www.freemumia.com

MUMIA and MIKE AFRICA JR. BOOK PARTY

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2025
6 – 9 PM

DWYER CULTURAL CENTER
309 W. 123rd STREET
NEW YORK, NY 10027

The Mumia Health Committee and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition NYC invite you to join us at a presentation by author and revolutionary activist Mike Africa Jr. along with a book party for:

• On a Move: Philadelphia’s Notorious Bombing and a Native Son’s Lifelong Battle for Justice,
      author, Mike Africa Jr. with D. Watkins

The incredible story of MOVE, the revolutionary Black civil liberties group whose house Philadelphia police bombed in 1985, killing 11 civilians—by one of the few people born into the organization, raised during the bombing’s tumultuous aftermath, and entrusted with repairing what was left of his family.

Before police dropped a bomb on a residential neighborhood on May 13, 1985, few people outside Philadelphia were aware that a Black-led civil liberties organization had taken root there. Founded in 1972 by charismatic ideologue John Africa, MOVE had the mission to protect all forms of life from systemic oppression. They drew their ideology from the Black Panther Party and anticipated animal and environmental rights groups like PETA and Earth First. MOVE emerged in an era when Black Philadelphians suffered under devastating policies brought by the long, doomed war in Vietnam, Mayor Frank Rizzo’s overtly racist police surveillance, and, eventually, President Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs. MOVE members lived together in a collection of West Philadelphia row houses and took the surname Africa out of admiration for the group’s founder.

But in MOVE’s lifestyle, city officials saw threats to their status quo. Their bombing of MOVE homes shocked the nation and made international news. Eleven people were killed, including five children. And the City of Brotherly Love became known as the City That Bombed Itself.

Among the children most affected by the bombing was Mike Africa Jr. Born in jail following a police attack on MOVE that led to his parents’ decades-long incarceration, Mike was six years old and living with his grandmother when MOVE was bombed. In the ensuing years, Mike sought purpose in the ashes left behind. He began learning about the law as a teenager and became adept at speaking and inspiring public support with the help of other MOVE members. In 2018, at age 40, he finally succeeded in getting his parents released from prison.

On a Move is one of the most unimaginable stories of injustice and resilience in recent American history. But it is not only one of tragedy. It is about coming-of-age for a young activist, the strong ties of family, and, against all odds, learning how to take indignities on the chin and to work within the very system that created them. At once a harrowing personal account and an impassioned examination of racism and police violence, On a Move testifies to the power of love and hope, in the face of astonishing wrongdoing.

To find out more about this book, see:

Ona MOVE publisher link

Also available at the book party will be:

• The Trials of Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Biography in 25 Voices,
      editor, Todd Steven Burroughs
  
  
• Beneath the Mountain: An Anti-Prison Reader,
      co-editors, Dr. Jennifer Black and Mumia Abu-Jamal
  
  
• copies of the past few months’ editions of the Burning Spear (Uhuru Movement) newspaper
  

For more information about the book party, please call:

Free Mumia hotline    212-330-8029 

Please leave a brief clear message with your name, cell phone number, and email address.

We will return your call and attempt to address the clarifications you are seeking.

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