Virtual gathering

Join in the Smart Museum of Art’s virtual book club! 

The Smart Reads series continues in August with We Do This 'Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba. We invite you to read along with us and engage in a thought-provoking conversation with host Dorian H. Nash. 

FREE. To help build a community of participants, capacity is limited and advanced registration is required.

About the book

We Do This 'Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba

“Organizing is both science and art. It is thinking through a vision, a strategy, and then figuring out who your targets are, always being concerned about power, always being concerned about how you’re going to actually build power in order to be able to push your issues, in order to be able to get the target to actually move in the way that you want to.”

What if social transformation and liberation isn’t about waiting for someone else to come along and save us? What if ordinary people have the power to collectively free ourselves? In this timely collection of essays and interviews, Mariame Kaba reflects on the deep work of abolition and transformative political struggle.

With a foreword by Naomi Murakawa and chapters on seeking justice beyond the punishment system, transforming how we deal with harm and accountability, and finding hope in collective struggle for abolition, Kaba’s work is deeply rooted in the relentless belief that we can fundamentally change the world. As Kaba writes, “Nothing that we do that is worthwhile is done alone.”

2023 SMART READS SCHEDULE

January 25, 6–7:30 pm
The Theater and its Double by Antonin Artaud

February 22, 6–7:30 pm
Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis

March 29, 6–7:30 pm
Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

April 26, 6–7:30 pm
Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo

May 31, 6–7:30 pm
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong 

June 28, 6–7:30 pm
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

July 26, 6–7:30 pm
The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto

August 30, 6–7:30 pm
We Do This 'Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba 

September 27, 6–7:30 pm
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez 

October 25, 6–7:30 pm
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

November 29, 6–7:30 pm
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

December 6, 6–7:30 pm
Year in books recap and reflection