“The text you are holding is living history.” — Naomi Klein, from the foreword to You Have Not Yet Been Defeated

Alaa Abd el-Fattah is arguably the most high-profile political prisoner in Egypt, if not the Arab world, rising to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, an activist whose ideas represent a global generation which has only known struggle against a failing system, a public intellectual with the rare courage to offer personal, painful honesty, Alaa’s written voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade.

To celebrate the launch of the first English language collection of his essays, social media posts, and interviews, Alaa’s sister Sanaa Seif—herself an activist, filmmaker, and former political prisoner of the Sisi regime in Egypt—will be joined by Naomi Klein, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Sharif Abdel Kouddous for a conversation on the wide range of subjects covered in this important new book.

To order a copy of You Have Not Yet Been Defeated visit: https://bookshop.org/a/1039/9781644212455

***Register through Eventbrite to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and live captioning will be provided.***

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Speakers:

Sanaa Seif is an Egyptian filmmaker, producer and political activist. Imprisoned three times under the Sisi regime, she is currently touring the US promoting her imprisoned brother, Alaa Abd el Fattah's, newly published book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous is an independent journalist based in Cairo. He has reported from across the Arab world for a number of print and broadcast outlets including Democracy Now, and is currently an editor and reporter at Mada Masr, Egypt's leading independent media outlet.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist, columnist, and international bestselling author of eight books including No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything, No Is Not Enough and On Fire, which have been translated into over 35 languages. She is Senior Correspondent for The Intercept and an inaugural Marielle Franco fellow of the Social Justice Initiative Portal Project at the University of Chicago. In 2018, she was named the inaugural Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University, and is now Honorary Professor of Media and Climate at Rutgers. In September 2021, she joined the University of British Columbia as UBC Professor of Climate Justice and is the founding co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore is Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences and Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the City University of New York Graduate Center. Co-founder of many grassroots organizations including the California Prison Moratorium Project, Critical Resistance, and the Central California Environmental Justice Network, Gilmore is author of the prize-winning Golden Gulag, as well as the forthcoming Change Everything, and Abolition Geography. Her recent honors include the SUNY-Purchase College Eugene V. Grant Distinguished Scholar Prize for Social and Environmental Justice; the American Studies Association Richard A Yarborough Mentorship Award; The Association of American Geographers Lifetime Achievement Award; and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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This event is sponsored by Haymarket Books, Seven Stories Press, and Verso Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important organizing, programming and publishing work.