Bomb The Suburbs Pdf
admin
Bomb The Suburbs Pdf 3,8/5 1566 votes
Bomb The Suburbs is a collection of essays by William Upski Wimsatt, a former graffiti tagger. It is a mix of storytelling, journalism, photojournalism and original research, on a broad range of topics, such as suburban sprawl, hip hop culture, youth activism, graffiti, and Chicago. It was photoedited by artist Margarita Certeza Garcia, and published in 1994 by Subway & Elevated Press, a division of Soft Skull Press, with ISBN0-9643855-0-3, and republished in 2000.[1] The first edition had 3,000 copies.
Bomb The Suburbs led to subsequent books and political activism.[2] In an essay in his No More Prisons compilation, entitled 'In Defense of Rich Kids', Wimsatt responded to classist criticism of his affluent background:
Download Bomb the Suburbs: Graffiti, Race, Freight-Hopping and the Search for PDF Download Bomb the Suburbs: Graffiti, Race, Freight-Hopping and the Search for Kindle Download Bomb the Suburbs: Graffiti, Race, Freight-Hopping and the Search for Android.
'You can hate me if you want to. I am the beneficiary of a very unfair system. The system gives me tons of free money for doing nothing, yet it forces you to work two and three jobs just to get out of debt.'[3]
References[edit]
- ^Worldcat entry
- ^Kristin V. Jones (2004-05-20). 'Who Let the Punks Out?'. The Nation. Retrieved 2006-09-22.
- ^Wimsatt, William Upski, editor (2000). No More Prisons.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomb_the_Suburbs&oldid=782961115'
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Bomb the Suburbs: Graffiti, Race, Freight-Hopping and the Search for Hip Hop's Moral Center” as Want to Read:
Rate this book
See a Problem?
We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Bomb the Suburbs by William Upski Wimsatt.
Not the book you’re looking for?Preview — Bomb the Suburbs by William Upski Wimsatt
Published February 22nd 2001 by Soft Skull Press (first published July 1995)
To see what your friends thought of this book,please sign up.
To ask other readers questions aboutBomb the Suburbs,please sign up.
Fire pro wrestling download. Be the first to ask a question about Bomb the Suburbs
Hip Hop History & Currency 133 books — 56 voters
Must Purchase 179 books — 10 voters
More lists with this book..
Rating details
This is the book on race that I always hoped existed. Wimsatt's essay 'We Use Words Like Mackadocious' was definitely the best thing he's presented in this collection. The interviews and stories are all pretty great, illustrating, though somewhat haphazardly, the development of hip-hop and graffiti in Chicago through the late 80s and early 90s. Some of it seems scatterbrained, however, and if you're looking for some kind of definitive timeline of rap, you won't find it here! Still, yes, the valu..more
this is definitely a book i can cite as one of my most formative.
so much so that i did some crazy things .. like 411-ed the author William Upski Wimsatt (I think he mentioned he lived in Chicago (?) and i actually called 411) and wrote his number inside the cover and looked at it for a long time and finally actually called his home and a middle-aged woman answered (his mother) and i asked for 'william' and she said 'junior or senior?' and i had no idea so i just said 'junior' and he wasn't home..more
so much so that i did some crazy things .. like 411-ed the author William Upski Wimsatt (I think he mentioned he lived in Chicago (?) and i actually called 411) and wrote his number inside the cover and looked at it for a long time and finally actually called his home and a middle-aged woman answered (his mother) and i asked for 'william' and she said 'junior or senior?' and i had no idea so i just said 'junior' and he wasn't home..more
Aug 04, 2009Teresa rated it it was amazing
upski shows how books should be done: personal, messy, fearless.
This book was a great segue into my young adult life. A gift from an older friend, I found this book to be a view into a world that I wasn't yet familiar with, but wanted to know more.
Published originally in 1994, Bomb The Suburbs is a collection of hip-hop articles written to defend and define a culture that was transitioning out of what was then a means of political statement into what has become the watered down commercial version of hip-hop culture we see today. Wimsatt writes articulately and intelligently about a subject that he apparently knows a great deal. Wimsatt tackles racial issues, graph safety and method, and discusses hip-hop music as a genre. Motivated by sub..more
I was really excited to read this book after seeing it referenced frequently in 'Why the white kids love hip-hop.' Sadly, it didn't live up to the hype. While Wimsatt occasionally veers into Tim Wise territory when he talks about race and his white privilege, he spends far too much time trying to earn street cred by recalling his time as a graffiti artist. We get it - you're white but you're down - and that's why you named your book bomb the suburbs. Your problem is that your writing rambles and..more
I don't want this to sound dismissive, but this book was really great when i was 20. I haven't picked it up since, but it was really inspiring at the time and made me feel like i could save the world or that i should at least be trying. It'd be interesting to see how it went over now; it almost feels like a photo from high school or something.
This book was really influential when I read it, my freshman year of college. There's a whole chapter on how to deal with being a class priveleged radical. It prompted me to begin thinking about how to use the privelege I've grown up with, instead of living in denial about it.
Jun 10, 2007m rated it really liked it
As a fellow philanthropist, Upski really hits home with his progressive politics and focus on the urban hip hop generation. And as a youth worker & organizer in Boston, I find his words are captivating and engaging for young people. This is not your typical book. But that's why it's so good.
Feb 12, 2008James Tracy added it
I'm interested in re-reading this to see if it holds up a few years later.
“Read not for the facts but for the angles of thinking.”
Jun 18, 2018Vampire Who Baked rated it really liked it
This was a fun-serious read-- intensely personal and mostly honest (and transparent) about where the author is speaking from. Books about any subculture work best from the perspective of either fans/afficionados or actual practitioners, and Upski is sort of both. Having dabbled in graffiti, rap, journalism writing, activism and pretty much everything else, he has a first hand view (even if a rather specific perspective) of everything he writes about. And he has a fun voice-- the book is very ent..more
Was ok, nothing really hit in reading this for me..
My dad gave this to me when I was 17. I don't think he understood what it was.
Interesting window into nascent hip-hop culture, especially Chicago hip-hop.
Mar 19, 2018Northpapers rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Bomb The Suburbs William Upski Wimsatt
Sabbath Book number 9 for 2018
Wimsatt was only 22 when this ferocious underground book was published, which means he was writing the essays it contains when he was either in his teens or very early twenties. It is remarkable for its audacity, energy, and the author's fearless embodiment of the values he espouses. That energy also made it unmistakably the work of a kid.
It functions like a zine, careening from topic to topic, interspersing interviews, essays, opinions, poetry, and photography. The..more
Jul 15, 2011Riegs rated it liked itWimsatt was only 22 when this ferocious underground book was published, which means he was writing the essays it contains when he was either in his teens or very early twenties. It is remarkable for its audacity, energy, and the author's fearless embodiment of the values he espouses. That energy also made it unmistakably the work of a kid.
It functions like a zine, careening from topic to topic, interspersing interviews, essays, opinions, poetry, and photography. The..more
Shelves: activism, nonfiction-adult, america, education, sociology, journalism, chicago, music, criticism-essays, urban-studies
True story: I'm an ex-suburbanite happily living in Chicago - or as I like to think of it, a 'rehabbed' suburbanite. I mean that quite literally: moving out of the suburbs was like attending rehab, in that I had to detoxify myself of ugly suburban ignorance tied to classism and white privilege. So when I saw a book entitled 'Bomb the Suburbs', I was all about that shit: 'YES, PLEASE.[fistpump]' Alas, fellow Chicagoan William 'Upski' Wimsatt was really referring to bombing as in graffiti-bombing...more
I don't think I got the whole political activism and the empowerment of youth that has been getting so much hipe these days until I read this book.
..And this was the book 'Upski' wrote when he was only 20. He even describes how he has changed since then (in an interview at the end of the book) by saying: 'So my whole naive ass got a little education about how things actually work and what it takes to actually change things.' This is what is so great about this author. Even in his own interview,..more
..And this was the book 'Upski' wrote when he was only 20. He even describes how he has changed since then (in an interview at the end of the book) by saying: 'So my whole naive ass got a little education about how things actually work and what it takes to actually change things.' This is what is so great about this author. Even in his own interview,..more
This reads more like a zine than a book, which made me love it even more. Upski's got the urge to chronicle a lot art, in this case 80s and 90s Chicago hip-hop in the same way as one of my favorite writers, Aaron Cometbus does for punk rock in the Bay Area. Some of this info you can't get anywhere else besides hanging out with the people that were really there doing graffiti in Chicago at the time.
Much is made of how Chicago is largely ignored in the world of hip-hop while the West Coast/East C..more
Much is made of how Chicago is largely ignored in the world of hip-hop while the West Coast/East C..more
Sep 06, 2008Ted rated it liked it
2008/09/06: About halfway through it, but sat it aside recently to read 'In Search of Captain Zero' first.
Some pretty insightful/important conclusions/observances mixed in with some silly/inaccurate/useless/misdirected b.s.
Ranges from funny/interesting/entertaining to dry/boring.
2008/10/29 Picked it back up yesterday and finished it. It was sometimes fun, usually interesting, though sometimes neither.
Is it important to read? I don't know.
I suppose that if nothing else, it is important in the..more
Some pretty insightful/important conclusions/observances mixed in with some silly/inaccurate/useless/misdirected b.s.
Ranges from funny/interesting/entertaining to dry/boring.
2008/10/29 Picked it back up yesterday and finished it. It was sometimes fun, usually interesting, though sometimes neither.
Is it important to read? I don't know.
I suppose that if nothing else, it is important in the..more
I've been a fan of rap music for a long time, identifying mostly with the underground artists. It was cool to have this book that introduced me to a lot of facts that were unknown to me before, not only about rap music, but about the whole hip hop movement itself which is made of the emcee, dj, graffiti and break dance.
I don't try to hide the fact that I have a special connection to rap music, but reading this book really opened my horizons to certain aspects such as the whole hip hop movement,..more
I don't try to hide the fact that I have a special connection to rap music, but reading this book really opened my horizons to certain aspects such as the whole hip hop movement,..more
Jul 29, 2013Erhardt Graeff rated it really liked it
Bomb The Suburbs Pdf
Fascinating walk through the history of Chicago's hip-hop scene by the simultaneous outsider and insider, Billy Wimsatt. Billy is the White kid who was 'down' with all the Black hip-hop pioneers in Chicago and developed into an accomplished Graffiti writer and later organizer. His book is a collection of his published essays on hip-hop, alongside sociological and historical snapshots in the form of personal tours and intimate interviews. It's a unique book in its construction and fascinating in..more
This book was published in 2001? I could swear I read it before that, but maybe I'm wrong. This isn't the kind of book you would be likely to use for reference. It's very opinionated and doesn't really rely on anything other than the views of the author. That said, it's very entertaining and I suspect in the long run might be considered a valuable sample of millennial American urban culture. As the title implies the book relies somewhat on stereotypes, suggesting that the enlightened urban mixin..more
Nov 17, 2007Samantha rated it really liked it Shelves: personal-nonfiction, society-culture-history
I remember really liking this when I read it. I didn't entirely trust the author though. It seems to me quite likely that WUW is really, really annoying in real life. Still, it thrilled me at the time because it was energetic and hopeful and decidedly NOT theory. It demonstrates resistance as action -- and action is not the once a year participation in a protest, but the choices you make on a daily level. It's about community and creativity and integrity.. that is, if I'm remembering correctly.
I actually met upski in 93- 94 at my friends store in Pittsburgh, he was hitchhiking and wanted to see the worst ghetto. We told him to go to Homewood thinking we were smartasses. I didn't read the book then but twenty years later I really wish I did. A lot of the race stuff was interesting and the future of hop- hop sucking has come true. At least the current state of rap. His graffiti stories are what I wish id've read then.
I absolutely loved this book, and having lived in Chicago my whole life and been a graf writer in my younger days i cant totally relate to this book. Especially when he names certain spots that dont even exist anymore. This book totally made me want to go out bombing again. It really gives you a great understanding of the whole graf culture, for those that dont know it and just think its about being a delinquent.
This book opened my mind to a lot of ideas. Such as the idea of how to be successful while still remaining true to yourself. So that when my college guidance counselor told me I could either take a bunch of easy classes to finish out my credit requirement, or complete a Minor, I chose a Minor. One that I had no desire to learn: Business. But I figured the world could use a(nother) social liberal who understands how (big) money works.
i liked this book. i read it because i thought it would focus on graffiti, which i'm really into right now. but graffiti was just a small part of the discussion. the book was really about the hip hop culture and movement in the early 90s. i like that wimsatt wrote the book for a hip hop audience (which doesn't include me). even still, i think i'm a little too old to be inspired by wimsatt's idealism. i should have read this book 10 years ago.
Mar 08, 2013Kony rated it liked it
Putting this back on the shelf for now because, despite being about interesting things, it's written in a critical voice that oozes contempt for all things mainstream and borders on whiney.
Right now, I'd rather read something constructively uplifting. Maybe I'll come back to this when/if I find myself in the mood to read smart-alecky disaffected social criticism. Or maybe I'll trade it in for cash at Half Price Books. We'll see.
Right now, I'd rather read something constructively uplifting. Maybe I'll come back to this when/if I find myself in the mood to read smart-alecky disaffected social criticism. Or maybe I'll trade it in for cash at Half Price Books. We'll see.
Apr 13, 2008Julian rated it really liked it
I am not familiar with hip hop, but picked this collection of essays up on a recommendation. For a subject I know so little about, the author really drew me in well. The book makes me wonder what is up with the urban frontier he describes today. I think maybe it's the current south loop condo proliferation?
| topics | posts | views | last activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| john updike.. | 1 | 17 | Jan 29, 2009 08:00PM |
Recommend ItStatsRecent Status Updates
See similar books…
See top shelves…
William Wimsatt, also known as Billy or Upski, is a social entrepreneur, author, political activist, and former graffiti artist. Wimsatt is founder of the League of Young Voters, co-founder of Generational Alliance and the author or editor of six books.
Wimsatt was born in Chicago, attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, received his High School diploma from Whitney M. Young Magnet H..more
Wimsatt was born in Chicago, attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, received his High School diploma from Whitney M. Young Magnet H..more
“Read not for the facts but for the angles of thinking.” — 6 likes
More quotes…