Verso launches David Harvey’s Rebel Cities with Brian Lehrer appearance, CUNY Grad Center discussion with David Graeber
In New York and London, gentrification transforms previously low-income neighborhoods into playgrounds for the rich, while foreclosures have pushed scores of Americans out of their own homes. Land grabs for urban spaces inhabited by the poor and disenfranchised worldwide--from the favelas of Rio to the slums of Mumbai--further entrench the vast divide between the holders of capital and the dispossessed.
David Harvey's new book Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution explores the future of this radically unstable world. Unveiling a vision of the city as a social, political and liveable commons, Harvey pinpoints cities as the focus for anti-capitalist resistance, arguing that the definition of the right to the city is itself an object of struggle--and that this struggle must proceed in tandem with concrete efforts to materialize it.
As part of the launch for Rebel Cities, Harvey will be featured as a guest on the Brian Lehrer Show Tuesday, April 10th for a live interview about his book. Tune in to WNYC 93.9 FM from 10am EST to 12pm EST to catch the interview as it happens.
On Wednesday, April 25th from 6.30pm to 9pm at CUNY Graduate Center, Harvey will appear with David Graeber, author of Debt, the First 5,000 Years for a talk entitled "Rebel Cities: Occupation, the Commons and Urban Democracy." The two will discuss their travels to worldwide sites of revolt in this past year, strategies for transforming radical action into an urban revolution and the future of the Occupy movement.
Seating is limited; tickets will be made available Wednesday, April 11th from 1pm on, at the following registration link: http://rebelcities.eventbrite.com/.
A manifesto of the commons and the new global movements of the oppressed, Rebel Cities features beautiful cover artwork by Josh MacPhee/the justseeds.org collective. Building on Henri Lefebvre's work on the city, the book dramatically undermines traditional critiques of the commons and examines histories of urban development throughout the world, in perhaps Harvey's most accessible book yet.
Speaking of the commons, CUNY Grad Center will host open courses of "Reading Marx's Capital Vol. 2" with David Harvey. Three of what will be 12 new YouTube videos are now available here.