Join visionary Black lawyers in reimagining “what legal work in service of liberation actually looks like”

"This is not just a manual for resistance—though it is that. It's a call to reimagine what legal work in service of liberation actually looks like. In a moment when authoritarianism is consolidating and traditional legal strategies are failing, that reimagining couldn’t be more urgent." —The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook

This fiery manifesto provides a concrete action plan for legal professionals and activists advancing Black liberation and transformative social change.

Revolutions happen in the streets, not in courtrooms. But in the struggle against systems increasingly designed to perpetuate inequality and benefit those in power, lawyers must do their part. As leaders from the acclaimed movement lawyering and advocacy organization Law for Black Lives, editors Marbré Stahly-Butts and Ameca Reali have spent years on the front lines of transformative social change. With Lawyering for Liberation, they offer concrete tools for fellow legal workers and lawyers working to achieve a just future.

Grounded in the politics of abolition, Black queer feminism, and anticapitalism, this approachable how-to guide distills key concepts of movement lawyering and assembles advice from dozens of lawyers, legal workers, and organizers in areas like jail and bail support, stop-and-frisk litigation, protester defense, reparations, family law, housing, and more. The result is not just a manual for resistance but an urgent call to join the movement.

Co-editor of Lawyering for Liberation and former Executive Director of Law for Black Lives Marbré Stahly-Butts is joining us on the Busboys stage alongside visionary civil rights leader and movement lawyer Judith Browne Dianis and Iman Freeman, co-founder and Executive Director of Baltimore Action Legal Team. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and the co-editor and contributing authors will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of LAWYERING FOR LIBERATION will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person. 

We ask that guests RSVP in order to receive direct updates about the event from Busboys and Poets Books