READ UP, ACT UP

Welcome to Dazed’s educational hub, where six guest editors present a directory of resources – from abolition to archiving and protest through art, this is a place for conversations about Black histories, presents, and futures

In 2020, the world changed not once, but twice. Covid-19 has forced us to stay indoors, to isolate, and to live, connect and work online. Yet despite these limitations, months of lockdown has empowered us to look closely at the systems and societal norms that govern. As activist Jose Parla puts it in our new autumn issue, “when you have all this time to spend on your own, without all of the social activity that we were used to, all this self-examination allows you to see very clearly how we have normalised so much wrong in our society.” Almost overnight, we have found new ways to collectivise, to organise, and to scrutinise. While the world is busy remaking itself and tearing endemic and unconscious racism asunder, we examine a world on the cusp of revolutionary change.

In this issue, conversation replaces the cover star. Tapping into shifts across social media, where block texts, essayish quotes and resource lists have substituted images as the primary tool for communication amid social upheaval, we present a series of iconic graphic statements across six covers. We invite the leading voices calling for transformative change in their fields to guest edit their own section: these are the Black Lives Matter international ambassador Janaya Future Khan, whose powerful Sunday Sermons resonate across the world; Wide Awakes, the collective platforming new kinds of creative and democratic protest; Noname, the rapper and abolitionist fighting on behalf of the incarcerated; Samuel Ross, whose funding scheme empowered Black British entrepreneurs across industries; Grace Wales Bonner, whose new digital platform is a space for finding hope in archival Black culture; and Shayne Oliver, who is back with Anonymous Club, a residency taking the radical groundwork of Hood By Air into the future. Bringing in a multitude of voices from their communities, each guest editor centres the galvanising power of words.