Event Recommendation: “Maroon the Implacable” NYC Book Launch

2013-Maroon_NY_finalwebDate: Friday, May 3, 2013
Time: 7pm
Venue: The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W 37th Street, New York, NY 10018)
Ticket: $20.00 (includes a copy of Maroon the Implacable: The Collected Writings of Russell Maroon Shoatz)

Featured speakers

Soffiyah Elijah, former Harvard Law Professor and anti-incarceration activist;
Ben Chaney, brother of martyred student activist James Chaney

Featuring performers

Gary Bartz, Grammy-award winning saxophonist
Rebel Diaz, acclaimed hip-hop group and community activists
Judith Malina, founder of the Living Theatre
Jamal Jospeh and IMPACT Repertory Theatre Performance Company, a renowned youth activist-performance group;
EmCee Majesty, rapper and collaborator with Immortal Technique

Hosted by Matt Meyer and Iyanna Jones

The national book launch and speaking tour, is sponsored by Scientific Soul Sessions

 

On May 3, 2013, from 7pm-9pm, the first ever collection of writings by former Black Panther and political prisoner Russell “Maroon” Shoatz – entitled Maroon the Implacable – will be officially released at New York’s DiMenna Center.

Shoatz, who has spent close to 30 years in solitary confinement in the state of Pennsylvania, is an important symbol in the growing movement against the long-standing practice of solitary, which amounts to unconstitutional torture under international human rights law.

His case, under review by the United Nations, will come under local scrutiny on April 8, when his Pittsburgh-based legal team presents the state of Pennsylvania with a Demand Letter, giving the Department of Corrections authorities 30 days to move Shoatz into general population, or face litigation for violating Shoatz’ constitutional rights.

The NYC launch of his anthology, which has been described by poet and Black liberation activist/scholar Amiri Baraka as “that very funky instruction manual on how to make revolution against imperialist America”, comes at the end of a national speaking tour by Shoatz’ daughter and a 30-day pressure campaign to win his release into the general prison population.

The evening will feature an all-star lineup of artists and thinkers, coming together to build a unified national movement to end torture and solitary confinement.

Speakers include:

— New York Corrections Association Director Soffiyah Elijah, former law professor at Harvard Law School, will review the legal and political basis for the call for Maroon’s immediate release;
— Veteran civil rights activist Ben Chaney – brother of the martyred student activist James Chaney – will discuss the connections between the movements of the past with current efforts for judicial reform and justice;

With performances by:

— Distinguished Grammy award-winning saxophonist Gary Bartz, alumnus of the bands of Miles Davis and Max Roach;
— Internationally acclaimed political hip-hop group and Bronx-based artists collective Rebel Diaz who have shared the stage with the likes of Common, Mos Def and Public Enemy;
— Judith Malina, founder of The Living Theatre, who will present one of her final performances, as the troupe, which rose to prominence in New York City and Paris during the 1950s and 60s, has recently closed its Lower East Side performance space; and
— Majesty, nationally touring Hip-Hop artist, community organizer, host of the legendary End Of The Weak, and collaborator of dead pres and Talib Kweli.
The show will be co-hosted by author and educator Matt Meyer, whose human rights work with the War Resisters International and the International Peace Research Association has taken him to speaking engagements on five continents; and Black Waxx radio personality Iyanna Jones, also known for her vocal talents as Nana Soul. Both are active in the national Campaign to Free Russell Maroon Shoatz.
Maroon’s daughter, Theresa Shoatz, will also be presenting at the event.
Published by PM Press, Maroon the Implacable includes essays written over the past two decades, covering such far-ranging subjects as matriarchy, environmentalism, a critical review of the Panthers, the popular movie “The Matrix,” Occupy Wall Street, and many other topics relating to how best to effectively organize for social change in the current era. Rap master Chuck D, in his written foreword to the book, noted that the collection was a “high document of true freedom for the masses.”

The May 3 event, and the national book launch and speaking tour, is sponsored by Scientific Soul Sessions, a multi-generational group united by the drive to pre-figure a new society free of imperialism, colonization, racism, heteropatriarchy, and capitalist exploitation. An explicitly revolutionary political/cultural organization, Scientific Soul stands against all forms of social inequality, and stands for the dignity and self-determination of oppressed peoples. The leadership for this movement will first and foremost be women and oppressed nationalities, and is based on both excellence and experimentation. For more information visit: www.scientificsoulsessions.com