Freedom Dreams

The Black Radical Imagination

Foreword by Aja Monet
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$19.95 US
On sale Aug 23, 2022 | 336 Pages | 9780807007037

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The 20th-anniversary edition of Kelley’s influential history of 20th-century Black radicalism, with new reflections on current movements and their impact on the author, and a foreword by poet Aja Monet

First published in 2002, Freedom Dreams is a staple in the study of the Black radical tradition. Unearthing the thrilling history of grassroots movements and renegade intellectuals and artists, Kelley recovers the dreams of the future worlds Black radicals struggled to achieve.

Focusing on the insights of activists, from the Revolutionary Action Movement to the insurgent poetics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, Kelley chronicles the quest for a homeland, the hope that communism offered, the politics of surrealism, the transformative potential of Black feminism, and the long dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.

In this edition, Kelley includes a new introduction reflecting on how movements of the past 20 years have expanded his own vision of freedom to include mutual care, disability justice, abolition, and decolonization, and a new epilogue exploring the visionary organizing of today’s freedom dreamers.

This classic history of the power of the Black radical imagination is as timely as when it was first published.
Foreword by Aja Monet

Introduction: Freedom Dreams: From Noun to Verb, Fall 2021

Preface

“When History Sleeps”: A Beginning

1. Dreams of the New Land

2. “The Negro Question”: Red Dreams of Black Liberation

3. “Roaring from the East”: Third World Dreaming

4. “A Day of Reckoning”: Dreams of Reparations

5. “This Battlefield Called Life”: Black Feminist Dreams

6. Keeping It (Sur)real: Dreams of the Marvelous

“When History Wakes”: A New Beginning, Fall 2021

Sources

Acknowledgments

Index
Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of seven books, including Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original and Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America. View titles by Robin D.G. Kelley

About

The 20th-anniversary edition of Kelley’s influential history of 20th-century Black radicalism, with new reflections on current movements and their impact on the author, and a foreword by poet Aja Monet

First published in 2002, Freedom Dreams is a staple in the study of the Black radical tradition. Unearthing the thrilling history of grassroots movements and renegade intellectuals and artists, Kelley recovers the dreams of the future worlds Black radicals struggled to achieve.

Focusing on the insights of activists, from the Revolutionary Action Movement to the insurgent poetics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, Kelley chronicles the quest for a homeland, the hope that communism offered, the politics of surrealism, the transformative potential of Black feminism, and the long dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.

In this edition, Kelley includes a new introduction reflecting on how movements of the past 20 years have expanded his own vision of freedom to include mutual care, disability justice, abolition, and decolonization, and a new epilogue exploring the visionary organizing of today’s freedom dreamers.

This classic history of the power of the Black radical imagination is as timely as when it was first published.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Aja Monet

Introduction: Freedom Dreams: From Noun to Verb, Fall 2021

Preface

“When History Sleeps”: A Beginning

1. Dreams of the New Land

2. “The Negro Question”: Red Dreams of Black Liberation

3. “Roaring from the East”: Third World Dreaming

4. “A Day of Reckoning”: Dreams of Reparations

5. “This Battlefield Called Life”: Black Feminist Dreams

6. Keeping It (Sur)real: Dreams of the Marvelous

“When History Wakes”: A New Beginning, Fall 2021

Sources

Acknowledgments

Index

Author

Robin D. G. Kelley is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is the author of seven books, including Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original and Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America. View titles by Robin D.G. Kelley

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