Bøker av Stephen Duncombe

This reader brings together scholars from different eras, cultures and geographic locations. With this diversity of voices, the book opens a dialogue about the social power of art and how change is envisioned by deliberately juxtaposing radically different conceptions of art and activism.  Among the writers included are: James Baldwin, Lucy Lippard, Herbert Marcuse, Audre Lorde, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Rabindranath Tagore, John Dewey, John Berger, Augusto Boal, Franz Fanon, Raymond Williams, Jacque Ranciere, Rosalyn Deutche, Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Mikhail Baktin, Octavia Butler, and W. E. B. DuBois. The reader focuses on concepts that scholars have grappled with as to how art and politics can combine to achieve social change. It deliberately does not include case studies or manifestos.  Rather, the texts are organized thematically: Art Unsettles: Social Systems and Critique; Art Reveals: Making the Invisible Visible; Art Resists: Everyday Interventions; Art Acts: Activism as Art; Art (Re)Orders: Making Sense of the World; and Art Imagines: Envisioning New Worlds. This thematic structure allows the reader to engage with different perspectives with the theme for engaged dialogue. Each thematic section opens with a brief essay by the editors framing the central conceptual concerns that follow.

Elegantly written and charmingly illustrated, The Activist Angler shows how lessons learned from angling can guide political activism and vice versa. Patience, preparation and precision are needed to catch fish . . . and to build a movement.Looking for a retreat during the stress of the pandemic, the activist and teacher Steve Duncombe took up fishing, a sport he had abandoned in his youth. After many years away from his rod, he had to re-learn how to fish and approached the practice with what Zen masters call “Beginner’s Mind.” Having no recent experience to fall back on, every fish successfully caught or line hopelessly snarled served as a lesson. Hours spent doing little more than casting and retrieving meant plenty of time to think. One of the things Steve thought a lot about was activism. The art of angling, he discovered, has a lot to teach about the art of activism.The Activist Angler brings together these lessons in an engaging journey from the street to the beach and back. The format is simple: one reflection on fishing followed by another on what might be learned and applied to activism, with each accompanied by an illustration. Topics range from telling fish stories and the trap of activist nostalgia, to the impossibility of thinking like a fish yet the necessity for an organizer to understand their audience, with detours through reflections on self-care, catch-and-release, and taking responsibility for the human cost of one’s political actions.

Brings to life a world of great wealth and poverty, of Prohibition and class conflict. Celia Cooney launched the largest manhunt in New York City's history, humiliating the police with daring crimes and taunting notes. Sifting through conflicting accounts, the authors show how Celia's story was used to explain the world.