Takara Pierce
takara@blackalderllc.com
An evening of conversation, strategy, and storytelling with the editors and authors of Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st-Century Social Movements, featuring youth organizers, cultural strategists, and leading voices in social justice communications.
(Black PR Wire) Chicago, IL – The Social Justice Initiative at the University of Illinois Chicago, in partnership with the Radical Communicators Network (RadComms), invites the public to an evening of powerful dialogue and storytelling in celebration of Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements (New Press, June 2025).
This one-of-a-kind event will feature co-editors Shanelle Matthews and Marzena Zukowska, along with contributing authors Rachel Jacoby, Tre Bosley and Zaineb Mohammed. These organizers and storytellers have helped shape some of the most urgent political fights of our time, from passing landmark gun safety laws in Illinois to building youth-led movements on the South Side of Chicago. The discussion will be moderated by renowned Black queer feminist scholar and activist Cathy J. Cohen.
Event Details:
- WHEN: July 7, 2025 from 6 to 8 p.m.
- WHERE: Chicago Justice Gallery, University of Illinois Chicago
- BOOK NOTE: Preorder required to receive your copy at the event. Please note that books will not be sold onsite.
- REGISTRATION: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liberation-stories-book-tour-chicago-stop-tickets-1354005670409?aff=erelexpmlt
This intimate and participatory event will explore how movement communicators, cultural strategists, and scholars are shaping the stories that define our time, from abolitionist uprisings to immigrant justice fights to labor organizing and beyond. Guests will hear firsthand about the six-year journey of creating Liberation Stories, the first-ever anthology written by and for social justice communicators.
Attendees will also join in an open dialogue about the role of narrative power in today’s political landscape.
About the Book:
Liberation Stories brings together the collective insights of some of today’s most influential progressive communicators, organizers, artists, journalists, and academics. With historical and contemporary case studies, this anthology offers practical tools and visionary strategies for those shaping movements and building toward a more just world.
As authoritarianism gains ground, attacking our books, our bodies, and our communities, Liberation Stories emerges as a vital blueprint for resistance and survival.
About the Co-Editors:
- Shanelle Matthews is the founder of the Radical Communicators Network, former communications director for the Movement for Black Lives, and current Distinguished Lecturer at City College, CUNY.
- Marzena Zukowska is an organizer and narrative strategist from Chicago, former media director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and co-founder of the UK-based immigrant rights organization POMOC.
About the Speakers
- Cathy J. Cohen is the D. Gale Johnson Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago and chair of the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity. She is the author of Democracy Remixed and The Boundaries of Blackness.
- Trevon (Tre) Bosley, a lifelong gun violence prevention advocate from Chicago’s South Side, began organizing after losing his cousin and brother to gun violence. Since 2011, he has worked with The B.R.A.V.E. Youth Leaders of St. Sabina and now serves as board co-chair of March for Our Lives, a Giffords Courage Fellow alumnus, and a community organizer for the Community Justice Action Fund.
- Rachel Jacoby is a Highland Park resident and longtime gun violence prevention advocate who helped lead the grassroots campaign for the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which banned assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the state. A former March For Our Lives organizer, she now serves on its Board and is President of the Illinois Alliance to Prevent Gun Violence.
- Zaineb Mohammed is the communications director at the Kataly Foundation and a member of the Radical Communicators Network Leadership Team.
About the Hosts:
- Social Justice Initiative (SJI) at UIC uplifts the role of public universities in fostering social change through campus and community collaboration.
- Chicago Justice Gallery (CJG), an extension of SJI, is one of the only spaces in Chicago dedicated to presenting social justice through art.
- Radical Communicators Network (RadComms) is a national community of practice that builds narrative power among movement communicators to support a liberatory future.
