Mumia Abu-Jamal on Attack vs Press Freedom; & Two-Spirit Indigenous Leader on Crushing Colonialism

Segment 1: Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Historical Perspective on Attacks on Press Freedom in Minnesota

Analyzes Arrests of Black Journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon (an Out-Gay Man

As a fitting opening to Black History Month, we will discuss the latest attack on freedom of the press, this time the arrests of Black journalists Georgia Fort and Don Lemon for covering a protest against ICE at a St. Paul, Minnesota church.

The brutal federal occupation of Minneapolis-St. Paul by 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol cops continues unabated. Besides the mounting toll of people of color harassed, arrested, kidnapped, and detained in the Twin Cities, two white allies of migrants, (out lesbian) Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have been shot dead (as we have covered on Out-FM), and two others, Venezuelan immigrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis and Mexican immigrant Alberto Castañeda Mondragón seriously injured. And that’s not to mention the numerous additional people of color shot by ICE in other cities and 32 migrants who have died in ICE detention nationwide over the past year.

?In response to a wave of popular revulsion at the tactics of militarized repression of migrants and their allies?, the feds have expanded attacks on freedom of the press?. On January 30th, federal agents arrested two journalists under a felony indictment that now includes nine people -- nearly all of them Black -- for allegedly participating in a January 18th demonstration against ICE inside a St. Paul Baptist church whose pastor is a regional ICE official. The indictment claims that the nine conspired to interfere with the right of congregants to practice their religion. Independent journalists Georgia Fort, an Emmy-award-winning reporter and vice president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, and Don Lemon, the out-gay former CNN anchor and current host of the Don Lemon Show on YouTube, both covered the church protest but did not participate in it. Both have been intensively covering ICE's attacks and community responses in the Twin Cities.

First we'll play clips? of Don Lemon speaking in Los Angeles, standing next to his husband, just after his release from arrest on his own recognizance, and Georgia Fort. who has also now been released.

Then we'll hear a recent inte?rview with a historical analysis of these latest arrest?s by journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal?. It was conducted by journalist Kalonji Jama Changa on ?his online Black Power Media. Kalonji is an active people's advocate who has fought on multiple fronts tackling issues from police brutality to international human rights violations.
Meanwhile, in another example of the wave of heightened political repression in the Twin Cities, one of Out-FM's previous guests, Mira Altobell-Resendez, a non-binary Minnesotan fighting for legalization for all and an end to deportations with the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, was recently harassed by the FBI because of her anti-ICE activism. We'll read a statement issued last week by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.? For more, go to stopfbi.org.

Personal note: As someone who decades ago similarly faced FBI harassment and later a grand jury subpoena seeking to gather intelligence on anti-racist and anti-imperialist movements, and served three months in prison for so-called contempt because I refused to cooperate with this federal attack, I want to appeal to everyone: Don't give information to city, state or federal agents about your movement or its members - refuse to collaborate!
 
Resources:
To listen to Out-FM's 2024 one-hour documentary about Mumia's striking evolution to become an LGBTQ ally, based on ?B?ob Lederer's interview with him from prison, click here.
 
For Mumia's audio and printed commentaries/interviews over the years (including this new one), click here.

For more about Mumia's case and what you can do to help free him, click here or here (scroll down to "Support Info").

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 Segment 2: Two-Spirit Indigenous Leader Jen Deerinwater on Crushing Colonialism

John Riley interviews Jen Deerinwater, a Two-Spirit, multiply-disabled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the founding Executive Director of Crushing Colonialism, whom he met after her keynote at the 2026 Creating Change conference in Washington, D.C. She joins us for a discussion about Indigenous resistance to fascism from the colonization period to present. Jen will also discuss obstacles that she and colleagues faced to put on the Indigequeer-led Decolonized Beats Indigenous World Pride festival at the World Pride series of events in May-June, 2025, held on Piscataway Land (so-called Washington, D.C.). Finally, she'll discuss Native peoples' experience with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the Border Patrol, including that of the cross-border Tohono O'odham Nation, which spans Arizona and northern Mexico.
 
Bio: 
Jen Deerinwater is a bisexual, Two-Spirit, multiply-disabled, citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an award-winning journalist and organizer who covers the myriad of issues their communities face with an intersectional lens. Jen is the founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism, an international Indigenous storytelling, arts, and media non-profit organization in the so-called US. Jen has been interviewed for numerous outlets on their work and The Advocate named Jen a 2019 Champion of Pride. They’re currently a member of the Disability Community Advisory Group for the first of its kind LGBTQ Museum in New York City. Jen is also hard at work on Sacred and Subversive: Queer Voices on Faith and Spirituality, a 2SLGTBTQIA+ multi-faith anthology due out this year.
 
Websites: JDeerinwater.com & CrushingColonialism.org 
Socials: @JenDeerinwater & @CrushingColonialism