AFRICANA BOOK

Africana Studies and Research Center has launched an annual Book Project starting this Fall 2006. Inspired by the success of the Cornell’s First Year Book Project, the idea of the project is to assign one book that deals with a matter of concern to the African and African American communities and/or issues of relevance to their history and culture, which all faculty and incoming graduate students would read and engage in series of discussions around issues raised in the book. As agreed by the faculty, the book project and all related events will be open to the larger community.
For this year 2006-2007, Africana faculty agreed on adopting Angela Davis’ book Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003). Davis’ book is an excellent and concise study of the evolution of the punishment regimes and incarceration systems in the United Stated and their global connections. The book pays special attention to the rise of the Prison Industrial Complex and its intersection with the Military Industrial Complex in the context of globalization, in addition to the so-called “War on Drugs,” the electoral rhetoric of “Toughness on Crime,” and the re-institution of Capital punishment. (for more details about the book see the Publisher’s Press Release attached.)
In selecting this book, we are cognizant of the inequalities of imprisonment and incarceration rates that have negatively affected the African American, Native American and Latino communities. In addition, Ithaca, where Cornell University is located, as a Land Grant Institution, is surrounded by a considerable number of prisons reflecting the disproportionate number of Blacks and Latino men and women among their inmates. We, therefore felt the book and the discussion around it will bring to the fore some of these issues and generate interest in community outreach among faculty and students.
In conjunction with the Book Project, Africana faculty and students will hold a Public Forum on November 7, 2006 to discuss the book. Cornell Cinema has just launched a film series on prisons as part of its Fall 2006 program (Please see Cornell Cinema Program for Fall 2006). The Spring 2007’s Africana Colloquium Series and Black Authors/New Books Series will be dedicated to the theme of “The Prison Industrial Complex: Incarceration and Punishment Regimes in the US and Globally,” culminating in a one-day conference on the same theme.

ANGELA DAVIS, ARE PRISONS OBSOLETE?
(SEVEN STORIES PRESS OPEN MEDIA SERIES, APRIL 2003)

Praise for Are Prisons Obsolete?
“In this extraordinary book, Angela Davis challenges us to confront the human rights catastrophe in our jails and prisons. As she so convincingly argues, the contemporary U.S. practice of super-incarceration is closer to new age slavery than to any recognizable system of ‘criminal justice’. ”--Mike Davis, author of Dead Cities and City of Quartz
“In this brilliant, thoroughly researched book, Angela Davis swings a wrecking ball into the racist and sexist underpinnings of the American prison system. [She levels] an unflinching critique of how and why more than 2 million Americans are presently behind bars, and the corporations who profit from their suffering. Davis explores the biases that criminalize communities of color, politically disenfranchising huge chunks of minority voters in the process.”--Cynthia McKinney, Congress woman

Quotes from Are Prisons Obsolete?
“It is my hope that this book will encourage readers to question their own assumptions about the prison. Many people have already reached the conclusion that the death penalty is an outmoded form of punishment that violates basic principles of human rights. It is time, I believe, to encourage similar conversations about the prison. During my own career as an antiprison activist I have seen the population of U.S. prisons increase with such rapidity that many people in black, Latino, and Native American communities now have a far greater chance of going to prison than of getting a decent education. When many young people decide to join the military service in order to avoid the inevitability of a stint in prison, it should cause us to wonderwhether we should not try to introduce better alternatives.”

ABOUT ANGELA DAVIS
Angela Y. Davis is a professor of history of consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Over the last thirty years, she has been active in numerous organizations challenging prison-related repression. Her advocacy on behalf of political prisoners led to three capital charges, sixteen months in jail awaiting trial, and a highly publicized campaign then acquittal in 1972. Her books include Are Prisons Obsolete?, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday, and forthcoming from Random House, Prisons and Democracy.