Happy Friday from Between the Lines Book Club! This month is all about the internet, home of spam, book reviews, porn, and cats. So many cats. We’re discussing The People’s Platform: Taking Back Culture and Power in the Digital Age. Join is in person at Arden Dimick Library in Sacramento, CA on May 30 at 10:30 AM for coffee and live discussion!
The People’s Platform is written by Astra Taylor, a filmmaker, journalist, and activist. Taylor was born in Canada in 1979. Her family moved to Arizona and then to Georgia, where her father was a professor. Taylor and her siblings were “unschooled” and Taylor remains an Unschooling activist. You can read about Taylor’s experiences with unschooling here.
Taylor has created two documentary films. Zizek! is about philosopher Slavoj Zizek, a controversial figure who addresses the concept of “the real” as it relates to culture and political systems. Her second film, The Examined Life, follows eight philosophers through New York City as they discuss their ideas.
As a writer, Taylor has published articles in numerous publications, including Ad-Busters, The Nation, and The London Review of Books. She’s the editor of Examined Life and co-editor of Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America. You can find links to her articles for The Nation here: they include topics of education, debt, prison reform, and the Occupy movement. You can find her articles for Salon here.
Inspired by knowing about Astra Taylor’s work. Thank you! Her groundbreaking essays for Salon magazine are free online.
Carrie’s done a great job linking the Taylor essays in both Nation and Salon — both sources free online. Wanted to mention the “free” part because lately more online sources seem to be monetizing our wish to read the full article after a teaser, and these are still free. Yay. Kudos, too, Carrie on publishing your fascinating new book, with the link at the left side of your blog!
Aww, thank you, Jan!