Radicalized by race riots in his home state of Maryland growing up, as well as by his experiences while serving in the US Army, Weems became the black revolutionary known as Kuwasi Balagoon in New York City in the late 1960s.

In 1981 Balagoon was amongst the several BLA, May 19 Communist Organization and Weather Underground members involved in the 1981 Brink's robbery, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and one security guard.

In the early 1960s the teenage Weems was influenced by Gloria Richardson and the Cambridge movement occurring in Maryland seeking civil rights for African-Americans.

[1] After graduating high school, Weems joined the US Army and was deployed to Germany, where he experienced racism and physical attacks from white officers and enlisted men.

In response, Weems and other Black soldiers formed a secret group with the Army called "Da Legislators" which carried out revenge attacks.

[1] After settling in New York City, Weems became an activist, and at first, was particularly active in rent strikes as part of the Community Council on Housing, a tenant's rights group.

[1] Following this, Weems moved on from the CCOH and joined the Central Harlem Committee for Self-Defense, a group involved with providing food and water to students who occupied buildings as part of the Columbia University protests of 1968.

It was around this same time period that Weems became interested and involved with the Yoruba Temple in Harlem run by Adefunmi, which promoted a form of West African traditional religion.

Around the same time, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Revolutionary Action Movement were involved in setting up a chapter of the Black Panthers in Harlem, New York City.

[4] Defence Attorneys counterargued that this accusation was based on the witness testimony of BPP member Joan Bird, who they alleged was beaten by police until she agreed to state that.

Odinga avoided an attempted arrest on April 2 and proceeded to flee the United States for Algeria, where Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver was now based.

The prisons were later retaken, and while Balagoon was disappointed with the outcome, he was evidently pleased with the experience, expressing the belief that the riots demonstrated ordinary people could overcome the power of the state.

It was this new ideological view that also brought Balagoon towards a new radical Panther splinter group called the Black Liberation Army, which advocated fighting a "war" against the state by members who had gone "underground".

[1] Imprisoned once again, Balagoon committed further to Anarchism and began exploring the works of Wilhelm Reich, Emma Goldman, Errico Malatesta, Buenaventura Durruti and Severino Di Giovanni and trying to applying their thoughts to "Black Liberation".

Balagoon also began to affiliate with the Republic of New Afrika, a group that advocated African-Americans identifying as "New Afrikans" and seeking a Black nation-state within North America.

[11] In January 1982, Balagoon was captured and charged with participating, along with other members of the BLA, M19CO, and the Weather Underground, in the October 20, 1981 robbery of a Brink's armored truck in West Nyack, New York.

[1] During the trial Balagoon was allowed to call Odinga as a witness, who had previously been convicted of racketeering and conspiracy but acquitted of the robbery and any murder charges due to double jeopardy laws.

In the same interview, Balagoon described the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, in which two suicide bombers killed 307 people (mostly American and French peacekeeping forces) as "beautiful," "incredible," and that there was "a lot to learn" from it.

This collection of writings by and about Balagoon was edited by Matt Meyer and Karl Kersplebedeb and includes contributions from Sekou Odinga, David Gilbert, Meg Starr, Ashanti Alston, and other activists.