Book Talk: Liberation Stories

Liberation Stories Book Talk with Shanelle Matthews, Cathy J. Cohen, and Marzena Zukowska

Join co-editors Shanelle Matthews and Marzena Zukowska for a timely discussion of their new anthology, Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements, moderated by Professor Cathy J. Cohen.

Liberation Stories offers a series of case studies on the role of catalyzing narratives, communication strategy and tactics, and articulating shared visions of the future in movements for justice, written by activist communicators who are engaged in the work themselves.

This event is co-sponsored by the Radical Communicators Network and the Social Justice Initiative. Space is limited, kindly RSVP here.

Monday, July 7
6:00-8:00 PM
Chicago Justice Gallery
1344 S Halsted St.
The gallery is wheelchair accessible. For additional accessibility questions, please contact SjiChicago@uic.edu

Shanelle Matthews is the founder of Radical Communicators Network (RadComms), the former communications director for the Movement for Black Lives, and a former faculty member of Freedom Scholars at The New School. Today, she is a full-time Distinguished Lecturer at City College at the City University of New York in the Department of Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies. She lives in New York.

Marzena Zukowska is an organizer, communications strategist, and co-founder of the immigrant rights organization POMOC. For a decade, they have developed narrative and organizing strategies for leading social and political movements in the US, UK, and Europe. They are the former media director for National Domestic Workers Alliance and former leadership team member of the Radical Communicators Network. They live in Liverpool, England.

Cathy J. Cohen is the chair of the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity and the D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. She formerly served in numerous administrative positions, including chair of the Department of Political Science, director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and deputy provost for graduate education at the University of Chicago. Cohen is the author of two books, The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics (University of Chicago Press) and Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press), and is a longtime activist whose political affiliations include Kitchen Table Women of Color Press, the Audre Lorde Project, and Scholars for Social Justice.

Radical Communicators Network (RadComms) is a community of practice for emerging and experienced movement and communications workers. RadComms builds narrative power for a just and liberatory future.