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Join A Continuous Struggle author Garrett Felber and Denzel K. Burke from the REAL Youth Initiative to discuss the legacy of jailhouse lawyer Martin Sostre (1923-2015). A Continuous Struggle, the first biography of the revolutionary political prisoner, shows how his lifetime of principled struggle helped lay the foundation for contemporary abolitionist struggles and Black anarchism. Felber and members of REAL will discuss Sostre’s legacy, writing a political biography that can be used as a tool, and what these lessons mean for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youth.

Garrett Felber is an educator, writer, and organizer. They are the author of Those Who Know Don’t Say: The Nation of Islam, the Black Freedom Movement, and the Carceral State, and coauthor of The Portable Malcolm X Reader, with Manning Marable. Felber is a cofounder of the abolitionist collective Study and Struggle and is currently building a radical mobile library, the Free Society People's Library, in Portland, Oregon.

Denzel K. Burke is a community builder, facilitator, organizer, and the Co-Founder of REAL Youth Initiative, an organization that develops revolutionary consciousness and builds community with currently and formerly incarcerated youth towards the abolition of prisons and the conditions that (re)produce them. He is also a consultant for the Justice 20/20 Network. Upon his release from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice in July of 2019, Denzel began studies at Chicago State University and co-led the “Reimagining Youth Justice Project” , a project that where Denzel co-facilitated 32 convenings inside Illinois state youth prisons talking with incarcerated young people about alternatives to incarceration and co-authored a report with the Children & Family Justice Center at Northwestern University. Concluding the report Denzel published, “Going Back Inside: Reflections on Creative Convenings Inside Youth Prison. Denzel then collaborated with a collective of young abolitionists in Illinois to launch the Final 5 Campaign, which he served on for a year before launching REAL Youth Initiative. Today, the REAL Youth Initiative runs bi weekly programming for youth in 3 juvenile prisons across the state of Illinois. REAL also host the “Renaldo Hudson Fellowship”, a paid fellowship for returning young people to create a community program that addresses the needs of formerly incarcerated young people and builds safe spaces where young people can thrive socially and study collectively. When Denzel isn’t working, he is usually at home with his cat, Aries, or studying about black resistance in America.

Rising. Elevating. And. Leading. Youth Initiative (R.E.A.L.) is an unassociated group facilitated by previously incarcerated young people. It is a youth-led, peer-mentor resource hub which addresses the trauma and PTSD of incarceration and post-incarceration community re-entry. R.E.A.L. founders Denzel Burke and Destine Phillips work with young people to address these issues with community education, professional development, and the arts. In addition, they use peace circles for conflict resolution. ICOY is supporting and working with them to ensure they can become a successful standalone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the future.