Josh Williams, Imam Al-Amin, & Black August: Commemorating and Connecting to Historical and Current Struggles of Black Political Prisoners

To honor the tradition of Black August, ARC-Southeast and the Black Socialist Formation will co-host letter writing + teach-in sessions as part of a Black August series. Every other week there will be in-person events in Atlanta and virtual events online, with PeoplesHub co-hosting the virtual offerings. 

As we continue to learn about Black August and participate, we find it critical to ground in the revolutionary, political legacy of Black August — our political prisoners — and to place emphasis on political prisoners as an entry point through which we can build education, cultural expression, and direct engagement with our incarcerated community members.

On August 15th we will have political education about and letter writing for Joshua Williams and Imam Al-Amin in relation to the larger legacy of political prisoners and repression.

Length, Dates and Times Offered

Friday, August 15

• 3:30-5:30pm PT
• 4:30-6:30pm MT
• 5:30-7:30pm CT
• 6:30-8:30pm ET

This circle will:

1. Deepen community understanding of Black August's origins, key figures and history associated, and its ties to present day abolitionist, socialist, and reproductive justice organizing. This is especially important for the Reproductive Justice field, who are very new to Black August, and need to understand the importance of not co-opting the practice. 
2. Facilitate direct political education and participation through weekly in-person and virtual gatherings, which will include letter writing, poetry, and community discussion.
3. Uplift and center incarcerated people through consistent letter writing and material support with each session. Connecting participants to current initiatives and organizations to free political prisoners, support incarcerated folks, and various ongoing campaigns that participants can provide material support to. 
4. Amplify national abolitionist frameworks and tools

This Circle is ideal for a wide range of audiences, from people who are not very familiar with prison work, to those who are already involved but want to deepen their understanding. 

• Reproductive justice audience

• Disability justice audience

• Prisoner support / Abolition audience

• Black liberation audience

• Socialism audience

To prepare for this Circle:

Facilitators will determine some brief reading excerpts from “The War Before” by Safiyah Bukhari to share with participants, to be discussed in breakout rooms in the final/culminating session. The book is available for free via PDF here.

Accessibility:

Access requests, including interpretation and captioners, can be made during registration or by emailing info@peopleshub.org.  Requests for interpreters and captioners that are made less than 48 hours before the event typically are more difficult to meet. We will try and notify you if we cannot secure requested access. 

Issues with Registration?

If you have questions about this offering or technical needs registering for this event, please contact registration support.

Cost:

Free! Though we appreciate donations from those who can afford to do so.

At PeoplesHub we are committed to communication access, radical hospitality, supporting facilitators, and making our offerings financially accessible. Donations allow us to continue offering programs like this one and pay speakers, tech support leads, interpreters, captioners, and other support staff a fair wage for their time and expertise. Like you, those who support our trainings work hard for change in their communities and have often developed the knowledge, skill and gifts that they are offering through many unpaid hours — let’s support them to be sustainable in their work and craft!