Ijeoma Oluo Wants You to 鈥淏e a Revolution鈥�

Jan 31, 2024

Mainstream news outlets tend to focus on the dire state of the world and less on the ways in which people are fighting back against oppression and injustice in their communities.听

But 鈥攚riter, speaker, and best-selling author of 鈥攈as an abundance of such stories in her new book .听

In Be a Revolution, Oluo weaves together stories of abolitionists, disability justice activists, labor organizers, and more in a powerful exploration of what鈥檚 possible when ordinary people tackle injustice.

In a wide-ranging conversation with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali, Oluo shared some of these stories and also reflected on the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.