Join us for an event with Kelly Hayes in conversation with Tanuja Devi Jagernauth and Maya Schenwar to celebrate the release of Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis.
A bundle of letters to activists and organizers on the frontlines in catastrophic times from Let This Radicalize You co-author Kelly Hayes
In social movements, some heartbreaks are all but inevitable. Campaigns will be lost. Mental health crises will occur. Social ills, like gender-based violence, will manifest themselves in movement spaces. People will experience profound personal losses. Grief, alienation, and despair can grind us under. Sometimes, we need accompaniment. Sometimes, we need to be met where we're at by a caring voice of experience. Read This When Things Fall Apart is a care package for activists and organizers building power under fascistic, demoralizing conditions. It's an outstretched hand, offering history lessons, personal anecdotes, and practical advice about how to navigate the woes of justice work. A survival guide for the heart, this is a book for activists to keep close, and to share with co-strugglers in need.
Kelly Hayes is a Menominee author, organizer, movement edu- cator and photographer. They host Truthout’s podcast Movement Memos and are co-author of the book Let This Radicalize You, with Mariame Kaba. Hayes is also the creator of Organizing My Thoughts, a weekly newsletter about politics and justice work.
Tanuja Devi Jagernauth is an Indo-Caribbean immigrant, writer, theatermaker, and liberatory yoga educator committed to advancing the abolition of the prison industrial complex from a creative and healing justice lens. She lives with her partner and dog in Chicago, Illinois.
Maya Schenwar is director of the Truthout Center for Grassroots Jour- nalism and the board president and editor-at-large at Truthout. She is the coeditor, with Kim Wilson, of We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition (Haymarket Books, 2024) and coauthor, with Victoria Law, of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms (The New Press, 2021). Maya is cofounder of Media Against Apartheid and Displacement, a journalism hub uplifting Palestine-focused reporting, and she organizes with Love & Protect and Jewish Fast for Gaza.
Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com by no later than 14 days before the event. For scholarship tickets or other access needs please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com.
