The Black Autonomy Podcast is a series of discussions on anarchism and the relevance of its revolutionary ideals to the ongoing Black Liberation Movement.
The show is hosted by JoNina Abron-Ervin and Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, two veteran organizers, former Black Panther Party members and co-founders of the Black Autonomy Federation. The show is produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (@williamcson) and the Black Autonomy Federation.
JoNina Abron-Ervin is a former editor of The Black Panther newspaper, author of Driven by the Movement: Activists of the Black Power Era, and a co-founder of the Black Autonomy Federation.
Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin is the author of Anarchism and the Black Revolution, a co-founder of the Black Autonomy Federation, and a former member of the Black Panther Party.
(Artwork by Theo Thirdaye [@Thirdayetheory]. Introduction music is an instrumental version of "Song 33" by Noname.)
Lorenzo and JoNina share vital lessons from the Black struggle, guiding young Black anarchists on the power of action over words in this interview.
24 Sept 2025
Rejecting Black Fascism, Nativism, and Right-Wing Movements
Lorenzo and JoNina offer a scathing criticism of today's Black nativist and reparations-based movements. In this episode, they unpack the reactionary politics and limitations of Black US nationalist movements like ADOS, FBA, and Black Voices for Trump. By pointing out their shared xenophobia and anti-Black sentiments, they talk about why it's important to build social revolutionary politics instead. Listen and learn, and don't forget to support us on Patreon.
22 Aug 2025
Driven by the Movement: Exploring JoNina Abron-Ervin's Three Decade Project
Co-host Lorenzo Komboa Ervin interviews JoNina Abron-Ervin about her new book Driven by the Movement, which collects the stories of twenty rank-and-file people in the Black liberation struggle between 1965 and 1975. These activists came from across the US and all walks of life--single working mothers, clergy, students, teachers, military veterans--to organize against police brutality, poverty, hunger, substandard schools, and colonialism. Listen as JoNina recounts her struggles bringing the text to wide publication and details what she hopes the project will accomplish.
Buy this landmark text on AKpress.org or wherever books are sold.
And don't forget to support us on Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/c/blackautonomy)
12 May 2025
Rebuilding the City From the Bottom Up (Part II)
Listen to Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin and JoNina Abron-Ervin speak with the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), one of the nation's few independent architecture schools. They discuss urbanism, architecture, and planning in a rare speculative treat. In part two of this two-part episode, JoNina talks about the significance of urban rebellions, the Kerner Commission, spatial deconcentration, and the killing of Yulanda Ward.
This event took place in front of the Mobile Architecture Platform Apparatus (MAPA), a bicycle-powered mobile archive of scanned building parts for co-envisioning new worlds out of dismantled old ones, part of the “Views of Planet City” exhibition at the SCI-Arc Gallery (September 13, 2024 – February 14, 2025).
You can watch the full video on Youtube with an introduction by John Cooper. Additionally, thanks to Theo Parrish for letting us use his track "Serengeti Echoes" in the show.
22 Mar 2025
Rebuilding the City From the Bottom Up (Part I)
Listen to Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin and JoNina Abron-Ervin speak with the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), one of the nation's few independent architecture schools. They discuss urbanism, architecture, and planning in a rare speculative treat. In part one of this two-part episode about rebuilding the city, Lorenzo recounts some of his educational history with urbanism, city planning, and local struggles organizing with the Black Autonomy Federation in Atlanta.
This event took place in front of the Mobile Architecture Platform Apparatus (MAPA), a bicycle-powered mobile archive of scanned building parts for co-envisioning new worlds out of dismantled old ones, part of the “Views of Planet City” exhibition at the SCI-Arc Gallery (September 13, 2024 – February 14, 2025).
You can watch the full video on Youtube with an introduction by John Cooper. Additionally, thanks to Theo Parrish for letting us use his track "Serengeti Echoes" in the show.
20 Jun 2024
Students, Fight for Your Right To Protest!
On this episode, Lorenzo and JoNina reflect on the student protests in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. As veterans of many struggles prior, including the student and anti-war protests of the 1960s, they offer invaluable perspectives. Listen in as these movement elders discuss the history of the student movement, police brutality, counterviolence, and the limits of "rights."
28 Dec 2023
Live From Detroit: Black Anarchist Legacies Part 2
This episode was recorded live from the Institute for Social Ecology's 2023 Summer Intensive Course in Detroit. Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, JoNina Abron-Ervin, and Modibo Kadalie reflect on their personal histories in the Black Power movement, and how their experiences in hierarchical revolutionary organizations - such as the Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers - led them to anarchist/anti-authoritarian politics. Facilitated by William C. Anderson. Discuss this episode with your friends and family and, as always, support Black Autonomy on Patreon.
25 Sept 2023
Live From Detroit: Black Anarchist Legacies Part I
This episode was recorded live from the Institute for Social Ecology's 2023 Summer Intensive Course in Detroit. Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, JoNina Abron-Ervin, and Modibo Kadalie reflect on their personal histories in the Black Power movement, and how their experiences in hierarchical revolutionary organizations - such as the Black Panther Party and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers - led them to anarchist/anti-authoritarian politics. Facilitated by William C. Anderson. Discuss this episode with your friends and family and, as always, support Black Autonomy on Patreon.
26 Sept 2022
Rent Is Theft! Housing Is Our Right!
In this episode Lorenzo and JoNina discuss how US capitalism oppresses us through the housing crisis. They reflect on what's rent and housing mean in the context on the broader society and reflect on past defense tactics. Discuss this episode with your friends and family and, as always, support Black Autonomy on Patreon.
9 May 2022
Prison Abolition and Struggle Against Mass Imprisonment.
This episode is about the Black anarchist struggle against prisons and state slavery. Lorenzo and JoNina discuss the relevance of overturning the entirety of the state apparatus in the struggle for prison abolition rather than stopping at mere reforms.
14 Feb 2022
Love and Struggle
This special Valentine's Day episode is about Lorenzo and JoNina's relationship. Listen as they recount the story of their encounter and discuss how they relate to one another as partners, thinkers, and coconspirators. This episode covers topics like gender roles, dating, and conflict resolution.
19 Jan 2022
JoNina Speaks!
This episode covers the life of co-host JoNina Ervin. As an author and veteran activist, JoNina Ervin offers important insights from her life in an interview with Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin. She was a member of the Black Panther Party for nearly a decade and was the last editor of the Black Panther newspaper. She was also a news correspondent at the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism and was once the managing editor of Black Scholar magazine.
16 Dec 2021
Black Anarchism Across the Generations
In October 2021, Pluto published the definitive edition of Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin. The book first connected Black radical thought to anarchist theory in 1979, and now amidst a rising tide of Black political organizing, this foundational classic has been republished with a wealth of original material, including forewords by William C. Anderson and Joy James.
This episode of Black Autonomy Podcast is brought to you in collaboration with the Pluto Press podcast 'Radicals in Conversation,' in which JoNina Ervin hosts a discussion between Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin and William C. Anderson about Black anarchism across the generations.
Ervin and Anderson discuss the reasons for the continued relevance and increasing popularity of Black anarchism today, what an ‘ungovernable’ radical movement might look like, and the contradictions inherent to single-issue and state-orientated political projects from the left. They also discuss Black nationalism, and put Anderson's book The Nation on No Map in conversation with Anarchism and the Black Revolution.
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‘Anarchism and the Black Revolution’ by Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin:
www.plutobooks.com/9780745345819/anarchism-and-the-black-revolution/
‘The Nation on No Map’ by William C. Anderson:
akpress.org/nationonnomap.html
19 Oct 2021
Medical Racism, Vaccine Hesitancy, and Radical Organizing
This episode discusses the legacy of medical neglect and institutional racism in healthcare. Lorenzo and JoNina talk about how Black people have legitimate skepticism and distrust when it comes to vaccination and medical care. However, drawing from their experience in the Black Panther Party, they discuss how intercommunalism can be used to meet the needs of people who aren't vaccinated and subject to shortages.
The following episode contains clips from the following films and videos:
HIV/AIDS: The Plague Years - Center for strategic & international studies (Think Tank) - Anthony Fauci
One Woman’s Mission to Get Vaccines To Her Rural Alabama Town | The New Yorker Documentary
Tuskegee Legacy Stories | COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative | Ad Council
Susan Moore - Facebook Post
This episode was produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (https://williamcanderson.info/) (@williamcson) and Black Autonomy Federation.
10 May 2021
Crisis Capitalism and the Survival Economy
This episode discusses how movements can connect mutual aid efforts and survival programs to build a survival economy. Lorenzo and JoNina's discussion places emphasis on the need to move beyond being passive consumers in order to foment a revolutionary alternative that can be transition to stateless socialism. They look at relevant topics like the recent crises during the Texas winter storm, Puerto Rico, and Hurricane Katrina to make their case.
This episode was produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (https://williamcanderson.info/) (@williamcson) and Black Autonomy Federation.
15 Mar 2021
Black Anti-Fascism and Armed Self-Defense
This episode discusses some of the Black civil rights protests and anti-klan movements that practiced armed self-defense. Certain groups were linked to the NAACP and defended protesters at Southern civil rights marches. These self-defense groups laid the foundation for the emergence of the Black Panther Party in 1966, an urban organization that created a Black anti-fascist movement. The relevance of having such a movement shouldn't be lost on us today.
This episode was produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (https://williamcanderson.info/) (@williamcson) and Black Autonomy Federation.
17 Feb 2021
Building a Poor People's Survival Movement
This episode of Black Autonomy discusses building a poor people's survival movement to mobilize masses of working-class and poor people around immediate needs while advancing towards revolution.
This episode was produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (https://williamcanderson.info/) (@williamcson), Black Autonomy Federation, and members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (@BRRN_Fed). The interlude music is "I Used to Love Hip-Hop" by Audiobinger.
27 Jan 2021
Dual Power: A Simple Explanation
Dual power can be explained as the building of a transitional program for political, social, and economic transformation. By creating survival programs to oppose state power we can develop a new type of autonomous public sector when the state intentionally oppresses and abandons people. This is how to go beyond protest to building a liberatory societal infrastructure.
This episode was produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (https://williamcanderson.info/) (@williamcson), Black Autonomy Federation, and members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (@BRRN_Fed).
8 Jan 2021
Vote For Me, I'll Set You Free: Black Politics and Elections
In this premiere episode of Black Autonomy Podcast, JoNina and Lorenzo introduce the podcast and discuss elections, the Democratic Party, and political power in Black politics while proposing direct democracy as an alternative.
This episode was produced by a collaboration between writer William C. Anderson (@williamcson), Black Autonomy Federation, and members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (https://williamcanderson.info/) (@BRRN_Fed).
Inside a recent episode
Lessons For Black Anarchists
Published 7 Jun 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] You know, the leadership of SNCC birthed the Black Power Movement. And the Black Power Movement was a mass youth-based organization that had organizations in it of different types. I can't talk about that at length, you know, but I will say that the important thing to understand, there were wings to it. […]
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