NEW BOOK ABOUT MUMIA ABU-JAMAL LAUNCHES MONDAY, JUNE 27th, @ 8 A.M. ON BLACK POWER MEDIA’S iMiXWHATiLIKE! PODCAST
Contributors to The Trials Of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Biography In 25 Voices, A New Release From Diasporic Africa Press, Discuss The “40 Cities For Mumia” Campaign On July 4th And The Current State of the MAJ Movement
June 21, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For Further Info, Contact:
Todd Steven Burroughs, Ph.D.
Jared A Ball, Ph.D.
iMiXWHATiLIKE! with Dr. Jared Ball, a flagship podcast of the Black Power Media platform, will be hosting the contributors to a new book about imprisoned author and historian Mumia Abu-Jamal on Monday, June 27, at 8 a.m. EST.
The program comes as the Black Power Media collective, which has consistently given a public forum to political prisoners such as Abu-Jamal in its less than two years of existence, has continued to thrive as a powerful and radical Black alternative to mainstream media, established Black media, and white Left alternative media. It also marks the 40th anniversary of Abu-Jamal’s first-degree murder conviction of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
Scheduled guests for the hour include three longtime activists in the movement to free Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners:
- YahNe Ndgo, artist/writer/activist, a leader in the #LoveNotPhear Movement;
- Dr. Michael Schiffmann, Abu-Jamal biographer/author, Race Against Death, a political biography of the imprisoned writer (an outgrowth of his doctoral dissertation); he is the one that discovered the now-famous Polalkoff photos that show serious discrepancies at the December 1981 crime scene where Abu-Jamal was shot and Faulkner died;
- Julia Wright, author, journalist and activist
Suggested Topics:
- “40 Cities for Mumia” campaign — events for Abu-Jamal in 40 cities across the country during the July 4th weekend to call attention to Abu-Jamal’s 40 and one-half years of imprisonment since his early-morning arrest on Dec. 9, 1981;
- The current state of the movement to free Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners;
- The Trials Of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Biography In 25 Voices, a new, collective biography (all three guests are contributors)
The YouTube link to the program is here: https://youtu.be/RXWsI-rnHAY .
The Trials Of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Biography In 25 Voices chronicles Abu-Jamal’s life and struggle to survive COVID. It features those who combined their voices on YouTube and Zoom, led by Movement legend Dr. Angela Davis and professor Dr. Johanna Fernandez, both award-winning historians who have been leading spokespeople in the fight to get Abu-Jamal, currently serving a life sentence, either a new trial or compassionate release. The book is published by Diasporic Africa Press.
Abu-Jamal, 68, is a former member of the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party who became an award-winning National Public Radio journalist in the 1970s. In prison, he has written more than 10 books of history and commentary while under constant surveillance and violation of his human rights.
The anthology — edited by Todd Steven Burroughs, also a scheduled guest on the program — chronicles Abu-Jamal’s life up to that point and outlines in detail why the criminal justice system must re-examine his very controversial case. The contributors, many of whom have either known him or advocated for him for decades, talk about his writing career’s beginnings at the Black Panther newspaper, through his radio days, the trial, his lawyers and those who assisted him in becoming the first Black radical blogger and/or cyberspace’s first political prisoner. As the book progresses, Abu-Jamal is discussed as a major writer and scholar. A smattering of pages from Abu-Jamal’s FBI file and graphics and photos directly from Movement veterans round out this strong, scrapbook-like profile.
Proceeds of the book will go to the Jericho Movement, a coalition of activists who fight for the freedom of Black Panthers and other radicals from prison, and movement organizations that support Abu-Jamal.
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ABOUT JARED A. BALL, THE HOST OF iMiXWHATiLIKE!:
Jared A. Ball, Ph.D. is first a husband and father. After that, he is a Professor of Communication and Africana Studies at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md. and author of The Myth and Propaganda of Black Buying Power (Palgrave, 2020; new, updated edition coming in 2023). He is also host of the podcast iMiXWHATiLiKE! and the co-founder of Black Power Media, which can be found at BlackPowerMedia.org. His decades of journalism, media, writing, and political work can be found at imixwhatilike.org.
ABOUT THE BOOK’S EDITOR:
Todd Steven Burroughs, Ph.D. is a journalist, historian and popular culture geek. He is the author of Warrior Princess: A People’s Biography of Ida B. Wells and Marvel’s Black Panther, A Comic Book Biography, From Stan Lee to Ta-Nehisi Coates, both published by Diasporic Africa Press. In 2020 he finished a full draft of Talking Drums and Raised Fists: Mumia Abu-Jamal, A Biography Of A Voice and now has to update that book.
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER:
Diasporic Africa Press is an independent, nonprofit, global publisher of serious nonfiction books about the African world. Founded in 2010, DAP is a champion of serious books about the African world, specializing in histories, cultures, literature and language. Targeting adults and young readers, our books are grounded in scholarship, written for accessibility, and designed to support discussion, teaching, and research. DAP’s director and editor-in-chief, Dr. Kwasi Konadu, is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Endowed Chair and Professor at Colgate University, where he teaches courses in African history and on worldwide African histories and cultures.
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