The Charles H. Kerr Podcast: Recent Episodes
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We take you to the library of the oldest radical publisher in the US, Charles H Kerr. And here we find the latest analysis of today’s movements, alongside the long-lost stories of revolutionary movements going back to the Haymarket tragedy of 1886. Our guests are authors, organizers, artists, and rebels who found something in the back catalog of CHK that the world needs to hear.
Welcome to History Against Misery, the Charles H. Kerr Press podcast. Charles H. Kerr is the longest running radical publishing house in the US, founded in Chicago weeks before the Haymarket tragedy of 1886. In the years since, Kerr has remained a vital outlet for socialist, anarchist, Black radical, labor history, and surrealist books. On this episode of History Against Misery, we're thrilled to share with you a vibrant performance of Donna Russell and Dave Ranney's play, Dear Rhoda. Wisconsin's Washington Island Players recorded this reading, and are planning a live rendition this month, on June 28. Dear Rhoda is a loving rendition of radical and chaotic 1920s Chicago, riven by the Red Scare, epidemic, and anti-Semitic hatred, and is focused on a passionate love affair between two radicals immersed in Hobohemia and labor struggles.
For a copy of Dear Rhoda, visit charleshkerr.com. We are excited to revive the memory of Chicago's fascinating 1920s radical milieu, so we are offering a a 50% discount on these Kerr titles steeped in Hobohemia: Crime & Criminals, From Bughouse Square to the Beat Generation, Big Red Songbook, and The Rise and Fall of the Dil Pickle Club. These select works take you on a tour of the Dil Pickle world. Please consider supporting us on our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/charleshkerr), where you can listen to future episodes of History against Misery. The Kerr podcast can also be found on Spotify and other podcast platforms. About Dear Rhoda's authors: Donna Russell was a hair stylist for 27 years before going into the restaurant business. Until Dear Rhoda her experience in writing was mostly shopping lists! Now she spends her time writing, directing and producing live theatrical productions that are meant to entertain, involve the residents of her Washington Island community and raise funds for the local performing arts center. She lives on Washington Island, Wisconsin and Naples, Florida with her husband of 55 years,
Larry. David Ranney is Professor Emeritus in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois Chicago. He received his BA degree at Dartmouth College and his PhD at Syracuse University. Professor Ranney has also been a factory
worker, a labor and community organizer and an activist academic. He is the author of four books, a play and numerous articles and monographs on issues of employment, labor and community organizing and U.S. trade policy. Some of his recent essays and books may be found on www.david-ranney.com. In addition to his
writing, he gives lectures on economic policy and politics and also finds time to be an actor and director in a small community theatre. He is married and has a son, daughter in law and two granddaughters. He splits his time between Chicago, llinois and Washington Island, Wisconsin.
For more information about Dear Rhoda please visit www.dearrhoda.com
This interview with members of Chuang was conducted as a collaboration among Cinder Bloc, The Charles H Kerr Podcast, and The Antifada podcasts.
We are pleased to share this new interview with Chuang, the collective author of our latest book, Social Contagion and other material on the microbiological class war in China.
Together we sent questions to Chuang and received answers which Cinder Bloc transcribed and then, together with our podcaster comrades, we re-recorded the script as a cohesive interview. We did this in order to ensure legibility for listeners as well as anonymity for the Chuang collective due to international security concerns.
Thank you to Chuang for the interview and to Cinder Bloc and The Antifada for the enormous amount of work they have put into this process. The result is an impressive expansion on the book, with extensions and updates to the analysis in Social Contagion as well as strategic reflections on how revolutionaries, in whatever part of the world, can navigate and sharpen the crises which define our times.
We would like to note that none of us are members of Chuang, and that none of us are native speakers of Mandarin and that out of respect for Chuang, we pronounced everything to the best of our abilities.
Welcome to the first installment of the Charles H Kerr Podcast!
Charles H Kerr is the longest running radical publishing house in the US, founded in Chicago weeks before the Haymarket tragedy of 1886. In the years since, Kerr has remained a vital outlet for socialist, anarchist, Black radical, labor history, and surrealist materials.
On this show, we take you to the library of the oldest radical publisher in the US, Charles H Kerr. And here we find the latest analysis of today’s movements, alongside the long-lost stories of revolutionary movements going back to the Haymarket tragedy of 1886. Our guests are authors, organizers, artists, and rebels who found something in the back catalog of CHK that the world needs to hear.
For the first installment of the show, we sit in on a conversation between Penelope Rosemont and David Roediger, who both worked on Kerr for decades. Penelope, along with her late husband Franklin, is a major figure in North American Surrealism since the 1960s. David is a historian of race and class at University of Kansas, who in this interview, traces his work as a radical organizer to 1970s Chicago. Together, they draw a line from socialist revolutionaries of the 1910s, Big Bill Haywood and Mary Marcy, through radical agitation at Roosevelt University and CLR James's Chicago years in the 1960s, onwards to their efforts to bring Kerr to its centenary year, marking 1986 with the lush Haymarket Scrapbook. They both speak to the continued importance of books and publishing to radical organizing.
The music you hear in this episode is Wesley Wallace’s No. 29, featured in Paul Garon and Gene Tomko’s book “What’s the Use of Walking if There’s a Freight Train Going Your Way? Black Hoboes and the Their Songs.” Garon is a long-term Kerr contributor and board member.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the history of Charles H Kerr Publishing, you can read “We Called Each Other Comrade” by Allen Ruff. Find out more about Kerr at their website: charleshkerr.com