Ep. 46: (Un)learning for Liberation w/ Joshua Virasami; Dylan Rodríguez; Sonya Childress; Asher Gamedze; Thenmozhi Soundararajan; Kelsey Mohamed; Camille Barton; Aditi Jaganathan

Author of How to Change it - Make a Difference, an imprint of #Merky books, artist and organiser Joshua Virasami has created an accessible manual on how to create real change as an individual to overcome injustice and inequality. Each section of the book includes a soundtrack to support the arguments and the reader.

Joshua has been involved in the Black Lives Matter and Occupy movements, drawing on his personal experiences and the actions of a number of activist movements to inform his political activism. He sheds light on what makes an effective movement, the importance of activism, and how to create lasting change.

Cultural Strategist and Impact Producer, Sonya Childress uses documentary film as a tool for cultivating changemaking narratives. Her work focuses on the role of stories as instruments for social change within popular culture.

Having led impact campaigns and theatrical releases for many filmmakers, Sonya’s work amplifies social justice movement building. As a Senior Fellow with the Perspective Fund, an impact-focused film fund, she conducts research, writing and supports funding initiatives within the industry. Highlighting the need for accountable and equitable practices in filmmaking, Sonya talks us through her work and how storytelling and social justice movements activate change.

Professor in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at University of California, Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, writer and activist whose work focuses on addressing the history of anti-Black and racial-colonial violence.

Rodríguez's research considers how the creative, imaginative, speculative collective labor of abolitionist praxis can displace and potentially destroy the ascendancy of White supremacy in order to create possibilities for revolutionary activity to thrive. A founding member of the Critical Ethnic Studies Association and Critical Resistance, a national prison abolitionist organization, Dylan talks us through the nature of abolitionist practice, and how radical change is possible.

Musician, educator, organiser and cultural practitioner Asher Gamedze from Cape Town, South Africa shares his recent political, soulful jazz album Dialectic Soul. A spiritual soundtrack of resistance and protest, the album touches on the history of colonialism and violence in South Africa.

Influenced by the likes of historian Robin Kelley, and inspired by political activist Steve Biko, and musician and civil rights leader Miriam Makeba, Dialectic Soul embodies the spirit of resistance and protest through the expressive medium of jazz. Asher discusses the role of oppression, colonialism and resistance movements in shaping history, and the importance of spaces for expression.

Dalit rights activist, artist and founder of Equality Labs, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, is a multimedia storyteller empowering caste oppressed people in the United States and around the world. Founding Equality Labs, an art and technology startup supporting South Asian religious, cultural, and genderqueer communities in the United States and South Asia, Thenmozhi’s work emphasises the need for the end of oppressive systems such as Casteism and Racism. Chatting with Stance, she explains the use of technology as a tool to end caste apartheid, Islamophobia, and religious intolerance.

Abolitionist campaigner, facilitator and founder of Cradle Community, Kelsey Mohamed has worked with organisations including Sisters Uncut and Abolitionist Future. Cradle Community is a collective of facilitators who work towards creating spaces of radical learning to transform systems through collective care and healing in communities. Cradle Community supports abolitionist approaches and movements on both an individual and institutional level. Kelsey discusses her practice, the importance of collective care and solidarity.

Berlin based Camille Barton is an interdisciplinary artist, educator and researcher who uses Afrofuturism to cultivate interventions and holistic spaces for healing and thinking across differences.

Speaking with Stance, Camille shares the importance of healing spaces as transformative tools. Currently the head of Ecologies of Transformation, a masters programme at Sandberg Institute, they explore how art making and bodily awareness can facilitate social change. Camille’s creative practice is grounded in healing and unlearning of hierarchies and systems. Their work encompasses empathy and intersectional practices, working towards change on an individual and societal level.

London based Aditi Jaganathan’s practice addresses the connection between emergent cultures within the Black and Brown diaspora in city spaces.

Working with a range of racial justice organisations, using education as a tool for unlearning, Aditi works as an educator teaching courses on race, gender and representation at Goldsmiths. Aditi holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice from the SOAS, and is currently a PhD candidate at Brunel, University of London. Chatting with Stance, she highlights the important role of education in grassroots movements, and her approach to racial justice.

Music Used in this podcast:

Alice Coltrane ft. Pharoah Sanders, Journey In Satchidananda via UMG Recordings

Asher Gamedze track listings via On the Corner Records:

The Speculative Fourth - Asher Gamedze

Resistance Unlearning - Asher Gamedze

Hope in Azania - Asher Gamedze

Siyabuela - Asher Gamedze

State of Emergence Suite, Movement two - Asher Gamedze

Cultural Shoutouts:

Listen:

Bass Incarnate

Watch:

Read:

Projects:

The Collective Liberation Project

Stance is Guest Edited by Jemma Desai. More on Jemma’s work here.

Front Page Image Credit: Joshua Virasami by Reece Thompson