Benjamin Shepard Livres

San Francisco in the early 1990s. Cab is on the deep end of a losing streak. After having been dumped yet again, he moves to Haight-Ashbury fresh out of college. It is the middle of a recession, before the dot-com boom, and AIDS is an immediate and untreatable reality. He finds himself working in a housing program for people with HIV/AIDS. The entire city is reeling. His clients are dying. Cab records their every word. He starts drafting a narrative of every person with whom he’s slept: those who dropped him, those he adored, and those he let go of without a second thought, to reassess what he has left behind from the South of his childhood of dyslexia and infatuations, football and ecstasy, divorce and sex panics. In between girlfriends, acting up, attempts at romance, and trying to find his place in the greater San Francisco narrative, Cab is looking for something, tracing the interconnecting stories of the people he’s meeting, sleeping, and drinking with, as everyone tries to find a space in the city. As treatments emerge and the economy changes, a new story takes shape in Cab’s life and the city.

Exploring the dynamic between personal relationships and social movements, the book delves into how friendships contribute to social change. Through auto-ethnographic reflections on various movements such as the Beats, ACT-UP, and Occupy Wall Street, it highlights the role of friendship in providing the social capital essential for advancing ideas. The narrative emphasizes that while the journey of social activism is complex, the connections forged through shared goals can lead to innovative approaches often absent in traditional structures.

This collection of hymns, compiled and arranged by Benjamin Shepard, spans the history of Christian music from ancient times to the present day. Drawing upon a rich and diverse tradition of sacred music from around the world, this volume offers readers a glimpse into the spiritual lives of people throughout history and across cultures.

Exploring the intersection of play and activism, this book delves into how the gay liberation movement has shaped modern protest strategies. It highlights the evolution of protests from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, emphasizing the incorporation of fun, creativity, and community-building into social movements. By analyzing the impact of queer activism on various global protests, the text reveals how playful elements have become essential in advocating for justice and rights across diverse causes.

Exploring the evolution of "play" in social movements, this book highlights how cities globally have adopted a theatrical model of protest that emphasizes creativity and enjoyment. It delves into the historical context of playful resistance and its recent resurgence in fostering community engagement and activism. Through various examples, the text illustrates how fun and pleasure can transform traditional protest methods, making them more inclusive and impactful.

Brooklyn has all the features of a „global borough“: It is a base of immigrant labor and ethnically diverse communities, of social and cultural capital, of global transportation, cultural production, and policy innovation. At once a model of sustainable urbanization and overdevelopment, the question is now: What will become of Global Brooklyn? Tracing the emergence of Brooklyn from village outpost to global borough, Brooklyn Tides investigates the nature and consequences of global forces that have crossed the East River and identifies alternative models for urban development in global capitalism. Benjamin Shepard and Mark Noonan provide a unique ethnographic reading of the literature, social activism, and changing tides impacting this ever-transforming space. Cover and interior images of a rapidly transforming global borough by photographer Caroline Shepard.