Keeanga-Yahmatta Taylor with Cathy Cohen | April 6, 2016
Apr 6, 2016
7:00PM - 8:30PM
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington St
RSVP here.
"Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's searching examination of the social, political and economic dimensions of the prevailing racial order offers important context for understanding the necessity of the emerging movement for black liberation."
—Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
For most of US history, the police have used violence against African Americans with impunity—but after the murder of unarmed teenager Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, mass protests erupted to challenge that impunity. In the process, a new generation of Black activists has come to question the old methods of struggle, puncture the Obama-era illusion of a “postracial” United States, and declare without apology that #BlackLivesMatter.
Activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the history and current realities of US racism. Taylor examines how institutional racism has created and shaped the structural problems that affect Black people, such as mass incarceration and unemployment, even as more Black people hold political office than ever before. She paints a vivid picture of the context for this new struggle against police violence—and shows the potential of the Black Lives Matter movement to reignite and broaden the struggle for liberation.
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes on Black politics, social movements, and racial inequality in the United States. Her articles have been published in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, Jacobin, New Politics, the Guardian, In These Times, Black Agenda Report, Ms., International Socialist Review, Al Jazeera America, and other publications. She is an assistant professor in the department of African American Studies at Princeton University.
Cathy J. Cohen is the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science and chair of the department. She has served as the Deputy Provost for Graduate Education and is the former Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago. Cohen is the author of two books: "Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics" (Oxford University Press 2010) and "The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics" (University of Chicago Press 1999) and co-editor with Kathleen Jones and Joan Tronto of Women Transforming Politics: An Alternative Reader (NYU, 1997). Cohen is principal investigator of two major projects: The Black Youth Project and the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project. Her general field of specialization is American politics, although her research interests include African-American politics, women and politics, lesbian and gay politics, and social movements.
Sponsored by Haymarket Books and Lannan Foundation
Cosponsored by:
• BYP 100
• Black Lives Matter Chicago
• Department of African American Studies Northwestern University
• Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at UChicago
• Center for Black Diaspora, DePaul Unviersity
• Chicago Socialists - ISO
• UIC Social Justice Initiative
All tickets are general admission. Please arrive early - seating is first-come, first served.
Books will be avaialble for sale and signing after the event.