Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Content Warning: This section includes reference to sexual assault.

“Unfortunately, too often our standards for evaluating social movements pivot around whether or not they ‘succeeded’ in realizing their visions rather than on the merits or power of the visions themselves. By such a measure, virtually every radical movement failed because the basic power relations they sought to change remain pretty much intact. And yet it is precisely these alternative visions and dreams that inspire new generations to struggle for change.”

This quote describes Kelley’s overall argument for why contemporary activists should study historical Black radical movements. Despite their lack of material gains, these movements serve as a vital and ongoing source of inspiration.

“Trying to envision ‘somewhere in advance of nowhere,’ as poet Joyne Cortez puts it, is an extremely difficult task, yet it is a matter of great urgency. Without new visions we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down.”

Throughout Freedom Dreams, Kelley emphasizes the value of what he terms poetic knowledge to generate ideas about the kind of world Black radical activists hope to create. In this call to action, he describes the need to envision a new world as “a matter of great urgency.” In his view, this is not secondary to political organizing but in fact a critical component of it.

“The surrealists not only taught me that any serious motion toward freedom must begin in the mind, but they have also given us some of the most imaginative, expansive, and playful dreams of a new world I have ever known. Contrary to popular belief, surrealism is not an aesthetic doctrine but an international revolutionary movement concerned with the emancipation of thought.”

Kelley views the surrealist movement as a key source of inspiration for envisioning the world activists hope to create. This quote demonstrates how surrealism has been an important part of Kelley’s own activism. It also justifies Kelley’s analysis of poetry and music throughout the essays as examples of surrealism’s connection with Black radicalism.