AbolitionISH
By Jon Jon Moore & feat. wyLee
AbolitionISHOct 12, 2022
Bitcoin & Blackness: Decoding the Technocene
Whatever the hell bitcoin and blockchain are (we have the same questions!) their promise is clear: decentralized economies where the consumer-creator is in control.
But as we consider how these technologies spawn from and support certain paradigms of violence, we’re left wondering… is Web3 just the upper octave of our present cyber landscape? Do they offer salvation from the algorithmic anti-blackness of Big Tech, or is it more complicated?
This month, Jon Jon welcomes Cameron Flowers, CEO of Floreo Labs, to help us understand these technologies and approach these questions. Cam trains remote communities of future tech leaders and incubates innovative, community-driven technology initiatives. He's an artist, engineer, creative-technologist, and adjunct faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at Lehman College in the Bronx.
Keywords: bitcoin, innovation, protocols, value, design, chains, technology, problem solving
Please become a monthly supporter of abolitionISH—100% pays our guests, producer, and social media director!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
AbolitionISH: a podcast at the end of the world is a black politics and culture podcast made possible by Producer WyLee (@whoswylee) and Host Jon Jon Moore (@incivilitea).
Old Fields, New Orchards: Surviving Poetics with Ra/Malika Imhotep
CW: This episode contains mentions of sexual violence.
“I would like my work to do two things: be as demanding and sophisticated as I want it to be, and at the same time be accessible in a sort of emotional way to lots of people, just like jazz. That's a hard task. But that's what I want to do." — Toni Morrison
"What are the methods... of holding this soft, adaptive, Black feminine flesh thing, this surviving thing. How do you write about it?" — Ra/Malika Imhotep
***
How does capitalism live in our bodies? How did an interest in Ghanaian hip-hop and Pan-Africanism lead Ra/Malika Imhotep to New Orleans, to study and write about Black femininity, queer embodiment, & the performance of labor?
This month, Jon Jon welcomes Ra/Malika Imhotep, Ph.D, a Black feminist writer, performance artist, and cultural worker from Atlanta, Georgia. Ra/Malika's debut collection of poetry, gossypiin, was published by Red Hen Press in April 2022. Ra/Malika's intellectual and creative work tends to the relationships between queer embodiment, Black femininity, vernacular culture, & the performance of labor.
In this conversation, Jon Jon asks them to share their ongoing journey through academic, artistic, and ancestral spaces, and how these spaces have informed their being and creation. And Ra/Malika gives us so much—on self-importance, refusing the demand to translate interiority, what Atlanta taught them about slavery, and why they "want the language to be felt," no matter what they're writing.
Keywords: gossip, peaches, dysfunction, cotton root bark, imposition, atlanta, barbara christian, reproductive labor, 1987
Please become a monthly supporter of abolitionISH—100% pays our guests, producer, and social media director!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
AbolitionISH: a podcast at the end of the world is a black politics and culture podcast made possible by Producer WyLee (NYC/JHB, @whoswylee) Host Jon Jon Moore (CDMX @incivilitea) and Social Media Director Bug (PHL, @hoetentiial).
Abortion Care & the Changing Same with Ash Williams
"It can't be overstated that the solutions have got to come from the people locally and not top down" -AW
In the wake of the Supreme Court's official decision to strike down Roe v. Wade last week, poor Black people across the US face an expansion of reproductive control and violation. This month, Jon Jon interviews Ash Williams, a Black non-binary transfemme organizer, choreographer, and member of the Mountain Area Abortion Doula Collective. Ash reflects on becoming an abortion doula, organizing in the US South before today, and what we can do right now to deliver care to the nxggas in our lives who need it.
Keywords: mason-dixon line, abortion, SCOTUS, illegal, awareness, skills, local, care, violence, defense, choreography
Please become a monthly supporter of abolitionISH—100% pays our guests, producer, and social media director!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
AbolitionISH: a podcast at the end of the world is a black politics and culture podcast made possible by Producer WyLee (NYC/JHB, @whoswylee) Host Jon Jon Moore (CDMX @incivilitea) and Social Media Director Bug (PHL, @hoetentiial).
TO FREEDOM? Black Anti-Fatness with Da'Shaun L. Harrison
"Everything goes back to desire... I'm always figuring out how I can move further away from the hegemonic desire that we're socialized into. Who am I desiring, and why?" -DLH
...
This episode contains mentions of sexual violence.
It's Spring, and May Flowers bring Mo' Knowledge! This month, Jon Jon interviews writer, editor, and abolitionist Da'Shaun L. Harrison. They talk to us about anti-fatness, anti-blackness, what it means to write for Black audiences, and what individual desire has to do with the regimes of power we face. Harrison is nominated for a 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Non-Fiction for their debut, Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness (North Atlantic Books 2022).
Keywords: desire, thanksgiving memes, prison, diet culture, possession, pounds.
...
Please become a monthly supporter of abolitionISH—100% pays our guests, producer, and social media director!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
AbolitionISH: a podcast at the end of the world is a black politics and culture podcast made possible by Producer WyLee (NYC/JHB, @whoswylee) Host Jon Jon Moore (CDMX @incivilitea) and Social Media Director Bug (PHL, @hoetentiial).
To Engage Power: Gay Humor, Slave Play, and Sylvia Wynter
"Every piece of art... in order for it to actually be subversive, to actually be important, to think beyond the end the world— it has to engage power."
In this absolute smorgasbord of a Season 3 Premier, resident psychoanalyst and African-American Studies doctoral student Gilberto Rosa-Duran catches up with Jon Jon for a sweetly winding, dare we say gut-wrenching, laugh-fest on power—and what it has to do with Black humor, desire, and representation. At the end of the world, what makes a comedic performance interesting? What does gay boy humor have to do with fisting? WHAT the hell IS psychoanalysis? And why is Jeremy O. Harris the gay man's Tyler Perry?
Keywords: Shrek, Arthur Jafa, Ted Danza, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and a 500MG edible.
Please become a monthly supporter of abolitionISH—100% pays our guests, producer, and social media director!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
AbolitionISH: a podcast at the end of the world is a black politics and culture podcast made possible by Producer WyLee (NYC/JHB, @whoswylee) Host Jon Jon Moore (CDMX @incivilitea) and Social Media Director Bug (PHL, @hoetentiial).
Season 2 Finale: The Black Love Episode
What's love got to do with *New York voice* SLA-VER-Y?
In the final episode of Season 2, jon jon is joined by African-American Studies Ph.D. student Jordan Mulkey to ask: what exactly makes "black love" so black? With special unauthorized appearances by Angela Davis, Cornel West, and Ronald McDonald.
Become a monthly supporter of this exciting work—and help us pay our guests and producer!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
Alien Abductions, Dark Afrofuturism — Space is the Place? Part 2
Why don't Black people report being abducted by UFOs?
What does Miss Saturn have to do with Miss Slavery?
In this very special two-year anniversary episode, AbolitionISH producer wyLee interviews jon jon about his article on blackness and the UFO abduction phenomenon forthcoming in Qui Parle. And the team shares more about the astronomical implications (wink wink) of reckoning with astrology's history and present while Black.
Become a monthly supporter of this exciting work—and help us pay our guests and producer!—at patreon.com/abolitionish.
Space is The Place? Part 1, Astrology & Fated Blackness
jon jon welcomes AbolitionISH producer wyLee to talk about astrology, history, and what it means to look to the stars while Black.
wyLee, aka feat.wyLee is a Shona multi-disciplinary artist & astrologer-in-training based in Johannesburg. They’re excited to experiment with community-based approaches to Black knowledge production & we are mad lucky to have them as the new producer of the podcast.
Become a monthly supporter of our work at patreon.com/abolitionish.
BLACK/MENTAL/HEALTH? Afropessimism, Suicide, Therapy
Content Warning: This episode features explicit discussion of Black suicide and suicidal ideation.
We're thrilled to welcome two newbies to the podcast for complementary conversations on afropessimism and black mental health.
First up is swim., a Philly-raised musician and PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature at UC Irvine. After being introduced to existentialism through rap and poetry at a young age, swim. continues to pursue questions about Black existence in his music and theory. On this episode, he tells us about the first poem he wrote, shares some (mis)conceptions about afropessimism, and teases his in-progress dissertation thinking suicide as a problem for thought. Oh, and a song!
We're then joined by Dalyn Pacheco-Smith, a Black LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) from San Bruno, California now living in Metro Detroit. After receiving his Master's in Counseling Psychology with a focus on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Marriage and Family Therapy, Dalyn worked with Black youth in Oakland. And, after experiencing firsthand the limits of therapy as a client and clinician, he's imagining a different approach to being with Black clients, inside and outside of the room. On this episode, he shares stories of practicing-while-Black and his audacious hope for a future where Black rage lives.
Become a monthly supporter: patreon.com/abolitionish
Season 2, Episode 1: DMX and Death Doulas
After a really fucking long hiatus, we're Black with a new season.
- Houston cultural critic and writer Tirhakah Love (@tirhakahlove) talks to us about rap, addiction, and his recent New York Times' nod to the life and deathly sounds of DMX
- Princeton Theological Seminary PhD student and writer RAW (@_RawilCox) reflects on her recent essay about Black suffering amidst COVID-19, the political stakes of something called "Black Joy" and what it means to be a Death Doula.
Join us to think, mourn, scream, laugh, and be with one another. #FreePalestine
Become a monthly supporter at https://www.patreon.com/abolitionISH.
episode seven: election & empire
EPISODE 7: Election and Empire, September 14, 2020
Jon Jon is now in Chicago and from the Windy City comes the most recent installment of AbolitionISH: a podcast at the end of the world.
GUESTS
- Democratic-Socialist and Former 2020 Candidate for Oregon's 3rd Congressional District Albert Lee (@AlbertLee2020)
- Young historian and incoming grad student Dez (@cachupapapi)
Dez and Albert join Jon Jon to discuss the (historic) tension between political participation and electoral abolition, the specter of empire that looms as the Presidential election nears, and some wild events since we last checked in-- including the unmasking of (now former) GWU Professor of Blackfish Studies Jessica "I CAN Believe It's Not Coco Butter" Krug & the ascension of Kamala "Kuthu-Hop-Top-Cop" Harris
This episode features music from Paris-based French & Somali-Canadian R&B artist MIRE's newest project Hermit Sessions. Follow him on IG and Twitter @SUNNYMIREE. Beats x @KECHOMUSIC.
support abolitionish by joining the patreon family here: https://www.patreon.com/abolitionISH
transcripts here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hTzmjR1KuDQM1axcXtgkLLIKGtVWzwfJ?usp=sharing
xx
jon jon
episode six: sounds like abolition
after a pandemic-induced hiatus, we’re back at it! jon jon welcomes best friend and Boston-area equity-oriented educator and creative Anissa Waterhouse and attorney/#8toabolition co-author Nnenna Amuchie (@theafrolegalise) to discuss abolition, education, and imagination. This episode features music from L.A. based experimental pop/hip-hop duo Closegood’s EPs GRAVEN and NYMPH, in addition to an interview with members Nyfe and Amada. You can follow them on Twitter and support their work by subscribing to their Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/closegood.
support abolitionish here: https://anchor.fm/abolitionish/support
or here: https://cash.me/jonathanjacobmoore
transcripts here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hTzmjR1KuDQM1axcXtgkLLIKGtVWzwfJ?usp=sharing
episode five: the sick and the striking. ft. angie, anthony, and bre
jon jon welcomes #COLA4All organizers breanna byrd (UC Santa Cruz Feminist Studies) and angie lou (Fmr. UC Santa Cruz Ethnic Studies), along with UCLA Sociology ph.d. student and writer anthony james williams, to discuss the graduate students strikes across the UC, cultivating anti-capitalist futures (fuck work, be lazy) and the toll that COVID-19 continues to take on the people we love. This episode features new music from Queer Black Diva and underground popstar for the cyber resistance from Prince George's County, MHYSA. To learn more about her work, follow her on Twitter @MHYSA301 and purchase her new album on Hyperdub, NEVEAH, at https://mhysa301.bandcamp.com.
episode four: spongebob, orientalism, and the race (of) war | featuring mehra
jon jon welcomes long-term homie and uc irvine culture & theory phd candidate mehra gharibian to the podcast to talk about getting older and theorizing in grad school, catfishing, orientalism, video games, and why spongebob squarepants is the critique of modernity you didn’t know you needed. it all makes sense, we promise.
episode three: black refusal after obama
Obama has a bone to pick with "woke" niggas. Seeing as he's unlikely to shut up, let's get real about his desires and stop faking the funk.
Find this essay published in RaceBaitr: https://racebaitr.com/2019/11/26/yes-we-cant-undoing-obamas-regulation-of-black-political-imagination/
episode two: the virtuous and the virtuoso
jon jon and his roommates-- african-american studies phd students kevin rigby jr. and gilberto rosa-duran-- talk about saidiya hartman, getting blocked from tinder, our first crushes, and the (im)possibility of empathizing with black people.
featuring music by stush kaiser and poetry by ariana brown.
episode one: "i know how to write forever"
we're back and this time we have mics!
the debut episode of abolitionish finds jon jon and his roommate-- african-american studies phd student gilberto rosa-duran-- reflecting on the impact of toni morrison and crowning the first ever brown clown of the week.
featuring music by the psychonuat.
off the ground
here goes.... everything.
hosted weekly by jon jon moore @hoodqueer.
AbolitionISH is a podcast dedicated to Black culture, philosophy, politics & shit talking hosted weekly straight from the brink of apocalypse by way of Oakland, CA, right here on Anchor and with your help, the first episode will be live and on your favorite platform in no time.
Except Tidal. Jay-Z is rich enough.
support abolitionish here: https://anchor.fm/abolitionish/support
or here: https://cash.me/jonathanjacobmoore
see you on the other side of something better.
jon jon