The Lit Review Podcast

We sat down for a talk with one of our favorite people, Joey Mogul! Joey talks about Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States, a book that she co-wrote with Andrea Ritchie and Kay Whitlock in 2011. Drawing on years of research, on-the-ground activism, and legal advocacy, their book examines queer & trans historical experiences-as “suspects,” defendants, prisoners, and survivors of crime, and unpacks queer criminal archetypes-like “gleeful gay killers,” “lethal lesbians,” “disease spreaders,” and “deceptive gender benders“-to illustrate the punishment of queer expression, regardless of whether a crime was ever committed. This book illuminates and challenges the many ways in which queer & trans lives are criminalized, policed, and punished. And because it's Pride season, we also got into some conversation around Joey's amazing direct action experiences with disrupting Chicago Pride in the 90's with Queer to the Left, so basically, you should tune in now!

Former FBI Director James Comey's recent assertion that "the FBI is honest, the FBI is strong," outraged all of us familiar with COINTELPRO. In this episode, Page May sits down with Muhammad Sankari, a youth organizer with the Arab American Action Network, to learn more about the current evolution (and dishonesty) of the FBI since 9/11. We discussed The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism, a 2014 book by Trevor Aaronson. Through investigative journalism, Aaronson exposes how the FBI has built a massive network of informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the war on terror.

The end of racism & anti-Blackness is not yet in sight. In this week's episode, Black is a Country, Nikhil Pal Singh asks what happened to the international & radical visions of equality that existed with Black intellectual activists from W. E. B. Du Bois in the 1930s to Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s. In so doing, he constructs an alternative history of civil rights in the twentieth century in which radical hopes and global dreams are recognized as central to the history of black struggle. ​Lit Review host Page May chats with southside Chicago activist Charles Preston about this book, discussing inclusion versus accommodation, and what exactly self-determination might look like. Tune in!

A magnificent story of a young Black women's journey through the Underground Railroad. Her story confronts the nature of slavery, with each stop along her way revealing a different aspect of bondage and resistance. Haunting and deeply human, the story conveys both the horrors of bondage and the humanity of those who lived it. In this episode, we discuss the importance of Colson Whitehead's novel as a learning tool with Chicago writer and sociologist, Eve Ewing!

In this groundbreaking and important book, Danielle McGuire traces the roots of the Civil Rights Movement directly back to campaigns waged in defense of Black womanhood against sexual violence. ​For this episode of the Lit Review, we sat down with our friend, mentor, and inspiration, Mariame Kaba, to talk through the details and significance of this repressed herstory. Mariame is an organizer, educator, writer, and curator. Her work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, and supporting youth leadership development. She is the founder and director of Project NIA, a grassroots organization with a mission to end youth incarceration. After over 20 years of living and organizing in Chicago, she recently moved back to her hometown of New York City. Find her on twitter at @prisonculture.

Written in 1978 by Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, Orientalism is a seminal text critiquing the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism - how the Western world perceives the Orient. We chatted with Muslim-Iranian writer, artist, and photographer Hoda Katebi to understand how this book is relevant in our current political moment, and to help us breakdown core concepts and key vocab that Said delves into throughout the book. Hoda frequently speaks at universities and establishments nationally and her work has been featured on various online, in-print, radio, and television media internationally.

What happened to the American left after the sixties? LA Kauffman explores this in their first book Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism. Kauffman brings a long view of movement history, having spent more than thirty years immersed in radical movements, as a participant, strategist, journalist, and observer. We sat down with this wonderful book’s author to learn more about “what works” from the past 40 years of struggle.

Part 2 in our conversation with Jasson Perez. Jasson Perez is a Chicago-raised Black scholar and organizer with 16+ years of experience, from labor to the movement for Black Lives. On this episode, Page May chats with Jasson in a two-part series discussing Political Process and the Development of the Black Insurgency, 1930-1970 by Doug McAdam. This sociological book by Doug McAdam presents a political-process model that explains the rise and decline of the black protest movement in the United States during the time period of 1930 to 1970.

Part 1 of our interview with Jasson Perez. Jasson is a Chicago-raised Black scholar and organizer with 16+ years of experience, from labor to the movement for Black Lives. On this episode, we begin discussing Political Process and the Development of the Black Insurgency, 1930-1970. This sociological book by Doug McAdam presents a political-process model that explains the rise and decline of the black protest movement in the United States during this time period.

In this episode, Page May and guest host Bettina Johnson talk with our friend, Dominique Barron. ​Born and raised in Chicago, Dom has spent the past several years living and organizing in London. She's back in Chicago now and currently a member of Assata's Daughters and the People's Response Team. Today, we are also joined by a special guest host, Bettina. Listen to hear our conversation about the Earthseed Series by Octavia Butler, a chillingly relevant science fiction series from the 1990s.

Page May chats with B Loewe! Originally from the Maryland suburbs of D.C., B was recruited into social justice work by his older sister, and was a key organizer of the 2010 Detroit-based U.S. Social Forum. B Loewe is currently Mijente's Communications Director, and is an all around amazing organizer and activist, contributing so much to grassroots efforts in Chicago. We'll be talking with B about Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything by Becky Bond and Zach Exley, recently published in November of 2016.

On this episode, we chat with Chicago-based intersex activist Pidgeon about the book Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex by Alice Dreger. Pidgeon is a leader in the intersex movement’s fight for bodily autonomy and justice. Pidgeon’s goal is to deconstruct the dangerous myths that lead to violations of intersex people’s human rights, including common, irreversible medical procedures performed without consent to make their bodies conform to binary sex stereotypes. Pidgeon recently appeared on the cover of National Geographic for the Gender Revolution issue, and is currently teaching an Intro to LGBTQ studies course at DePaul University.

Page May and Monica Trinidad unite for an episode! We talk with Benji Hart- a Black, mixed-class, queer femme currently living in Chicago. Benji is dedicated to combining arts and education to inspire direct action. They are an activist, a member of the Chicago BTGNC Collective, and the author of Radical Faggot. This week, we talked with Benji about the book Transgender History by Susan Stryker.

Monica Trinidad and guest host Bettina Johnson speak with Ramah Kudaimi, a Syrian-American activist and organizer currently living in D.C. Ramah serves on the board of the Washington Peace Center, is a member of the Syrian Solidarity Collective, and the Muslim Women's Policy Forum. She also serves with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, working as a BDS organizer, and BDS stands for Boycott, Divest and Sanctions. We chatted with Ramah via a video call about the book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab. Key questions: How did the Syrian revolution begin? What role did art & social media play in the revolution? What did U.S.-based solidarity look like? What could've been different?

Page May chats with Nathan Ryan of Grassroots Collaborative, and Debbie Southorn of American Friends Service Committee - Chicago about the book Black Reconstruction in America: 1860 - 1880, the most important book we think you'll ever have to read! Assigned as essential reading to many local, Chicago organizers by long-time Chicago organizer and prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba, Black Reconstruction details the role that Black people played in reconstruction after the Civil War, when Black people were freed from slavery and began reconstructing American society.