On Monday, Jan.19th, 2012, a.k.a - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, The Indypendent Reader caught up with Lester Spence, at the kick-off action for the Schools Not Jails five-day "pop-up" occupation.
This strung-together series of actions, dubbed Schools Not Jails, takes place at the potential location for the proposed youth jail; in an effort to reclaim the site and bring awareness to the numerous issues that its construction raises. These dilemmas include: where our public money is spent, the schools-to-prisons pipeline, and the institutionalized racism/classism that lies active in our city.
Lester Spence is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He has written the book, "... Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics... one of the first books to empirically examine the political effect of hip-hop on black communities." 1
A visible figure since the start of this past autumn's #occupy movements, Spence has written about and publically addressed many of the concerns that Occupy Baltimore has raised.
Spence spoke at the kick-off rally for Monday's demonstration. He then promptly joined in the march; and then in the action. When Indyreader engaged with him, six protestors had already been arrested for breaking into the proposed site for the youth jail and their subsequent building of a small symbolic school-like structure. Afternoon was also drifting into evening. Police forces were arming up with riot gear along the streets. And Spence and his three young children, after spending the entire day in the activist "trenches", were beginning to contemplate going home for the night.
Before they did though, Lester Spence spoke with us on a range of issues from:
This in our discussion with Professor/Activist/Orator/Author Lester Spence.
