The 20th-anniversary edition of Kelley’s influential history of
20th-century Black radicalism, with new reflections on current
movements and their impact on the author, and a foreword by poet Aja
Monet
First published in 2002, Freedom Dreams is a staple in the
study of the Black radical tradition. Unearthing the thrilling
history of grassroots movements and renegade intellectuals and
artists, Kelley recovers the dreams of the future worlds Black
radicals struggled to achieve.
Focusing on the insights of activists, from the Revolutionary Action
Movement to the insurgent poetics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire,
Kelley chronicles the quest for a homeland, the hope that communism
offered, the politics of surrealism, the transformative potential of
Black feminism, and the long dream of reparations for slavery and Jim
Crow.
In this edition, Kelley includes a new introduction reflecting on how
movements of the past 20 years have expanded his own vision of
freedom to include mutual care, disability justice, abolition, and
decolonization, and a new epilogue exploring the visionary organizing
of today’s freedom dreamers.
This classic history of the power of the Black radical imagination is
as timely as when it was first published.