Thomas Jefferson was the masterly author of the ringing and rousing Declaration of Independence as well as a human trafficker and serial rapist. The second president embodies James Baldwin’s observation that “American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.” The US is a settler-colonial colossus whose founders committed one of the most massive genocides in the history of the world—violence in the service of wealth accumulation has been a national calling card from the start. It’s also the birthplace of Harriett Tubman, John Brown, Geronimo, Malcolm X, Grace Lee Boggs, and generations of freedom-fighters. The wealth and the power of the US derives from armed robbery, serial murder, stolen land, and forced labor—that’s legacy. And we cannot be free without facing the complexity and the hard truth. We’re joined in conversation with Jesse Hagopian, one of the most brilliant contemporary voices in education, and author, most recently, of Teach Truth : The Struggle for Antiracist Education, an essential text for these troubled times.

The Caucus of Rank and File Educators (CORE) led by Karen Lewis, a charismatic high school chemistry teacher, was elected to lead the Chicago Teachers Union in 2010. Lewis was a brilliant, transformational labor leader, and CORE developed a forceful form of social justice union organizing they called “organizing for the common good.” They foregrounded the best interests of the child, and they insisted on raising issues beyond wages and benefits, standing up for the arts, libraries, and nurses in every school as well as for the rights of families and the broader community. Among CORE’s early initiatives were starting a research department, and moving staff away from exclusively servicing the contract toward ongoing organizing of parents, community members, and teachers together. We’re joined by Elizabeth Todd-Breland, an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of both the award winning A Political Education: Black Politics and EducationReform in Chicago Since the 1960s and the recently released memoir, I Didn’t Come Here to Lie, written with the late Karen Lewis and published by Haymarket Press.

Solidarity takes on many forms but for over four decades one vivid example rose out of a design and print studio in Havana, Cuba. Born in 1966 out of the Tricontinental Conference the Organization of Solidarity of the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Organización de Solidaridad de los Pueblos de Asia, África y América Latina — OSPAAAL) strove to unite liberation movements across the three continents. The Tricontinental magazine and the colorful, multi-lingual posters inserted within became legendary and covered the walls of activists and revolutionaries around the world.

Inspired by the intersection of graphic design and political solidarity, the Brooklyn-based Interference Archive hosted an retrospective exhibit of the work of OSPAAAL. Now, publishers Common Notions have released an astonishing and beautiful new book not only celebrating the legacy but inviting us all to explore how we can contribute to this vital work of moving towards social transformation. We’re joined in conversation by two of the editors of the book Armed by Design: Posters and Publications of Cuba’s OSPAAAL, Lani Hanna and Josh MacPhee.