Synopses & Reviews
Discover the Real Revolution Unfolding across America.
America faces huge challenges — climate change, social injustice, racist violence, economic insecurity. Journalist Sarah van Gelder suspected that there were solutions, and she went looking for them, not in the centers of power, where people are richly rewarded for their allegiance to the status quo, but off the beaten track, in rural communities, small towns, and neglected urban neighborhoods.
She bought a used pickup truck and camper and set off on a 12,000-mile journey through eighteen states, dozens of cities and towns, and five Indian reservations. From the ranches of Montana to the coalfields of Kentucky to the urban cores of Chicago and Detroit, van Gelder discovered people and communities who are remaking America from the ground up. Join her as she meets the quirky and the committed, the local heroes and the healers who, under the mass media's radar, are getting stuff done. The common thread running through their work was best summed up by a phrase she saw on a mural in Newark: "We the People LOVE This Place." That connection we each have to our physical and ecological place, and to our human community, is where we find our power and our best hopes for a new America.
About the Author
As co-founder and Executive Director of Yes! Magazine, Sarah leads the framing and development of each issue of Yes! and writes a column introducing each issue. Sarah blogs at Yes!, and Huffington Post, writes articles and does interviews for Yes! Magazine, and speaks on leading-edge innovations that show that another world is not only possible, it is being created. Topics she has covered include the new economy, solutions to climate change, alternatives to prisons, food, water, nuclear disarmament and active peacemaking, education for a better world, and more.
As part of her community involvement, Sarah volunteers on the Port Madison Reservation where she lives, working with the Suquamish Tribe on enhancing the quality of life for all area residents. She is co-founder of Suquamish Olalla Neighbors where she co-led a statewide effort to return the home of Chief Seattle to the Suquamish Tribe. She is also a member of the board of directors of the tribally-chartered Suquamish Foundation.
Sarah has traveled and lived in Latin America, Indian, China, and Central America. She was a founding board member and resident of Winslow Cohousing, and previously was a television and radio producer, a community organizer, a classical Indian dancer, and founder of a cooperative of food co-ops that linked organic farmers to urban markets.