Speaking Out of Place: Getting Our Political Voices Back

Speaking Out of Place helps us find value and inspiration in others who have made change in the world where such things were not supposed to be possible.

From protests in sports arenas to sonic transgressions of racist boundaries, to protest camps and covert collaborations with imprisoned people, and environmental activism based on Indigenous notions of justice. We learn how to “re-place” education, circumvent pundits, and recall judges. And we learn to defend our home―the planet.

Speaking Out of Place asks us to reconceptualize both what we think “politics” is, and our relationship to it. Especially at this historical moment, when it is all too possible we will move from Trump’s fascistic regime to Biden’s anti-progressive centrism, we need ways to build off the tremendous growth we have seen in democratic socialism, and to gather strength and courage for the challenges, and opportunities that lie ahead.

David Palumbo-Liu is the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, and Professor of Comparative Literature, at Stanford University. Besides his academic books on race, culture, ethics and politics, he writes for Jacobin, Truthout, The Nation, the Guardian and other venues.