The revered abolitionist ZEFERINA led a slave revolt in Brazil in 1826. Co-creating a quilombo as a resistance leader ZEFERINA fought against slavery and the violent destruction of African people and communities suppressed in the Americas. Recognizing honor this ancestor’s contributions to struggle and liberation, coeditors Joao Costa Vargas and Joy James acknowledge ZEFERINA as an inspiration to contemporary struggles against enslavement, exploitation, racial/gender/sexual exploitation, and genocide. With collectives, Common Notions is addressing colonialism, imperialism and capitalism with multilingual print and electronic-publication series in order to expand and solidify our commitments to international liberation struggles: past, present, and future.
The ZEFERINA is not so much a book series as a reading collective—although the English language texts cited below by Mumia Abu-Jamal, Dhoruba bin Wahad and others are expressions of Black revolutionary, internationalist solidarity for freedom struggles. Focusing on the Americas, Africa, and the African diaspora, this multi-lingual series (English, Spanish, and Portuguese) addresses captivity, imperialism, colonialism, (proto)fascism, femicide, genocide and anti-Blackness, by contributions from across the globe.
Referencing the historical past while centering on contemporary crises and communities, a multilingual ZEFERINA collective emphasizes Indigenous/Black/Non-Black actors, theorists, artists engaged in land rights, community and spirituality, and radical or revolutionary marronage.
ZEFERINA, the platform hosted by Common Notions, invites authors, artists, organizers and caregivers to contribute revolutionary perspectives that transcend national borders and repressive societies and states. Multi-racial, multi-gender, across-class divisions, resisting repression, we seek to bridge linguistic barriers and geographical distances. ZEFERINA’s legacy pushes us against Anglophone hegemony.
Our inheritance from our ancestors shapes contemporary political resistance and cultures. ZEFERINA is not just a book series. It is an engagement with political thinkers and practitioners, ethicists, activists and analysts —communities that focus on freedom struggles, anti-war engagements, and self-determination among Afro-descendent and Indigenous peoples. Brazil is home to the largest Black population in the Americas. The United States is the home to the largest well-funded white nationalist empire in the Americas. It is (Afro)logical that we would improvise and build connections, with the support authors and thinkers throughout the diaspora.
About the co-Editors
Author of The Denial of Antiblackness: Multiracial Redemption and Black Suffering, João H. Costa Vargas is co-author of Rise Up or Die!. Author of New Bones Abolition, Joy James is editor of: In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love; Beyond Cop Cities; and Confronting Counterinsurgency. Vargas and James have worked with international (non)academics, study groups, classes, conferences, NGOs, podcasts for decades. João Costa Vargas’s work in and beyond Brazil aligns with the Landless Movement. As theorists and organizers, Vargas and James work with movements against anti-Blackness, gender violence and state violence
As we develop Portuguese/Spanish translations of English Texts, We ask that Authors who write in Portuguese/SPanish also be translated into English as we expand communications and commitments to address Our Shared needs for liberation BY SHARING OUR ANALYSES AND ART FOR LIBERATION.
@2024 Portuguese/Spanish Translations of English Texts
read texts in the inaugural collection by Joy James
Português
O Útero da Teoria Ocidental: Trauma, roubo de tempo e a Cativa Materna, 2024 translation by anarchist Brazilian feminists (published in English in 2016).
“Agindo De Forma Ética” Pensamento Crítico, Teorização e Vontade Política
Ossatura Da Abolição: Agência Materno Cativa E O Legado De Erica Garner by Joy James, published by Common Notions, 2023.
Além das Cidades-Polícia (texto completo, publicado pela Pluto Press, versão em inglês, 2024).
Español
Una Carta de Preocupación Para El Clero Negro Con Respecto A "Cop City," translation by student (published in English in Beyond Cop Cities [Pluto Press, 2024]).
La Guerra Urbana y Los Ejércitos Financiados Por Corporaciones: El Cop City De Atlanta Es Otro Capítulo En La Historia Larga De Colonialismo Basado En Los Estados Unidos, translation by Liliana (published originally in English in Beyond Cop Cities, 2024, Pluto Press).
English
Beyond Cop Cities (full text, published by Pluto Press, English version, 2024).
