A Production of The Folk Life ( Inc. 1976)
John McLaughlin and Jamie Downs, Editors
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Book Reviews: The Digital Folk Life. Org
Creative Community Organizing: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists & Quiet Lovers of Justice, by Si Kahn (Founder of Grassroots Leadership): Forewords by Angela Davis and Jim Hightower. Berret-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco: Copyright 2010 by Si Kahn. ISBN 978-1-60509-444-1
This lovely guide to community organizing, for would-be organizers, “rabble-rousers, activists & quiet lovers of justice,” takes its place in a long line of variously-focused such handbooks to an important species of community-based work, in this case the contribution to such work by a prominent folksinger who is also a deeply-involved and well-credentialed veteran of the work.
One thinks of, for example, Bill Cleveland’s Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions (U. Mass Extension Service, 2000), which introduced many of us to the idea of working with America’s burgeoning prison population, among other groups; Cleveland’s Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines (New Village Press, 2008) extended that vision around the world, of artists willing to “speak truth (and beauty) to power,” in the words of reviewer David Griffith; Claude Whitmeyer’s earlier compilation of essays on the creation of community, In the Company of Others: Making Community in the Modern World (1993) might be regarded by some as an equally trail-blazing, if more diverse, introduction to the field; and finally Tom Borrup’s The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture (2006) – despite its recent date, the fruit of forty years in the field and assembled with Partners for Livable Communities – together indicate the honorable tradition within which this gem of a book takes its place.
The author’s website, www.sikahn.com indicates the depth and breadth of his background in the field, ranging from his earlier books to videos of his powerful songs (for this interested in booking Si, www.realpeoplesmusic.com will get you to his booking agent, and perhaps equally important will link you to other “progressive” speakers and musicians); there is also a link, in his perhaps too brief - but tightly focused! - Resources page, to Grassroots Leadership, Si’s nonprofit organization, founded in 1980 and dedicated to issues of prison reform – see Cleveland’s follow-on work, above – immigration and other social and criminal justice issues: go to www.grassrootsleadership.org and the result may well dazzle you.
For some of us, the music will be the focus of Si Kahn’s particular brand of community organizing; the full Index provides a quick guide to the songs he turns to in his community organizing work, and should be consulted by any user of this book.
Highly recommended – five stars out of five.
John McLaughlin, PhD
Reviewed January 2010