In this episode, Edna Bonhomme and Wendi Muse discuss the long history of leftists of color. Creator and co-host of the podcast Left POCket Project, Wendi explains how she uses the medium of podcasting to make the many histories of leftists of color from around the world accessible while also actively creating community, initiating the podcast as an interactive platform for co-reading, co-learning, and co-discussion. Rather than defining leftist movements by the language used, Wendi argues that leftist activism is a form of everyday engagement, putting leftism into action. She also shares her research on how the left in Brazil has been influenced by decolonizing movements in the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. In addition, she talks about her research on Afro-Latinx communities in Brazil and forms of white supremacy in Brazil, especially in the media, that actively construct Latinidad around whiteness rather than reflecting people of color who make up most of Brazil’s population. By looking to the histories of when power was successfully resisted, Wendi activates the past also as a source of hope for the future. 

Team

Edna Bonhomme is an activist, historian, writer, curator, and lecturer whose research interrogates disease, gender, surveillance, and embodiment. Edna earned a PhD in history of science at Princeton University with a dissertation that examined plagued bodies and spaces in North Africa and the Middle East. Her creative work is guided by diasporic futures, herbal healing, and bionic beings. Follow her on Twitter @jacobinoire.

Kristyna Comer studies art history and cultural studies at Humboldt University in Berlin where her research focuses on public museum collections in Berlin and past and current demands for restitution, reparations, and repatriation.