What Kind of Bird Can't Fly

A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection

Dorsey Nunn, Lee Romney, Michelle Alexander

$53.95 $45.93

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Heyday Books
07 August 2024

Memoirs; Social discrimination; Social work; Crime & criminology; Political activism

A decade behind bars spurs fifty powerful years of political and legal battles for freedom and human rights.

""Whoever wants to assuage their doubts that radical change is possible-from the level of the individual to that of law, culture, and society-should make time to read Dorsey Nunn's extraordinary memoir."" -Angela Y. Davis

""Dorsey Nunn is one of the grand love warriors and freedom fighters of his generation! Don't miss his powerful and poignant story of tragedy and triumph!"" -Cornel West

""So much of what I've come to know and understand over the years about the second-class status imposed upon people labeled 'criminals' or 'felons' I've learned from Dorsey and the people who comprise All of Us or None, an organization he cofounded. Although I have fancy degrees and Dorsey does not, there's never been a time in our friendship in which he hasn't been schooling me-not so much in theory, but in practice."" -From the foreword by Michelle Alexander

When Dorsey Nunn shuffled, shackled like a slave, into the California State carceral system at age nineteen, he could barely read. While caged he received an education he never could have anticipated. His first lesson: Prison had a color scheme, and it didn't match the larger society. On the inside, guards stoked racial warfare among prisoners while on the outside the machinery of the criminal legal system increasingly targeted poor Black and Brown communities with offenses, real or contrived. Nunn emerged from San Quentin after ten years behind bars, radicalized by his experience and emboldened by the militant wisdom of the men he met there. He poured his heart and mind into liberating all those he left behind, building a nationwide movement to restore justice to millions of system-impacted Americans.

In this poignant, wry, and powerful memoir, Nunn links the politics of Black Power to the movements for Black lives and dignified reentry today. His story underscores the power of coalition building, persistence in the face of backlash, and the importance of centering the voices of experience in the fight for freedom-and proves, once and for all, that jailbirds can fly.

By: Dorsey Nunn
With: Lee Romney
Foreword by: Michelle Alexander
Imprint: Heyday Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 215mm, Width: 139mm,
ISBN: 9781597146326
ISBN 10: 1597146323
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 07 August 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dorsey Nunn began advocating for the rights of California prisoners and their families while incarcerated. As codirector of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC), in 2003 he cofounded All of Us or None (AOUON), a grassroots movement of formerly incarcerated people working on their own behalf to secure their civil and human rights. AOUON is now the policy and advocacy arm of LSPC, which Nunn has led as executive director since 2011. Collective victories include ending indefinite solitary confinement in California, expanding access to housing and employment for formerly incarcerated people, and restoring the vote to those on parole and probation. Lee Romney spent twenty-three years as a reporter at theLos Angeles Times, where she developed expertise in criminal justice and mental health. She is currently collaborating with a former public defender on the podcast November in My Soul. Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, and legal scholar. She is a former Ford Foundation Senior Fellow and Soros Justice Fellow, has clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, and has run the ACLU of Northern California's Racial Justice Project. Alexander is a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary and an opinion columnist for theNew York Times. The author ofThe New Jim CrowandThe New Jim Crow: Young Readers' Edition(both from The New Press), she lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Reviews for What Kind of Bird Can't Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection

"From the foreword by Michelle Alexander: ""So much of what I’ve come to know and understand over the years about the second-class status imposed upon people labeled 'criminals' or 'felons' I’ve learned from Dorsey and the people who comprise All of Us or None, an organization he cofounded. Although I have fancy degrees and Dorsey does not, there’s never been a time in our friendship in which he hasn’t been schooling me—not so much in theory, but in practice."""