Teen Vogue asked Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, adrienne maree brown, Kelly Hayes, Dean Spade, and more about how to keep going under the strain of a second Trump administration.
Interview with Teen Vogue
Upcoming Speaking Events Calendar and Access Info—Wear a Mask!
SCROLL DOWN FOR DATES AND ACCESS INFO
My new book is coming out and I am doing a bunch of conversations about it. I will keep updating this list as they get confirmed, but for now, mark your calendar, and use the links below to get tickets when relevant (I’ll update the links with specific event links as my hosts make them ready).
I’m asking that everyone wear KN95 or N95 masks to in-person events and please test before you come, in hopes of making these events more accessible to more people. Masks will be provided at events, and people will be asked to wear them unless an access need prevents it. If you have other access questions or requests about these events, please contact the people hosting the events, since they know more about their venues than I do.
February 20, Libreria Antigone, Rome, IT
ACCESS INFO
Most of the events above are spaces I cannot visit beforehand and have never been to, so I’m trying to think about how to maximize transparency about access, and also support COVID safety to the best of my ability. There is no doubt that these events will be imperfectly accessible, and I am making efforts to increase access where I can. I am grateful to friends at various Mask Blocs and Clean Air Clubs, especially Mask Bloc Seattle and Seattle Clean Air Collecitve, as well as to Emi at Long COVID Justice, for advice in developing this approach.
I hope my approach will build awareness around COVID safety and other access needs, and provide transparency for people considering attending about what to expect. Here’s what I’m doing:
- I am telling people to mask at my events even if the venue does not require masks, and I will ensure masks are provided. If you want help get masks and clean air devices to the space, please contact the venues! That’s a huge help.
- I am telling people to test before coming.
- I am asking all venues that will be hosting me to fill out a survey, the results of which you can view HERE to see more detailed access information about the venue and event and how to contact the venue with access questions.
- I have purchased a UVPro device from Bioabundances which I intend to bring to events to help clean the air. Many thanks to Bioabundance for collaborating with Clean Air Clubs and for giving me a discount on this device to support this book tour.
Please contact the venues for follow up questions–they know more than me about what is possible in their space. I hope these efforts increase the chance of people connecting to these events, and I look forward to being with you all online or in person!
P. S. It may take some venues a little time to fill the survey out. Many are volunteer-run spaces.
Recent Past Events
2025:
January 17, Elliott Bay Books, Seattle, in conversation with Angela Garbes
January 19, Powell’s Books, Portland, OR, with Demian DinéYazhi
January 24, Creating Change Conference, Las Vegas, NV, in conversation with Jaime Grant
January 29, Possible Futures Bookstore, New Haven, CT, with Luciana McClure-Lewis
January 30, Yale Law School, New Haven, CT
January 31, Making Worlds Bookstore, Philadelphia, PA
February 2, Word Is Change Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY, with Morgan Bassichis
February 3, Bluestockings Bookstore, NY, in conversation with Mariame Kaba
February 4, Brooklyn Heights Branch, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, NY, with J. Wortham
February 12, Online, hosted by Seattle University School of Law
February 14, Fireweed Collective, Online
February 26, Online, Barnard Center for Research on Women
February 28, California Institute for Integral Studies, San Francisco, CA
March 2, In person at Restore Oakland, or register here if you want to attend online, organized by Ella Baker Center
March 2, Hosted by Queer Crescent at Merritt House, Oakland
March 3, University of California, Berkeley (this event is both in-person and online)
March 5, Brooklyn Rail, Online
March 7, Stories Books & Cafe, Los Angeles
March 12, Online, hosted by University of Maine
March 15, Community Book Center, New Orleans
March 16, John Thompson Legacy Center, New Orleans
March 30, Hosted by Simon Fraser University and UBC, Vancouver, B.C.
March 31, Online, hosted by Firestorm Books, in conversation with Kai Cheng Thom
April 3, Downtown Public Library, hosted by A Room of One’s Own Bookstore, Madison
April 4, University of Wisconsin, Madison
April 5, Cactus Club, Milwaukee (this event will also be livestreamed)
May 1, Cleveland Park Library, hosted by Loyalty Books, Washington, D.C., with Jaime Grant, author of Polyamory for Dummies
May 3, Red Emmas, Baltimore, MD
May 7, Chicago, IL, co-sponsored by Haymarket Books, Pilsen Community Books, and In These Times.
May 21, Powell’s Books, Portland, OR in conversation with Garrett Felber about his book A Continuous Struggle
May 22, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
May 23, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
May 23, Heart Of The Valley Anti-Capitalist Bookfair @ The Book Bin, Corvallis, OR
September 21, Love in a F*cked Up World Reading Groups Meet Up, Online (fundraiser for the podcast)
October 1, The Great Hall w/ Lighthouse Bookshop, Edinburgh UK, in conversation with Nat Raha and Wu Tsang
October 2, Kinning Park Complex w/ Arika, Glasgow UK (mutual aid workshop)
October 2, Listen Gallery, Glasgow UK, in conversation with Hannah Proctor and Winnie Herbstein to launch their book Slamming Doors: Falling out and fighting back in a housing crisis
October 3, Blackwell’s, Manchester UK, in conversation with Wu Tsang
October 6, UCL, London UK
October 9, Old School Rooms w/ Pages of Hackney, London UK, in conversation with Nim Ralph
October 10, Birkbeck, London UK
October 15, Interrupting Criminalization, Online
October 17, Casino for Social Medicine, Berlin Germany
October 18, Casino for Social Medicine, Berlin Germany, How to Break an Addiction in conversation with Annie Spencer
October 20, XAOS Queer Care Club Vienna, Vienna Austria, in conversation with Cindy Milstein
October 25, #NoWar2025: Exploring Abolition Movements, Online
October 26, Lovelite, Berlin Germany, with the Berlin Internationals Polyamory Group
November 8, Workshops for Gaza, Online
November 19, Videogram, Online
November 20, Mutual Aid 101: Navigating Conflict w/ Shareable, Online
November 21, Queer/ing Mutual Aid Athens and the Athens Museum of Queer Arts, Athens GR
November 22, Disability Unbound: Mutual Aid for Survival and Resistance, Online
November 23, Texas UU Justice Ministry, Online
December 7, Institute for the Development of Human Arts End of Year Fundraiser, Online
2026:
January 11, The PDX Bad Girls Club, Online
February 8, Herban Cura, Online
New Book! Out January, Pre-Order Now
My new book will be out January 14, 2025!
Around the globe, people are faced with spiraling crises, from the pandemic and climate change-induced disasters to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, genocide, racist policing, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. More and more of us feel mobilized to fight back, often dedicating our lives to collective liberation. But even those of us who long for change seem to have trouble when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Too often we think of our political values as outward-facing positions again dominant systems of power. Many projects and resistance groups fall apart because people treat each other poorly, trying desperately to live out the cultural myths about dating and relationships that we are fed from an early age. How do we divest from cultural programming that gives us harmful expectations about sex, dating, romance and friendship? How do we recover from the messed up dynamics we were trained in by childhood caregivers? How do we bring our best thinking about freedom into step with our desires for healing and connection? Love in a F*cked-Up World is a resounding call to action and a practical manifesto for how to combat cultural scripts and take our relationships into our own hands, so we can stick together while we work for survival and liberation. Pre-order through Bluestockings and get 15% off with the code F*CKED<3.
Click here to watch the webinars I did with Fireweed Collective over the last four Valentine’s Days about dismantling the romance myth, which capture some of the themes of the book.
New Essay about Criminalization of Mutual Aid and #StopCopCity
It was a pleasure to work with the Atlanta Press Collective on this piece about the history and contemporary realities of the criminalization of mutual aid, in light of the indictment of 61 forest defenders working to stop the construction of a new police training facility in Atlanta.
New Interview about Abolition and Infrastructure in Radical History Review
Freshly published: Rachel Herzing, Bench Ansfield and I had a conversation about abolitionist questions of infrastructure, focusing on what transformative justice means, how abolitionists debate questions of state formation, and much more.
New Interview Out in Jindal Global Law Review
I am grateful to Oishik Sircar for asking me perhaps the most interesting questions I have ever been asked during this recent conversation. We talked about teaching, mutual aid, the role of legal work in social movements, and so much more. Check it out here. PDF here.
New Debate/Conversation with Aaron Belkin about Trans Military Inclusion Advocacy
Aaron Belkin and I just published this debate/conversation about our opposing views on trans military inclusion advocacy. I hope it will be a useful tool for classrooms and reading groups, and people wanting to understand this debate.
New Interview with Them about Why I Oppose Trans Military Inclusion Advocacy
Just five days after being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden signed an executive order overturning former President Trump’s ban on openly transgender Americans serving in the military. “All Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve,” it read, going on to argue that an “inclusive military strengthens our national security.”
Biden’s executive order, one of a flurry he signed during his administration’s first week, marked the fulfillment of one of his foremost policy proposals regarding the advancement of LGBTQ+ equality in America. More specifically, the order counteracted a 2017 directive by the Trump administration banning openly trans folks from the armed services — itself a reversal of the Obama administration’s 2016 order that paved the way for trans Americans to serve in the military without hiding their gender identity.
Continue reading “New Interview with Them about Why I Oppose Trans Military Inclusion Advocacy”Mutual aid will help us survive the Biden presidency
Roar Magazine just published this adapted excerpt from my new book.
The only thing that keeps those in power in that position is the illusion of our powerlessness. A moment of freedom and connection can undo a lifetime of social conditioning and scatter seeds in a thousand directions.
Many people are feeling great relief that Trump has been voted out and are rightly celebrating the efforts so many people have undertaken to make that happen. But even as we celebrate, we must ensure we do not demobilize, hoping that the new administration will take care of our problems. Unfortunately, we can be certain that the Biden/Harris administration will not address the crises and disasters of climate change, worsening wealth concentration and poverty, a deadly for-profit health care system and racist law enforcement.
Continue reading “Mutual aid will help us survive the Biden presidency”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.
