Session 5 • November 7, 2024
PART I – Book Discussion: Angela Davis,Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

Angela Davis’s Freedom is a Constant Struggle challenges us to examine connections between global movements for justice and the shared struggles for freedom and human rights. This text initiates a generative dialogue for understanding systemic oppression, resistance, and solidarity across borders.

Our guest, Dr. Rami Nashashibi, brings a wealth of insight to this discussion. Dr. Nashashibi is a MacArthur Fellow and the founder of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), an organization dedicated to healing and justice on Chicago’s South Side and Atlanta’s west end. Known for his bridge-building efforts across racial, religious, and socioeconomic lines, Dr. Nashashibi has made a profound impact on community organizing and social transformation. He also brings an artistic perspective as a musician and advocate for initiatives like Cariol’s Law, a police accountability measure in Buffalo, NY. Together, we’ll explore themes of resilience, solidarity, and collective action, as Dr. Nashashibi and President Butler examine the pressing questions raised in Davis’s work.

Facilitated by President Lee H. Butler, Jr.

Speaker

Dr. Rami Nashashibi is a MacArthur Fellow, a Doctor of Sociology from the University of Chicago, and the founder and Executive Director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), a non-profit organization incorporated in 1997 that fosters health, wellness and healing on Chicago’s South Side & Atlanta’s west end by organizing for social change, cultivating the arts and operating a holistic health center.

As a community leader building bridges across racial, religious, and socioeconomic divides to confront the challenges of poverty and disinvestment in urban communities, Rami has successfully unified a diverse set of constituencies around a shared focus of social justice. He serves on the board of directors of the Margaret Casey Foundation and in 2020, Rami made his debut as musician, song-writer and executive producer of “THIS LOVE THING”, a soul-stirring LP. The album’s first single “Mama Please” was dedicated to raising the profile of and advocating for Cariol’s Law, legislation which passed in late 2020 to help transform police accountability in Buffalo, New York. He has worked with several leading scholars in the area of globalization, African American studies and urban sociology and has contributed chapters to edited volumes by Manning Marable and Saskia Sassen.

Rami has lectured around the world on a range of topics related to American Muslim identity, community organizing and social justice issues and has received many prestigious community service and organizing honors. He has been featured in several prominent media publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Chicago Tribune, and multiple stories on PBS, CBS, and National Public Radio. Rami has also taught at the Chicago Theological Seminary, where he was a visiting professor of the Sociology of Religion and Muslim Studies.