Since its inception, Black August has served as a time to honor Black freedom fighters, deepen our political schooling and recommit to the battle for liberation. What started in 1979, inside California prisons, the place incarcerated Black folks organized to commemorate the deaths of George and Jonathan Jackson, has since grown right into a monthlong occasion for all Black of us.
In 1960, George Jackson was imprisoned for allegedly stealing $70. Then, in 1970, George and two different imprisoned Black males have been accused and charged with the homicide of a white jail guard. Later that yr, his youthful brother Jonathan had been shot and killed whereas making an attempt to free him. Jackson was killed on August 21, 1971, throughout an tried jail escape. Throughout his time incarcerated, Jackson grew to become a well known voice in opposition to racism within the jail system and the creator of Soledad Brother, a searing assortment of letters from behind bars. At his funeral, Huey P. Newton, founding father of the Black Panther Get together, referred to him as a “fallen comrade” who had “each proper to do all the things doable” to achieve his freedom. His legacy lives on by way of his writing and our collective recognition of Black August.
Born out of sustained resistance to the criminalization and execution of Black radical thought, Black August is a time for deliberate reflection and a name to motion. It’s a time to coach and rededicate ourselves to the continuing battle for liberation. In a time the place state violence, mass incarceration and international anti-Blackness proceed to form our realities, examine turns into a type of resistance and therapeutic.
To honor this time and legacy, Black folks throughout the nation are curating intentional studying areas and academic communal gatherings that deliver us collectively and empower us to reimagine freedom. From grassroots examine circles to cellular libraries and digital e-book golf equipment, these initiatives middle abolitionist literature, Black feminist idea and collective transformation.
Listed here are just a few activations and occasions occurring this Black August:
Noname Ebook Membership & Radical Hood Library (Los Angeles)
Began by rapper and poet Noname in 2019, the Noname Ebook Membership connects Black readers, together with these incarcerated, with abolitionist books by Black authors. Their Radical Hood Library, which opened in 2021 in Jefferson Park, LA, serves as an occasion hub for teach-ins, readings, and a jail e-book program. From sending books to incarcerated folks to opening dialogue about systemic violence and resisting capitalist e-book‐shopping for constructions. Noname has referred to this e-book membership as a center finger to Amazon and to the FBI’s historic concentrating on of unbiased Black bookstores — this international neighborhood is rooted in its abolition work.
All through this month, the Radical Hood Library shall be internet hosting a Girls’s Therapeutic Circle, teach-ins, a writing workshop, jail program help days and extra.
Sure Please Books (Scottdale, GA)
Tucked within the coronary heart of Scottdale, Georgia, proper outdoors of Atlanta, Sure Please Books is greater than a bookstore — it’s a vibrant neighborhood hub, based by a Black girl, for radical creativeness and Black literary pleasure. This yr, they’re honoring Black August with a weekly Black August Studying Group, held each Thursday at 7 pm in individual. The collection invitations readers to return collectively for collective examine, discussing texts similar to Studying Assata: An Autobiography, Soledad Brother, We Need Freedom, Dying Blossoms and The Warfare Earlier than. Whether or not you’re donating books, stepping as much as assist facilitate, or just displaying up with an open coronary heart, Sure Please Books welcomes all who consider within the energy of studying as a revolution.
The Free Black Girls’s Library (Nationwide)
Based in 2015 on a brownstone stoop in Brooklyn by Ola Ronke Akinmowo, The Free Black Girls’s Library (TFBWL) is a social artwork challenge and cellular library centered on books by Black ladies and non-binary writers. With over 5,000 titles, the library hosts free programming, e-book swaps, workshops and extra. Throughout Black August, native chapters of TFBWL invite readers to e-book swaps, Black Energy yoga, writing workshops, and a studying membership dialog on “Rock My Soul” by Audre Lorde. These gatherings middle care, collective therapeutic and artistic reclamation by way of literature.
The Analog Dope Retailer (Las Vegas, NV)
The Analog Dope Retailer, A Black-owned bookstore and vinyl store in Las Vegas, is internet hosting a Black August Ebook Truthful on August 2. It’s set to be a night of literature, artwork,and collective remembrance, by way of books, poetry, music and visible storytelling. Attendees will be a part of native activists, authors, poets, artists and neighborhood organizations as they honor the legacy of Black freedom fighters, abolitionists and political prisoners.
Oakland Museum of California: Black August Pop-Up Speak
In honor of Black August, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) is internet hosting a particular pop-up dialog as a part of its Black Energy exhibition, spotlighting the enduring legacy of Black resistance and self-determination within the Bay Space. Filmmaker Cheo Tyehimba Taylor and Black Cultural Zone CEO Carolyn Johnson will lead a dialogue centered on Taylor’s acclaimed movies Legacy of Love and East Oakland Rising.
These documentaries discover the collective energy of East Oakland’s Black communities, chronicling the launch of the primary Black-led well being middle, efforts to fight environmental racism, and a decade-long battle in opposition to unjust housing insurance policies and gentrification. Johnson, who seems within the movies, will share private reflections on her lifelong work preserving and advancing Black arts and tradition in Oakland. This curation is a tribute to the revolutionary spirit of native organizing and Black resilience.
BOSS Black August Block Get together 2025: Honoring Resistance, Celebrating Pleasure (Oakland, CA)
Constructing Alternatives for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) is creating house for remembrance, resilience and celebration with its fifth annual Black August Block Get together. On August 30, 2025, individuals are invited to assemble in Oakland for a robust day grounded within the spirit of Black resistance and collective pleasure.
With the theme “Black Resistance, Liberation & Pleasure Have All the time Coexisted,” this yr’s celebration facilities political schooling, financial empowerment, wellness and honoring incarcerated neighborhood members. There shall be workshops, inspirational audio system, neighborhood sources, voter schooling, wellness companies, reside performances, artist installations, native Black-owned meals distributors and “The Black Market,” a curated buying expertise showcasing Black entrepreneurs, artists, and creatives. It’s a reminder that Black August isn’t just about trying again. It’s about mobilizing a motion rooted in freedom, unity, and self-determination.
Black August within the Park (Durham, NC)
Held yearly in Durham, North Carolina, Black August within the Park is a celebration of Black pleasure as an act of resistance. This neighborhood gathering combines artwork, music and movement-building to spark social and cultural transformation. Their mission is to creatively encourage and join folks of African descent to say their worth and interact in social and cultural change. The occasion will happen on Sunday, August 24.
Every of those organizations and actions is creating house for collective examine, resistance, love and self‑care. They middle Black voices and histories whereas affirming that therapeutic and resistance are intertwined by way of studying, storytelling, and shared examine. That is how we keep in mind. That is how we resist. That is how we construct.
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