Black freedom struggle in urban Appalachia / edited by J. Z. Bennett [and four others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bennett, J. Z., editor.

Series:

Appalachian futures

Appalachian Futures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African Americans--Civil rights.

African Americans.

Appalachian Region, Southern--African Americans. Education.

Appalachian Region, Southern.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 pages).

Other Title:

Path to Open

Place of Publication:

Lexington, Kentucky : The University Press of Kentucky, [2025]

Summary:

"he largest urban center in Appalachia, Pittsburgh has long been a hub of Black freedom work. It has also been an enduring center of carcerality in the United States. Local experiences reflect a strong tradition of resisting systemic antiblackness, state and corporate divestment, repression, and broader carceral forces and highlight Pittsburgh's record of labor radicalism, environmental activism, and community educational efforts. Black Freedom Struggle in Urban Appalachia explores the interplay of creative self-determination, intellectual insurgency, and political education in Pittsburgh. This collection gathers dynamic artists, thinkers, and organizers, all contributing unique perspectives through essays, poems, scholarly chapters, interviews, and imagery. Positioning Pittsburgh as a pivotal space within the region while proposing an anti-carceral framework for understanding education, the anthology examines how people live the struggle for freedom and broadens discussions about the prison-industrial complex, labor, and place in Appalachia-sparking questions motivated by a shared commitment to liberation."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

Preface

Introduction: A Poetics of Black Appalachia

Part 1. "returning to sacred places"

Chapter 1. On the Horizon

Chapter 2. Wawawpewnowat

Chapter 3. Grounded Justice: Unearthing the Birthright of Liberated, Collective Black Environmental Justice Futures in Pittsburgh and Beyond

Chapter 4. Liberation Is Yet to Come: An Interview

Part 2. "sometimes falling rain / carries memories of betrayal"

Chapter 5. The Burgh

Chapter 6. The Effects of a Black Child's Education

Chapter 7. Emerge

Chapter 8. We're Going to Figure It Out: Reflections from an Interview

Chapter 9. Excerpts from Slow Walking in Circles: The Struggle to Improve African American Student Achievement in the Pittsburgh Public Schools-A Report of the Equity Advisory Panel (EAP), October 2020

Chapter 10. Caste, Carcerality, and Educational Inequity: A Call to Restore Liberating Educational Opportunities for Black Pittsburgh

Part 3. "renegades roam here"

Chapter 11. The System

Chapter 12. Bridging Perspectives: Criminology, Education, and Lived Experiences with Children from Pittsburgh Sentenced to Death by Incarceration

Chapter 13. A Lost Soul in Someone's Body

Chapter 14. Black Caregivers' Educational Strategies to Avoid and Disrupt Potential Pathways toward Criminal (In)justice

Chapter 15. Notes from Upstream: Salmon Girl

Chapter 16. All Writing Is Political: An Interview

Chapter 17. Resisting School Violence: Hip-Hop as Pedagogy for Black Freedom Struggle

Chapter 18. In the Space That Is Not Yet: A Dialogue

Part 4. "fierce grief shadows me"

Chapter 19. They Always Come (A Note to My Son): For Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and Those Suffering in COVID-19 and the Past, Present, and Future.

Chapter 20. A Requiem for Antwon Rose II: Defending the Dead in the Afterlife of Slavery

Chapter 21. What They Say What They Said 2

Chapter 22. Prison Took My Daddy

Chapter 23. Boy

Part 5. "listen little sister / angels make their hope here"

Chapter 24. The Flying African

Chapter 25. What a Free Future Looks like to Me: A Prose Poem

Chapter 26. Our People That Came before Did an Awful Lot to Be Free: An Interview

Chapter 27. Let's Go Find Out

Chapter 28. Discipline, Punishment, and Black Childhood: How Carceral Education Shapes Time for Black Youth

Chapter 29. Budding Off a New Kind of Tree: An Interview

Chapter 30. The Journey to Freedom: A Conversation on Freedom Struggle

Chapter 31. Happiness andamp

Freedom

Acknowledgments

List of Contributors

Appalachian Futures.

Notes:

Title from online title page (viewed on May 19, 2025).

ISBN:

9781985901902

1985901900

OCLC:

1484385742

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.