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.

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.

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.

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER Featured in The New York Times's Nonfiction to Read This Spring Black transgender luminary Tourmaline brings to life the first definitive biography of the revolutionary activist Marsha P. Johnson, one of the most important and remarkable figures in LGBTQIA+ history...

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...

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...

The acclaimed author of the “stirring, definitive, and engrossing” (NPR) The Woman’s Hour returns with the story of four activists whose audacious plan to restore voting rights to Black Americans laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement. In the summer of 1954, educator Septima...

From the author of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts, a celebration of the women at the heart of Latine families Born into a large, close-knit family in Nicaragua, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez grew up surrounded by strong, kind, funny, sensitive, resilient, judgmental, messy...

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...

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."

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.

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...

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 ...

A “raw, vulnerable, and utterly hilarious” (Harper’s Bazaar) memoir about one woman’s experience living with a deformity, and her quest to find freedom and joy in her body “Sosenko’s experience with body shame and judgment, from herself and others, is universal. She shows us her...

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...

Bread and Puppet Theater: A Complete Guide to the History, Art, and Legacy of America’s Radical Puppet Troupe explores one of the most important and enduring voices in political performance art. Founded by Peter Schumann in 1963, Bread and Puppet combined giant puppets, ritual, music, and fresh-baked bread to create a theater of resistance. This book traces the troupe’s journey from its origins in New York City’s countercultural ferment to its long-standing home in Vermont, where it hosted the legendary Domestic Resurrection Circus and inspired audiences from around the world. ...

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...

An invigorating guide to fighting back—part philosophy, part history, and part manual for living with integrity in an age of conformity and authoritarian drift How do we push back in a world where political leaders wield fear and intimidation? Where digital technology dehumanizes and flattens...

The accompanying workbook to Practicing Liberation: essential skills, exercises, and journal prompts for social-change workers to protect boundaries, prevent burnout, and nourish organizational cultures of resilience and care.