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Seven Stories Press

Works of Radical Imagination

Book cover for Going Remote
Book cover for Going Remote

A searingly honest graphic memoir dispatch from a community college professor who cares deeply for his students and family while also combating personal health issues from the frontlines of public education during the pandemic.

Going Remote is a joint production of The Censored Press and Seven Stories Press.

With Peter Glanting’s powerful illustrations, author Adam Bessie, an English professor and graphic essayist, uses the unique historical moment of the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst to explore the existing inequalities and student struggles that plague the public education system. This graphic memoir chronicles the reverberations from the onset of the pandemic in 2020 when students and educators left their physical classrooms for remote learning. As a professor at a community college, Bessie shows how despite these challenges, teachers work tirelessly to create a more equitable educational system by responding to mental health issues and student needs.

From the Black Lives Matter protests to fielding distressed emails from students to considering the future of his own career, Going Remote also tells the personal story of Bessie’s cancer diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic. A fusion of memoir, meditation, and scholarship, Going Remote is a powerful account of a crisis moment in educational history demonstrating both personal and societal changes.

Includes back matter revealing the literary and theoretical touchpoints that inform Going Remote (works by Octavia Butler, Neil Postman, Jaron Lanier, and Diane Ravitch).

Book cover for Going Remote
Book cover for Going Remote

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“Bessie’s debut graphic memoir of teaching at a community college during the pandemic while undergoing treatment for cancer swells with a determined optimism even while being threaded with dystopian references. . . . Glanting’s drawings are thick with shadow and cyborgian representations of a world isolated by multiple diseases. But as a teacher, Bessie’s idealism holds through, and he ends on an open-ended note — the pandemic still unfurling, his tumor held at bay by an experimental medication. As he writes: “Right now, we’re here,” and that is fragile and poignant enough.”

“On the surface, Going Remote is another addition to the COVID-19 memoir scene, chronicling one community college professor’s experiences teaching remotely during the first two years of the pandemic. There is more here, however. From Bessie’s ongoing experiences of living with cancer, to making sure his son knows the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, he and cocreator Glanting use the medium to weave together a complex view of life during the last two years. Life isn’t made up of silos and easily separated parts of oneself after all. While the features of remote education play a major role here (Zoom windows are a kind of comic, aren’t they?), the annoyances of technology are less important than what going remote does to the ability to build community and to succeed, particularly for students who are fighting against the flow of an inequitable system. For the philosophically inclined, there is much to enjoy here, and end notes are included to aid in that way of reading. For those who enjoy the process of creating comics, an interview with the creators closing out the book will be of great interest.”

“I love this riveting graphic memoir about teaching, living with brain cancer, and navigating the pandemic lockdowns. Bessie, a community college English professor, goes from teaching dystopian literature to being submerged in a present-day sci-fi landscape, and skillfully weaves together the stories of his life as a patient with cancer, a teacher and parent during the pandemic. Glanting's illustrations shine in the science fiction elements and in his careful depictions of quotidian life. Bessie and Glanting's collaboration is a beautiful example of the possibilities of graphic memoir: a luminous examination of teaching, science and survival.”

“Going Remote: A Teacher’s Journey is ultimately at its best when Bessie is sharing his views and feelings about public education and the power of community. This book might only be a chronicle of one teacher’s attempts to keep his class together during the COVID pandemic, but it clearly reflects the experiences of thousands and thousands of other teachers waging similar battles across the country, and around the globe.”

blog — March 10

Abby Martin: Foreword to “Guilty of Journalism”

To celebrate the release of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case Against Julian Assange by Kevin Gosztola, we are proud to share journalist Abby Martin's foreword to the book, in which Martin refreshes readers on both the political context and the overarching stakes of the U.S. government’s prosecution of Julian Assange, as well as offering a personal account of Wikileaks’ impact on the formation of her political ideology.


Foreword to Guilty of Journalism

By Abby Martin

When I first became aware of Julian Assange, it was a time of great hope. It was also a time of great horror.

The 9/11 attacks created a climate of dutiful stenographers and imperial apologia that allowed the Bush administration to wage war on the planet under the auspices of a never-ending “War on Terrorism.” But war is terrorism, and the United States was committing unspeakable amounts of it under the cover of darkness.

As a freshman in college, I remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, surrounded by cheering students when the US bombed Baghdad like a video game. I remember the debilitating confusion when so-called opposition leader Nancy Pelosi said impeachment was off the table for the criminals that lied a nation into war, tortured with impunity, and shamelessly profited from their heinous acts. I felt utterly defeated, awash in a sea of propaganda and unquestioning patriotism.

The nation was on the brink at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency, and President Barack Obama came in to placate the anti-war agitation. Yet the wars raged on, and the war criminals walked free. They wanted Obama to rehabilitate the empire, but WikiLeaks helped cement its true legacy.

The Iraq War Logs, heroically divulged by Chelsea Manning, dropped during this crucial time, when Americans were forced to confront the truth of what the United States government was doing in our names. The Collateral Murder video, which showed an Apache helicopter indiscriminately mowing down journalists and civilians, then firing on a rescue vehicle while soldiers laughed, changed everything. Suddenly, questioning the legality and morality of the US was mainstream.

The Logs gave proof to Iraqi society of the extent to which US forces had been killing civilians. Just as Washington, through Sec- retary of Defense Robert Gates, was in Baghdad trying to extend the US military presence in the country, WikiLeaks made this untenable. Who knows what turn the war could have taken were it not for these revelations?

Julian Assange boosted the potential for accountability. As an aspiring journalist, I was moved by his conviction and willingness to make great personal sacrifices to represent this powerful truthtelling effort. The overwhelming sense of despair I felt turned to hope in the potential for great change.

Authoritarian governments shook. The US Empire was unmasked, and the imperial project was in danger of unraveling. It was a time of incredible optimism and inspiring mass movements, with the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and organizations such as Anonymous and WikiLeaks using technology to take huge risks to expose the seemingly impenetrable elite.

It was during this transformative era that I moved to Washington, DC, to work at Russia Today, and came to know and appreciate the work of journalist Kevin Gosztola. I was immediately impressed with Kevin’s intellect and meticulousness through his coverage of WikiLeaks.

He was one of the only journalists to report on Manning’s court-martial, tirelessly documenting every detail while being one of the leading advocates for her freedom. I spoke to him frequently on my show Breaking the Set, about the injustices of her case as well as the plight of whistleblowers and revelations of WikiLeaks. Ever since then, he has been my primary source for these pivotal subjects.

Kevin’s coverage of Assange is built on his coverage of Manning’s court-martial. Weaving in what he recalls from the Manning case adds an extra level of credibility to his journalism on Assange.

Years after the liberal establishment — who once heaped praise upon Assange — abandoned him in droves, Kevin has not relented in his dedication to the case. He is one of the only journalists to provide ongoing and consistent coverage of the intricacies of Assange’s trial, which Kevin reports with impressive depth and honesty.

He warned us years ago of the profound implications that indicting Assange would have, and the story he tells here should serve as a beacon for us.

For years, the US government has prosecuted whistleblowers with extreme prejudice. No one embarrasses the Empire without paying dearly in prison. But Assange was only publishing the leaks. He never committed any crime. He only published evidence of the crimes. WikiLeaks released more classified information than the rest of the world’s media combined, which is a testament to the utter failure of the world’s media to fulfill their primary function –– hold power to account.

After being told he was a Russian agent since 2016, the indictment and extradition against Assange today has nothing to do with the 2016 election or Russia. It has everything to do with the Iraq and Afghanistan War logs. Exposing war crimes and war criminals. Tainting the image of the United States. Showing the world this is how the US imposes its world order under the hypocritical banner of “human rights” and “democracy.”

They’ve come at Assange with the full brunt of their power because they have to set fear in the rest of us. They have to instill a chilling effect that will reverberate for generations: this is what can happen to you if you try to replicate Assange’s work. This can be your fate, if you dare to challenge us.

Today, the model they used to discredit Assange is now deployed against anyone in the media who contradicts official war narratives.

The burgeoning hope of transparency and accountability of the WikiLeaks era has been extinguished. The internet is now carefully curated and crafted for us by tech overlords, who work hand in hand with state forces.

Assange’s story is of major historical importance –– both for exposing the crimes of the past and setting a precedent for the future. Against a wall of coverage that aims to attack and discredit him, works such as this book, which accurately document his case, are essential for today and for tomorrow.

We need to organize the resistance to the Empire with eyes wide open, and that cannot happen without this story being properly told. The ramifications of his case for journalists everywhere will keep imperial crimes in the shadows, and if we simply give up and allow Assange to wither away in that black box, this country is beyond saving. Prosecuting Assange will be its death knell.

Adam Bessie

ADAM BESSIE is a community college English professor in the San Francisco Bay Area and writes comics which have been published in many national outlets, including the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Boston Globe, and the Los Angeles Times. He won the New York Association of Black Journalists 2018 Award for the graphic essay “Betsy Devos’ ‘School Choice’ Movement Isn’t Social Justice. It’s a Return to Segregation” (with Erik Thurman). He lives on the site of a former dynamite factory with his wife and son on the San Pablo Bay.

PETER GLANTING is a UX designer and cartoonist. He is fascinated by engravings, wood block prints and works that emphasize hatching and linear halftone. Pete holds a BA in English from the University of California at Davis and an MFA in Comics from the California College of the Arts. He lives and works in Portland, Oregon. Find more of his work at peterglantingdraws.com.