“How can I be unarmed when it is my blackness you fear," writes Carol Anderson in her latest work, The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). This episode was recorded as part of a live event in anticipation of the release of Carol Anderson’s latest Book The Second: hosted by …
“I pray for peace with the same mouth I hide the razor blade in”: Javon Johnson on his new poetry collection
In this episode, Lissa speaks with Javon Johnson, about his new poetry collection, Ain't Never Not Been Black (Button Poetry, 2020). Javon Johnson, Ph.D. is a poet, performer, professor and recipient of numerous awards. According to poet Rudy Francisco, Dr. Johnson is “is one of the most brilliant writers in the world”. This conversation was recorded …
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: Black Minnesota poets in response to the murder of George Floyd
One of the defining events of the past year, in Minnesota and around the world, was the murder of George Floyd and the international protests demanding justice. Though Mr. Floyd's murder was shocking, for many people it fit a pattern of racism and violence inflicted upon Black people and BIPOC communities in this country. In …
DeRay Mckesson on ‘trying to tell a story about a world that we haven’t seen but that we know is possible’
On this episode, Lissa sits down with DeRay Mckesson – civil rights activist, community organizer, and now author of the book On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope. In 2014 he left his job with the Minneapolis Public Schools to join and document the protests in Ferguson Missouri, and has since …
“With each poem I had to say: how is this going to be different than the story they’re running from?” – poet Patricia Smith on her award-winning collection, ‘Incendiary Art’
"We have to figure out, not only some way to write the story, but how to draw people to the story and keep them in it," says poet and spoken word artist Patricia Smith of the work of poets in the fourth season premier of Black Market Reads - her most recent poetry collection, Incendiary …
Race and Policing with Duchess Harris, JD, PhD
*Originally released August 2017 Author and Historian Duchess Harris returns to Black Market Reads, this time to speak with host Lissa Jones about her newest book Race and Policing, as well as a newly announced multi-book Duchess Harris Collection from Abdo Publishing. Duchess and Lissa discuss the complex history of race, policing, and force in america. …
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