by Ashanti O. Alston
AK Press
8/4/2026, paperback
SKU: 9781849356022
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This is a PRE-ORDER! If your order contains this book, we'll hold your order until it's ready to ship with this title. If you need your order right away, please order this title separately.
We're jumping on the pre-order campaign of our friends at AK Press for Ashanti's new book! Grab it on sale now! We'll be donating 10% of every pre-order to The Jericho Movement, supporting its work to free political prisoners in the United States.
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First collection by a beloved thinker in Black anarchism
One of the enduring legacies of the Black Power Era is the turn by some revolutionaries toward a politics that questioned hierarchical leadership, patriarchy, and the role of the state in social transformation. This practice came to define a distinct form of anarchism rooted in the Black experience. Ashanti Omawali Alston helped nurture and define this turn through his experiences with the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army, and through social movement activity from the late 1960s to today. Anarchist Panther collects, for the first time, his thoughts that have influenced generations of radicals the world over.
These essays, interviews, and speeches trace Alston's ideas and influences, including those on psychology, political prisoner support, feminism, the legacy of the Black Panther Party, the Zapatista rebellion, and Black anarchism. Edited alongside William C. Anderson and introduced by kai lumumba barrow, Anarchist Panther brings to life the beautiful movement expression "All power to the people!"
Reviews:
"In Anarchist Panther, Alston explores the layers of a revolutionary life with candor and a commitment to intersectionality, anti-sexism, and horizontalism that will inspire many to come. This is a series of texts that feel like an homage to our Black radical past and a manifesto for our future." --Prince Shakur, author of When They Tell You to Be Good
"As if responding directly to the rising fascism of our present moment, Ashanti Alston challenges us to recognize and expand the revolutionary practices that already prevail in our communities. Grounded, accessible, and self-critical, Anarchist Panther demands that we learn from past struggle in order to recommit ourselves anew. An invaluable contribution to the Black Panther canon." --Orisanmi Burton, author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt
"Meet your teacher, one exceptionally gifted with radical insights and loving commitments. Ashanti Alston's Anarchist Panther offers a unique book on educational, analytical, political, radical rebellions for love of our lives and freedoms. Over decades, this Panther vet has labored and fought for freedoms. Ashanti has presented us with an invaluable gift: a book that can hold the memories, analyses and heartbeats of struggle that quell poverty, fascism, racism, sexism, and anti-queer/trans violence. Anarchist Panther embodies expansive resurrections of Fred Hampton's rainbow coalition. Everyone who dares to fight for liberation should read and reflect on this unique text." --Joy James, editor of Confronting Counterinsurgency: Cop Cities and Democracy's Terrors, and author of New Bones Abolition and Contextualizing Angela Davis.
About the Contributors:
Ashanti Omowali Alston is a writer, speaker, father, and activist originally from New Jersey. He is a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. Alston is an inspiration and mentor to younger activists, helping to develop Black anarchist politics and support for political prisoners.
William C. Anderson is a writer and activist originally from Birmingham, Alabama. His work has appeared in the Guardian, MTV, Truthout, British Journal of Photography, and Pitchfork, among others. He is the author of The Nation on No Map and co-author of As Black as Resistance. His writings have been included in the anthologies Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? and No Selves to Defend.
For over forty years kai lumumba barrow has worked with numerous organizations on campaigns and projects to stop jail expansion; confront police violence; free political prisoners, and experiment with abolitionist models for shrinking carceral logics. Barrow is interested in the praxis of radical imagination, experimenting with abolition as an aesthetic vernacular. Her sprawling paintings, multimedia collages, environmental installations, and found object sculptures incorporate images, materials, sites and ideas that perform queer, Black feminist theory.