Philosopher and organizer Joy James examines the lives of the 'Captive Maternals' - those racialized and 'feminized' into roles of caretaking and consumption, yet compelled to transform through care, protest, and movement-making towards building safe communities to resist war and fascism. Shaped by enslavement, colonialism, rape, and resistance (whether female, male, trans, or nonbinary), they are integral to the weaving of rebel tapestries.
From domestic upheavals through cultural revolution and police/military violence, James excavates hidden layers beneath seemingly ordinary narratives, including her biography as a 'military brat' radicalized by socialists, communists, feminists, and Black Panther veterans. She deftly draws upon the literary writers on whose shoulders she stands - Octavia Butler and Toni Morrison, and the politics of Ella Baker, George Jackson and Assata Shakur, Mamie Till Mobley, and Ida B. Wells.
The Captive Maternal navigates a decisive terrain where Black, feminist, socialist, and anti-carceral studies and organizing converge. Reshaping understandings of power, resilience, and enduring struggles for liberation and justice, James’s groundbreaking analysis meditates on revolutionary love, mutations of rebellion, and the fulcra that leverage opposition to violence.
