Join us on Wednesday, July 1st at 5:30 for our next Cactus Book Club. Comité Sin Fronteras will lead an evening of discussion on Silky Shah's book, Unbuild Walls.
In the wake of post-9/11 xenophobia, Obama’s record-level deportations, Trump’s immigration policies, and the 2020 uprisings for racial justice, the US remains entrenched in a circular discourse regarding migrant justice. As organizer Silky Shah argues in Unbuild Walls, we must move beyond building nicer cages or advocating for comprehensive immigration reform. Our only hope for creating a liberated society for all, she insists, is abolition. Unbuild Walls dives into US immigration policy and its relationship to mass incarceration, from the last forty years up to the present, showing how the prison-industrial complex and immigration enforcement are intertwined systems of repression. Incorporating historical and legal analyses, Shah’s personal experience as an organizer, and stories of people, campaigns, organizations, and localities that have resisted detention and deportation, Shah assesses the movement’s strategies, challenges, successes, and shortcomings. Featuring a foreword by Amna A. Akbar, Unbuild Walls is an expansive and radical intervention, bridging the gaps between movements for immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison abolition.Recommended bookseller: La Revo Books
“Comité Sin Fronteras is a collective of young adult undocumented and DACAmented organizers and abolitionists who are dedicated to advancing immigration reform and beyond.”
ABOUT US: Cactus Book Club (CBC) meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7:30 in the back room at Cactus Club. Each month a different community organization, collective, mutual aid group, or business chooses the book & recommended bookseller then leads the discussion. We read sociopolitical fiction and non-fiction, with a focus on works by women, LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and/or otherwise under-published groups. You don’t have to finish reading the book to attend. All book club meetings are free. No registration required. 18+. CBC is part of our ongoing Cactus+ programming. Contact bookclub@cactusplus.org with questions or suggestions. Interested in leading a book club? Apply here SUMMARY:Cactus Book Club: “Unbuild Walls” by Silky Shah ORGANIZER:Cactus Club URL;VALUE=URI:https://www.cactusclubmilwaukee.com/events/cbc-july1-2026/ TRANSP:OPAQUE END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR