Building an Anti-Imperialist Cultural Front with Writers Against the War on Gaza

In this episode, I’m joined by Tiana Reid, an assistant professor of English at York University in Toronto and a member of Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG), to talk about WAWOG’s work organizing a revolutionary cultural front against Zionism and imperialism. We discuss the crucial role that cultural production and political education have historically played in anti-imperialist struggle, and the urgent need for writers, artists, musicians, and other cultural workers to use their art and their platforms to stand in solidarity with Palestinians against apartheid, occupation, and genocide. Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Washington, D.C. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his ⁠website⁠, as well as on his Substack blog, ⁠culture shock⁠. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! Sources and helpful links: Christina Sharpe — The Shapes of Grief: Witnessing the Unbearable (The Yale Review, September 2024) WAWOG’s "Creating a Revolutionary Cultural Front” Syllabus Cedric Robinson — Capitalism, Marxism, and the Black Radical Tradition: An Interview with Cedric Robinson (Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, Spring 1999) Amílcar Cabral — National Liberation and Culture (Lecture at Syracuse University, February 1970) Fayez Sagegh — Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (Palestine Liberation Organization, September 1965) Amiri Baraka performing “Black Art” (1967) Remi Kanazi performing “This Poem Will Not End Apartheid” (2011) Pranay Somayajula — "To Make Revolution Irresistible": Notes on the Politics of Literary Production (culture shock, August 2024) Fargo Nissim Tbakhi — Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide (Protean, December 2023) Printing the Movement (WAWOG Bulletin, November 2024) New York War Crimes Lylla Younes — “Think of It as a Genocide of Journalists”: An Interview With a Member of the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate About the Unprecedented Killing of Reporters in Gaza (The Nation, January 2024) Marina Magloire — “Moving Towards Life” (Los Angeles Review of Books, August 2024) Basel El Araj — Exiting Law and Entering Revolution (The Bad Side, April 2024) Social links: Return to Bandung: Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/returntobandung⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/⁠ Pranay Somayajula: Twitter: ⁠https://x.com/p_somayajula⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/pranay.somayajula/⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/⁠ Substack: ⁠https://www.culture-shock.xyz/ WAWOG: Website: https://www.writersagainstthewarongaza.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/wawog_now Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/wawog.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wawog_now WAWOG Toronto Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wawog_to