach in penalizing and/or prosecuting police officers who kill unarmed, non-violent, and non-resisting individuals in an arrest.

The Movement for Black Lives

The Movement for Black Lives Fund supports Black-led rapid response efforts and long-term strategy, policy and infrastructure investments in the movement ecosystem.

Your dollars will be put to work where they are needed most.

The Movement for Black Lives is made up of hundreds of organizations that coordinate actions, messages and campaigns. Organizations like: Black Alliance for Justice Immigration, Blackbird, Black Lives Matter Network, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, Blackout Collective, Black Youth Project 100, Color of Change, Dignity and Power Now, Freedom Inc, Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, Organization for Black Struggle, Project South, Southerners on New Ground, UndocuBlack Network, Law4Black Lives, Black Movement Law Project, Community Justice Project and many others. Please consider making a donation.

Reclaim the Block

By donating, you will support Reclaim the Block’s work to make sure that our communities have the resources they need to thrive. Our grassroots group is up against the deep pockets of the Minneapolis police union, and we need your support. Please consider making a donation.

Black & Pink

Black & Pink is a national prison abolitionist organization dedicated to dismantling the criminal punishment system and the harms caused to LGBTQ+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS who are affected by the system through advocacy, support, and organizing. Please consider making a donation.

The Marshall Project

The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. We achieve this through award-winning journalism, partnerships with other news outlets and public forums. In all of our work we strive to educate and enlarge the audience of people who care about the state of criminal justice. Please consider making a donation.

In Memory of Tony Mcdade

On May 27th, 2020, Tony McDade, a black LGBTQ person, was shot and killed by a Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) officer. 

Many details surrounding this incident are unclear, but we are asking the community for support during this difficult time. 100% of funds collected here will go to Tony’s family.

This fund is established to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling,  and to assist Tony’s family in the days to come as they continue to seek justice for Tony. 

All funds collected on this website will be withdrawn to a designated family member (Tony’s mother). Please consider making a donation.

Justice for Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor was an award-winning EMT and model citizen. She loved her family and community. She worked at two hospitals as an essential worker during the pandemic.

One month ago, a division of the Louisville Police Department performed an illegal, unannounced drug raid on her home. Not a single officer announced themselves before ramming down her door and firing 22 shots, shooting Breonna 8 times, killing her. Please consider making a donation.

I Run With Maud

This fundraiser was designed to assist Ahmaud’s mother; Ms. Wanda Cooper-Jones and her immediate family with financial support during this extreme difficult time and in their struggle for justice for the murder of Ahmaud Marquez Arbery.  Ahmaud was my best friend so I want to do everything possible to bring honor to his name and make sure justice is served. ALL donations are going towards the fight for making sure justice is served and to ensure that Ahmaud’s mother has the resources they will need.  Having to grieve and deal with getting justice, are already two major burdens.  The goal is to help lighten the load by eliminating the financial burden as much as possible. Please continue to share Ahmaud’s story until justice is served for those responsible for his death. Any donations will be MORE than appreciated by Ahmaud’s family. Please consider making a donation.

 

Natl Resource List #GeorgeFloyd+

This Google document contains many of the community bail funds, memorial funds, political education resources, the names of organizations to put on your radar, and general advice/tips for people attending protests or using social media as an organizing tool.

National Police Accountability Project

National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) is a 501(c)(3) organization and a project of the National Lawyers Guild, which was founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated national bar association. In 1999, NPAP was created as a non-profit to protect the human and civil rights of individuals in their encounters with law enforcement and detention facility personnel. The central mission of NPAP is to promote the accountability of law enforcement officers and their employers for violations of the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Please consider making a donation.

Communities United for Police Reform

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign that is working to end discriminatory policing in New York. We are advancing policies that protect the safety and rights of all New Yorkers to create true community safety. We are in the courts fighting to hold police accountable for violating New Yorkers’ constitutional rights. We are training communities to know their rights and to observe and document police abuse. We engage in strategic direct action, organizing and civic engagement to build the power of communities most impacted by abusive policing. And we are in Albany and at City Hall demanding law and policy changes that advance police accountability to improve safety for communities. Please consider making a donation.

Homeless Black Trans Women Fund

This is fund for the community of Black Trans women that live in Atlanta and are sex workers and/or homeless. So far, we have been able to get 5 girls cell phones, gotten them hotel rooms during vulnerable times, and got 2 housing in a rooming house. This fund also covers food and necessities. Atlanta has almost no resources for Transgender women, so I took matters into my own hands. Please consider making a donation.

Mutual Aid Fund for Sex Workers of Color

Although income for millions of Americans disappeared over night, bills for rent, electricity, gas, all insurance, phone, childcare expenses, family members,  are still expected to continually be paid. Sex workers are not an exception to this rule. With most businesses closed and sex workers not being eligible for any kind of unemployment or federal relief, a lot of sex workers have a tough decision to make. Continue to work and risk contracting COVID-19 or stop working and face possible homelessness when eviction proceedings begin again while not being able to afford food or any other necessities. What Sex Workers are now facing is literally a life or death situation without any relief in sight. Please consider making a donation.

Healing Minneapolis: Fundraising

A spreadsheet with businesses local to Minneapolis and St. Paul that require repair. Links to funds for mostly small businesses. Please consider making a donation to any of these businesses.

PETITION: RAISE THE DEGREE

Derek M Chauvin is a Minneapolis police officer who killed George Floyd on Memorial day. May 25, 2020. The chokehold he used isn’t even LEGAL in MMA, because it can kill someone in MINUTES. He has done this so many times against Latinos, Native Americans, and Black people. In 2008 he shot an unarmed Black man, he was one of the officers that helped MURDER Wayne Reyes, a Latino man, with SIXTEEN bullets.

He is guilty. What he did was premeditated/planned because it’s well known that the chokehold is deadly. Raise the degree. This is first degree murder. People of color will not be silenced by this system any longer.

PETITION: The Minneapolis Police Officers to be charged for murder after killing innocent black man

Monday May 25. 2020 Minneapolis PD murdered an African American man who was unarmed and not dangerous. This whole incident makes me sick. The power that comes with the PD is old news. It’s 2020 and we still have racist police officers murdering innocent civilians. This is bull sh*t. I don’t care if the officer were to be red, blue, yellow, black, or purple. The man murdered another human being for no reason. He was getting some sick satisfaction of crushing this man’s neck. He sat there crushing his neck cutting off his air passages. The man started bleeding from his nose before going unconscious. The Police Department remained completely unphased by it. One officer checked his pulse after the man went unconscious. At this point the man was gone. He was murdered for what reason? This was no medical condition. And even If the man had any medical condition whatsoever he would still be alive today had this officer not spent over 15 minutes crushing his throat. The man was NOT fighting back at this point. Everything was under control. Yet the officer continued using excessive force. 

PETITION: Pass Georgia Hate Crime Bill

Over the past three years, the Georgia State Legislature has failed to pass a hate crime bill. Georgia is one of four states without a hate crime law. House Bill 426 relating to Hate Crimes has passed the Georgia House and is stalled in the State Senate. Specifically, if passed, the bill will enact “the Georgia Enhanced Penalties for Hate Crimes Act.”  

PETITION: Julius Jones is innocent. Don’t let him be executed by the state of Oklahoma.

When Julius Jones was 19-years-old, he was convicted of a murder he says he did not commit. I need your help to save his life. Julius has lived on death row for almost 20 years, and is held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. He is allowed one hour of sunlight a day, and three showers a week. Every minute we wait to take action, Julius is suffering. Every second that goes by brings Julius closer to being executed for a crime he didn’t commit. 

PETITION: Willie Simmons has served 38 years for a $9 robbery

In 1982, Army veteran Willie Simmons, was prosecuted under Alabama’s habitual offender law. Mr. Simmons he had three prior convictions, one of which was for grand larceny. He told reporter Beth Shellbure the other two were for receiving stolen property.  At the time Mr. Simmons had become addicted to drugs while stationed overseas  He was convicted of 1st-degree robbery and sentenced to life without parole for stealing $9. Simmons has spent the last 38 years in prison. This is clearly a case of cruel and unjust punishment. Over the years Mr. Simmons has filed several appeals without any legal assistance. All of his appeals were denied, and based on a 2014 change in Alabama laws, it appears that he has no appeal options left.In the interest of justice Governor Kay Ivey should commute Mr. Simmons sentence. 

PETITION: Hands Up Act

We need legislation now that prohibits police officers from shooting unarmed citizens. If there isn’t a weapon found after someone has been shot (therefore, unarmed) by a police officer, then I propose that the officer should receive a mandatory 15-year prison sentence.

PETITION: Justice For Tamir Rice

More than a year after police shot and killed my 12-year-old cousin Tamir Rice as he played in a park with a toy gun, a grand jury declined to charge the officers who opened fire on Tamir in less than 2 seconds of arriving to the scene.

Take Action to End White Silence

In this moment, we need as many people in action as possible.  This is not just about George Floyd; it’s about Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and the centuries of violence against Black people and communities of color by the police.  It is about what happened in Central Park and a throughline to Trump and white supremacy.  This is an opportunity for us to change the conversation.  We are asking for something simple that everyone can do, show up at your police headquarters or city hall with a sign that says #endwhitesilence.  One person can do this or hundreds can.

Unicorn Riot

Over the past five years, Unicorn Riot has built a worker-managed non-profit media organization. We have worked tirelessly to build a platform that focuses on primary source reporting and on-the-ground coverage. Our reporters go where the story is unfolding to bring you the voices of real people alongside crucial context and facts. Please consider making a donation.

Bailout Funds for Protesters

National Bailout 

We are reuniting families, creating a national community of leaders who have experienced incarceration, and working with groups across the country to transform harmful systems to keep our people safe and free. Please consider making a donation.

The Bail Project, Inc.

The Bail Project™ National Revolving Bail Fund is on a mission to combat mass incarceration and reshape the pretrial system in the United States. 100% of online donations are used to bring people home. Since bail money comes back to us when cases close, we’re able to recycle every dollar donated at least twice per year. Please consider making a donation.

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund

Brooklyn Community Bail Fund secures the freedom of New Yorkers who would otherwise be detained pretrial due to their poverty alone. We are committed to challenging the criminalization of race, poverty and immigration status, the practice of putting a price on fundamental rights, and the persistent myth that bail is a necessary element of the justice system.

Leveraging our groundbreaking work as a charitable bail fund, BCBF joined with other community-based organizations, immigration advocates and legal services providers to form the New York Immigrant Freedom Fund program (NYIFF). Operated by BCBF, the NYIFF program secures the freedom of New Yorkers held in ICE detention who cannot afford to pay bond. Please consider making a donation.

Florida Bail Fund

The Florida Bail Fund @ the Florida Justice Center is a new effort supporting protesters on the front lines of the fight against racism, homophobia, sexism, mass incarceration, police brutality, and the criminalization of poverty. We pay bail for those who cannot afford it and who are striving to make society a better, more just, and equitable place for all people. Please consider making a donation.

New Orleans Safety and Freedom Fund

Together, we will make New Orleans a safer, more equitable place to live, by redesigning the role money plays in the criminal justice system. Safety and Freedom Fund supporters make both social and economic impact. In addition to helping a fellow New Orleanian maintain their dignity and liberty as they fight their case, research shows that posting bail on someone’s behalf recovers an average of $2,000 in economic opportunity otherwise lost while sitting in jail unable to work. Please consider making a donation.

Memphis Community Bail Fund 

Currently, bail fund candidates are referred exclusively by the Office of the Shelby County Public Defender. The Memphis Community Bail Fund is a revolving fund supported by donations from the community. It helps people avoid the potentially devastating consequences of extended pretrial detention. As long as a bail fund client returns to court as directed, the cash bail is returned to the fund and used to support future clients. Once it’s capitalized, a bail fund can be sustained with minimal additional donations. Please consider making a donation.

Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) 

The Chicago Community Bond Fund (CCBF) pays bond for people charged with crimes in Cook County, Illinois. Through a revolving fund, CCBF supports individuals whose communities cannot afford to pay the bonds themselves and who have been impacted by structural violence. Inability to pay bond results in higher rates of conviction, longer sentences, loss of housing and jobs, separation of families, and lost custody of children. By paying bond, CCBF restores the presumption of innocence before trial and enables recipients to remain free while fighting their cases. CCBF also engages in public education about the role of bond in the criminal legal system and advocates for the abolition of money bond. CCBF is committed to long-term relationship building and organizing with people most directly impacted by criminalization and policing. Please consider making a donation.

PDX Protest Bail Fund

The General Defense Committe Local 1 in Portland, Oregon, has established a fundraiser to cover bail and other legal expenses for protesters arrested in Portland, Oregon in connection to protests against George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police, along with general police brutality. At last count, more than 14 protestors were arrested. We expect that number to rise — processing appears to be unusually slow at the Multnomah County Justice Center. Please consider making a donation.

Philly Bailout

The mission of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund is to end cash bail in our city. Until that day, we post bail for our neighbors who cannot afford to pay. Please consider making a donation.

Columbus Freedom Fund

The Columbus Freedom Fund is a community bail fund centered on Black liberation and freedom started in 2019. Our fiscal sponsor is Women Have Option – Ohio, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations are tax deductible. Please consider making a donation.

Colorado Freedom Fund

Founded in 2018, Colorado Freedom Fund (CFF) is a revolving fund that pays ransom (posts money bond, pays cash bail) for people unable to afford the cost of buying their own freedom. #FreeThemAll #BringOurNeighborsHome. Please consider making a donation.

Minnesota Freedom Fund

With solemn gratitude, we have been flooded with tens of thousands donations large and small, totalling around $20 million dollars. We did not ask for or anticipate this massive outpouring of support. We simply said yes to the call to support and bail out people jailed for protesting for justice for George Floyd. We will walk with transparency and accountability to use those funds to first and foremost pay bail for those who have shown up in love and grief and rage to demand justice for the murder of George Floyd, and then to post bail in our community for those who are held pretrial simply because they cannot pay and to post bonds to free people from ICE detention. We are dedicated to staying true to our central mission and the intent of these donations–which is freedom. Please consider making a donation.

Bail Funds/Legal Help by City

Bail fund and legal defense information for cities throughout the U.S. This document is being collaborated on by a team of volunteers and is being updated daily/nightly. Please consider making a donation.

Mental Health Resources

Therapy Resources for People of Color

Hello! Thanks for opening this document. My name is Gladys, I’m a 26 year old queer undocumented Kenyan woman living in Massachusetts. After a distasteful and violent experience with a white therapist gaslighting my reaction to the lynching of Aumand Arbery, and the subsequent dismissal and lack of accountability from her supervisor, I felt compelled to compile this list of therapists who specialize in supporting BIPOC and queer folks. 

African American Focus Mental Health Organizations

Black Girls Smile Inc. was founded in 2012 by Lauren Carson based on the gaps she found throughout her mental health journey as a young African American female with clinical depression. Lauren envisioned a society that through the normalization and dialogue surrounding mental wellness, all individuals, including young African American females would be provided the education, support and resources necessary to lead a positively mentally healthy life.

Black Virtual Therapist Directory

BEAM is a 501 (c)(3) organization. Our mission is to remove the barriers that Black people experience getting access to or staying connected with emotional health care and healing. We do this through education, training, advocacy and the creative arts. 

The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation

The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation’s vision is to eradicate the stigma around mental health issues in the African-American community. Our mission is to provide support and bring awareness to mental health issues that plague our community. We partner with other nonprofit organizations who offer programs that educate, celebrate, and make visible the positive impact of mental health wellness.

Therapy for Black Girls 

Therapy for Black Girls is an online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls.

Loveland Therapy Fund

Loveland Therapy Fund recipients will have access to a comprehensive list of mental health professionals across the country providing high quality, culturally competent services to Black women and girls. With therapy sessions costing an average of $80 – $200 per session, we have selected the following options to increase the likelihood that participants are able to financially afford therapy after the end of the 4 – 8 sessions supported by The Loveland Foundation Therapy Fund. Black women and girls deserve access to healing, and that healing will impact generations.

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective is a non-profit nationwide network of mental health professionals dedicated to providing in-office mental health care—at a steeply reduced rate—to individuals, couples, children, and families in need.

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network (NQTTCN) is a healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color (QTPoC).

Open Counseling

Before you can choose a therapist, you have to decide how you’re going to pay for it. We guide you through the pros and cons of using insurance, self-pay, state-funded and non-profit providers.

Education

Black Lives Matter LA

Black Lives Matter emerged from the hearts and minds of our three co-founders: Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi. It came to life right here in Los Angeles, where the first chapter was birthed. Our herstory is an important telling of the emergence of Black Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles specifically, as a reclamation of and recommitment to Black radical organizing and Black freedom struggle.

How You Can Help (MPLS, June 2020)

There are already plenty of thinkpieces and google docs floating around sharing action steps, places to donate, and ways to support the community both in Minneapolis and every city having an uprising right now after the murder of George Floyd. This is going to be a little different.

Digital Resources for a Movement Against Police Violence

As an organization, Rhizome supports an uncompromising movement for black lives and against police violence. 

In times of public protest, digital tools and practices can play an instrumental role: as witness to abuse of power, as a tool for organizing street demonstration, as advocacy and fundraising platform, and as repository for the community memory that allows movements to grow and evolve over years. At the same time, these technologies and practices can cause harm and facilitate surveillance and oppression. 

White People 4 Black Lives

White People 4 Black Lives (WP4BL) is a white anti-racist collective and activist project. We operate within a national network of white anti-racists called Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Our work is rooted in showing up for racial justice and acting in alliance with Black Lives Matter: Los Angeles, the Movement 4 Black Lives, and other partners. 

Resistance Resource Hub

Welcome to the Resistance Resource Hub – please note this is a living document that organizers from across the country are editing daily.

DSA-LA Guidelines for Safe Protesting

We know that many of our members, comrades, and allies feel compelled to join the rebellions and protests springing up across the country right now, in response to the ongoing police violence and murders against black and brown people. DSA-LA has compiled a list of short tips for comrades to protest as safely as possible.

Street Watch New Member Trainings

We know from the horrifying footage of police violence we’ve witnessed just in the last week, the powerful impact simply WATCHING the police can have — holding police accountable for their brutality, spreading mass awareness, and inspiring massive rebellions like we are seeing today. In our Street Watch organizing, we see how our presence with a camera can provide real harm-reduction to our unhoused neighbors experiencing police harassment (who are also disproportionately black), as it forces law enforcement to adjust their practices and behavior. Documentation of unconstitutional practices has been used in litigation against the city, leading to major changes in policy, protocols, and practice, in addition to building broader public awareness, empathy and support for systemic changes.

Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List

Check out this reading list from Black Women Radicals and the Asian American Feminist Collective’s Instagram Live event, “Sisters and Siblings in the Struggle: COVID-19 + Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities.” 

“Algorithms Of Oppression” Book Club And Study Group

Our collaboration with long-standing community members, Feminist A.I., engages the internet as theme and platform, and we look forward to launching our unit of study, based on the book, Algorithms of Oppression by Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble near the end of the month. In keeping with the spirit of this book’s point of departure , we’re also excited to be in alliance with The Free Black Women’s Library – LA, as the two co-hosts offer a book club/study group that will make sense of this text and what it means for online livelihood, for artists, creatives, and casual users, alike!

Resources & Tools Regarding Racism & Anti/Blackness 

Education on how to be a better ally. A spreadsheet compiled with links to resources pertaining to whiteness, police brutality, liberation, racism, and Blackness in the U.S. 

Anti-racism resources for white people

This document is intended to serve as a resource to white people and parents to deepen our anti-racism work. If you haven’t engaged in anti-racism work in the past, start now. Feel free to circulate this document on social media and with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Anti-Racism for Beginners + White People

Diving into the world of anti-racism for the first time can be confronting. It may feel challenging to understand your place and where to begin with educating yourself. Luckily, there are endless resources online to help you learn about anti-racism work, dismantle the unconscious biases that exist within yourself, and take action to create a more just society.

The Future Left 

We started as a group that wanted to start to think about politics and activism on a global scale, integrating new levels of complexity and knowledge exploration. We started as a reading group. We then started expanding out hosting protests, municipal city politics educational forums for voters, we made a voters guide, we wrote a zine for activists. Our events and/or organisation have been covered by NPR, VIce, The Washington Post, and others. We hope you will join us to improve and build upon our community.

CASSANDRA Press

CASSANDRA is an artist run publishing and educational platform. We produce lo-fi printed matter, classrooms, projects, artist books, and exhibitions. Our intention is to spread ideas, distribute new language, propagate dialogue centering ethics, aesthetics, femme driven activism, and black scholarship because y’all ain’t listening. 

A Bibliography for Critical Black Scholarship and Literature

This annotated bibliography serves to outline some of the most significant books and essays by Black authors and scholars. Within this collection you will find links that enable you to purchase the works from independent bookstores and publishers. Some texts can be found as free PDFs online. Also included is a national and online list of Black owned bookstores, often championing topics such as Liberation, Afro-futurism, Prison Abolition, Multiculturalism, and Radical Histories. 

 

Davis, Angela Y. 2010. Are Prisons Obsolete? 

With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly, the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable.

PDF Available: Here

Morrison, Toni, and Ta-Nehisi Coates. 2017. The Origin of Others. 

America’s foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? Drawing on her Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others. In her search for answers, the novelist considers her own memories as well as history, politics, and especially literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Camara Laye are among the authors she examines. 

Davis, Angela Yvonne, and Frank Barat. 2016. Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement.

In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today’s struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles, from the Black Freedom Movement to the South African anti-Apartheid movement. She highlights connections and analyzes today’s struggles against state terror, from Ferguson to Palestine.

Khan-Cullors, Patrisse, Asha Bandele, and Angela Y. Davis. 2020. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.

When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, Patrisse Cullors’ first book cowritten by asha bandele, is a poetic memoir and reflection on humanity. A New York Times Best Seller – necessary and timely, Patrisse’s story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.

Rankine, Claudia. 2015. Citizen: An American Lyric.

Claudia Rankine’s bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV–everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person’s ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry, Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named ‘post-race’ society.

Davis, Angela Y. 1983. Women, Race & Class.

A powerful study of the women’s liberation movement in the U.S., from abolitionist days to the present, that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders. From the widely revered and legendary political activist and scholar Angela Davis.

PDF Available: Here

Lorde, Audre, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, and Dagmar Schultz. 2020. Audre Lorde: dream of Europe: selected seminars and interviews : 1984-1992.

AUDRE LORDE: DREAM OF EUROPE elucidates Lorde’s methodology as a poet, mentor, and activist during the last decade of her life. This volume compiles a series of seminars, interviews, and conversations held by the author and collaborators across Berlin, Western Europe, and The Caribbean between 1984-1992. While Lorde stood at the intersection of various historical and literary movements in The United States–the uprising of black social life after the Harlem Renaissance, poetry of the AIDS epidemic, and the unfolding of the Civil Rights Movement–this selection of texts reveals Lorde as a catalyst for the first movement of Black Germans in West Berlin. The legacy of this “Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” has been well preserved by her colleagues in Germany. These selected writings lay bare struggles, bonds, and hopes shared among Black women in a transnational political context, as well as offering sometimes surprising reflections on the US American counter culture with which Lorde is associated. Many of the poems that were important to Lorde’s development are excerpted in full within these pages, serving as a sort of critical anthology.

hooks, bell. 1981. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism.

A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain’t I a Woman has become a must-read for all those interested in the nature of Black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on Black women during slavery, the devaluation of Back womanhood, Black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the Black woman’s involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions. The result is nothing short of groundbreaking, giving this book a critical place on every feminist scholar’s bookshelf.

Hooks, Bell. 1992. Black Looks: Race and Representation.

In the critical essays collected in Black Looks, bell hooks interrogates old narratives and argues for alternative ways to look at blackness, black subjectivity, and whiteness. Her focus is on spectatorship – in particular, the way blackness and black people are experienced in literature, music, television, and especially film – and her aim is to create a radical intervention into the way we talk about race and representation. As she describes: ‘The essays in Black Looks are meant to challenge and unsettle, to disrupt and subvert.’ As students, scholars, activists, intellectuals, and any other readers who have engaged with the book since its original release in 1992 can attest, that’s exactly what these pieces do.

PDF Available: Here

Snorton, C. Riley. 2018. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. 

In ‘Black on Both Sides’, C. Riley Snorton identifies multiple intersections between blackness and transness from the mid-nineteenth century to present-day anti-black and anti-trans legislation and violence. Drawing on a deep and varied archive of materials, Snorton attends to how slavery and the production of racialized gender provided the foundations for an understanding of gender as mutable.

Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa. 1981. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.

Through personal essays, criticism, interviews, testimonials, poetry, and visual art, this collection explores, as coeditor Cherríe Moraga writes, ‘the complex confluence of identities–race, class, gender, sexuality–systemic to women of color oppression and liberation.

PDF Available: Here

Angelou, Maya. 1969. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

A phenomenal #1 bestseller that has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three years, this memoir traces Maya Angelou’s childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a sometimes disquieting, but always affecting picture of the people-and the times-that touched her life.

Sharpe, Christina Elizabeth. 2016. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being.

Using the multiple meanings of “wake” to illustrate the ways Black lives are determined by slavery’s afterlives, Christina Sharpe weaves personal experiences with readings of literary and artistic representations of Black life and death to examine what survives in the face of insistent violence and the possibilities for resistance.

PDF Available: Here

Lorde, Audre. 1984. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches is a collection of essential essays and speeches written by Audre Lorde, a woman who wrote from the particulars of her identity: Black woman, lesbian, poet, activist, cancer survivor, mother, and feminist writer. 

PDF Available: Here

Morrison, Toni. 2019. The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations.

One of the most celebrated and revered writers in the history of American literature gives us a new nonfiction collection–a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades. The Source of Self-Regard is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass, that are Toni Morrison’s hallmarks. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11, the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Ir., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin.

X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. 1965. The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between human rights activist Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X’s 1965 assassination.

PDF Available: Here

Fanon, Frantz, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Constance Farrington. 1965. The Wretched of the Earth

Written at the height of the Algerian war for independence, Frantz Fanon’s classic text has provided inspiration for anti-colonial movements ever since. With power and anger, Fanon makes clear the economic and psychological degradation inflicted by imperialism. It was Fanon, himself a psychotherapist, who exposed the connection between colonial war and mental disease, who showed how the fight for freedom must be combined with building a national culture, and who showed the way ahead, through revolutionary violence, to socialism. Many of the great calls to arms from the era of decolonization are now purely of historical interest, yet this passionate analysis of the relations between the great powers and the Third World is just as illuminating about the world we live in today

PDF Available: Here

Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony.

Achille Mbembe is one of the most brilliant theorists of postcolonial studies writing today. In On the Postcolony he profoundly renews our understanding of power and subjectivity in Africa. In a series of provocative essays, Mbembe contests diehard Africanist and nativist perspectives as well as some of the key assumptions of postcolonial theory. This thought-provoking and groundbreaking collection of essays-his first book to be published in English-develops and extends debates first ignited by his well-known 1992 article “Provisional Notes on the Postcolony,” in which he developed his notion of the “banality of power” in contemporary Africa. Mbembe reinterprets the meanings of death, utopia, and the divine libido as part of the new theoretical perspectives he offers on the constitution of power. He works with the complex registers of bodily subjectivity – violence, wonder, and laughter – to profoundly contest categories of oppression and resistance, autonomy and subjection, and state and civil society that marked the social theory of the late twentieth century. This provocative book will surely attract attention with its signal contribution to the rich interdisciplinary arena of scholarship on colonial and postcolonial discourse, history, anthropology, philosophy, political science, psychoanalysis, and literary criticism

Marriott, D. S. 2012. On Black Men.

Mutilated, dying or dead, black men have a role to play in the psychic life of culture. There is a demand that black men perform a script. This study explores the legacy of that demand on the image of black men, and its effects on how black men have learned to see themselves and one another

Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Kobena Mercer, Pratibha Parmar, Jonathan Rutherford, Andrea Stuart, Simon Watney and Jeffrey Weeks. 1990. Identity: Community, Culture and Difference.

This collection of essays points to ways in which notions of identity can inform changing conceptions of democratic politics. Categories of identity – gender, race, class and sexuality – are re-examined to allow a move away from a fixed moralistic approach to identity politics, towards a recognition of difference, autonomy and interdependence. Contributors include Homi Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Kobena Mercer, Pratibha Parmar, Jonathan Rutherford, Andrea Stuart, Simon Watney and Jeffrey Weeks.

Baldwin, James. 1963. The Fire Next Time.

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters, ” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose, ” The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.

PDF Available: Here

Moten, Fred. 2003. In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition.

Fred Moten investigates the provocative connections between jazz, sexual identity, and radical black politics. He focuses in particular on the brilliant improvisatory jazz of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, and others, arguing that all black performance culture, politics, sexuality, identity, and blackness itself is improvisation.

PDF Available: Here

Robinson, Cedric J. 2000. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition

In this work, first published in 1983, Cedric Robinson demonstrates that efforts to understand Black people’s history of resistance solely through the prism of Marxist theory are incomplete and inaccurate. Marxist analyses tend to presuppose European models of history and experience that downplay the significance of Black people and Black communities as agents of change and resistance. Black radicalism must be linked to the traditions of Africa and the unique experiences of Blacks on western continents, Robinson argues, and any analyses of African American history need to acknowledge this.

PDF Available: Here

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta, Barbara Smith, Beverly Smith, Demita Frazier, Alicia Garza, and Barbara Ransby. 2017. How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective. 

The Combahee River Collective, a group of radical black feminists, was one of the most important organizations to develop out of the anti-racist and women’s liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. In this collection, founding members of the organization and contemporary activists reflect on the legacy of its contributions to black feminism and its impact on today’s struggles.

Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta. 2016. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.

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

Hartman, Saidiya V. 1997. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America.

In this provocative and original exploration of racial subjugation during slavery and its aftermath, Saidiya Hartman illumines the forms of terror and resistance that shaped black identity. Scenes of Subjection examines the forms of domination that usually go undetected; in particular, the encroachments of power that take place through notions of humanity, enjoyment, protection, rights, and consent. By looking at slave narratives, plantation diaries, popular theater, slave performance, freedmen’s primers, and legal cases, Hartman investigates a wide variety of “scenes” ranging from the auction block and minstrel show to the staging of the self-possessed and rights-bearing individual of freedom. While attentive to the performance of power–the terrible spectacles of slaveholders’ dominion and the innocent amusements designed to abase and pacify the enslaved–and the entanglements of pleasure and terror in these displays of mastery, Hartman also examines the possibilities for resistance, redress and transformation embodied in black performance and everyday practice. 

PDF Available: Here

Hartman, Saidiya V. 2007. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman traces the history of the Atlantic slave trade by recounting a journey she took along a slave route in Ghana. Following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast, she reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy and vividly dramatizes the effects of slavery on three centuries of African and African American history

Frank B. Wilderson III, Saidiya V. Hartman, Steve Martinot, Jared Sexton, Hortenese J. Spillers, Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction.

In the wake of uprisings and public outrage at the continual murder of Black people by the police, discourse is incrementally acknowledging racialized police violence and discrimination in all areas of society. Yet there is a fissure between the prescriptions offered to rectify these issues and the failure to bring that about. Afro-Pessimism offers an analytical lens to examine this gap and the ways in which society is structured through anti-Black racism. Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction is a collection of articles compiled for the purpose of offering an overview of this theory. The collected articles span three decades of thought and cover, in addition to police violence, topics ranging from the labor of Black women and the slave’s transformation following the emancipation to the struggles of the Black Liberation Army and the elements of anti-Blackness in Indigenous struggles for sovereignty

PDF Available: Here

James, C. L. R. 1963. The Black Jacobins; Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution.

This powerful, intensely dramatic book is the definitive account of the Haitian Revolution of 1794-1803, a revolution that began in the wake of the Bastille but became the model for the Third World liberation movements from Africa to Cuba. It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of master toward slave was commonplace and ingeniously refined. And it is the story of a barely literate slave named Toussaint L’Ouverture, who led the black people of San Domingo in a successful struggle against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces and in the process helped form the first independent nation in the Caribbean.

PDF Available: Here

Jones, Claudia, and Carole Boyce Davies. 2011. Claudia Jones: Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Essays, and Poems.

Claudia Jones, intellectual genius and staunch activist against racist and gender oppression founded two of Black Briton’s most important institutions; the first black newspaper, the West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Times and was a founding member of the Notting Hill Carnival. This book makes accessible and brings to wider attention the words of an often overlooked 20th century political and cultural activist who tirelessly campaigned, wrote, spoke out, organized, edited and published autobiographical writings on human rights and peace struggles related to gender, race and class.

Vitale, Alex S. 2017. The End of Policing.

Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression—most dramatically in Ferguson, Missouri, where longheld grievances erupted in violent demonstrations following the police killing of Michael Brown. Among activists, journalists, and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself. “Broken windows” practices, the militarization of law enforcement, and the dramatic expansion of the police’s role over the last forty years have created a mandate for officers that must be rolled back.

Ebook Available: Here

Fanon, Frantz, and Charles Lam Markmann. 1967. Black Skin, White Masks.

Fanon, born in Martinique and educated in France, is generally regarded as the leading anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century. His first book is an analysis of the impact of colonial subjugation on the black psyche. It is a very personal account of Fanon’s experience being black: as a man, an intellectual, and a party to a French education

PDF Available: Here

Black Owned Bookstores

Eso Won Books Los Angeles, CA

Veteran bookshop spotlighting a range of titles about & written by African American people.

semicolon chi Chicago, IL

Semicolon Bookstore is committed to nurturing the connection between literature, art, and the pursuit of knowledge; while also using the power of words to better our community.

Black Pearl Books Austin, TX 

A mysterious rare gemstone symbolizing independence, strength, wisdom, wealth, prosperity, love, and hope

Source Booksellers Detroit, MI

Source Booksellers, an independent bookstore in Detroit’s Midtown district, is a unique niche of non-fiction books. We offer books and unusual sideline items that enhance your life and your lifestyle. 

Harriett’s Bookshop Philadelphia, PA

Named for historical heroine Harriet Tubman, our mission celebrates women authors, women artists, and women activists.

Books and Crannies Martinsville, VA

Books and Crannies is an independent bookstore which opened on September 20, 2016. With the closing of all major book retailers in this area, Books and Crannies has opened a new market in Uptown Martinsville that was at the time unfulfilled.

CAFE CON LIBROS Brooklyn, NY

Cafe con Libros (coffee with books) is an intersectional Feminist community bookstore and coffee shop.  Through our choice of books, programming and great coffee, we endeavor to create a vibrant community space where everyone; specifically female identified folx, feel centered, affirmed and celebrated.  

Sistah Scifi Online 

Founded by Isis Asare, Sistah Scifi is a cauldron of all things afro-futurism; Black mysticism, science fiction noir, and traditional voodoo; casting spells to uplift literature written by Black women

The Key Bookstore Online 

The Key Bookstore is an interactive online bookstore experience curated for Afrocentricity, Spirituality, Environmentalism, and Entrepreneurship

The Lit. Bar The Bronx, NY 

The Lit. Bar opened it’s doors on April 27, 2019 (National Indie Bookstore Day) and is currently the only bookstore serving the 1.5 million people of the Boogie Down Bronx. Our venue encourages curious readers and welcomes literary and community gatherings—while our wine bar connects the great pastimes of social sipping and introverted reading. What better way to loosen our tongues and talk about the books we love? We offer a carefully curated selection of general interest books, gift items, and programming which emphasize local interest and diversity for all ages.

MahoganyBooks Washington, DC

MahoganyBooks is a local independent bookstore that believes in social entrepreneurship. We take a leadership role in the African American community by promoting reading, writing, and cultural awareness as tools to improve self-esteem, self-love and ultimately our communities to enrich the lives of motivated individuals.

Pyramid Books Boynton Beach, FL

African-American books and authors are our specialty: fiction, nonfiction, self-help, metaphysics, mysteries, Egyptology, Pan African, spiritual, science fiction, self-published and hard to find books. Pyramid Books Editing Services is available to aspiring and published writers. Pyramid Books celebrates Black History Month 365 days a year to educate all people about the African Diaspora. A proud Essence and NY Times reporting store. We stand for Hope and Possibility in the book industry.

Black Stone Bookstore & Cultural Center Ypsilanti, MI 

Black Stone Bookstore & Cultural Center is an independent African-American bookstore. We are located in the heart of downtown Ypsilanti, Michigan, just a block away from the Eastern Michigan University College of Business. We opened November 2, 2013, in hopes of bringing awareness to true African-American literature and culture.

Hakim’s Bookstore Philadelphia, PA 

“Black people need to read more so that we can establish our cultural identities. We hold ourselves in low esteem due to the brainwashing process of our slavemasters through  their educational system .We are the only people on the face of the earth who allow our oppressor to educate our children. If we change our image of self then we can alter our condition and thereby gain power and respect. Therefore it is imperative for us to read, study and manifest.”-Dawud Hakim (Founder of Hakim’s Bookstore)

Detroit Book City Southfield, MI

Detroit Book City is a small, independent book store that specialize & market books, media & events to the African-American consumer market.  We carry new and gently used adult and children books i.e. self-help, black-consciousness, spiritual, how-to’s, urban-fiction, memoirs, biographies & much more!!! We also sell books written by local and national Indie Authors and rare, hard to find or out-of-print African-American books.

Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee & Books Philadelphia, PA

From the Ebony and Jet magazines on the coffee table, to the pictures of Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson on the wall, to the smell of Aunt Bessie’s sweet potato pie emanating from the kitchen, Uncle Bobbie’s was a bastion of unapologetic Blackness.

Frugal Bookstore Roxbury, MA

We are a community bookstore located in Roxbury with a passion of promoting literacy within our children, teens and adults. We’ve got all these great books (and getting more all the time) at incredible prices that we want you to see.

Multicultural Children’s Bookstore, Richmond, CA

Come visit the ONLY multicultural bookstore in the County. Tons of books for Black, Latino, Asian, Native American kids of all ages and adults too!

Underground Books Sacramento, CA

Underground Books opened in the summer of 2003 and is the literary hub of Oak Park. Since the closing of the only library in Oak Park in the 1970’s,  it became the mission of St. HOPE founder, Kevin Johnson, to ensure that the students and the community had access to books.  

Ashay By The Bay Vallejo, CA

Ashay By The Bay is The #1 Black Children’s Bookstore specializing in African American and Multicultural Books for the Home and Classroom!

Marcus Book Stores Oakland, CA

The oldest independent Black bookstore in the country. Books by and about Black people everywhere.

Introducing: The LAND Journal

Hi everyone,

This month we launch the LAND journal, a new online format to share information and resources. At LAND we believe deeply in supporting an artist’s entire process, not just the end result, an exhibition or object. In the way that we hope our public exhibitions and projects can be engaged as part of people’s everyday lives, we recognize that for artists, there is not really a divide between life and work. As such, we are committed to celebrating all parts of the creative process, to hopefully inspire everyone to think about their own lives and work a little differently. We hope this new platform and others that we are developing will allow us to communicate our processes more clearly and promote further engagement with all of the components that inform how we do what we do and why.

Running a public art nonprofit is an inherently collaborative endeavor. Our projects would not be possible without a vast network of community-based partners. We have partnered with every imaginable type of business and organization to realize the visions of artists. In that process, we have built internal systems and resources, that we hope to share widely to assist others.

Here in Los Angeles we have spent the last 6 weeks under social distancing protocols related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It seemed like nearly overnight, the world changed. On the one hand, LAND is uniquely positioned to pivot quickly in response to a changing world. LAND was founded in 2009 in the midst of a recession, and built into the organization’s DNA is an organizational structure that is flexible and nimble. We maintain very low overhead, and the lean team works remotely most of the time. But this new time presents unprecedented challenges, and we are faced with asking ourselves, what does it mean to be a public art organization in a time where we are forced to live our lives in private?

Though we don’t have answers for most questions right now, the team has quickly galvanized resources for our community in LA that we hope can be of support. With a barrage of information, we have combed through and will be sharing the most relevant direct resources for artists, mutual aid, and ways to support those most vulnerable and affected by the uncertainty right now. We will be posting those resources and continually updating them as more information and resources become available.

We thank the LAND board, our advisory board and nomadic council, members, supporters, friends and collaborators, for keeping us going right now. Most of all, we recognize and thank the artists that keep working right now and always, that forever inspire us and make Los Angeles such a vibrant and dynamic place to live. We remain committed to finding ways to support you and your work in new and ever-evolving ways.

In gratitude,

Laura Hyatt
Executive Director