In Search of Black Power
In Search of Black Power challenges conventional narratives around Black policy, Black movements, and Black Life. We focus on creating a new language to discuss the issues presenting Black America, with a focus on independent institutional building and seeing Black folks as the solutions to our own problems.
Episodes
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson claims Democrats lose because they allow their left base to block progress with red tape and “woke” regulations and "identity politics", angering average Americans who just want housing and cool stuff built. The Bernie left and the neoliberal centrist are battling for control of the party, but many on both sides now claim "Abundance". In this episode, we break d...
We show African-centered concepts used by on the ground violence prevention workers that are grounded in a Black Studies tradition and show how theorists like Steven Pinker, who have ties to Jeffrey Epstein, present racist theories on violence that impact violence prevention work. We conclude by presenting Cheikh Anta Diop’s Southern Cradle theory as an alternative place to center violence prevention work.&nbs...
Throughout history women have made remarkable and lasting contributions to Black advancement. They have played instrumental roles in advocacy, policy development, community engagement, and the overall advancement of racial uplift. However, a glaring gap exists in the literature and discourse surrounding these women pioneers. In this two part series of ISoBP we hope to contribute to decreasing that gap.
Throughout history women have made remarkable and lasting contributions to Black advancement. They have played instrumental roles in advocacy, policy development, community engagement, and the overall advancement of racial uplift. However, a glaring gap exists in the literature and discourse surrounding these women pioneers. In this two part series of ISOBP we hope to contribute to decreasing that gap.
In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).
The internet show is published in collaboration withBlack Liberation Media (BLM)
While The Wire is celebrated for its gritty realism however , it perpetuates an over-sensationalized, externally oriented, and ultimately limited view of Black life in Baltimore. It aestheticizes poverty and violence without sufficiently acknowledging the cultural, historical, and community-based dimensions of African American resilience and self-determination.
By re-centering the narrative around Black subjectiv...
In the 90s and 2000s, a wave of academic texts emerged that challenge the dominate narrative of Black leadership and politics, claiming that the location of Black power in the Black church and “respectable” civil rights organizations limited Black politics. One of the most prominent of these texts is The Boundaries of Blackness, written by Cathy Cohen, which uses the example of the limited response to AI...
In this episode of In Search of Black Power, filmmaker and historian Xavier Frink dives into the roots of Black excellence and resistance by exploring 19th-century political and civic activity in Baltimore and beyond through his documentary Justice and Reconciliation: From Henry Highland Garnet to Harvey Johnson.
This conversation and film are essential in understanding the strategies our ancestors used during the 19...
Baltimore’s Panthers complicate the easy narratives. They were neither reckless radicals nor romantic revolutionaries. They were pragmatic idealists, adapting to legal constraints, financial scarcity, and relentless surveillance while insisting that political struggle begin with feeding children and keeping neighbors housed.
Their story is a reminder that grassroots movements are most vulnerable where...
Trump's attacks on Venezuela are an attempt to terrorize attempts to resist white supremacy worldwide. In this episode, LBS political commentator Lawrence Grandpre and Director of Public Policy Dayvon Love discuss the history of Venezuela, deconstruct the mythology of the US striking Venezuela to fight a “dictatorship,” examine why we must look beyond oil as an explanation for this violence, and how we m...
This episode addresses how racism and white supremacy impact advocacy for juvenile justice reform in Maryland. Additionally this episode discusses some of the major policy reform that is on the table for Maryland General Assembly 2026.
In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).
The...
A conversation hosted by Baltimore Racial Justice Action between LBS director of research Lawrence Grandpre and Baltimore Green Party chair Andy Ellis. We touch on DOGE, the link between South Africa and the United States on anti-Black visions of government, the political limitations of progressive/leftist notions of political corruption, and the implications of all of this on approaches to reparations and 3rd party...
Leftist responses to the current moment range from rejecting engaging the state at all to grudgingly accepting centrist Democrats as a lesser evil. In an interview between LBS’s Dayvon Love and Lawrence Grandpre, Love urges the Left to intentionally chart a middle course. Using examples from concrete legislative victories in Maryland, he advocates for intentionally delivering on concert improvements to quality...
The Alliance of the Sahel states has sent shock waves through the western world, raising the possiblity of anti-imperialist Pan-African block. While this movement has exploded online through the focus on the charismatic Burkino Faso leader
Ibrahim Traoré, in this episode we seek to engage what is happening in the Sahel beyond just him. In this interview between LBS’s Dayvon Love and Lawrence Grandpre,...
In this episode, MJ and Rasheem explore the legacy and continued relevance of poor Black women's activism in Baltimore, focusing on housing justice and welfare rights. Drawing on Rhonda Y. Williams’ seminal article, “We’re Tired of Being Treated Like Dogs,” the hosts delve into the political lives of Black women who mobilized against institutional neglect and economic exploitation from the 19...
We welcome back S. Rasheem to In Search of Black Power! In this episode we are exposed to the concept of “Race Work”. In conversation with LBS Dir. of Research Lawrence Grandpre, Rasheem exposes us to critical figures in debates throughout the history of “Race Work”, including integration vs. nationalism & strategic navigation vs. confrontation with oppressive systems.
Rasheem fra...
This discussion addresses the intersection between radical politics and advancing an agenda of economic justice from a lens of Black Liberation.
In Search of Black Power is a Black-owned internet show and podcast. This podcast is sponsored and produced by Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS).
The internet show is published in collaboration withBlack Liberation Media (BLM)
In the Black radical tradition, critiques of Nationalism as inherently violent have clashed with recognition of the importance of national liberation movements and the desire for self-determination of oppressed people. Ta-Nehisi Coats grapples with this in his book The Message, grappling with being raised in a Pan-Africanist household and have an emotional return to Africa with the reality that nationalist abstracti...
This year marks the 15-year anniversary of the first publication of Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow.
The text was praised as challenging the post-racial ethos that rose after the election of Obama by presenting a compelling analysis of mass incarceration driven by anti-black racism creating a permanent under caste in American, akin to the Jim Crow system of the South. While praised as a bible for ...
April 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the #BaltimoreUprising, a series of protests sparked by Freddie Gray’s death in Baltimore Police custody in 2015.
Baltimore has long reflected America’s racial and political anxieties, making the Uprising a frequent subject of academic analysis. In this episode, Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle’s Lawrence Grandpre and Dayvon Love critique two books: Be...
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