The Nikeeta Slade Memorial Book Club
We Owe Nikeeta a Revolution!
One year ago, we lost our friend and comrade Nikeeta Slade. Nikeeta was a brilliant organizer and proud proletarian Black feminist who took seriously the importance of being well read and insisted that movement writing be accessible to regular folks, not just the academic elite. She was known to complain whenever she received an email from book publishers - especially Haymarket Books - advertising a sale because she couldn’t resist adding to her collection!
Nikeeta was a steadfast supporter of Unchained, from the #FreeBlackMamasSyracuse Mother’s Day Bailout that Unchained helped organize to the BLM Syracuse Fight Against Police Terror rally in June 2020 where she made sure Unchained was able to highlight the terror inflicted on Black and Brown communities by corrections officers and parole officers.
A month after Nikeeta’s death, our bill overhauling the parole system, the Less is More Act, was passed by the New York State Legislature, and it took effect in March 2022. It has been a bittersweet victory for us: more than 1,500 people have been freed from prisons and jails across the state, 6 prisons were closed, and 8,000 people have been discharged from parole early - but Nikeeta is not here to celebrate with us.
We are so grateful to have learned from and worked with Nikeeta, and we miss her every day. As her closest friend Montinique said at her memorial, “We owe Nikeeta a revolution.” This book club is part of our effort to advance such a revolution.
About the Book Club
To honor her legacy, Unchained is launching the Nikeeta Slade Memorial Book Club as a space for Black, Brown, and historically marginalized people interested in learning about police and prison abolition and sharpening our skills to build the world we envision. Our first book selection is “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice” by Mariame Kaba, who Nikeeta deeply admired (and is published by Haymarket Books).
About Nikeeta Slade
“Whenever she spoke, I just believed everything was going to be OK.” - SeQuoia Kemp
Nikeeta Slade was a leader, a revolutionary, and a friend. Originally from Texas, Nikeeta moved to Syracuse to pursue her master’s degree in Africana Studies at Syracuse University in the early 2010s and soon rooted herself in the city. She was a member of Syracuse’s Green Party and worked on multiple election campaigns for Howie Hawkins. She was a leader and original member of Black Lives Matter Syracuse, one of Unchained’s sister organizations. She co-hosted a podcast titled Queer Women of Color with Montinique McEachern which was featured in the New York Times.
Those who knew Nikeeta marveled at her wealth of knowledge and her passion for reading. Many believed her to be one of the most well-read activists of our time and found the way she relayed what complex theories into accessible terms truly made her an activist of the people. Nikeeta’s passion for bringing the power of knowledge on subjects like intersectionality, solidarity, and revolution lives on in our hearts and our activism. We owe Nikeeta a revolution.
