Category: Media

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Crosscut Feature about Mutual Aid

Seattle author says ‘mutual aid’ will be crucial in 2021 and beyond

In a new book, Seattle University’s Dean Spade highlights how the organizing and survival tactic could be vital for future disasters.

by Margo Vansynghel

January 7, 2021

Seattle Community Fridge is a mutual aid group that sprang up during the pandemic. From left, volunteers Beija Flor, Jordan Saibic and Marine Au Yeung install a community refrigerator offering free food in Seattle’s South Park neighborhood, Aug. 20, 2020. (Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut)

Rewinding the film of 2020, it can seem like a lifetime of events transpired in a 365-day span. A pandemic. An economic crisis. Some of the largest protests the U.S. has ever seen. A historic election. Many people are lonelier, hungrier and poorer than ever. But despite the social distance and devastation — and because of it — people also came together. 

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New Interview about Mutual Aid with In These Times

Clara Liang recently interviewed me for In These Times.

ILLUSTRATION BY GALINE TUMASYAN

Amid the cat­a­stro­phe of the pan­dem­ic, cli­mate emer­gency and racist state vio­lence, mutu­al aid has explod­ed. Ordi­nary peo­ple around the globe, from Seat­tle to Nige­ria, are find­ing ways to sup­port each oth­er when the gov­ern­ment won’t.Mutual aid isn’t just that we help each other. We help each other based on a shared recognition that the systems aren’t delivering and are actually making things worse. We’re simultaneously building a movement to address the root causes of the crisis we’re in.

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Conversation on Transformative Justice and Mutual Aid and Two Recent Interviews

Last week, Mariame Kaba and Ejeris Dixon joined me in a conversation about mutual aid, transformative justice and abolition. It was one of the best public conversations I have ever been part of and I highly recommend watching the recording!

In advance of that event, Barnard College interviewed me about mutual aid.

I also recently spoke to KUOW’s Bill Radke on The Record. You can listen here.

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Book Launch Event, Death Panel Podcast, and 5 Books that Inspire My Thinking on Mutual Aid

Last week I launched my new book, Mutual Aid, in conversation with Whitney Hu, hosted by Community Bookstore. You can watch the event video if you missed it.

Verso also recently gave me the opportunity to write a short descriptive list of five books that have influenced my thinking about mutual aid. You can read the essay, which focuses on the work of the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords, No One Is Illegal, and INCITE! and includes writing by Peter Gelderloos, Alondra Nelson, Harsha Walia, and others.

I encourage you to listen to all the episodes of the Death Panel podcast, including my recent conversation with them about mutual aid, COVID, poor relief histories, law, and more.

Finally, I wanted to note that my new book is part of a four-book series from Verso about COVID and care. Collect all four!

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Collaboration with Colin Kaepernick on Abolition

In case you missed it, Colin Kaepernick recently invited a bunch of abolitionist activists to write essays for a collection that his publishing platform has released over the course of the last four weeks in collaboration with Medium. The essays are really really really good–the whole collection would be a great syllabus for a class or reading group. I was honored to be included.

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Podcast and Webinar on Mutual Aid

Here is a podcast interview I did with Anarchy on Air with host J. Kēhaulani Kauanui  in September, 2019, that I think I forgot to share here.

And check out this webinar from yesterday about mutual aid, which includes an info-packed, concise history of Black mutual aid from Dr. Shabazz. Not to be missed!