No More Prisons: Urban Life, Homeschooling, Hip-Hop Leadership, the Cool Rich Kids Movement, a Hitchhiker's Guide to Community Organizi

After reading about 1/4 of this book, I just couldn't put it down and finished the rest in one sitting. It's that amazing. Don't be fooled by the title, this book has very little about actual prisons. In fact only the first 12 pages or so are about actual prisons, the rest of the book uses the metaphor of a prison to show how society largely traps us.The section on homeschooling is amazing. Prior to reading this book I had always just thought of school as the only path for a kid. I didn't even know that it was possible to go to college without going to either a public or private high school (although, now that I think about it it does seem that the kids who win the national spelling bee each year are usually homeschooled). And there are numerous other topics covered in this book.This book is a hip hop book, but I feel this really needs clarification. Hip hop is one of the most misunderstood concepts in recent time. Hip hop is not about making money, it is about universal brotherhood (and is in many ways similiar to zen buddhism). There is a fundamental difference between hip hop and rap. Rap is what most people think of when they think of hip hop, which is a shame because people like Puff Daddy have nothing in common with hip hop (people like Afrika Bambaata).Oh well, enough with my rant about hip hop. If you live in an urban center this should be required reading. If you believe that there is nothing you can really do to make a difference for the better, read this book and see if you still feel the same way.Highly recommended.

This book is not "for hippie-rich-white people" as other reviewers might have you believe, although it does speak mainly on how the rich can use their resources to help improve society. It has a different focus than Bomb The Suburbs, which is also a great book, as it is has less focus on "what's wrong" and more on "what can be done". Very interesting, and highly recommended.

Half-way through this book, I realized I had to call the publisher and buy 100 copies and go sell them on the streetcorner. Much more coherently organized and presented, and more eloquently written, than Bomb the Suburbs. Upski is the Obi Wan Kanobi of the underground/punk/hip-hop writing scene. Not just a lot of information and good stories, but inspiration and numbers and websites and addresses and names of books that you need to do all the stuff you'll want to do after you read this. Don't resist the force... run to your local independent bookstore and pick up a copy now.

Wimsatt does it again. No More Prisons, is an exquisitely crafted romp through America's new subcultures of resistance. I read if for the prison part but inevitably got pulled into the rest. Very well done.