Community Activist

A revealing and practical guide to community organizing that pulls together the accumulated lessons, strategies, and secrets from Si Kahn's 44 years of experience at the forefront of many civil rights, labor rights, and other social justice battles.

An Invitation to Community and Models for Connection After almost every presentation activist and writer Mia Birdsong gives to executives, think tanks, and policy makers, one of those leaders quietly confesses how much they long for the profound community she describes. They have family, friends...

The never-before-told story of the friendship between Martin Luther King Jr. and Thich Nhat Hanh—icons who changed each other and the world.

“Spell Freedom draws us in with lucid prose, filling in the holes of American history with the work of Septima Clark and Bernice Robinson and their compatriots, who deftly wielded reading and writing as their weapons of choice in the 20th century fight for first class citizenship for all.”...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The gripping, true story of one woman’s battle to expose and shut down a criminal online porn empire. Pornhub was the 10th most visited site on the Internet, often praised as a progressive champion of women. Then one day, an activist discovered a secret they had been...

Few have faced adversity like Alvin Brooks has. He was born into an impoverished family, he nearly lost his adoptive father to the justice system of the South, and he barely survived a health crisis in infancy. However, his greatest challenges would be learning how to navigate a racist society as a young boy and then later protecting his beloved wife, Carol, and their six children. Despite all the adversity he faced, Brooks became a lifelong leader and a servant of his community.

Introducing the 7 principles for practicing critical hope--because hope isn’t something you have; it’s something you do. Each person has a unique, ever-changing relationship to hope. Hope alone can be transformational--but in moments of despair, or when you’re up against profound...

From the acclaimed novelist, a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of trans and gender nonconforming elders of color—from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens—who tell their own stories of breathtaking courage, cultural innovations, and...

Like all great dreamers and planners, Marcus Garvey dreamed and planned ahead of his time and his peoples' ability to understand the significance of his life's work. A set of circumstances, mostly created by the world colonial powers, crushed this dreamer, but not his dreams. Due to persistence and years of sacrifice of Mrs. Amy Jacques Garvey, widow of Marcus Garvey, a large body of work by and about this great nationalist leader has been preserved and can be made available to a new generation of Black people who have the power to turn his dreams into realities.

No margin--no mission! What does it take to bring financial justice to communities of color? Cliff Rosenthal, shaped by the movements of the 1960s, fought for decades against government indifference and systemic bias finally seeing change come after the death of George Floyd. Michael McCray, a renowned whistle-blower, led an unprecedented court challenge to the unjust federal termination of his fraternity's Kappa Alpha Psi Federal Credit Union.

A beloved folk singer presents an impassioned account of the fall and rise of the small American towns she cherishes. Dubbed by the New Yorker as "one of America's very best singer-songwriters," Dar Williams has made her career not in stadiums, but touring America's small towns. She has played...

Find Me Unafraid tells the uncommon love story between two uncommon people whose collaboration sparked a successful movement to transform the lives of vulnerable girls and the urban poor. With a Foreword by Nicholas Kristof. This is the story of two young people from completely different worlds...

From award-winning writer Sarah Schulman, a longtime social activist and outspoken critic of the Israeli war on Gaza, comes a brilliant examination of the inherent psychological and social challenges to solidarity movements, and what that means for the future For those who seek to combat...

Set in 2014-16, and in the fictional town of West York, KY, All Lies Begin with Truth dramatizes the complexities of natural gas extraction, its legalities and impact on a small town's economy, infrastructure, and surrounding environment. Split into three distinctive perspectives, the novel begins with Eris Carroll, the outsider, a young and energetic activist negotiating her place in a world where societal rules and cultural norms cater to and support patriarchy. Later, the perspective changes to Lionel Boone, whose past indifferences and mounting guilt over surviving a kettle bottom ...

From a vivid portrait of her childhood in 1960s Detroit to her leadership of one of the world’s largest philanthropic institutions, La June shares her full-circle, American story—a coming-of-age journey where she gains a firsthand understanding of how systemic racism prevents our children and communities from thriving and learns about the transformative role healing can play in helping all of us transcend the legacy of racial inequity.

This program includes an introduction read by Lady Gaga For Lady Gaga, kindness is the driving force behind everything she says and does. The quiet power of kindness can change the way we view one another, our communities, and even ourselves. She embodies this mission, and through her work...

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE An “elegantly argued and exuberantly narrated” (The New York Times Book Review) look at the building of social movements—from the 1600s to the present—and how current technology is undermining them “A bravura work...

Updated and Revised: Do you want to make a difference in your community or even the world? Are you a middle or high school teen with a service-learning requirement? This is the easy project you need! Collecting socks for the homeless can be a fun and rewarding way to develop leadership skills, coordinate a special project, and give back to the needy. Children, teens, families, organizations, businesses, and schools can make this creative project fun for all. And an excellent addition to anyone's academic resume. Also included: Over 20 additional exciting ideas for easy service projects for ...

For six decades John Robert Lewis was a towering figure in the U.S. struggle for civil rights. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned for his unshakable integrity, indomitable courage, and determination to get into "good trouble." In this biography of Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis's upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism, his championing of voting rights and anti-poverty initiatives, and his decades of service as the "conscience of Congress."

The inside story of how our political class enabled an era of unaccountable corporate might that left ordinary Americans isolated and powerless—and how we can fight back—from the acclaimed author of The Unbroken Thread “In Tyranny, Inc., Sohrab Ahmari, one of the leading thinkers of our...