An Appeal for Support for the RESISTANT CITIES Project
Dear friends and fellow travelers,
I hope the first days of summer have been good to you.
For my part, having reached the end of a semester of teaching, I am looking forward to returning to my book in progress, tentatively titled RESISTANT CITIES: INSIDE AMERICA'S URBAN REVOLT, 2011-PRESENT.
Given that I am a writer of modest means, I am launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise the resources necessary for a two-month writing residency, which would afford me the time to complete two sample chapters of this work.
You, dear reader, are invited to contribute what you can to bringing this book into being.
About the Book
Drawing on a decade's worth of research, including my own field notes from the frontlines and in-depth interviews with participants, RESISTANT CITIES tells an original story about the rise of the rebel metropolis in America’s age of polycrisis — who built these cities of resistance, how they built them, what the resisters were up against, and what they achieved.
In these pages, I pick up where my first book left off, following the fortunes of the urban revolt by way of New York and ten other cases, including major metropolises (like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Atlanta) and smaller cities (like Ferguson, Charlottesville, and Minneapolis).
In the course of this inquiry, I home in on the decisive moments in the urban social movements of our times: from Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter to the international solidarity movement and the anti-ICE insurgency of the present moment.
Illustrated with my own street photography and with a rich archive of political art, the work aims to illuminate the lived experience of urban resistance, excavate its forgotten origins, uncover its often unexpected outcomes, and consider its possible futures.
If you believe, as I do, that these are pages that ought to be published, movements that ought to be documented, and stories that ought to be told — and you want to support the production of work that is wholly human, free of AI, and independent of corporate interests — you are invited to contribute what you can to bringing this book into being.
About the Author
I am a widely published author, educator, and scholar of 21st-century social movements, as well as a participant-observer with more than 25 years of experience in the field.
RESISTANT CITIES has been in the works since the publication of THE OCCUPIERS (Oxford 2015). In the intervening years, I earned my PhD in sociology at NYU, writing my dissertation on the rise and fall of the sanctuary city, and was appointed inaugural post-doctoral scholar at Columbia's Center for Political Economy.
Following Columbia's capitulation to the Trump administration, I parted ways with the imperial university. While times have been hard and certain doors have been closed, others have since opened up. For one, I have been offered a job at a public university, with a joint appointment in its Department of Sociology and Criminology and its Center for Labor and Community Education.
To get to this point, I have had to overcome many obstacles: surviving a white supremacist's attempt on my life (2017); beating trumped-up charges (2020); undergoing major surgery (2022); and defying the professional blacklist (2025). Through it all, you, my community of readers, have been there with me and for me.
About the Campaign
I am a working-class writer; I cannot do this by myself. To make this residency a reality, I am turning to my community for support. With a contribution of any amount, you can help put not only a roof over my head and food on my table, but a pen in my hand and a book deal within reach.
This summer represents a unique window of opportunity, before I start my new job, to complete the writing and research necessary for a finished book proposal (including two sample chapters and a round of in-depth interviews). In the event that this campaign reaches its goal, I will be able to dedicate the next two months to this end.
Your contributions will go towards covering the costs involved in completing my research and writing during this time, including the expenses involved in travel, room, board, and writing and recording equipment.
Any and all forms of support are welcome, whether of the material kind or of the moral variety: whether you can afford to throw a few dollars toward the campaign, or spare a minute to share this with your friends and followers, or simply take a moment to send an encouraging word my way.
By supporting this campaign in any capacity, you can help bring RESISTANT CITIES into the world.