Publisher's Synopsis
A joint work of poetry and speculative/magical realist fiction from Indigenous freedom fighter and political prisoner Oso Blanco (Byron Shane of Chubbuck) and anti-racist activist, author and publisher Michael Novick, The Blue Agave Revolution: Poetry of the Blind Rebel is also profusely illustrated with historical and contemporary photos and artwork by Oso Blanco. Its 300 pages contain tales of the historical Mexican Revolution of 1910-20, reports and analysis of the contemporary struggle for Indigenous sovereignty, freedom, and a better world, and imaginings of what future struggles may look like. It also incorporates information about numerous other political prisoners, including Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jessica Reznicek, and Rev. Joy Powell. Oso Blanco's work includes vivid poetry about the experience of prolonged incarceration and maintaining steadfast resistance and principle under such repressive circumstances. His writings, especially his tales and poems about the Blind Rebel during the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th Century, and infused and imbued with Native spiritual understandings and experiences, and reflect his commitment to the ongoing Zapatista revolutionary autonomous project that carries forward the struggle of Zapata and other Mexican revolutionaries in the last century. Michael Novick's poetry, stories, and analysis reflect a life-long commitment to anti-racism, anti-sexism and decolonization. His poetry connects the personal, the political, and the historical through word play, rhyme, and free verse. His story cycle on Humans versus Zombies versus Vampires reflects the realities of a "three-way fight" against both exploiters and fascists-from-below by working and oppressed people forming communities of solidarity, resistance and liberation. His analyses rang from the role of identity and class consciousness in the struggle for social, political and economic liberation and transformation, to up-to-the-minute practical lessons from the war in Ukraine. Both authors have been previously published separately; the current project was initiated by Oso Blanco who reached out from behind prison walls to Novick, whose publication Turning The Tide he, along with many other prisoners, had been receiving free for many years.
