Beautiful Rising: Creative Resistance from the Global South

by Dave Oswald Mitchell (Editor), Juman Abujbara (Editor), Andrew Boyd (Editor)

In the struggle for freedom and justice, organizers and activists have often turned to art, creativity, and humor. In this follow-up to the bestselling Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, Beautiful Rising showcases some of the most innovative tactics used in struggles against autocracy and austerity across the Global South.

Based on face-to-face jam sessions held in Yangon, Amman, Harare, Dhaka, Kampala and Oaxaca, Beautiful Rising includes stories of the Ugandan organizers who smuggled two yellow-painted pigs into parliament to protest corruption; the Burmese students’ 360-mile long march against undemocratic and overly centralized education reforms; the Lebanese “honk at parliament” campaign against politicians who had clung to power long after their term had expired; and much more.

Now, in one remarkable book, you can find the collective wisdom of more than a hundred grassroots organizers from five continents. It’s everything you need for a DIY uprising of your own.

Genres: Activism, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Dave Oswald Mitchell is a freelance editor, researcher, and communications strategist whose work focuses on supporting social-change and community-organizing initiatives. He edited Briarpatch Magazine from 2005 to 2010 and serves as the Editorial Director of the Beautiful Trouble/Solutions/Rising suite of projects. His interests include found haiku, photography, and going elsewhere.

Reviews

[عبدُ الرَّحمن]

Must-read book for all activists and change-makers. I'm blessed to read it and will need to reread it to apply great ideas as much as possible in my context. It's strong starting point and way to build strategic and creative campaigns.

All respect to the editors and contributors

[Kathryn]

Beautiful Rising: Creative Resistance from the Global South is a book offering authentic case studies, personal essays, and lessons learned regarding activism and advocacy to form the foundation of a social change model. The book covers 5 main pillars: stories, tactics, principles, theories, and methodologies that form a “toolkit” for readers to challenge injustice themselves.
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This novel is a powerful resource for those interested in social change, community organizing, or political activism, as it amplifies the voices of communities in the Global South fighting a diverse array of social issues. What I found so significant about this book was the consistent sections following case studies labeled why it worked and why it didn’t work. With millions of groups across the globe fighting injustice in their own ways and contexts, finding methods to disseminate information and share tactics that allow people to learn from one another is extremely unifying and propelling for social change.
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The book did a phenomenal job highlighting how this toolkit evolves with specific movements. Methods, examples, essays, and stories are shared, but it is up to the reader to adapt the model to their specific context. With creativity playing a central role in resistance groups, the case studies provide great learning lessons that readers must pay close attention to. With few things being more powerful than sharing stories, the book felt like a collection of activism attempts, successes, failures, and personal impacts that highlight humanity in all its beauty and passion within evil systems and corrupt leadership.
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I found this novel educational, inspiring, authentic, and extremely practical for all individuals regardless of the stage you find yourself in regarding social justice. This novel highlights many voices in different levels of involvement: from being simply a number (one more person honking a horn) to the main leader of a grassroots organization, there is always a way you can take action and be involved.

[Sabrina Clarke]

I cannot recommend this book more highly. It provides inspiring accounts of creative movements around the world, offers the tools necessary to make your own change, and endless resources to inspire, delight, and digest. It has a very accessible writing style and manages to summarise complex problems succinctly and with nuance.

[Rachel]

Great book with straightforward and effective tactics. I thought the book chapter order was a little off. I thought it made more sense to read it with Stories last, so that after learning the tactics, principles, and methodologies, you can get case examples of these subjects in action. Great book, great connective website, glad I purchased this book.

[Lukáš Zorád]

I spent some good time with this book, enjoyed the creativity of people, enjoyed the stories (though occasionally I found the bit shallow and would love to dig bit deeper). It's easy to read yet provides good insights on how to carry out creative and successful campaigns (or revolutions).

[Jane]

beautifulrising.org