Freedom Dreams

The Black Radical Imagination

By: Robin D.G. Kelley, Aja Monet - foreword

Narrated by: JD Jackson

The 20th-anniversary edition of Kelley’s influential history of 20th-century Black radicalism, with new reflections on current movements and their impact on the author, and a foreword by poet Aja Monet

First published in 2002, Freedom Dreams is a staple in the study of the Black radical tradition. Unearthing the thrilling history of grassroots movements and renegade intellectuals and artists, Kelley recovers the dreams of the future worlds Black radicals struggled to achieve.

Focusing on the insights of activists, from the Revolutionary Action Movement to the insurgent poetics of Aimé and Suzanne Césaire, Kelley chronicles the quest for a homeland, the hope that communism offered, the politics of surrealism, the transformative potential of Black feminism, and the long dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.

In this edition, Kelley includes a new introduction reflecting on how movements of the past 20 years have expanded his own vision of freedom to include mutual care, disability justice, abolition, and decolonization, and a new epilogue exploring the visionary organizing of today’s freedom dreamers.

This classic history of the power of the Black radical imagination is as timely as when it was first published.

©2002 Robin D.G. Kelley (P)2022 Beacon Press

Critic reviews

“Based on Kelley’s belief that to make a better world we must first imagine it, this brilliantly conceived and written book recounts the accomplishments of Black activists and thinkers over the past century who have been committed to remaking the world.”—Library Journal

“Few books have had a more profound impact on me as a thinker and as a human being than Freedom Dreams.”—Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of How to Be an Antiracist

“Robin D. G. Kelley produces histories of Black radicalism and visions of the future that defy convention and expectation.”—Angela Y. Davis

Full of past and future freedom dreams

I think this has to be one of the weightiest activism books I've read so far. I suggest getting the 20th anniversary edition simply because of all the additions that provide even greater context. 

It took me longer to get through it because the history provided is so rich and dense. I had to go back and re-read/listen to several parts simply because I found myself getting lost in the history. There is a lot of inspiration to be found in these pages, but I'm actually at a loss of how to even begin to describe this book. I'm still reeling from it. 

I will have to reread it several more times to take in all of the lessons on "the power of imagination to transform society" and all the inspirational freedom dreams discussed in its pages. 

Because if you can't imagine the kind of future you want, you can't even begin to build on it. Like Alice Walker said, "Look closely at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming".