Here is a one-hour interview I did about my new book, *Freedom Ship* with Morteza Hajizadeh for New Books Network (@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

Yesterday I visited the very impressive International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. I especially liked the replica “Praise House” that was built inside the museum. I also admired the numerous films and contemporary art projects. Highly recommended!

Friday, Sept. 19, 6:00 pm: I'll be part of “Sailing to Freedom,” a free program sponsored by the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program/College of Charleston – the opening of a new exhibition and a book talk about *Freedom Ship*. Info/register here: calendar.charleston.edu/event/sailin...

Saddened to hear of the death of Vincent Scotti Eirene, one of Pittsburgh’s greatest activists over the past forty years. A man of spirit, humor, and fierce devotion to peace and social justice, he was truly one of a kind. Had a good bit of the Yippie in him. Here is one of his favorite photos. RIP.

Thanks to Harris Feinsod for an excellent tour yesterday of Frederick Douglass-related places in Fell’s Point, Baltimore, the waterfront district where he lived much of his life between 1826-1838. Here is the central house on “Douglass Row,” five townhouses he built in 1892, and a nearby mural.

Thanks, Alf!

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 10:30 am, I'll give a talk/workshop at Johns Hopkins entitled "How to Write (Maritime) History from Below." The event is sponsored by the Tidewater Initiative and the Maritime Committee of the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Join us! sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev...

Happy to share the book cover of our fourth and now officially forthcoming graphic novel *Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad* by David Lester, Paul Buhle, and myself, to be published by @beaconpress.bsky.social in June 2026. More info available here: prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9...

Next Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, I’ll give a talk about my new book *Freedom Ship* at Georgetown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery. It will be held in Healy Hall, room 208 and is free and open to the public. events.georgetown.edu/event/32116-...

Next Monday & Tuesday, Sept. 15 & 16, I’ll give two talks in Baltimore, one at the Bird in Hand bookstore about *Freedom Ship*, the other at Johns Hopkins University about “How to Write (Maritime) History from Below.” sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev... sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev...

Good news for authors as AI firm Anthropic is forced to respect copyright for the books it illegally scraped. This may set a standard for other AI companies engaged in the same kind of plundering plagiarism on a massive scale. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I’m teaching a junior-level seminar on Atlantic piracy this semester and very excited to dig into Freedom Ship—the latest book by one of my favorite historians, @marcusrediker.bsky.social! Bonus: students who enroll in pirate classes are seriously into pirates. 🏴‍☠️ I love this class.

It was my great pleasure yesterday to visit “The Art of Labor,” an exhibition at Rivers of Steel in Homestead, PA. The works of art came from the collection of my dear friends Joe White and Delsa White, based on a lifetime of commitment to struggles from below. riversofsteel.com/experiences/...

The excellent Sasha Lilley interviewed me about my new book, *Freedom Ship*, for KPFA’s “Against the Grain.” I got a note from Joan Tarika Lewis, the first female member of the Black Panther Party, whose great grandfather, Edward West Parker, had escaped slavery by sea! kpfa.org/episode/agai...

Sad to learn of the death of Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Director of the National Library of Cuba. Here I am with Eduardo and Alejandro de la Fuente at the Havana Book Fair in 2015.

A brilliant portrait of the radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay, by artist Luis Silva.

Here is the video of the one-hour session in which I discussed my new book *Freedom Ship* with Corey D. B. Walker The event was sponsored by The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, which memorializes those who suffered the Atlantic slave trade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSLH...

New podcast about radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay, featuring Loretta Fox, Mark Povinelli, and me. If you donate, you get a free mug with Lay’s picture that says, “Smash this mug,” as he did to china cups in 1742 to protest the exploitation of tea and sugar workers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufMJ...

Delighted to say that my first book, *Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea*, has been translated into Portuguese & published by the University of São Paulo Press. Warm thanks to Jaime Rodrigues for helping this to happen. This is my third book translated into Portuguese, with two more on the way.

My friend Norman Marshall, a poet and an actor best known for his portrayal of radical abolitionist John Brown in a one-man show, *Trumpet of Freedom*, has died. The great grandson of a Virginia enslaver and the son of a Klansman, he was fiercely anti-racist and as tough as they come. RIP Norman.

Just found out that 74 of my works have been scraped/stolen by the plundering AI bots, which are nothing more than plagiarism machines really, with zero respect for copyright. My fellow writers, check it out for your own work. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

I have always wanted to teach a graduate class in which all of the reading would be books by my former PhD students. I would invite the authors to visit the class and speak to the students about the creative process within the genesis of their books. Now that would be fun!

Here is one of my favorite paintings from my Haitian art collection: “Family” by Denis Emile (1919-1966), painted in the early 1960s. He was a leader among a group of socially-conscious artists who practiced the “realisme de cruaute.” The painting reminds me of Van Gogh’s “The Potato Eaters.”

Mark Brokaw was one of the greats of modern theatre. It was my good fortune to work with him in a workshop he directed for our play *The Return of Benjamin Lay* at the Signature Theatre in NYC in October 2019. He was simply brilliant. RIP, Mark. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/t...

Sorry to say, friends, a combination of bad weather and sickness has forced the cancellation of my outdoor public lecture scheduled for Bryant aPark in NYC tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.

For anyone teaching the slave trade and slavery this fall: check out my documentary film, *Ghosts of Amistad*, about the memory of the 1839 uprising in contemporary Sierra Leone, w/ French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish subtitles. Study guides for teachers and students too. www.ghostsofamistad.com

Join us Saturday, Aug. 23, 7:00 pm, as I discuss my new book *Freedom Ship* with Corey D. B. Walker. This online event is sponsored by The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project. The event is free, but advance registration is requested here: mailchi.mp/ed90444ad555...

Excited to see the first review of our children's book, *Fearless Benjamin*, by @leehall.bsky.social, just published by CounterPunch! The book will come out on October 14. Thanks, Lee! CounterPunch.org www.counterpunch.org/2025/08/15/f...

Today, Saturday, August 16, at 3:55 pm — my discussion with journalist Tony Norman about my new book *Freedom Ship*, filmed at Pittsburgh’s City of Asylum in late June, will be broadcast on C-SPAN2 TV. www.c-span.org/event/americ...

Looking forward to reading John Marriott's new book (@johnmarriott.bsky.social) on the British Empire in India, just out from @universitypress.cambridge.org. Congratulations, John! www.cambridge.org/core/books/l...

Here's how to get a 20% discount our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf who Fought Slavery*, co-written with Michelle Markel and illustrated by Sarah Bachman, to be published Oct. 14, 2025 by @pmpress.bsky.social. Use BEN! at checkout. pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

Atlantic sunset: “as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever” saith Herman Melville.

My discussion with journalist Tony Norman about my new book *Freedom Ship*, filmed at Pittsburgh’s @cityofasylum.bsky.social in late June, will be broadcast on C-SPAN2 Saturday, August 16, 2025 at 3:55 pm. www.c-span.org/schedule/?ch...

Nothing new here, but my take on AI bots is simple: they are plagiarism machines. This I know from personal experience as a writer. I saw a list of just some of the books that one AI bot had scraped and six of my books were on the list, all plundered without regard for copyright.

We’re kicking things off Sept 15 @ Bird in Hand with Marcus Rediker in conversation about his new book Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery at Sea @marcusrediker.bsky.social sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev...

Just watched Guillermo del Toro's *Pinocchio* with my grand-daughters. If you want a truly brilliant -- and anti-fascist -- interpretation of the classic tale by Carlo Collodi (1883), this film is for you. I enjoyed it as much as they did! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od2N...

Rereading, a classic. Available online here: www.ways-of-seeing.com

Grateful to Ed Baptist for this comment about my book *Freedom Ship*, available here: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566407...

Help us reach our goal! We’re in the final stage of the campaign to support @pmpress.bsky.social‬ as it publishes our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin*! Now is the time, when children’s books are being banned and libraries purged. Link below for donor’s perks. www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww3...

Now reading: @jwassers.bsky.social’s transnational study of young activists in Southeast Asia — Thailand, Hong Kong, and Burma. Happy to see Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal featured as one of the key figures in this moving story of courage, will, and hope. globalreports.columbia.edu/books/the-mi...

Sat. Aug. 23, 7:00 pm: I'll talk about *Freedom Ship* with my friend Corey Walker in an event sponsored by the Middle Passages Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, in observance of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. Join us! mailchi.mp/ed90444ad555...

Oops, one more I forgot, because I’m currently reading it (Freedom Ship, by @marcusrediker.bsky.social ). This is fascinating research of accounts of escaping slavery by ship, and the amount of people that helped, and how, gives me a lot of faith back in humanity.

Now that *Freedom Ship* has been published, it’s time to get started on a new work of history. Any suggestions?

Friends – if you donate $150 to PM Press as it publishes our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin*, we will send you signed copies of that book, my biography of Lay, the play I wrote with Naomi Wallace, and the graphic novel I created with David Lester, 4 books! www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww3...

Now reading, Teju Cole’s prize-winning *Open City: A Novel*, an especially good read for anyone who loves New York as the book recounts the narrator’s social and philosophical adventures as he walks around the city.

The Atlantic is pacific this morning — and all dressed up with a pink horizon.

Very moving visit to Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, particularly due to excellent young docent. So encouraging to witness passionate articulate delivery of troubled recent history, and receptive audience for human stories of the marginalized and disenfranchised. @marcusrediker.bsky.social #ManyHeadedHydra

Whenever I can see or hear this creature, I’m usually pretty happy.

Now that’s more like it, the Atlantic as I know it.

David Lester, Paul Buhle, and I are in the later stages of finishing our new work, “The Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad, A Graphic Novel,” to be published next year by Beacon Press. This will be our fourth graphic novel since 2021. Here is a sample of David’s brilliant art.