Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence

KILLING TRAYVONS:
An Anthology of American Violence
Ibrahim Diallo, Kevin Alexander Gray and JoAnn Wypijewski
Tuesday, November 17
7 pm

Join two of the editors and a contributing author of Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence, published by CounterPunch.

The endemic violence in America against black and brown bodies can no longer be hidden. Highly accessible digital technologies, such as mobile phones and police body or dashboard cameras, allow us to witness not only routine beatings, but also outright killings, and share these images with millions of others around the world. Beatings and murders, like those of Rodney King and Trayvon Martin, are harder to hide. Nonetheless, nearly every week, we learn of a woman dying after being jailed for a routine traffic violation, or a teen murdered in a park. To make the onslaught of this violence worse, the perpetrators are getting away with it, despite evidence of attempted and actual murder. No longer does the American system of justice seem rigged╤it plainly is. Our collective grief has led to outrage and despair, but also to the beginnings of a broad movement, challenging the state-supported violence. Join us for an evening with two editors and a contributing author to the newly-published anthology Killing Trayvons, for an evening exploring the genesis and evolution of this emerging movement. How can we effectively curtail racism in the hands of the state throughout the whole chain of law enforcement? How can we address the systemic racism aimed at the American working classes with an eye toward building a broad anti-capitalist movement?

IBRAHIM DIALLO is a native of Guinea, West Africa. He moved to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 12. Ibrahim is a graduate of Trinity College where he studied Political Science and Human Rights. He is a contributing author to Killing Travons: An Anthology of American Violence.

KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY is a civil rights organizer in South Carolina and a co-editor of Killing Trayvons. He is also the author of Waiting for Lightning to Strike! The Fundamentals of Black Politics (CounterPunch/AK Press) and a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion. He can be reached at kagamba@bellsouth.net.

JOANN WYPIJEWSKI is a writer and editor based in New York. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines, including The Nation and CounterPunch, where she writes a monthly column, “Diamonds and Rust.” She is a co-editor with Kevin and Jeffrey St.Clair of Killing Trayvons. JoAnn is currently working on a book called Valiant, about progress and survival in a time of crack-up, and this fall is the BelleZeller Visiting Professor in political science at Brooklyn College.