[Thought Soup] Tip of the Spear, chapter 4
Hey there. We're reading Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt by Orisanmi Burton. If you're just joining us, you might consider picking up Theory of Water ASAP, as we'll be finishing Tip of the Spear in a few weeks.
news
By the time you're reading it, you may know more, but I'm just hearing that Leqaa Kordia (the last of the student protestors, who had been in prison for over a year) has finally been released from an ICE detention facility in Texas. I may share more info in the signal chat, but since there's good news to share, I figure we should take the opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate the victory.
what I'm reading
This week I'm going to read Tip of the Spear chapter 4, "Gender War".
I'm also going to listen to "Anti-War w/ Ben Mabie & Salar Mohandesi" from The Dig.
(If you listen to a podcast, watch a video, or read an article you think might be good to check out, please send it my way. I've got some articles now, but I'm very keen for more.)
buy the book, support The Sameer Project
If you haven't bought it yet, please consider placing your order here at Open Books: A Poem Emporium. W4G-tagged books on the Open Poetry bookstore send proceeds to The Sameer Project, one of the only organizations still on the ground in Gaza, and struggling to continue to meet the needs of Palestinians.
If you can't buy from the bookstore, please consider making a donation directly to one of the Sameer Project's campaigns, or consider sharing a fundraiser with friends. If you can't do any of that, consider sharing the reading group with some friends; if some of them can buy the book from Open Books, or even make direct donations to The Sameer Project, then that would help enormously.
info on the format
Just as a reminder: on Monday, I'll email with what we're reading this week from the book, and also point to some other thing you can read (or listen to, or watch) to go along with it. I'll try to make sure the readings are either relevant to that week's readings from the book, or maybe just relevant to our current circumstances in the world.
On Saturday, I'll send an email at about 11AM ET. It'll mostly serve as a reminder that we're going to meet if you'd like to join us, but I'll also include an icebreaker question to potentially get the conversation going when you arrive.
schedule
Here's my reading plan for the next few weeks.
| Reading | Week of... |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Feb 16 |
| Ch 1: "Sharpening the Spear" | Feb 23 |
| Ch 2: "Black Solidarity Under Siege" | Mar 2 |
| Ch 3: "Attica Is" | Mar 9 |
| Ch 4: "Gender War" | Mar 16 |
| Ch 5: "Hidden War" | Mar 23 |
| Ch 6: "The War on Black Revolutionary Minds" | Mar 30 |
| ... | |
| Theory of Water | Apr 6 |
That's all for now; stay safe this week, and we'll talk Saturday.
