On this day, 16 July 1947, Black revolutionary Assata Shakur was born in Queens, New York City. After graduating from college she briefly joined the Black Panther Party, followed by the urban guerrilla group the Black Liberation Army which was engaging in armed struggle against the government, robbing banks and killing drug dealers and police officers. In 1973 Shakur was wounded in a shootout with police, arrested and later jailed for the alleged killing of a police officer. She escaped from prison in 1979 with the help of three BLA members and was granted asylum in Cuba, where she lives to this day. US government officials continue to press for her extradition, and early in 2021 the Republican administration labelled Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, citing their harbouring of Shakur. Assata Shakur was also the step-aunt and godmother to murdered hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur. She has long been an advocate of direct action as a tool for social change, arguing: "Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them." We have made available numerous books by other former members of the Panthers and the BLA here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthers

One day you’ll have whatever it is you’re now so confusedly seeking. That kind of calm that comes from knowing oneself and others. But you can’t rush the arrival of that state of mind. There are things you only learn when no one teaches them. And that’s how it is with life. There’s even more beauty in discovering it for yourself, in spite of the suffering.

also, re: poems & structure. go in there 👇🏻

ironic structure

“I’m always curious to hear how something was made—though I have no interest in why an artist did something, or what his work means. Like with Jackson Pollock: I’m always interested in what kind of paint and canvas he used, I just don’t want to know what he meant. You’re supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, you’re not supposed to chop the art down to fit your mind.”