The institution of enslavement was to many divinely ordained. If one is to demonstrate a kind of agency or autonomy over their life and livelihood, then one must steal their life back. And that to me is a profound act of fugitivity. It's a subversion of the dominant, even divine power structure and heirarchy, to steal one's life back.

African American studies scholar Marquis Bey explores the fugitivity of Black life in White America - as a power in and beyond resistance to oppressive structures, a subversive source of joy in the face of imposed social death, and a posture of intention and resistance in an unjust world.

Marquis is author of the book Them Goon Rules: Fugitive Essays on Radical Black Feminism from University of Arizona Press.