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Joy and Pain

A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums

Damien M. Sojoyner

$44.95

Paperback

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English
University of California Press
28 January 2023
A poignant account of how the carceral state shapes daily life for young Black people—and how Black Americans resist, find joy, and cultivate new visions for the future.

 

At the Southern California Library—a community organization and an archive of radical and progressive movements—the author meets a young man, Marley. In telling Marley’s story, Damien M. Sojoyner depicts the overwhelming nature of Black precarity in the twenty‑first century through the lenses of housing, education, health care, social services, and juvenile detention. But Black life is not defined by precarity; it embraces social visions of radical freedom that allow the pursuit of a life of joy beyond systems of oppression.

 

Structured as a “record collection” of five “albums,” this innovative book relates Marley’s personal encounters with everyday aspects of the carceral state through an ethnographic A side and offers deeper context through an anthropological and archival B side. In Joy and Pain, Marley’s experiences at the intersection of history and the contemporary political moment invite us to imagine more expansive futures.

 

By:  
Imprint:   University of California Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 18mm
Weight:   318g
ISBN:   9780520390423
ISBN 10:   0520390423
Pages:   248
Publication Date:  
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Look at California ALBUM 1: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT  A Side: A Place Called Home B Side: Manufacturing a Problem ALBUM 2: THE HEART OF REBELLION A Side: A True Education B Side: Watts to the Future ALBUM 3: ALL THAT GLITTERS  A Side: Nonprofit Management B Side: All Power to the People ALBUM 4: CRUEL AND BEAUTIFUL A Side: Shelter from Paradise B Side: Socialist Visions ALBUM 5: LIBERATORY VIBES A Side: Freedom Ain’t Free B Side: The Price of Freedom Closing Note: Freedom on the Mind Grounding Materials Works Cited  Illustration Credits Index

Damien M. Sojoyner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of First Strike: Educational Enclosures in Black Los Angeles.

Reviews for Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums

"""Lively discussions of Black musicians including Ice Cube and Kendrick Lamar pepper the narrative, as do deep dives into the tactics and strategies of advocacy groups such as the Black Panther Party and the California Housing and Action Network. Progressive activists will savor this in-depth portrait of the struggle for justice."" * Publishers Weekly *"


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