From New York to San Francisco, Times Square to the Tenderloin, graffiti artists, young people, radical environmentalists, and the homeless clash with police on city streets in an attempt to take back urban spaces from the developers and 'disneyfiers'. Drawing on more than a decade of first-hand research, this lively account goes inside the worlds of street musicians, homeless punks, militant bicycle activists, high-risk 'BASE jump' parachutists, skateboarders, outlaw radio operators, and hip hop graffiti artists, to explore the day-to-day skirmishes in the struggle over public life and public space.
One of the most important books I have read for the reclaiming of social space in an increasingly controlled and legislated urban landscape. His discussion of hotel cleaning women working on a Sunday morning in different rooms while singing Gospel music with each other is alone worth the cost of the book. The book is mandatory reading for anyone doing public art or performance, writing about it, or just trying to figure out why the Paris Commune is so important to understanding life in the city.
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