Fearing an even worse outcome, CeCe McDonald took a plea deal yesterday, but the fight is far from over. She will need support (letters, money and more) for her time inside and for her reentry. We must also continue to demand her freedom now as part of our abolitionist struggles. You can read Reina Gossett’s reflection here and you can get CeCe’s address and other updates on her case here.
Original Plumbing magazine just published Bryn Kelly’s really beautiful review of Captive Genders written though the struggle to free CeCe. You can head the review here.
Also, the journal Postmodern Culture published “Entangled Spheres” another insightful and generous review of Captive Genders by Jian Chen. You can read it here.
AK Press has a new website and for the month of May you can get Captive Genders for 25% off if you order through them. We will be starting our online fundraising drive to get Captive Genders to folks inside for free. Look for that soon.
Thanks to all the Ships in the Night people that got us off to a grand start with our goal of offering as many copies as we can of Captive Genders for free to folks locked up. (more info on that soon)
Eric A. Stanley, Dean Spade, and the authors of the book Queer (In)Justice(read it if you have not yet) wrote a short piece called “Queering Prison Abolition, Now?” for the journal American Quarterly. You can download the PDF here.
There is also a new book review of Captive Genders at Lambda Literary you can read it here.
Gender and the Prison Industrial Complex : Towards a Queer, Trans and Feminist Abolition Politic PSU Smith Center room 333, Portland, OR Friday April, 6, 2012 7:30-9:30 pm, FREE
with…
Eric A. Stanley is the co-editor of Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex and is the co-director of the films Homotopia and Criminal Queers.
Ralowe T. Ampu currently lives and organizes in an SRO in San Francisco, CA. Along with Gay Shame, she has worked with ACT UP and in solidarity to free the NJ 4.
Dean Spade is an Assistant Professor at Seattle University School of Law. Among other things, he teaches Law and Social Movements and Critical Perspectives on Transgender Law. He is the founder of the Silvia Rivera Law Project and is a contributor to Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex.
Vikki Law is the author of Women’s Prison Resistance and a long time prison support acitivst; in 1996 she helped start Books Through Bars – New York City; in 2000 she began focusing on focusing specifically on women in prison.
Sponsored by Committee to Connect the Dots: weebly.razethewalls.com
Ships in the Night will benefit us getting copies of CG to folks inside for free! @The Oasis, Oakland, CA
Saturday April 7th, 2012
9pm-2am $5 21+
Djs: Durt, CLR Jamz, Motive & RapidFire!
Performance by Maya Songbird
(http://www.mayasongbird.com/)
We will be doing a few mid west events while Nat will be holding it down with a panel at the Anarchist Book Fair in San Francisco. In other exciteing news, the first print run of Captive Genders has almost sold out and it is now in its second run!
Captive Genders reading with Eric A. Stanley and Yasmin Nair Friday March 23, 2012 7:30-9 PM Women and Children First 5233 N. Clark St in Andersonville Chicago, IL Here is the fb event page.
Captive Genders reading with Eric A. Stanley and Erica Meiners (with special guest Chris Vargas) Tuesday March 27, 7-9PM Allen Hall’s Main Lounge UIUC (1005 W. Gregory Drive Urbana, IL 61820 | *Free parking in garage across the street. Part of the Gendered Barred Colloquium. Here is the fb event page.
Captive Genders panel with Nat Smith, Jay Donahue and Ralowe Ampu) Saturday March 31, 2012, 5-6PM In the Cafe at the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair at the SF County Fair Building
Thanks to everyone that came out to the events in Berkeley, Davis and Santa Cruz. We have a few more readings planned and would love help getting the word out. Also, Eric and Ralowe will be heading back to Portland, OR April 5-6. Then, on April 7, 2012 Ships in the Night will benefit our drive to offer copies of Captive Genders to folks inside for free, so watch out for that.
Captive Genders at San Francisco State University with Eric A. Stanley, Nat Smith, Ralowe T. Ampu and Toshio Meronek Thursday February 23, 2012 4-6 pm in the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center Here is the fb page for the event.
Captive Genders at Mills College, with Priya Kandaswamy, Queer Studies, Rebekah Edwards, English, Eric Stanley, Nat Smith, Vanessa Huang, Transforming Justice film (5 mins), Julia C. Oparah and Ralowe Ampu Contributor Thursday March 1, 2012 7:30-9pm, Mills College Student Union, 5000 MacArthur Blvd, Oakland, CA, FREE and open to the public. Here is the fb page for the event.
Captive Genders at Housmans Book Shop in London Speakers include S.Lamble, one of the contributors to the book and a member of the Bent Bars Organising Collective, and Sophie Barton-Hawkins, another Bent Bars Collective member who has been active in organising around issues faced by LGBTQ prisoners. Wednesday March 4, 2012 7-10pm Here is the fb page for the event.
Also, Captive Genders has been getting lots of press which is a great way to spread the word about prison abolition!
“Captivated” in The Good Times by Elizabeth Limbach
The NY radio show, Romantic Friendship, talked with Dean Spade and Eric Stanley about both Captive Genders and Dean’s new book, Normal Life (read it). The show was also co-hosted by CG contributor and amazing organizer, Reina July.
Book reading Sunday January 8, 2012 5-7pm with: Eric A. Stanley, Lori Saffin, Ralowe T. Ampu and Toshio Meronek Elliott Bay Book Company 1521 10th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122 Here is the fb event page.
Panel at the University of Washington, Seattle, Allen Auditorium – UW Campus Monday January 9, 2012 6-8pm. With Eric Stanley, co-editor of Captive Genders, activist with Gay Shame SF, director of Homotopia and Criminal Queers,Toshio Meronek, activist with Gay Shame SF and Critical Resistance, Ralowe T. Ampu, contributor to Captive Genders, activist with Gay Shame, Gillian Harkins, professor of English at the UW, activist and educator with Transformative Education Behind Bars and Lincoln Rose, former private prison employee who does community work on trans prison issues. Event sponsored by The Q Center Here is the fb event page.
Reading in Olympia, WA, Olympia Timberland Library 313 8th Ave. SE, Olympia, WA Tuesday January 10, 2012 8:30-9:30pm With Eric Stanley, Ralowe T. Ampu and Toshio Meronek Here is the fb event page.
Reading at Red and Black Cafe, 400 SE 12th Ave, Portland, OR 97214 Wed. January 11, 2012 7-9pm Books will be available at the event. Here is the fb event page.
Also, check out Ryan Conrad’s review of Captive Genders in 2bmag here. We also hear that the new Against Equality book that Ryan edited is now available from AK Press.
We are finally back from tour, we had such an amazing time, thanks! We will be doing some more date in Washington and Oregon in January, then the LA area at some point after that so keep a look out. If you are interested in some configuration of us coming to where ever you might live and talking about the book email us and we can try to work it out. I will do a proper email about the tour sometime soon. However, here is a little video with me (Eric) and Angela Davis having a “conversation” about queer politics and abolition. Thanks to re:thinking queer for making it happen.
In other news, some great folks are having a book launch in Montreal on Thursday November 24, 2011 at 6:30 pm. Sadly neither Nat nor I will be there, but there will be lots of amazing people, check it out and let us know how it goes!
Prisoner Correspondence Project, Certain Days, Kersplebedeb Publishing & QPIRG Concordia invite you to the Montreal book launch of:
Captive Genders: trans embodiment and the prison industrial complex
…
Thursday November 24th, 6:30pm
QPIRG Concordia
1500 de Maisonneuve O. suite 204
metro Guy Concordia
Featuring:
- presentation by a trans guy incarcerated in Joliette (a Montreal area women’s prison) speaking about his experiences in a gender-segregated prison environment
- selected readings from the Captive Genders anthology just published by AK Press
- excerpts from the Prisoner Correspondence Project’s article Imprisoned Pride, featuring the voices of currently incarcerated queer prisoners, speaking to their experiences behind bars
- words from Amazon Contreraz, a jailhouse lawyer, trans activist and prisoner at Corcoran, California
The book will be available for sale at the launch at the discounted price of $15 (usual price is $23.05)
- Whisper translation available (English-French & French-English)
- Venue is wheelchair accessible
- Childcare available on site
- Snacks will be served
About the book:
Pathologized, terrorized, and confined, trans/gender non-conforming and queer folks have always struggled against the enormity of the prison industrial complex. The first collection of its kind, Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith bring together current and former prisoners, activists, and academics to offer new ways for understanding how race, gender, ability, and sexuality are lived under the crushing weight of captivity. Through a politic of gender self-determination, this collection argues that trans/queer liberation and prison abolition must be grown together. From rioting against police violence and critiquing hate crimes legislation to prisoners demanding access to HIV medications, and far beyond, Captive Genders is a challenge for us all to join the struggle.
Le Projet de Correspondance avec les Prisonniers, le collectif Certain Days, les publications Kersplebedeb et le GRIP à Concordia
vous invitent au lancement montréalais du livre :
Captive Genders: trans embodiment and the prison industrial complex
Jeudi 24 novembre, 18h30
GRIP à Concordia
1500 de Maisonneuve O. suite 204
métro Guy-Concordia
Avec:
- une présentation d’un gars trans incarcéré à Joliette (une prison pour femmes de la région de Montréal) qui parle de ses expériences dans un environnement d’isolement genré en prison
- une lecture d’extraits de l’anthologie Captive Genders, parue recémment par AK Press
- des extraits de l’article ‘Fierté Emprisonnée’ du Projet de Correspondance avec les Prisonnier.e.s, incluant les voix de prisonnier.e.s queer présentement incarcéré.e.s qui parlent de leurs expériences derrière les barreaux
- les mots d’Amazon Contreraz, une avocate en prison, activiste trans et prisonnière à Corcoran, Californie
Le livre sera disponible lors du lancement au prix réduit de 15$ (au lieu du prix régulier de 23,05$)
- Traduction chuchotée disponible (Anglais-Français et Français-Anglais)
- Lieu accessible aux chaises roulantes
- Garderie disponible sur place
- Des collations seront servies
Au sujet du livre:
Traités comme des malades, terrorise.e.s et confiné-es, les gens trans, au genre non-conforme et queer ont toujours lutté contre l’énormité du complexe prison-industriel. Dans cette première collection en son genre, Eric A. Stanley et Nat Smith réunissent ensemble des anciens prisonnier-es et des gens détenus, des activistes et des universitaires pour offrir de nouvelles façons de comprendre comment la race, le genre, l’habilité et la sexualité se vivent sous le poids écrasant de la captivité. À travers la politique de l’auto-détermination du genre, cette collection affirme que la liberation trans/queer et l’abolition des prisons doivent grandir ensemble. Des émeutes contre la brutalité policière aux critiques des lois contre les crimes haineux, aux revendications des prisonnier.e.s pour des médicaments contre le VIH, et bien plus, Captive Genders est un défi à nous joindre à la lutte.
We (Eric, Ralowe and Toshio) are about to leave on a whirlwind tour. If you are in the area come lets figure out how we are going to abolish prisons together. Also, if you cannot make it, tell your people?! We are excited to learn more about whats going down and how people are fighting and winning. Captive Genders will be available for sale at most events. All events are free, open to the public, and accessible. Also, many events will feature local contributors and organizers!
October 19, 2011 Wed 7-9pm. University of Richmond, in Richmond, VA Keller Hall Reception Room at U of R. FB event page is here.
October 21, 2011 Sat. 8-10pm Red Emma’s Cafe in Baltimore, MD 800 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD Book launch party with lots of amazing friends during the American Studies Association conference. FB event page is here.
Ocrober 25, 2011 Tues. 1-2:30 pm, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City 365 Fifth Ave room 5409 Sponsored by the Prison Studies Group and the Women of Color Network.
October 25, 2011 Tues. 7-9pm NYU, New York City NYU Kimmel Center, Rosenthal 10th Floor 60 Washington Square South with Reina Gossett, Kimma Walker, Nadia Guidotto, and Michelle Potts. Sponsored by Pride Month. FB event page is here.
October 26, 2011 Wed. 7-9pm Bluestockings Bookstore Café, New York City 172 Allen Street with Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Reina Gossett, Michelle Potts and Kimma Walker. Sponsored by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. FB event page is here.
October 27, 2011 Thur. 1-2:30pm Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Livingston Student Center, Room 201 AB with Regina Diamond. Sponsored by the Center for Social Justice and LGBT Communities. FB event page is here.
October 27, 2011 Thur. 7:30-8:30pm University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Angela Y. Davis and Eric A. Stanley in conversation (more info soon)
October 29, 2011 Sat. 2-3:30pm Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA Science Center 199 with Che Gossett. FB event page is here.
October 29, 2011 Sat. 7-9pm A-Space Community Center, Philadelphia, PA 4722 Baltimore Avenue with Che Gossett. FB event page is here.
October 31, 2011 Mon. 8-9:30pm Wesleyan College, Middleton, CT (more info soon)
November 1, 2011 Tue. 4-5:30 pm University of Maryland, College Park (more info soon)
