What is freedom? How do we get free?

At this author event, acclaimed scholar and activist Bill Ayers examines the roots of systemic oppression and the concept of freedom. In When Freedom is the Question, Abolition is the Answer, Ayers shares reflections that incorporate history, political theory, literature, and his own personal experience within social movements, offering a radical vision for a more just and equitable world.

"In the US, ‘freedom’ has become a dollar-store word—cheap, stripped of its real meaning. Not for Bill Ayers. He knows freedom is dear, precious, and always unfinished. These lively conversational essays take us on a journey through freedom struggles—past, present, and future—toward freedom’s destination: abolition."—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination

Register (In-Person) Register (Virtual)
Registration for the in-person event begins September 30th.

Bill Ayers is an author, activist, and educator whose previous books include Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Antiwar Activist, To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher and Teaching Toward Freedom: Moral Commitment and Ethical Action in the Classroom. A founder of both the Small Schools Workshop and the Center for Youth and Society, Ayers has taught courses in interpretive and qualitative research, oral history, creative non-fiction, urban school change, and teaching and the modern predicament. Ayers has written extensively about social justice, democracy and education, the cultural contexts of schooling, and teaching as an essentially intellectual, ethical, and political enterprise. His articles have appeared in many journals including the Harvard Educational Review, the Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, Rethinking Schools, The Nation, Educational Leadership, the New York Times, and the Cambridge Journal of Education.

Ayers lives in Hyde Park, Chicago with Bernardine Dohrn, his partner, co-conspirator, and comrade for over 50 years.