How to Create Real Change: David Fenton with The Activist’s Media Handbook
Sunday, May 7 | 12:30 PM - 1:30 PMBrower Center - Goldman Theater
- Technology/Media
How can activists create social change today? For starters, they need to be really good storytellers. David Fenton, one of the most effective progressive communicators of the past fifty years, has penned a remarkable book—part rollercoaster memoir, part guidebook—that distills lessons from his experience shaping some of history’s most impactful social movements. Gorgeously illustrated, The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons from Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator aims to teach today’s changemakers how to tell their stories, captivate audiences, and inspire the public to join the cause.
Called “the dean of progressive communications” by Ken Roth from Human Rights Watch, and personally thanked by none other than Nelson Mandela, David Fenton has crafted campaigns ranging from the No-Nukes concerts with Bruce Springsteen in 1979, to movements to end apartheid, expose the dangers of pesticides, legalize marijuana, end the Iraq War, divest from fossil fuels, and more. In the book, David tells the fascinating story of how he developed the strategies and tactics that have made him a successful media agitator. That story includes living in a commune, photographing riots and rock stars, working at Rolling Stone and High Times magazines, rabble-rousing with Abbie Hoffman, and collaborating with presidents and celebrities.
Bonus: David Fenton will project slides illustrating his strategies, along with some of his other famed photographs of the counterculture—truly breathtaking.
Book signing information: Bookshop West Portal, at the venue