NEW EPISODE IN YOUR FEED! ��Being Dope, Staying Unruly: Why we need Hip Hop to Understand Power, Build Power and Fight the Power
Before he was a scholar, journalist, and podcast host, Chenjerai was a rapper. And this week’s show is all about how hip-hop is connected to our larger political struggles.
First, Chenjerai interviews his friend, the scholar, rapper, and UVA professor A.D. Carson. He’s the author of Being Dope: Hip Hop and Theory through Mixtape Memoir. In their conversation, they talk about what it means to take rap seriously on its own terms and why it’s worthy of scholarly analysis, and how A.D’s work applies to the Afroman case.
Second, Chenjerai talks with RodStarz, ½ of the political rap duo Rebel Diaz. They discuss the group’s history, their political education, the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, and how they understood hip hop not just as music, but as actual infrastructure.
Intro 175-B is not about safety. It expands police power, threatens free expression, and chills protest in educational spaces.
As a professor and member of National AAUP, NYU-AAUP, and as New Yorker and father I joined students, education workers, and community members and some local politicians in urging Mayor Zohran Mamdani to veto this bill. Education and democracy depend on the right to dissent.
Veto Intro 175-B.
“A lot of this book is about solidarity at its core, the beauty of solidarity, but also the fragility and the failures of solidarity and how often it shatters, but also at the same time how it’s the only thing that can save us and stop us from this cycle of barbarism,” says the artist and writer @mollycrabapple about her new book “Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund.”
It’s a deeply personal book, partially inspired by Crapapple’s great-grandfather, the Post-Impressionist artist Samuel Rothbort, and a sweeping history about how the simultaneous rise of political Zionism and the Jewish Labor Bund shaped the 20th century and beyond.
@chenjerai , a member of Hammer & Hope’s editorial team, sat down with Crabapple to discuss the book and its lessons for organizing against Zionism and for the left more broadly today.
Visit hammerandhope.org or tap the link in our bio to watch the full conversation.
A belated thank you to everyone who pulled up to our Issue No. 10 launch party in Oakland last month. We loved kicking it with y’all @oaklandbloom . Huge thanks to the @thedebtcollective pulling up. Shout out to @jenparker393 , @chenjerai , @zsigmondstudio , @dani_mcclain and other folks in our Hammer & Hope family for being there.
As we face increased attacks on the left, Hammer & Hope is committed to creating the community we need right now. Become a member today to secure a spot at the next function.
See yourself or a friend in the photos? Leave us a comment so we can tag you. ✊🏿
📸 @sbmaneyphoto
UNRULIES!
We have a new edition of our occasional segment NEWS FIEND up on our Patreon now, our occasional segment where @chenjerai Chenjerai offers his commentary and reflections on some of the week’s headlines. This edition of News Fiend is an accompaniment to our episode Beyond Dope, Staying Unruly: Why We Need Hip-Hop to Understand Power, to Build Power, and to Fight the Power.
In this episode, Chenjerai looks at headlines about: voting rights and redistricting; police and ICE activity in NYC; home care workers on hunger strike to end 24 hour shifts; on-going conflicts in Gaza and Sudan; and the crisis at the Mali-Mauritania border.
It’s available for all Unruly Patreon members, paid and free. Join us!
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#unrulysubjects #chenjeraikumanyika #newsfiend #abolishice #gaza
From Coast to Coast: Narrative Power in Action!
Join Pillars of the Community at The People’s Forum for an exclusive NYC screening of California Story — a powerful documentary exposing gang documentation and surveillance laws targeting communities of color across California and the U.S.
With support from Pillars Fund, this urgent film travels from San Diego to New York, amplifying stories that challenge injustice and demand change.
🎬 Featuring voices like Dr. Shirley Weber, Dr. Cornel West, Rep. Sydney Kamlager, and Greg Moran, the film reveals how discriminatory policies have harmed communities and eroded trust — while highlighting storytelling as a tool for resistance and policy change.
🎤 Opening remarks by Director David Kuhn, followed by a panel with Linda Sarsour, Khalid Alexander, Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, Dr. Elizabeth Hinton, and Tim Kornegay, connecting the film to NYC’s own history of surveillance and over-policing.
🔗 RSVP: bit.ly/may21nyc
NEW EPISODE IN YOUR FEED!!
Here at Unruly Subjects you know we’re celebrating May Day ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
So this week, we’re featuring two interviews that help us think through this critical question: What does it take to build the kind of power that can actually meet this political moment?
Got a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Take the Unruly Subjects Audience Survey.
In This Episode:
First, Chenjerai interviews three major labor leaders: Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a national vice president of American Federation of Teachers (AFT); Jessica Tang, president of AFT Massachusetts and former president of the Boston Teachers Union; and Carl Rosen, who recently retired as general president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). Todd, Jessica, and Carl talk about May Day as more than symbolism. They talk about it as part of building the infrastructure we may need later: labor, civil society, public institutions, community organizations, immigrant rights groups, education workers, and ordinary people finding ways to move together before a crisis hits.
Second, Our Unruly homie - the scholar and poet Demetrius Noble - talks with Carla Harris, a public school teacher and organizer in Guilford County, North Carolina. They discuss the everyday realities of working in public education and also about organizing in practical terms: how you talk to a coworker who is tired, scared, skeptical, or has never been asked to act before.
Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod .
Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: /@UnrulySubjects
NEW EPISODE IN YOUR FEED!!
Here at Unruly Subjects you know we’re celebrating May Day ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
So this week, we’re featuring two interviews that help us think through this critical question: What does it take to build the kind of power that can actually meet this political moment?
Got a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself?
Take the Unruly Subjects Audience Survey.
In This Episode:
First, Chenjerai interviews three major labor leaders: Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a national vice president of American Federation of Teachers (AFT); Jessica Tang, president of AFT Massachusetts and former president of the Boston Teachers Union; and Carl Rosen, who recently retired as general president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). Todd, Jessica, and Carl talk about May Day as more than symbolism. They talk about it as part of building the infrastructure we may need later: labor, civil society, public institutions, community organizations, immigrant rights groups, education workers, and ordinary people finding ways to move together before a crisis hits.
Second, Our Unruly homie - the scholar and poet Demetrius Noble - talks with Carla Harris, a public school teacher and organizer in Guilford County, North Carolina. They discuss the everyday realities of working in public education and also about organizing in practical terms: how you talk to a coworker who is tired, scared, skeptical, or has never been asked to act before.
Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod .
Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: /@UnrulySubjects
To address abuses of police power, among both local and federal agencies, we need to understand the history. @chenjerai , host of Crooked Media's "Empire City," will put today's headlines in context this Tuesday night. Join him and his guests, Matt Katz and Elizabeth Hinton for a Q&A.
