Fall 2022

Amid the overlapping crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, ecological disaster, and state violence wrought by racial capitalism, two leading Black and Indigenous activist thinkers asked one another: what does liberation look like? Through letters, Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson engaged in dialogue, debate, and conversation to "think together about what it means for us to build livable lives together in the wreckage." 

Amid so many planetary crises, it is easy to despair. To combat this, we protest in the streets, join and form organizations, practice mutual aid, and build alternative forms of care and community. Rehearsals for Living (Haymarket, 2022) illustrates another type of critical political practice often unnamed: our relationships and conversations with one another. Letter writing is a form of kinship and connection that allows us to grow our movements and ourselves.

Our Fall 2022 curriculum uses Rehearsals for Living as an opening and an occasion to build slowly, intimately, and sustainably through relationships with each other.

From September through December, our curriculum will feature 16 short essays (1 per week or at your pace) from Abolition for the People (Kaepernick Publishing, 2021) and the 6 chapters from Rehearsals for Living along with a forward by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and an afterwor(l)d by Robin D.G. Kelley.

During these four months, participants are encouraged to write letters back and forth to another person as you read together.

This might take two forms:

1. Contact someone you know and invite them to read and write with you. This person could be a long-time comrade inside or outside a prison, a family member, someone you’ve had politicizing conversations with, or just about anyone willing to read, write, and think with you.  

2. Fill out our Pen Pal Form and get paired with an imprisoned comrade in Mississippi. This person is part of our study groups and will be meeting with a group inside during the fall as well.  

   ** If you choose this option, please make sure you have read our Pen Pal Guidelines so that you understand the commitment and responsibilities of writing to someone inside.

Click here to view critical conversations