By Sylvie Delaney
On the dark, rainy evening of February 21st, I sought light and cover and found both — in more ways than one — at the conversation taking place at the Capitol Theater. Dr. Angela Davis, long standing freedom fighter and progressive scholar, held a talk at the historic theater for a night of intergenerational conversation with Dr. Gilda Sheppard and Ranna that felt no less historic itself. As I sat in the crowd, just one of many in the sold-out theater, the excitement in the room buzzed. The intellectual presence bestowed by such thoughtful and moving advocates, who each represented a few lines of struggle that coalesce at the intersection of the greater collective struggle, left me listening intently.
Facilitating the thoughtful conversation on the “Collective Struggle in Critical Times” was Ranna, a Seattle-based K-12 educator and advocate who works with Palestinian and SWANA feminists to organize at the intersection of anti-imperialism and gender justice. Dr. Gilda Sheppard is a faculty emerita at Evergreen Tacoma, professor of sociology and cultural studies, and award winning filmmaker. Dr. Sheppard, whose most recent film, Since I Been Down, screened at Evergreen on February 27th, has taught sociology at Washington prisons for over a decade and is the co-founder of Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) which offers college-accredited courses at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. Before Dr. Davis came out to greet the energetic audience, Sheppard described the relationship between the speaker’s writing and the work she did in prisons, as she encouraged the inmates she worked with to utilize Davis’ political writing. Sheppard also abundantly emphasized that Davis’ writings helped her understand the importance of self-interrogation in study, and the connection between theory and practice in self-investigation.
Before the start of the conversation, Dr. Davis first acknowledged the courage Rachel Corrie demonstrated in her efforts fighting for Palestinian freedom, and thanked Craig and Cindy Corrie, who invited Dr. Davis and sponsored the event alongside Evergreen Tacoma. She casually opened the dialogue to the larger topic of oppression, as promised to the audience all night, in two words. “So, fascism!” The audience erupted in laughter, and the conversation officially began.
Dr. Davis acknowledged our current point in time as “a terrible moment” with so much pain and suffering, “But at the same time, for me, it’s an exciting moment because as someone who’s been working around Palestine for the vast majority of my life, I have never seen as many people in this country and in other parts of the world stand with Palestine.” We broke out into applause.
Ranna spoke on this, adding that it was a brand new experience to see white people wearing keffiyeh scarves in public places, like the grocery store. “It makes me speechless a little bit […] it’s a wild experience to see a visual, silent representation that someone is with you, they see you, maybe not fully understand the things that you’ve been through but honor you.”
Ranna shared some concerns she and Dr. Sheppard had been discussing backstage: How does someone juggle their roles within the capitalist structure they feel drained under, and how can theory turn into achievable action?
Dr. Davis drew from two examples from her own life as a communist and lifelong student of injustice and activism. She first drew a line connecting two institutions that seem antithetical at face value. “When you think about sites where knowledge is produced, where people spend the majority of their time cultivating their intellects, thinking deeply, I would say it’s the college university and it’s also the prison.” Dr. Davis recalled her own experience with incarceration, having served time for over a year between 1970 and 1972. At the time, she realized she was just doing the same thing she did as a graduate student. “I basically spent all my time reading, writing and thinking.” Secondly, Dr. Davis recounted her experience as acting assistant professor of sociology at UCLA. She was hired to teach German Idealism and Marxism, but her serious understanding and application of the theories she was teaching led to her being fired from the position. You don’t just theorize, she told us. “You understand the dialectic between theory and practice,” she said. “You act, as well.” (A reminder that Dr. Davis ran for vice-presidential candidate for the Communist Party ticket twice, in 1980 and 1984.)
Both inspired by Dr. Davis’ work, Dr. Sheppard and Ranna each pointed out that prisons as an institution must be taken apart in conjunction with all other institutions of oppression—they concluded that there is no true liberation without freedom for Palestine. Dr. Davis argued that expanding pro-Palestine efforts means continuing to draw connections akin to the link between the fight for prison abolition and the fight for a free Palestine. By working to erase manufactured divisions and highlight the intersections between movements, the capacity to support the collective struggle is broadened. From an interview in Davis’ book Freedom Is A Constant Struggle: “I think it’s important to insist on the intersectionality of movements. In the abolition movement, we’ve been trying to find ways to talk about Palestine so that people who are attracted to a campaign to dismantle prisons in the US will also think about the need to end the occupation in Palestine. It can’t be an afterthought. It has to be part of the ongoing analysis.”
Dr. Davis emphasized the need for critique within collective struggle, “Critical engagement with the world allows us to understand how important it is to question everything. Questioning gender, questioning black studies, black history, questioning history […] questioning the state of Israel.”Speaking on the latter, specifically Zionism, she drew more parallels between the repressive regime against Palestinians with the repressive nature of incarceration in the United States. “What we learn is that those areas of our social and political existence that are not subject to questioning are more than likely ideology.” Propaganda and ideology are present in education, media, and every facet of daily life. Questioning the knowledge we take for granted is a fundamental step in the pursuit of collective liberation.
As we dispersed for the night, I thought about how even during a conversation as necessary as liberation, each invaluable parting of wisdom made claps and laughter erupt from all of our bodies, shared by the iconic women who drove our thoughts and minds. Dr. Davis’ eloquence wove us all a vision held together by a string of perseverance and inspiration, providing us with the wisdom to continue to fight for freedom and liberation, from apartheid in Palestine to the institutional struggles of those who are incarcerated, and beyond. The unanimous joy shared between us all, even as we each toil over unjust actions of violence, proved that hope and shared connection can, and should, be an invaluable tool used against the great systemic powers of oppression for the greater aim of liberation for all.
