Fresh from co-editing the wildly successful science fiction collection Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements, Walidah Imarisha gets very real in her newest book about prisons and the criminal legal system, Angels with Dirty Faces (AK Press/IAS), out now!
Allied Media Projects is coordinating bookings for Angels with Dirty Faces author Walidah Imarisha, who will begin touring with the book in spring 2016. Contact us to book Imarisha for your campus or community! Read on to learn more.
About the Book: Angels with Dirty Faces
Angels with Dirty Faces is no romanticized tale of crime and punishment. The three lives presented in this work of creative nonfiction are united by the presence of actual harm and sometimes horrific violence. Imarisha, dealing with the complexities of her own experience with sexual assault and accountability, brings us behind prison walls to visit her adopted brother Kakamia and his fellow inmate Jimmy “Mac” McElroy, a member of the brutal Irish gang “The Westies.” Together they explore the questions: What happens when people do unimaginable damage to one another? What do we as a society do? What might redemption look like?
Imarisha doesn’t flinch as she guides us through the difficulties and contradictions, eschewing theory for a much messier reality. The result is a nuanced and deeply personal analysis that allows readers to connect emotionally with people who are caught up within, and often destroyed by, our criminal justice system.
"There was a time I believed prisons existed to rehabilitate people, to make our communities safer. . . . When I saw for the first time (but not the last) a mother sobbing and clutching her son when visiting hours were up, only to be physically pried off and escorted out by guards, I knew nothing about that made me safer. This is the heart of this country's prison system. And the prison system has become the heart of America." —Walidah Imarisha, from the Introduction of Angels with Dirty Faces
Now Booking
We are now booking for Angels with Dirty Faces related events for Spring 2016. Author Walidah Imarisha is available for:
- Readings and book signings
- Presentations
- “Beyond Bars” workshop
- Writing/Zine Making Workshop
- Interactive Photo/Video Booth
- and more!
Read the full descriptions for these offerings.
Please contact us to book an Angels with Dirty Faces event.
Praise for Angels with Dirty Faces
“A brave, honest search for answers regarding incarceration.” — Kirkus Reviews
“This is a bold, beautiful, and absolutely necessary book, written with urgency and passion.” — Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era
“I read Angels With Dirty Faces in one sitting, mesmerized by what Walidah Imarisha has accomplished: a daring dive into the real deal about why prisons don’t work, filled with love for hustlers, rebels, and the criminalized, imperfect survivors that the prison-industrial complex locks up. Written in such lyrical, fierce poetry it takes your breath away.” — Leah Lakshmi Piepzna- Samarasinha, editor of The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities
Read more praise about Angels with Dirty Faces.
