Let's Build Our Own House: Political Art and the Making of Black and Muslim Worlds.

This essay discusses the Nation of Islam's use of the press as an instrument to develop critiques of Black life in the United States and present viable alternatives. Political artists in the Nation of Islam, having shared the same Great Migration life paths as their leader Elijah Muhammad, were key in the organization's reach, supporting the Nation of Islam in building a national network of distribution sites and a committed membership, which helped the organization to grow and claim membership of over two hundred thousand. By focusing on the Nation's midcentury publication Muhammad Speaks and its use of political cartoons, this essay explores art as a means to reorient Black geographic thought and political action. Overall, this essay suggests that the Muslim-organized Black press of the 1960s and 1970s played an important role as a counterpublic institution, providing space for Black communities to share experiences and connect their local political struggles to global anticolonial liberation movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]