This report covers the launch event for Black Anarchist Resistance – Sudanese Solidarity (BARSS), a new coalition engaged international solidarity and domestic political work. The event was held on April 25, 2026
by BARSS
Anarchists in Sudan are not alone! Comrades across the US are coming together to share support for anarchist revolutionaries in Sudan, striving to meet the urgent needs for both survival work and political organization. Last month saw the first physical event of the new campaign, Black Anarchist Resistance: Sudanese Solidarity (BARSS).
BARSS is a collaboration between Black Rose / Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation (BRRN), the Black Autonomy Federation (BAF), and the Dugout podcast. The coalition is led by Black anarchists and intends to grow the presence and visibility of Black anarchism in the US through materially supporting the work of our comrades in Sudan.
Our first public event as BARSS was held in the Inglewood neighborhood of Los Angeles on April 25. The BAF welcomed friends into their neighborhood resource hub and bookstore, Black Lantern Books, for an evening of Sudan-centered poetry.
A member of Black Rose/Rosa Negra sits behind the organization’s table at the at April 25th launch event for BARSS held at Black Lantern Books.
The event raised approximately $675 through direct donations to our online fundraising platform, books purchased during the event, and via a tea stand set up by LA-based Sudanese collective Lucy’s Shai. All proceeds earned were donated in support of the Sudanese Anarchist Group.
The evening began with spoken word performances by Black Lantern’s artist and poet in residence, Marvin James and walela Nehanda. They opened the night by sharing work that grounded us in some of the themes that would carry on throughout the evening: digging deep inside oneself to enact revolutionary love and reconciling with a life fragmented by systemic violence.
Shabakatalwujood, a Bay Area-based Sudanese diaspora artist, shared a poem of revolutionary anger and battle cries. After reading their poem, Shabakat led the crowd in putting our voices together to shout out a chant from the Sudanese revolution: “Dam al shaheed dami” – “The blood of the martyr is my blood”.
The central artist of the night was Safia Elhillo, an award-winning poet of the Sudanese diaspora. Safia’s poems reflected on the experiences of growing up in the Sudanese diaspora, dwelling in the sensory nostalgia of lost moments spent with family and music in the homeland.
In her introduction Safia spoke of the challenge of writing poetry in the midst of a genocide that is uprooting so much of her family’s history and community; of the feeling that the immensity of the war takes all words and expressions away. After the counter-revolution and the outbreak of war, it took her some time before she could return to writing the poetry that she wanted to write; poetry that allowed her to remember libraries, homes, and loved ones lost to the war. Poetry that was able to begin communicating the colossal losses through expressing those intimate moments and moving people into action through creating that relatability.
Poetry reading during the April 25 launch event.
This experience of being paralyzed in both words and action speaks to how many of us often feel when faced with the numerous interlocking crises that leave us little time to collect our thoughts, let alone develop a strategy for intervention.
When Shabakatalwujood brought the room to join together revolutionary chants it reminded us, though, that even if we cannot find the perfect words to express the pain of genocide, even if the weight of loss in the world overwhelms us, we can still find a voice by joining in collective struggle. The words of struggle are there, they are being spoken by our comrades, and we can add our voice to the chant.
Even when we don’t have the words to express our own feelings and experiences, we can begin to overcome the paralysis brought on by crisis by moving in solidarity, even if we move slowly and in small ways at first.
This event was significant in bringing the Sudanese diaspora and Black anarchists together, sharing art and doing work together. Encounters built on practical shared work are how we can deepen our learning from each other and our relationships of struggle. It is the start of an ongoing effort to build solidarity and material support for Black liberation struggle around the world and here at home, so we can push through global crisis together with collective action.
If you enjoyed this article, we recommend reading further about the Sudanese anarchist movement in Claiming Freedom in Revolution and in War: an Introduction to the Anarchist Group in Sudan.
The post Event Report: Launching the Black Anarchist Resistance – Sudan Solidarity (BARSS) Coalition appeared first on Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation.
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