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Writing on the wall : selected prison writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal / foreword by Cornel West ; edited by Johanna Fernández.

Title: Writing on the wall : selected prison writings of Mumia Abu-Jamal / foreword by Cornel West ; edited by Johanna Fernández.
Author: Abu-Jamal, Mumia
Publication: [San Francisco, California] : City Lights Books, [2015]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	JC599.U5 A346 2015	Off-site

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Description

xxxvi, 333 pages; 21 cm.

Summary

"From the first slave writings to contemporary hip hop, the canon of African American literature offers a powerful counter-narrative to dominant notions of American culture, history, and politics. Resonant with voices of prophecy and resistance, the African American literary tradition runs deep with emancipatory currents that have had an indelible impact on the United States and the world. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been one of our most important contributors to this canon for decades, writing from the confines of the US prison system to give voice to those most silenced by chronic racism, impoverishment, and injustice. Writing on the Wall is a selection of one hundred previously unpublished essays that crystalize Mumia Abu-Jamal's essential perspectives on community, politics, power, social change, and US history.^ From discussions of Rosa Parks and Trayvon Martin to John Walker Lindh and Edward Snowden, Abu-Jamal articulates lucid, humorous, and often prescient insight into the past, present, and future of American politics and society. Written as radio commentaries from his prison cell in Death Row, where he was held in solitary confinement for close to thirty years, Mumia's revolutionary perspective brims with hope, encouragement, and profound faith in the possibility of social change and redemption. MUMIA ABU-JAMAL is an award-winning journalist and author of two best-selling books, Live From Death Row and Death Blossoms, which address prison life from a critical and spiritual perspective. In 1981 he was elected president of the Association of Black Journalists (Philadelphia chapter). That same year he was arrested for allegedly killing a white police officer in Philadelphia.^ He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982, in a process that has been described as an epic miscarriage of justice. After spending more than 28 years on death row, in 2011 his death sentence was vacated when the Supreme Court allowed to stand the decisions of four federal judges who had earlier declared his death sentence unconstitutional. He is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. In spite of his three-decade-long imprisonment, most of which was spent in solitary confinement on Death Row, Abu-Jamal has relentlessly fought for his freedom and for his profession. From prison he has written seven books and thousands of radio commentaries. He holds a BA from Goddard College and an MA from California State University, Dominguez Hills. His books have sold more than 100,000 copies and have been translated into seven languages.^ JOHANNA FERNÁNDEZ is a former Fulbright Scholar to Jordan and Assistant Professor of History at Baruch College of the City University of New York where she teaches 20th Century US history and African American History. She is author of the forthcoming When the World Was Their Stage: A History of the Young Lords Party, 1968-1976 (Princeton University Press). Fernandez is the writer and producer of the film, Justice on Trial: the Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal and she is featured in the critically acclaimed documentary about Mumia Abu-Jamal, Long Distance Revolutionary. Her writings have been published internationally, from Al Jazeera to the Huffington Post. She gives interviews often and has appeared in a diverse range of print, radio, online and televised media including Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, the Fox News shows Hannity and Megyn Kelley, Al Jazeera and The New York Times. She is a coordinator of the Campaign to Bring Mumia Home.^ CORNEL WEST is a scholar, philosopher, activist and author of over a dozen books including his bestseller, Race Matters. He appears frequently in the media, and has appeared on the Bill Maher Show, Colbert Report, CNN and C-Span as well as on Tavis Smiley's PBS TV Show. "--

Series Statement

Open Media series

Uniform Title

Works. Selections
Open Media book

Alternative Title

Works.

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references.

Processing Action (note)

committed to retain

Contents

Foreword / by Cornel West -- Introduction / by Johanna Fernández -- 1. Christmas in a cage -- 2. Court of law or hall of oppression? -- 3. Different sides of the same system -- 4. Long live John Africa -- 5. 900 years for surviving -- 6. The Mother's Day massacre -- 7. The power of truth -- 8. Christmas in a cage II -- 9. The Philadelphia negro revisited -- 10. Birth of a rebel -- 11. Community service for a Contra Colonel -- 12. C'mon in, the water's fine -- 13. Ronald Reagan fiddled while the poor froze -- 14. Blues for Huey -- 15. Opposing anti-Arab racism -- 16. Rodney King -- 17. Never again -- 18. Legal oudaws : Bobby's battle for justice September -- 19. Gangsters in blue -- 20. Voting for your own repression -- 21. Welfare reform or war on women? -- 22. The state of Pennsylvania has every intention of killing me -- 23. The passing of Kunstler : people's lawyer -- 24. Fugitive from justice, Veronica Jones -- 25. When a child is not a child --^
26. More than police brutality -- 27. The death machine -- 28. What Amadou Diallo really means -- 29. The damning of dissent -- 30. The life and freedom of Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham) -- 31. Texas : the death state -- 32. The real "constitutional crisis" -- 33. Many trails of tears -- 34. Message to the World Congress against the death penalty Strasbourg, France -- 35. The real meaning of Genoa -- 36. Land -- 37. Imperial pique in Durban -- 38. 9-11... Why? -- 39. When news isn't news -- 40. War on the waterfront -- 41. The Cuban 5 and "Homeland Security" -- 42. Analysis of empire -- 43. Who's "wilding" who? -- 44. Governor Ryan's song -- 45. Black farmers, still fighting -- 46. To be young, gifted and ... Nina Simone -- 47. Sons of Malcolm -- 48. Soldiers of misfortune -- 49. Black August -- 50. Forty years in the wilderness -- 51. The ill-advised Iraq adventure -- 52. Democracy, dictatorships and empire -- 53. "Flawed intelligence" -- 54. In the shadow of Brown --^
55. Who "we" are -- 56. "True American values" -- 57. Another Ronald Reagan, another America -- 58. America : independent? -- 59. What would Thomas Paine think? -- 60. Voting for yesteryear : Alabama dreamin' -- 61. When the prison goes international -- 62. Lynne Stewart speaks -- 63. Whitewashing white crimes -- 64. Supreme Court Justice calls system "broken" -- 65. Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin and Jo Ann Robinson -- 66. What kids are really learning in school -- 67. The ongoing war against workers : the TWU Strike -- 68. FBI surveillance -- 69. GM and the global war against workers -- 70. Silence of the lambs -- 71. Before Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib : the Black Panthers -- 72. Katrina : one year later -- 73. No safe age -- 74. Decolonization : the influence of Africa, and Latin America on the Black Freedom Movement -- 75. President or priest? -- 76. 1967 : year of fire, year of rage -- 77. The latest battle in the war against the poor -- 78. The perils of black political power --^
79. Beating back Batson -- 80. The time for Troy Davis is now -- 81. Welfare for the rich -- 82. Israel -- 83. From Frahtz Fanon to Africa with love -- 84. With judges like these -- 85. The other inauguration celebration -- 86. Black citizenship -- 87. Union busting -- 88. Tea Party or Occupy Movement? -- 89. To my brethen and sistas on the row -- 90. For a revolutionary black history month -- 91. Memories for Maroon -- 92. Beyond Trayvon : when the personal ain't political -- 93. The real John Carter -- 94. Ending solitary confinement -- 95. Obama's re-election : what it means, what it doesn't -- 96. Martin Luther King : in memory and in life -- 97. The coming acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer -- 98. Puerto Rico : under U.S. colonial law -- 99. "Of all our studies, history best rewards our research" -- 100. National Security Agency -- 101. Martin, women and the movement -- 102. Land grabs -- 103. Beatings -- 104. The historic role of journalism among black people --^
105. The meaning of Ferguson -- 106. Ebola -- 107. Goddard commencement speech -- Appendix: 10 reasons why Mumia Abu-Jamal should be freed / by Johanna Fernández.

ISBN

9780872866751
0872866750

LCCN

^^2014048024

OCLC

875240201

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library