Review of Just Kids: Youth Activism and Rhetorical Agency by Risa Applegarth (Ohio State University Press)

Risa Applegarth’s Just Kids: Youth Activism and Rhetorical Agency is a three-part analysis of adolescent activism over the last thirty years. The analysis centers on their activist rhetorical agency so as to reframe youth efforts as not just emblematic of the movements they represent, but as symbols of embodied power in their own right. Each of the three parts is developed around a specific case study set in the United States. Reflexive interviews complement the research and enable participant consideration of subsidiary concepts such as temporality, memory, and materialism.

Review of Art in the After-Culture: Capitalist Crisis & Cultural Strategy by Ben Davis (Haymarket Books)

The eight essays in Ben Davis’ Art in the After-Culture are centered on the interchanges between cultural production and economic development in contemporary society. Largely told through the lens of leftist aesthetic theory, the book pushes against exploitative notions of capitalist systems and ambitions towards decentralization. Davis likens art to a “survival kit” and advocates for creative practitioners to strategically influence the direction of society.