{"product_id":"9781682193044","title":"Pen Pal","description":"Author: Tiyo Attallah Salah-El\u003cbr\u003eISBN: 9781682193044\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: OR Books\u003cbr\u003eYear first published: 04 Jan 2021\u003cbr\u003ePages: 256 \u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eTiyo Attallah Salah-El died in 2018 on \"Slow Death Row\" while serving a life sentence in a Pennsylvania prison. He was a man with a dizzying array of talents and vocations: author, scholar, teacher, musician, and activist: he was the founder of the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons. He was also, as is apparent from the letters written over a decade and half to his friend Paul Alan Smith that make up this book, an extraordinarily eloquent correspondent.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTiyo's missives present a vivid picture of the tribulations faced by those incarcerated, especially the nearly 60% who are non-white: habitual racism, arbitrary lockdowns, brutal beatings and hospitalizations, stifling heat and bitter cold. Here too are descriptions of Tiyo's individual struggles with cancer, aging, and the sirens of personal demons.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTiyo's refusal to succumb to such hardships is evident in dispatches that are generous, philosophical and often laugh-out-loud funny. Through them we learn of his many friendships, including those with the historian Howard Zinn, a range of activist\/advocate supporters on the outside, and two fellow people in prison who were leaders of the Black liberation group MOVE.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt a time when the appalling racial bias of America's police and criminal justice system is under the spotlight as never before,Pen Palis both a vital intervention and moving portrait of someone whose physical confinement could never extinguish an extraordinary free spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ships in 10 to 15 days","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47924600701086,"sku":"ING-9781682193044","price":25.78,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0400\/9043\/5742\/files\/9781682193044.jpg?v=1782951287","url":"https:\/\/classicbargains.com.au\/products\/9781682193044","provider":"Classic Bargains Australia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}