In this event we're in-conversation with Calvin John Smiley, an author and associate professor of sociology in New York, whose writing and research focuses on justice and inequality; systems of law, punishment, incarceration.
New book Defund is a collection of interviews with leading abolitionist organizers and thinkers, reflecting on the uprisings of summer 2020, the rise of #defund, and the work ahead of bridging the divide between reform and abolition.
The 2020 uprisings against police violence launched a nation conversation about defunding the police and prisons, propelling the #defund movement into the spotlight. The backlash has been swift, beating back efforts to reallocate public funds away from police and other punitive carceral systems and into social welfare programs that provide care, stability, and community.
But as Calvin John Smiley reveals through pointed conversations with academics, activists, and system-impacted individuals, #defund was always more than a brief moment; it is part of an ongoing struggle against white supremacy, capitalism, police state-sanctioned violence, and mass incarceration.
Smiley is also the author of Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition (University of California Press, 2023) and co-editor of Prisoner Reentry in the 21st Century: Critical Perspectives of Coming Home (Routledge, 2020).
Smiley is the founder and director of Till Everything Better LLC, which facilitates restorative justice programs in New York City youth detention facilities. For more about Smiley’s work: www.cjsmiley.com
Thurs 5th Sept / 6.30-8pm / Book here