2020 saw one of the largest global uprisings against police and state-sanctioned violence and murder against Black Americans. In Philadelphia, organizers, activists and artists took to the street to meet the moment that years of work in the Black radical tradition and mobilizing for abolition prepared them for. In How We Stay Free, a forthcoming collection from the Paul Robeson House & Museum and Common Notions Press, Fajr Muhammad and Christopher R. Rogers seek to document the many stories of movement work, how 2020 is a step in a long tradition of Black liberation and how Black Philadelphians continue to reckon and do the work toward liberation.
This panel brings together contributors, the editors and the publisher to talk about the unfolding project, its significance, and what it means to try to document an unfinished moment. Featuring work by Sheyla Street, Ewuare X. Osayande, and Rasheed Ajamu (aka Phreedom Jawn).
Fajr Muhammad is a writer and editor. She has been awarded fellowships with the Tin House Writers Workshop, Rhode Island Writers Colony and the Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat. She is a graduate of the MFA program at Columbia University. Currently, she is at work on a novel about black liberation and black womanhood.
Christopher R. Rogers serves as the Program Director for the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance’s Paul Robeson House & Museum, an internationally recognized museum that preserves the legacy of Paul Robeson, including his political commitment to anticolonial struggle and an appreciation of the arts in the fight for social justice.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.