My interest in understanding and protecting activists is personal. I am an activist, also a writer and an anthropologist–an anti-colonial one. My most immediate motive for delving into the delights, dilemmas and dangers of being an activist is that I live these things daily and would really like to understand them better–and for others to understand me!

In other POA Journal topics I share more general observations and analysis. These Explorations focus on stories of my own activism and my attempts to make sense of what I personally see and experience as an activist in the belly of the Beast–including the ups and downs of starting Protect Our Activists.

In no way do I claim to be the best example of the activist experiences I cover, much less the most severe case of the risks I mention. That, sadly, tends to be people targeted by the most systemic oppression. I am one instance of the things I am talking about, not a generalization or example.

I am, however, the handiest subject, and the only one I can observe from the inside! So please join me and my trusty comrades in my real time exploration of activist culture–in the belly of the Beast, liberated zones I manage to visit and even create, and accompany me–if you dare!–into the scary crevasses of my colonized mind…