Anarcho-Blackness

Join Incite Seminars as we read Anarcho-Blackness: Notes Toward a Black Anarchism by Marquis Bey.

“The history of Blackness is a history of disruption toward freedom.”

In this bold and expansive treatise, Marquis Bey seeks to define the shape of a Black anarchism—not, he says, by listing “all the Black people who are anarchists and the anarchists who are Black people,” but though a fluid and generative encounter between anarchism and Blackness.

Classical anarchism tended to avoid questions of race—specifically Blackness—as well as the intersections of race and gender. Skeptical of satisfying himself with the usual finger-pointing this lack invites, Bey addresses it head on, not by constructing a new cannon of Black anarchists but by outlining how anarchism and Blackness already share a certain subjective relationship to power, a way of understanding and inhabiting the world. Through the lens of a Black feminist and transgender theory that unsettles and subverts social hierarchies, he explores what we can learn by making the kinship of Blackness and anarchism explicit, including how anarchism itself is transformed by the encounter.

As Bey frames it, if the state is predicated on a racialized and gendered capitalism, its undoing can only be imagined and undertaken by a political theory that takes race and gender seriously, a theory of anarcho-Blackness.

Incite Seminars’ Anarchist Reading Circle will meet on three consecutive Thursday evenings from 7:30-9 PM EST: September 17th, 24th, and October 1st, and then October 15th from 6-7:30pm.

Discussion Schedule:

There are two ways to join:

Patreon Supporter ($10+): If you are an Incite Seminars Patreon supporter at $10 level or higher, group participation is included in your membership! Please join us for this group read and keep coming back for future anarchist text discussions (we plan to read Ursula Le Guin’s “The Dispossessed” next). If you’re not a regular member of the group, we still ask that you register for the complimentary ticket below so we can share the meeting information. You will also be added to our group discussion Slack channel.

Drop-In Ticket: If you’re curious about the group but aren’t ready to commit your ongoing support, you can contribute any amount you are able and inspired to. Typically, people donate $10 per session.

Register below. If you have any questions or concerns, email inciteseminarsphila@gmail.com.