“Marilyn Buck represented the very best of our cohort. Her commitment to justice, equality, and world freedom was so robust and persuasive that it continues to inspire new generations to enlarge their own political identities and to more forcefully face new and more calamitous expressions of racism and authoritarianism. This compelling collection of writings by and about Marilyn Buck will, I hope, help new generations of poets and political activists to recognize their own contributions as deeply connected to, and even enabled by, the work of this phenomenal woman.”
—Angela Davis

Jody Sokolower is a longtime anti-imperialist activist, educator and editor. Before retirement, she co-founded and co-coordinated the Teach Palestine Project at the Middle East Children’s Alliance. Previously she served as managing editor of Rethinking Schools. A founding core member of the Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies, she is the author of Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village (Interlink Publishing Group 2021); lead editor of Rethinking Sexism, Gender and Sexuality (2016) and editor of Teaching about the Wars in the Middle East (2013).

Rob McBride is a long-time anti-imperialist and supporter of political prisoners. He has taught economics, community studies, and criminal justice on campuses across the Bay Area and mentors with the Anne Braden Program for white anti-racist activists.

Donna Willmott is a longtime anti-imperialist activist, retired teacher and organizer dedicated to antiracist political education. She is a member of Catalyst Project, focused on developing antiracist leadership of white organizers in multiracial movements, and was incarcerated alongside Marilyn at the federal women’s prison in Dublin, California.

Contents
FOREWORD — Angela Y. Davis
EDITORS’ PREFACE

PART I About Marilyn Buck
Meeting Marilyn — Soffiyah Elijah
Marilyn Jean Buck: A Brief Biography
Wild Poppies — Marilyn Buck

PART II Revolutionary Solidarity
Carrying on the Tradition of John Brown — Marilyn Buck
Sentencing Statement (Resistance Conspiracy Case) — Marilyn Buck
Women’s Control Unit: Marianna, Florida — Silvia Baraldini, Marilyn Buck, Susan Rosenberg, and Laura Whitehorn
Enemy of the State — Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn interviewed by Resistance in Brooklyn

PART III Resisting Inside
Lucy and Alicia Rodríguez Reflect on Their Time with Marilyn — Lucy and Alicia Rodríguez
On Self-Censorship — Marilyn Buck
Ten Years in Prison — Marilyn Buck
The Freedom to Breathe — Marilyn Buck
In Memoriam: A Letter to Nazim Hikmet — Marilyn Buck
Prison Life: A Day — Marilyn Buck

PART IV Analysis and Connection
“A Glimpse of Liberation” — Marilyn Buck interviewed by Becky Thompson
Cruel But Not Unusual — Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn interviewed by susie day
The Effects of Repression on Women in Prison — Marilyn Buck
Women in Prison and Work — Marilyn Buck
Our Solidarity with Women Worldwide — Marilyn Buck

PART V On Political Prisoners
Prisons, Social Control, and Political Prisoners — Marilyn Buck
Incommunicado — Marilyn Buck

PART VI Journalist, Activist
On the Burning of African American Churches — Marilyn Buck
Notes from the Unrepenitentiary: Transcending Hell — Marilyn Buck
Notes from the Unrepenitentiary: Whose Security? — Marilyn Buck

PART VII Writer, Translator
On Becoming a Poet and Artist — Marilyn Buck
Introduction to State of Exile — Marilyn Buck
Exquisite Bodies — Marilyn Buck, Jane Norling, Miranda Bergman
Dear Children . . . — Marilyn Buck

PART VIII In Memoriam
Preacher’s Daughter — Assata Shakur
To Marilyn Buck, In Memoriam — Cristina Peri Rossi
Catch — Alexis Pauline Gumbs
the blue afterwards: mourning for marilyn — Felix Shafer

APPENDIX: The Struggle for Status under International Law: U.S. Political Prisoners and The Political Offense Exception to
Extradition — Marilyn Buck

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCE NOTES
INDEX