It’s been a year since my last blogpost, and in that time I have made the transition to full-time activist. It has been a difficult decision to put my academic career to the side. With the election of Donald Trump, I feel the decision is even more timely. Now more than ever, we need bring our communities together for what will likely be the fight of our lives, indeed the fight FOR our lives.

On the floor of the Illinois Legislature with Wandjell Harvey-Robinson and Sen. Jacqueline Collins for passage of a bill to lower the cost of prison phone calls.

I’m now happy to say I’m running a community center, with 30,000 square feet to fill with activities. In August, I accepted a position as Program Director at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC). It is, I realize, my dream job. I’ve written about community centers during the Depression, but now am operating one. I get to make the IMC a “big tent” for various grassroots activists, youth of color, immigrants, hackers, artists, and community members. I continue to promote popular education though the #PopEd series I’ve launched. I get to host events by talented local hip hop musicians. Through our NEA-funded project Open Scene, we have an assembled an amazing group of local youth to re-vision the IMC and Urbana.

Over the last year, I have taken part in several campaign victories. A highlight was passing a bill in the Illinois legislature to lower the cost of phone calls in prison with my longtime friend State Representative Carol Ammons, and Senator Jacqueline Collins [pictured above]. It was also a chance to work with Wandjell Harvey-Robinson, who I’ve been delighted to watch blossom as she became a spokesperson for the campaign.

More recently, along with Francis Boyle, University of Illinois law professor, Karen Aram, local peace activist, and members of CU Immigration Forum, we passed an ordinance re-affirming Urbana as a Sanctuary City!

It has been a year since the death of Toya Frazier in the local jail, and a million-dollar lawsuit has been filed by the family. I’m hopeful that my story on Frazier’s death has played a role in bringing some justice for her family. The story of three deaths in the county jail over the last year also helped the local organization Build Programs Not Jails defeat a jail referendum and argue for alternatives to incarceration.

I’ve assisted Joseph Dole, incarcerated writer at Stateville prison in Illinois, to publish two of his stories in Truthout, recently one on the closing of the last panopticon in the US at Stateville. I also manage the Facebook page for Joe where you can see more of his art and writings.

I also published several articles myself in Truthout, one of the most important online news outlets today with a solid track record of covering mass incarceration issues. Thanks to Truthout, I was able to write my first commissioned article for a national publication. My second commissioned piece was just published on the “Orange Crush,” what is the first in-depth story of a tactical team that is infamous in Illinois prisons.

In the past year, I traveled to Oakland with the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAG-Net), Detroit for the Allied Media Conference, and Washington DC to attend the Color of Freedom summit at Georgetown University. Still keeping a foot in academia, this Spring I attended a regional American Studies conference at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, where I caught up with David Roediger, Betsy Esch, and other colleagues.

I also made some new friends in Chicago, having lunch with Truthout’s Maya Schenwar at Heartland Café, eating pizza with Max Suchan and Sharlyn Grace from the Chicago Community Bond Fund, watching a Cubs game with Freddy Martinez of Lucy Parsons Labs, and drinking coffee with Moni Cosby and Holly Krig who work with incarcerated mothers.

For 2017, I’m making plans for a FOIA workshop with Sarah Lazare, Alternet reporter and former CU resident. We’re holding a forum on solitary confinement with Alan Mills of the Uptown People’s Law Center, as well as my new friend Brian Nelson, and my old friend Gregory Koger, who both have experienced long periods of isolation in prison and lived to tell their story.

Also this year, expect to see me posting more political pieces here on my blog as we fight back against the coming Trump regime.

Thanks to my all of my friends and comrades along the way who have helped me to make this transition.

Wishing everybody love and solidarity in 2017!

BD