{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.jacky.wtf//essays/2025/black-august",
  "description": "We return to the time of memorialization in those we've lost to the prison industrial complex and  work on personal growth to become more useful to the abolitionist movement.\n",
  "path": "/essays/2025/black-august",
  "publishedAt": "2025-08-02T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:e2ctbutx6kya6si4if5ngjmm/site.standard.publication/3mniussyp2d2g",
  "tags": "essay",
  "textContent": "[Black August][ba] is the time of year where abolitionists aim to align\nthemselves with the struggle of those who are held by states for the purpose of\nmaintaining their neocolonial control over the populace. I wrote about my time\nengaging with this [last year][] — something I found to be pretty grounding.\nThis year, I'm hoping to match that energy I found then and add more to it.\n\nLiterature\n\nThe relevant thing to be shared is my reading list. Some of these books are\nre-reads and I was hoping to finish the rewrite my website so I can share some\nof the highlights as I collect them with y'all. For now, I'll stick to my\nweek notes to deliver them, like I did last year. The books include:\n\n- [Mumia Abu-Jamal][maj]'s book [Live From Death Row][ldr]\n- [Orisanmi Burton][ob]'s [Tip of The Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison\n  Repression and The Long Attica Revolt][tts]\n- Angelo's [Prisoners' Inventions][pi]\n\nI'm fortunate to have been gifted that copy of _Tip of the Spear_ from a fellow\nfriend in the struggle. I got _Prisoners' Inventions_ from [Kaba's][kaba] mention\nof it — through their newsletter, I believe. I decided to also get [a\nposter][po] with the same text as the cover that I see every day.\n\nThis is short because I'm sending it out _so late_. But I hope that you find it\nmotivational enough to figure out how you involve yourself with the movement.\n\n[ba]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_August_(commemoration)\n[last year]: ../2025/black-august/\n[maj]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumia_Abu-Jamal\n[ldr]: https://www.librarything.com/work/73846\n[ob]: https://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/oburton.cfm\n[tts]: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/tip-of-the-spear/paper\n[pi]: https://halfletterpress.com/prisoners-inventions/\n[po]: https://halfletterpress.com/prisoners-inventions-2024-printing/\n[kaba]: https://mariamekaba.com/",
  "title": "Black August"
}