Black Flags and Wind Mills

A few weeks ago, we started working with scott crow on his new book, Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective (PM Press, November 2011).

First of all, I've never met scott in person, but we have so many close friends in common, I can't help but think we will be fast friends when we do meet. Black Flags and Windmills is his memoir of post-Katrina New Orleans and the founding of the Common Ground Collective. I am so pleased that scott has taken the time to write this, because as organizers and activists, reflecting on and learning from our past successes and failures is essential to building a better world.

PM Press says the book is "a story of resisting indifference, rebuilding hope amidst collapse, and struggling against the grain," and it has been receiving glowing reviews from activist scholars around the U.S.:

“The real story of the storm, the story of the majority, is of heroic acts of solidarity from the outset and of the million or so volunteers who came later. This book is a key document in that real and a remarkable story of an activist’s personal and philosophical evolution.” —Rebecca Solnit, author, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster

“For decades scott crow has approached his political organizing with humility, resilience, and honesty, and he continues to do so in Black Flags & Windmills.” —Will Potter, author, Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege

“It is a brilliant, detailed, and humble book written with total frankness and at the same time a revolutionary poet’s passion. It makes the reader feel that we too, with our emergency heart as our guide, can do anything, we only need to begin. ” —Marina Sitrin, author, Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina

scott will be traveling around the US beginning in November, speaking about Black Flags and Windmills as well as his experiences as his recent experiences with FBI surveillance (he was profiled in the New York Times in May). His first trip will be to Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin - but he'll be taking other trips throughout the next year.

Read more about scott here. Please contact Jen to bring scott to your community.

'Black Flags and Windmills' TRAILER from Louisiana Lucy on Vimeo.