Upski Grows Up: No Bombs, Please
Nov. 5, 2010 (In These Times) -- Billy "Upski" Wimsatt began writing his first book, Bomb the Suburbs, as a teenager in Chicago, and it was published in 1994 when he was 21. His second book, No More Prisons, came out when he was 25. For the former, he received enthusiastic and widespread praise,ranging from Tupac Shakur to theUtne Reader. Wimsatt has just released his third book, Please Don't Bomb the Suburbs (Akashic), a sober and funny assessment of where activism is and where it needs to go.
What are your goals for Please Don't Bomb the Suburbs?
I have three goals: 1) Tell the untold adventure story of the past 25 years of cultural and political movement building in the United States. Howard Zinn isn't with us anymore. My generation needs to tell its own history! 2) Evangelize for responsible adulthood as central to progressive change. Growing up is not a right-wing conspiracy. Being responsible adults is core to the change we want to see; and 3) Spark a conversation about the super movement we have the opportunity to build over the next 25 years, using 21st-century tools. We have a huge opportunity if we seize it!
Are you targeting the initial readers of your other books, who are now in their 30s and 40s?
Yes. It's speaking simultaneously to my generation, Gen X, to the young whippersnappers, and to the baby boomers whose footsteps we're walking in.
What accounts for the subdued attitude in your new book?
The world has changed a lot in the 16 years since Bomb the Suburbs. The suburbs have changed--they're more like cities. Cities have become more like suburbs. Social change is complex. We need to love the suburbs. We need to grow up. The left has been good at critiquing power and throwing rocks. But what about building power? What about governing? We're good at critiquing leaders. But do we know how to support a leader? It's safer to be pure, pissed off, and powerless. It's our responsibility to build a majority to actually turn the Titanic, not just to be mad that we're headed toward an iceberg.
