“We are surrounded. We who are in the academy, looking for community, like June Jordan and her students in 1969, are still surrounded.”
— Joshua Myers, Of Black Study

“Agape is a form of love but it’s not the love of the marketplace. It’s not on the level of, ‘Here’s a masterclass on love.’ It’s not on the level of, ‘We have a TED Talk.’ It’s not a narcotic. It is a journey. I’m still figuring out the sacrifices embedded in it.”
— Joy James, In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love

Joshua Myers and Joy James are pillars. Each has forged and defended an intellectual life against the institutionalization of our living wounds. This is love. This is love only Black Studies “in its original conception” can deliver. Soulful and incisive, brimming with insight and powered by autonomous desire, Myers and James write knowing “we are surrounded.” The long arc of their work exposes the structural composition of this ambush. The long arc of their work prioritizes the material and spiritual resources we’ve nevertheless amassed. As Myers writes, “In face of such duress, such pervasive hardship, such overwhelming trauma, we must build spaces to re-member that we Black folk have a tradition of recognizing that it is all a lie.” To recognize the lie is to enter into deep gratitude for the masses of people exposing its bitter design. “Oshun [a Yoruba deity] took flight,” James reminds, “not because they loved in the abstract and from on high, but because they reciprocated the love they received, not from other deities but from the mass.” To love and be loved by survivors, by the surrounded: this is agape. Agape is a form of love based on collective will and sacrifice. “In the presence of agape battles for life ensue.”

We envision this roundtable as a battle for life, as both a study and celebration of the revolutionary love and political will guiding Joshua Myers’ “Of Black Study” and Joy James’ “In Pursuit of Revolutionary Love.” These recent publications are expressions of love in public. They are examples of Black scholars advancing as they remember, clarifying as they commune. We will use this roundtable to discuss writing-as-agape, contemporary conditions of Black Studies, unincorporated desires, intellectual/political ancestry, and the (ongoing) task of setting the proverbial record straight. Myers and James will discuss each other's work while also inviting deep engagement from audience members. This roundtable emerges from a community of scholars that have worked collaboratively on questions of love, justice, survival, and study for years. We will pull from this reservoir of experience to take up the thematic charge of this year’s gathering. This roundtable will offer a unique opportunity to talk with established and emerging scholars committed to love without compromise during increasingly dangerous times.