Angela Davis is Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz, and the author of ten books, including 2016’s Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement. Her work addresses the range of social problems associated with incarceration and criminalization of communities most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She draws upon her own experiences as someone who spent eighteen months in jail and on trial, after being placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted List.” She has been an activist for six decades including as a founding member of Critical Resistance, an abolitionist organization dedicated to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex.
In this interview with Diana Taylor (University Professor at NYU and Founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute), Angela Davis discusses the role of art in social movements, the ability of aesthetics to make us think critically and imagine possible futures. Davis also reminds us that the Movement for Black Lives is not an exclusively Black movement, and encourages us to challenge “the assumption that the State is the ultimate formation within which we work.”
Santiago, Chile. July 18, 2017.
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