Today would have been Assata Shakur’s 79th birthday. Although the legendary freedom fighter joined the ancestors on Sept. 25, 2025, her memory, legacy, and impact are still here to remind us that the work is not done and that we have so much more to accomplish.
If you had been in the room at the Riverside Church in New York on May 30 as we celebrated the life of Assata the mother, Assata the grandmother, Assata the activist, Assata the freedom fighter, Assata the author, Assata the Black Panther, and Assata the political target, you would understand that “Carry It On” is not just a phrase from a poem or a refrain heard often throughout the service; it is a mantra and a mandate that we keep pushing, keep remembering, keep preserving, and keep fighting.
The best way to do all of those things in Assata’s name is to remember her and her work, and the Assata Shakur Archives Project seeks to do just that
Members of the Assata Shakur Memorial Committee and her family are launching a call for artifacts to help establish the Assata Shakur Archives Project. Those who support the project are asked to join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #AssataLives.
The Assata Shakur Memorial Committee said in a statement, “The Assata Shakur Archives is a project dedicated to gathering, preserving, curating and sharing the digital and physical archives of activist, artist, mother, grandmother, poet, writer, revolutionary freedom fighter Assata Shakur.
“We are creating a living memorial to document the life of Assata Shakur with the aim of remembering and preserving her legacy–and our own.”
Assata Olugbala Shakur was an activist, mother, grandmother, artist, writer, freedom fighter, and member of the Black Panther Party, the Republic of New Afrika, and the Black Liberation Army, who joined the ranks of the many freedom fighters targeted by the U.S. government’s illegal COINTELPRO (Counter-Intelligence Program).
On Nov. 2, 1979, with the help of committed comrades, she escaped from prison and was later granted political asylum in Cuba.
She wrote her book, Assata, An Autobiography, in 1987. The book is still in print, has been translated into many languages, and is taught in high schools, colleges, and universities throughout the world.
The committee asks that, on July 16, 2026, you follow the hashtag #AssataLives to witness and share artifacts that illuminate the powerful and amazing work spanning nearly eight decades of liberatory love and freedom-fighting.
This project comes two months after the historic Carry it On Assata Shakur Memorial at New York City’s Riverside Church. After the celebration of life, several members of the memorial host committee reconvened to build a public, permanent space of remembrance, honoring, storytelling, and truth-affirmation.
Our ancestors and their stories belong to us.
“More than anything, Assata belonged to her people. She taught us to refuse and reject erasure, to continue the work, and to always tell our own history. This project is one of the many ways we will ‘carry it on’,” the committee said in a statement.
Assata Lives, and Assata is always welcome here.
