The largest urban center in Appalachia, Pittsburgh has long been a hub of Black freedom work. It has also been an enduring center of carcerality in the United States. Local experiences reflect a strong tradition of resisting systemic antiblackness, state and corporate divestment, repression, and broader carceral forces and highlight Pittsburgh’s record of labor radicalism, environmental activism, and community educational efforts.
Black Freedom Struggle in Urban Appalachia explores the interplay of creative self-determination, intellectual insurgency, and political education in Pittsburgh. This collection gathers dynamic artists, thinkers, and organizers, all contributing unique perspectives through essays, poems, scholarly chapters, interviews, and imagery. Positioning Pittsburgh as a pivotal space within the region while proposing an anti-carceral framework for understanding education, the anthology examines how people live the struggle for freedom and broadens discussions about the prison-industrial complex, labor, and place in Appalachia—sparking questions motivated by a shared commitment to liberation.
By fostering dialogue among contributors and elevating diverse forms of analysis, Black Freedom Struggle in Urban Appalachia offers a valuable resource for educators, students, creatives, activists, policymakers, and communities alike, encouraging us all to forge stronger connections and continue the fight for a free world.
Tabela de Conteúdo
Frontmatter
Preface, by T. Elon Dancy II
Introduction: Poetics of Black Appalachia, by T. Elon Dancy II and Sabina Vaught
Part 1: returning to sacred places
Introduction to Section 1, by Sabina Vaught
Wawawpewnowat, by Jenn Johnson
Grounded Justice: Unearthing the Birthright of Liberated, Collective Black Environmental Justice Futures in Pittsburgh and Beyond, by M. Bea Dias, Cassie Quigley, Alyssa Lyon, Ariam Ford, and Ebony Lunsford-Evans
Liberation is Yet to Come: An Interview with S. L. Akines, by Stacey L. Akines, Robin-Renee Allbritton, and Win Nunley
Part 2: sometimes falling rain / carries memories of betrayal
Introduction to Section 2, by Lori Delale-O’Connor and T. Elon Dancy II
The Effects of a Black Child’s Education, by Breanna Ewell
We’re Going to Figure it Out: Interview with Amber Thompson, by Amber Thompson, Chetachukwu Agwoeme, and Candence Spruill
Excerpts from Slow Walking in Circles: The Struggle to Improve African American Student Achievement in the Pittsburgh Public Schools – A report of the Equity Advisory Panel (EAP), October 2020, by Anthony Mitchell, James Stewart, Wanda Henderson, and Tamanika Howze
Caste, Carcerality, and Educational Inequity: A Call to Restore Liberating Educational Opportunities for Black Pittsburgh, by Esohe Osai and Sean Means
Part 3: renegades roam here
Introduction to Section 3, by Lori Delale-O’Connor
Bridging Perspectives: Criminology, Education, and Lived Experiences with Children from Pittsburgh Sentenced to Death by Incarceration, by Juwan Bennett and Christy Mcguire
A Lost Soul in Someone’s Body, by Briayelle Gaines
Black Caregivers’ Educational Strategies to Avoid and Disrupt Potential Pathways Toward Criminal (In)justice, by Lori Delale-O’Connor, James Huguley, and Ming-Te Wang
Notes from Upstream: Salmon Girl, by Sheila Carter Jones
All Writing is Political: An Interview with Sheila Carter-Jones, by Sheila Carter Jones and Robin-Renee Allbritton
Resisting School Violence: Hip Hop as Pedagogy for Black Freedom Struggle, by Jasiri X, Christopher Wright, and Tiana Sharpe
In the Space that is Not Yet: A Dialogue with Marc Lamont Hill, by Marc Lamont Hill and T. Elon Dancy II
Part 4: fierce grief shadows me
Introduction to Section 4, by Sabina Vaught
They Always Come (A Note to My Son), by Medina Jackson
A Requiem for Antwon Rose II: Defending the Dead in the Afterlife of Slavery, by T. Elon Dancy II, Christopher Wright, and Chetachukwu Agwoeme
Prison Took My Daddy, by Nekiya Washington-Butler
Boy, by Sheila Carter Jones
Part 5: listen little sister / angels make their hope here
Introduction to Section 5, by Lori Delale-O’Connor
What a Free Future Looks Like to Me, by Candence Spruill
Our people that came before did an awful lot to be free: Interview with Tamanika Howze, by Tamanika Howze and Davonna Graham-Shannon
Let’s Go Find Out, by Win Nunley
Discipline, Punishment, and Black Childhood: How carceral education shapes time for Black youth, by Ariana Brazier
Budding Off a New Kind of Tree: Interview with Tereneh Idía, by Tereneh Idía, Nekiya Washington-Butler, and Chelsea Jimenez
The journey to freedom: A conversation on freedom struggle with Sala Udin, by Sala Udin, Briayelle Gaines, and Christopher Wright
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Appalachian Futures: Black, Native & Queer Voices series
Sobre o autor
Sabina Vaught is professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
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