Book Talk: Conversations towards Abolition with Calvin John Smiley and Jasson Perez

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Join us as we welcome Calvin John Smiley and Jasson Perez to the store for an event in celebration of Dr. Smiley's new book Defund: Conversations Towards Abolition, a collection of illuminating interviews with leading abolitionist organizers and thinkers, reflecting on the uprisings of summer 2020, the rise of #defund, and the work ahead of bridging the divide between reform and abolition. The 2020 uprisings against police violence launched a nation conversation about defunding the police and prisons, propelling the #defund movement into the spotlight. The backlash has been swift, beating back efforts to reallocate public funds away from police and other punitive carceral systems and into social welfare programs that provide care, stability, and community. But as Calvin John Smiley reveals through pointed conversations with academics, activists, and system-impacted individuals, #defund was always more than a brief moment; it is part of an ongoing struggle against white supremacy, capitalism, police state-sanctioned violence, and mass incarceration. Through interviews with Marisol LeBrón, Dan Berger, Zellie Imani, and Olayemi Olurin, among others, Smiley considers how #defund can bridge the divide between reform and abolition, becoming a catalyst to help organizers realize abolitionist visions. Along the way, these rich conversations illuminate the long histories of systems of repression and protests against them; how policing serves as a colonial project in Puerto Rico and beyond; why creativity and music-making are essential to movement-building; and much more. Giving voice to those committed to abolitionist praxis, Defund is an essential tool for organizers as we imagine how defund goes from a hashtag to a movement to a reality. Calvin John Smiley, PhD is an associate professor of sociology at Hunter College-CUNY. He is the author of the award winning Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition(University of California Press, 2023) and Defund: Conversations Towards Abolition (Haymarket Books, 2024). Additionally, he is the co-editor of Prisoner Reentry in the 21st Century: Critical Perspectives of Coming Home(Routledge, 2020). Smiley’s research focuses on justice, inequality, and abolition. Outside of scholarly work, Smiley is the founder and director of Till Everything Better LLC, which facilitates restorative justice programs in New York City youth detention facilities. Jasson Perez is a Chicago-born organizer, researcher, abolitionist, and musical artist. Much of his research focuses on the connections between police violence, mass incarceration, and economic injustice. Through his research and organizing he works on campaigns to end mass incarceration and police violence to demonstrate that democratic socialism must embrace the politics of decarceration and abolition. Jasson has and continues to work with organizations such as the Black Youth Project, DSA, ACRE, and co-founder of the Black Abolitionists Network.