The Kansas City Defender feat. Ryan Sorrell

Beyond Prisons

Kim sits down with Ryan Sorrell, founder of the Kansas City Defender, for a conversation about what motivated him to start a media organization, his early days as a content creator covering community and cultural events with his childhood friend and collaborator, and the influences of the radical Black press had on shaping his thinking and approach to journalism as a tool for liberation.

Ryan is an organizer, media worker and artist. In 2021, he founded The Kansas City Defender, a Black-led abolitionist news platform and power-building organization rooted in the tradition of the radical Black press. Within its first two years, The Defender broke over 20 national stories, reached over 50 million people globally, and garnered attention from major national and international outlets. In addition to information services, The Defender builds power through Mutual Aid, political education, and cultural events like basketball tournaments and open mic nights. Ryan has engaged in public commentary across platforms like DemocracyNow, NPR, and University of the Arts London. Most recently, Ryan co-Founded the Mapping Genocide Project, a subversive digital tool launched less than a month ago that exposes the locations of every major facility tied to the top 5 weapons manufacturers arming the israeli colonial project, aiming to challenge imperialism at its core.

The Kansas City Defender

Episode Resources & Notes

Pre-order We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition, Edited by Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson

IN STORES NOV. 19, 2024!

Abolition has never been a proposal to simply tear things down. As Alexis Pauline Gumbs asks, “What if abolition is something that grows?” As we struggle to build a liberatory, caring, loving, abundant future, we have much to learn from the work of birthing, raising, caring for, and loving future generations.

In We Grow the World Together, abolitionists and organizers Maya Schenwar and Kim Wilson bring together a remarkable collection of voices revealing the complex tapestry of ways people are living abolition in their daily lives through parenting and caregiving. Ranging from personal narratives to policy-focused analysis to activist chronicles, these writers highlight how abolition is essential to any kind of parenting justice.

Upcoming Events

Chicago Book Launch - Monday, November 18, 2024 @ 5:30 p.m. CT

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Fundraiser – Haymarket: Books Not Bars: Sending copies of ‘We Grow the World Together’ into prisons.

We feel strongly that this book should be made available for free to people who are incarcerated, so that they can read it, start book groups, and engage in political education around parenting justice.

Can you contribute toward sending copies of We Grow the World Together to folks in prisons and jails?

Credits

Created and hosted by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein

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