Talking about Abolition - by Sonali Kolhatkar (Paperback)

About the Book

"Abolitionist thinkers have been envisioning police-free communities for decades, but only in the aftershock of the racial justice uprisings of 2020 have their radical ideas entered into mainstream discourse. In Talking About Abolition, award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar presents an inspiring collection of her conversations with scholars, movement figures, and activists who are leading the movement to end policing and prisons. From articulating the best counter-arguments to pervasive "copaganda," to exposing the moral bankruptcy of reformism, each conversation connects the dots between past and present while imagining a collective future rooted in liberation, freedom, and justice. Featuring interviews with Alicia Garza, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Leah Penniman, Gina Dent, Cat Brooks, Andrea Ritchie, Eunisses Hernandes, Noelle Hanrahan, Ivette Alâe-Ferlito, Melina Abdullah, Reina Sultan, and Dylan Rodriguez, and with an introduction by Robin D. G. Kelley"--

Book Synopsis

Powerful interviews with scholars, organizers, and activists who are leading the movement to end policing and prison.

Award-winning journalist Kolhatkar presents a visionary outlook for a future rooted in liberation, freedom, and justice.

Abolitionist thinkers have been envisioning police-free communities for decades, but only in the aftershock of the racial justice uprisings of 2020 have their radical ideas entered into mainstream discourse. In Talking About Abolition, award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar presents an inspiring collection of her conversations with scholars, movement figures, and activists who are leading the movement to end policing and prisons. From articulating the best counter-arguments to pervasive "copaganda," to exposing the moral bankruptcy of reformism, each conversation connects the dots between past and present while imagining a collective future rooted in liberation, freedom, and justice.

Featuring interviews with Alicia Garza, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Leah Penniman, Gina Dent, Cat Brooks, Andrea Ritchie, Eunisses Hernandez, Noelle Hanrahan, Ivette Alé-Ferlito, Melina Abdullah, Reina Sultan, and Dylan Rodriguez, and with an introduction by Robin D. G. Kelley.

Review Quotes

"Through these powerful interviews, Sonali provides a window into the visionary work of on-the-ground organizers developing the concrete practices of an abolitionist future. In the process, she reminds us that abolition is not an abstraction, but instead a guide for the work we do now to build a better future."
--Alex S. Vitale, author of The End of Policing

"Prison and police abolition can seem radical, counterintuitive, and absurd. But in Talking About Abolition Sonali Kohlhatkar--whose journalism has unflinchingly looked at America's racist, sexist, classist, and bloated punishment bureaucracy through a critical lens for many years--weaves her conversations with twelve extremely original and insightful thinkers into a clear, concise, and compelling argument for abolition: its social justifiability, practical feasibility, and moral necessity. Taken together, these interviews are a masterclass in justice-driven journalism."
--Jody Armour, Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California

"Imagine sitting in a stunning circle of the folks we all want and need to talk to about abolition. Sonali Kolhatkar has done just that - asking them the questions I needed to ask and the questions I didn't know to ask. A must read.
What makes this book stand out is the stunning circle of organizers, scholars that Sonali Kolhatkar has assembled. The book both refines and expands our understanding of abolition - from its role in combating racial capitalism to revolutionary experiments with food justice or participatory budgeting, Kolhatkar's expert interviews allow us to see the world as possibility and to engage the concrete struggles that are already making the world anew from within our current confinements.
As someone who reads a lot about police and prison abolition: this book immediately jumped into my top tier. I can't think of another book that talks more folks at crucial intersections and engages them in more revelatory conversations. This is a book that we must read together, study together and realize together over and over again."
--Chenjerai Kumanyika, host and creator of Crooked Media's Empire City podcast and assistant professor at NYU's Arthur L. Cater Journalism Institute

"From food justice to participatory budgeting to defunding the police, Sonali Kolhatkar brings forth an incredible group of professors, organizers, and community activists. This anthology not only amplifies abolitionist solutions to our community's pressing problems, Sonali shows us the possibilities if we expand our imaginations and learn to remember that the people closest to the problems often have the solutions. Talking About Abolition pushes the reader to embrace the process of self-determination and emphasizes the importance of engaging in the urgent work of movement building and instilling a sense of responsibility and commitment."--Dr. Rosa Alicia Clemente, award-winning organizer, independent journalist, scholar-activist, and 2008 vice presidential candidate for the Green Party.

About the Author

SONALI KOLHATKAR is an award-winning multimedia journalist. She is the racial justice editor at YES! Magazine and the host of YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali, a weekly television and radio program that airs on Free Speech TV and Pacifica Radio stations and affiliates around the United States. Sonali is a senior correspondent of the Economy For All Project at the Independent Media Institute and the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice. She has won numerous awards, including Best TV Anchor and Best National Political Commentary from the LA Press Club, and has been nominated for Best Radio Anchor four years in a row.

Sonali earned her MS in Astronomy from the University of Hawaii, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. She resides with her husband and two sons in Pasadena, California.

ROBIN D.G. KELLEY is the Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA and author of many books including Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Harvard University Press, 2012); Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press, 2009); Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon, 2002).