3/25 Recap and Recs

Jack Amos Holloway

— 4 min read
3/25 Recap and Recs

Here’s a breakdown of my three posts from this month:

"In my reading of the Bible, the right to a piece of land is not tied to laws of private property, nor is it bestowed on anyone or any community unconditionally. Rather, the right to a piece of land is tied to the execution of justice. ... If a king or a people do not execute justice in the land, their right to the land is revoked. Justice involves abolishing oppression and caring for those in need. Where there is oppression and violence, where the poor are neglected, where the stranger is the object of scorn, there is no right to the land."
Our leaders will not offer us liberation. We will liberate ourselves or we will remain in bondage.

For our liberation, we need class consciousness and revolutionary consensus. Only when the masses come together in agreement on who is oppressing us and what we need to do about it will we be able to make our demands and have our demands met.
I don’t want just to add to the noise. Nor do I want to be a distraction. I want my writing to embolden and inspire people, to awaken people to the truth that this world is created by humans, and humans can change it. I want my writing to serve the revolution, to make the Great General Strike more likely—that day when the workers of the world rise together and stop everything and say, “Here are our demands.” Nothing seems more worth writing about to me than that.

And here are some movies, books, and songs I’ve been enjoying recently:

Movies:

  • Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (2024)
    It's a documentary about the CIA assassination of the African politician Patrice Lumumba, but it takes a rather unconventional approach to documentary filmmaking. It's as much about the jazz music of the late 50's-early 60's as it is about colonization, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and African independence. You'd better be awake for this one, as it requires a lot of quick reading, but it's a fascinating movie about an important episode in world history.
  • No Other Land (2024)
    This (upsetting?) Oscar-winner is one of the most important films of our time. Made by both Israeli and Palestinian activists, it shows Israel's displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank in the years leading up to October 2023. It's apparently streaming on Amazon, so I highly recommend watching it, especially since it's had a rough road to distribution. Many powerful people do not want you to see this film.
  • The Substance (2024)
    My favorite film of 2024, The Substance is a real headbanger of a movie. Not for the faint of heart, it's a hardcore body horror film with just the right amount of camp. It's funny, fast-paced, and features a stellar performance from Demi Moore. It is perhaps over-referential to other horror films, but there's enough originality here to make it a new classic.

Books:

  • Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity by Dan Berger
    Berger tells the story of the white anti-imperialist organization known as The Weather Underground, from the late 60's-early 70's. The Weather Underground formed in response to the Black Panther Party to be a white ally force. They became infamous for bombing government and corporate buildings in what they called "armed propaganda." They never killed or hurt anyone, but they were still designated a terrorist group by the U.S. government. Berger's book is a thorough exploration of the group's history, complete with a solid analysis of its strengths and weaknesses, as well as lessons for today's activists.
  • The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin
    Baldwin is my favorite author. This was the last bit of his non-fiction that I had to read, and I'm glad I went through it. It's an eclectic mix of mostly shorter things, but there are undoubtedly some absolute gems. My favorite is "To Crush a Serpent," which he wrote in 1987, the year that he died. "Complexity is our only safety and love is the only key to our maturity."
  • The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow
    Graeber and Wengrow set out to debunk the traditional tales of human origins in this massive tome. What we think is possible for humanity's future depends in part on how we imagine humanity's past, and the authors show that the dominant Western narratives of humanity's past support a defeatist, fatalistic view of human potential. Inequality, hierarchy, and war all seem insurmountable to us because they've seemingly always been with us. But what about the other stories, of ages of equality, peaceful coexistence, and social cooperation? Maybe if we can retrieve such stories from a forgotten past, we can find hope for a better future. Graeber and Wengrow dig for such stories, while offering a complex and multi-faceted reappraisal of the metanarratives of human history.

Music:

  • My 5 Favorite Songs of All Time - Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube
    I was recently moved to collect my five favorite songs in one place. These are songs that just keep coming up for me. I return to them again and again in awestruck wonder and they never fail me. This list may not always stay the same, but the songs in it have stood the test of time.

    1. "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground from The Velvet Underground & Nico
    2. "Part 1" by Philip Glass from Music in 12 Parts
    3. "Journey in Satchidinanda" by Alice Coltrane from Journey in Satchidinanda
    4. "It Took the Night to Believe" by sunn O))) from Black One
    5. "Bajabula Bonke (The Healing Song)" by Hugh Masekela from The Promise of a Future

What about you? What have you been listening to, watching, and reading lately?

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