“Study, fast, train, fight”
These are the principles of Black August, a month of commemoration rooted in the 1970’s Black Liberation Movement that honors fallen Black freedom fighters and political prisoners.
In August 1619, the first enslaved Africans were brought to the amerikan colonies and ever since the month of August has been marked by resistance. Black August formally began in California prisons following the police murders of revolutionary brothers Jonathan and George Jackson in 1970 and 1971, respectively.
Therefore, the spirit of those who struggled, and continue to struggle, for liberation is honored every year in this month.
Here (Oregon) and now, Malik Muhammed and Brian Hakiym Simpson are regularly featured in this column as two currently incarcerated members of our movement.
Malik is a Black/Palestinian Muslim, anarchist antifascist, antiracist abolitionist imprisoned fighting for their love of freedom during the George Floyd Uprisings in Portland. Throughout their prison sentence, they’ve fought back against racist, exploitative abuse and conditions, landing them in solitary confinement for long durations, where they continued to fight, waging hunger strikes. Learn more at malikspeaks.noblogs.org
Hakiym is a wildland firefighter and father of four who is facing six years in prison for self defense against a racially motivated attack, despite his aggressor admitting that he started the fight. Support this defender of our forests @justiceforhakiym
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From Malik Muhammed on the observance of Black August from behind prison walls, an excerpt from the Aug. 17th episode of The Final Straw Radio:
“Black August is in remembrance of George Jackson and Jonathan Jackson. Every Black August for all 31 days you’re supposed to do 100 reps of something, most of the time it’s burpees. You get together in groups with the Blacks … you get into as many groups as the pigs will allow you to until they break you up. It’s about being physical and mentally fit, for preparedness, for physical conflict with the pigs, but also with white racist gangs. Personally it’s annoying to me that there’s just one month… it should be Black August every day of the year and we should all be unified.”
Listen to the entire interview at: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2025/08/17/2020-uprising-prisoner-malik-muhammad-speaks-from-snake-river-dc-in-oregon/
Write to Malik:
Malik Muhammad #23935744
Snake River Correctional Institution
777 Stanton Blvd
Ontario, OR 97914-8335
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resilience
by: brian hakiym simpson
Didn’t understand I was in a state of depression
‘Til I was asked the question
Are you alright?!
Getting lost in my mind
That must be the sign
How else would they know
I say yes,
Although it’s really a no
I tell my brain
Struggle and pain is how we grow
I’m lost on this road
Which direction
Traveling inward to self reflection
Trouble sleeping
Barely eating looking for the rhyme within the reason
Trying not to lose faith or become a heathen
You can’t fake it to you make it
You gave to face it til you make it
I bare my soul in my poems
Heart vacant can’t be complacent
Prisoner of self upon second look
Freedom I can taste it… let me cook
Don’t over brew as I stew on ideals
What and who’s fake or real
Destroyed yet I rebuild
Survive the prison of mind
As I find myself in this state of decline
Depression
I question life’s lessons
I’m Stressing
Is the test the blessing
Was the blessing test
My mind can’t rest
What is the message in this mess
Self I’ve second guessed
I suppress tightness in my chest
Am I too much if so why do I feel like less
Systemic thinking of the oppressed
Depressed
Only reason I’m OK
Is because its OK to not be OK
Truth is I struggle everyday
So I wrote this poem
I wanted to say you’re not alone…
Write to Hakiym:
Brian Simpson #27433390
Snake River Correctional Institution
777 Stanton Boulevard
Ontario, Oregon 97914-8335