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Chenjerai Kumanyika

@chenjerai

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@nyu_journalism @aaupnational council
Creator/Host@Unrulysubjectspod, Empire City @uncivilshow Editor@readhammerandhope @sceneonradio

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Unruly Subjects will be in the building at Socialism 2026!
Two big conversations on Sunday, September 6 5 PM — A live taping of Unruly Subjects with Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò: “A Reckoning With Our Moment.”
3 PM — Hasan Piker and I discuss “Left Insurgents and Liberal Exhaustion: Consolidating Power From Below.” We’re getting into insurgent candidates, political power—and probably some things we’re not supposed to talk about.
We’ll also have exclusive Unruly merch at the conference. You can shop the Unruly merch store through the link in our bio—and Patreon members get a discount.
I’ll also be sharing behind-the-scenes updates from Socialism with our Patreon members.
See yall soon! by @chenjerai

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2 months ago

I’m still thinking about what a moving night we had at Tuesday’s Moth Ball Gala.  The evening’s theme was Stellar, and it was a fitting frame for a night honoring Alana Mayo with the inaugural Narrative Impact Award, Roy Wood Jr. as the 2026 Storyteller of the Year, and Ari Handel and Sarah Haberman with the Legacy Award.

The evening began with the sacred undeniable force of musician and singer Toshi Reagon, whose performance baptized the room right from the start.  
It was deeply meaningful to see Alana Mayo honored for her extraordinary work shaping powerful Black stories on screen, including American Fiction and now Is God Is. Her remarks offered a powerful reminder of why Black film and Black art matter, not only as cultural work but as a form of narrative intervention. 
I also had unbelievable privilege of introducing Roy Wood Jr., whose storytelling has always moved across comedy, journalism, political commentary, and personal testimony. His story that night — about his father, growth, and death brought the house down — was exactly the kind of work The Moth exists to lift up. 
And, it was an extra sweet treat gift to share the night with my gorgeous wife, Saadiqa Kumanyika.
The evening was a reminder that storytelling is one of the ways most powerful ways we make meaning, build connection, and understand the moment we are living through. by @chenjerai

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5 months ago

Tracking the Zionist/Right-Wing “Civility Industry”
Billionaire funders and extremist politicians are funneling millions into campus dialogue programs and civics centers. They claim to be reducing “polarization” and promoting “pluralism,” but their real goal is to silence dissent.

Join us in exposing the civility industrial complex with Mohan J. Dutta, Prof. of Communication at Massey University, and Alana Lentin, ICSZ member & Prof. of Social & Cultural Analysis at Western Sydney University

🗓️ Monday, October 19 @ 2pm PT / 5pm ET
👉 Register here: bit.ly/icsz-uncivil taken in ZOOM by @chenjerai

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BPL Presents welcomes Dave Zirin to discuss a biography of iconic radical historian Howard Zinn, examining his life and work as a progressive icon and thought leader through the story of the times that shaped him as well as the United States of America.

From The Nation magazine columnist and New York Times bestselling author Dave Zirin, The People’s Historian is a deeply researched biography of Howard Zinn, the beloved author of the classic national bestseller with more than four million copies sold, A People’s History of the United States.

The People’s Historian shows Zinn’s presence on the great canvases of the 20th century: from the Depression to World War II to the Civil Rights Movement to the war in Vietnam all the way until his death in 2010. With intimately researched stories from Zinn’s life and career, such as the way Atlanta’s small Spelman College, where Zinn taught as a young professor, helped launch the Civil Rights Movement, Zinn’s work traveling to Hanoi to engineer the release of POWs, and his continuing influence in the emerging Democratic Socialist movement, The People’s Historian explores Zinn’s past while also demonstrating how his 75 years of political engagement with the social struggles of his time informs our perilous present.

With input from family and access to Zinn’s personal papers, The People’s Historian paints a picture of the man behind A People’s History, examining his work and legacy in the broader context of the United States. by @chenjerai

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4 days ago

No sleep til…..Hey NYC! Headed to the Brooklyn Public Library on Wednesday Oct 14th (this week!) where I’ll be in conversation with *the* Chenjerai Kumanyika. Please roll on through! No better place to talk about the life, legacy, and lessons of Howard Zinn than his old stomping grounds of Brooklyn, New York. by @chenjerai

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4 days ago

"unruly subjects" | 10•09•26 📍 greenwich village, nyc @hasandpiker @chenjerai @unrulysubjectspod

#hasanabi #hasanpiker #NYU #NYC #hasan by @chenjerai

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5 days ago

What a powerful Unruly night!

Robust conversation, insights and critique on journalism, politics, and lots of other things at our Beyond the Stream Event last night with Hasan Piker. Grateful to our community for coming together and thanks to Hasan Piker for giving us his time and analysis generously. Also shout out to @jxrdanwalker_ @veronicaannemurray and my other students and lots of other folks for pulling this off in a short time frame. We’ll be putting the whole conversation down the feed for your listening on @unrulysubjectspod 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿 by @chenjerai

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5 days ago

I opened up a few more tickets for my live taping of unruly subjects with Hasan Piker tonight. But this link will only be open for a few more hours. If we don’t have your name - in the next few hours you won’t get in. The new link will be in the bio.

See you tonight! by @chenjerai

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6 days ago

THIS FRIDAY OCT 9

Journalism, Platforms, and Political Possibility.

Join us for a live taping of Unruly Subjects, with special guest Hasan Piker!

Join Hasan Piker and NYU Journalism professor Chenjerai Kumanyika for a live conversation about journalism, political power, and the future of media—and a live taping of Unruly Subjects. As audiences increasingly turn to livestreams, podcasts, and independent creators to make sense of the news, what can journalists learn from the communities forming around these platforms? Piker and Kumanyika will explore the relationship between reporting, commentary, and political education; how to build a large audience for substantive political discussion; and the responsibilities that come with being a trusted voice in people’s daily lives. They’ll examine how Piker’s work fits within—and challenges—conventional understandings of journalism. How should we navigate fact checking and truth in an increasingly confusing media environment and what happens when media producer becomes a controversial lightning rod? The conversation will also explore the opportunities Piker sees in landscape shaped by mainstream political forces, and what those possibilities mean for journalism and political media. Hasan Piker, known online as HasanAbi, is a political commentator and livestreamer. Chenjerai Kumanyika is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, creator and host of Empire City, co-creator of Uncivil, and host of Unruly Subjects, a podcast about politics and culture. Join us for an evening of conversation about how we understand the news—and what we do with that understanding. by @chenjerai

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9 days ago

The research consortium UNCIVIL just released “The Civility Files,” a major exposé of the billionaire backers and anti-activist agenda behind the booming campus “civil discourse” and “pluralism” sector.

This investigation examines not only the donors but also the nonprofit leaders, university administrators, and policies that shape what UNCIVIL calls the “Civility Industry.” Although the industry presents itself as politically neutral, UNCIVIL argues that the evidence as a whole suggests this is a bad-faith misrepresentation: The language of civility is repeatedly used to normalize right-wing ideology; portray progressive activists as intolerant or extreme; tighten the boundaries of acceptable protest; and transform donor-backed political priorities into institutional policy.

Check out the full report at www.uncivilcollective.org

#defendhighered
@uncivilcollective @chenjerai by @chenjerai

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10 days ago

Y’all actually gotta hear this whole speech Marcia Howard gave today in Minnesota. I was there representing @AAUP invited by IFO with a large group of labor unions and justice orgs and community members. But Marcia Howard, Minneapolis educator, union leader and George Floyd Square organizer, brought the BARS connecting the fights against police violence, ICE and political repression- you gotta see it.
Watch her full speech on Unruly Subjects’ Patreon. Link in bio. by @chenjerai

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11 days ago

How deep do the connections between U.S. policing and Israeli intelligence go?

I sit down with investigative reporter Glen Stellmacher to discuss The ASTI Files, his investigation for Prism into the organizations connecting U.S. police with Israeli security and intelligence veterans. Drawing on two years of public-records reporting, we talk about police training, surveillance of activists, public funding, and what it means to teach police that they’re fighting a “propaganda war.”

In this clip, Glen explains a proposal to help police in Washington state build an informant network using Israeli intelligence methods. Officials say it was never implemented. Its implications matter for interconnected movements—from Palestinian liberation to Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock.
Who trains our police? What are they being taught? And whose interests are they serving?

The full conversation is available NOW on Unruly Subjects’ Patreon. Watch and support our independent journalism: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects by @chenjerai

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14 days ago