“We have to figure out how we go around [the mountain] or, like Hannibal, how we just run the troops up.”

Kiese Laymon: Yo, man. It’s so good to talk to you, fam. I don’t even know how to ask somebody as busy as you how you doing. Are you less busy in the summer, or does it ramp up?

Chokwe Antar Lumumba: It’s no season for it, man. It’s an all-year-round thing. But I’m good, I’m enjoying it. I enjoy what I do. A lot of challenges, but I look forward to them, bro.

KL: One of my questions though, brother, I’ve said this to you publicly. I’ve told a lot of other people privately. I think that you and the movement have made a lot of people look at Jackson in ways they hadn’t looked at Jackson before. I think the notion of Jackson being the most progressive, radical city in the world, in the country, is something that has drawn folks. My first question is: Do you feel like, in order to be the most radical city in the country, that you have to be the most radical mayor in the country? Is there a correlation between those two?