New York Liberation School

Conor ‘Coco’ Tomás Reed is a Puerto Rican/Irish gender-fluid scholar-organizer of radical cultural movements at the City University of New York. Conor is codeveloping the quadrilingual anthology Black Feminist Studies in the Americas and the Caribbean, is the current comanaging editor of LÁPIZ Journal, and is a contributing editor of Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. Conor is a cofounding participant in Free CUNY, Rank and File Action, and Reclaim the Commons; and is a member of CUNY for Abortion Rights.

Dedication





Introduction

Coalitions, Compositions, Boomerangs • Scales of CUNY • Institutional Strategies • Living Archives • Education, Organization, Metaphor, Labor • Chapters in Our Collective Story 




Chapter 1: Freedom Learning: Lineages and Obstacles

City College Radicalism Emerges • Puerto Rico, COINTELPRO, and McCarthyism’s Rise • Black and Puerto Rican Migration to New York City • Riots, Community Control, and Solidarity • Resisting Empire from the Island to the City to the College • One, Two, Many Free Universities • Ethnic and Gender Studies Divisions • Fiscal Crises 




Chapter 2: Creating the “Black University,” “black city,” and “Life Studies” with Toni Cade Bambara, David Henderson, and June Jordan

Toni Cade Bambara: The Making of a Community Scribe • David Henderson: From Umbra to the Classroom • June Jordan: Seeing the Streets, Houses, Trees as Schools • Black (Community) Studies at City College • Teaching with the Strike • Strike

Reverberations in the City • Open Admissions and the Cost of Upheaval • Continuations




Chapter 3: Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich: Sisters in Struggle

Early Years Reaching • Re-visioning and Diving into SEEK • From “Blackstudies” to Deotha • Emerging Anger and Eros in Women’s Studies • Continuations




Chapter 4: The Power of Student Writing and Action

Samuel Delany: Moving from Institutions to the Masses • Student Journalism and 

Mobilization • Creating Harlem University • Tech News Becomes The Paper • Assata Shakur and Guillermo Morales: From CUNY to the Underground • Continuations




Chapter 5: Contemporary Struggles for Our Futures

9/11, December 19 and 20, and the Limits of Free Speech on Campus • Occupy and the Free University • Militarism and Surveillance at CUNY • #BlackLivesMatter and Black Women’s Studies on the Streets • Palestine, Free Speech, and Labor • Counter-Institutional Models in the University of Puerto Rico and CUNY • CUNY Faces COVID-19, Welcomes BLM 2.0, and Defends Abortion Access • Continuations




Coda: CUNY Will Be Free!

Liberating Education • Archiving in Ethical Motion