Stay Solid!: A Radical Handbook for Youth

"Stay Solid is essential reading A beacon of light for youth around the world. This unique collage of voices helps inform, inspire, and uplift the next generation."-- MK Asante, It's Bigger Than Hip Hop

It ain't easy being a kid these days. For the first time in generations, today's teens have worse prospects ahead of them than their parents did, and the pressure to toe the line and be a success is heavier than ever . . . and so is the temptation to just give up. But there are things in the world worth fighting for

This scrapbook-style collection of essays, excerpts, explanations, and images pushes back against a culture that relentlessly demands that kids give up their best ideals, abandon their hopes, forget their ethical objections to dominant life, soothe their rage, and accept their fates. From dealing with the cops to dealing with your peers, from school and community to drugs and sex, from race and class to money and mental health, Stay Solid provides essential support for radically inclined teens who believe that it's possible for all of us to hang on to our values and build a life we believe in.

Compiled and edited by radical urbanist and educator Matt Hern, with the assistance of the youth community at Vancouver's Purple Thistle Center, Stay Solid is for kids, and for anyone who considers themselves an ally--parents, teachers, neighbors, friends, relatives, and beyond.

Contributors include Eirlys Rhiannon, Kelsey Savage, Eldon Hay, Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, Walker Banerd, Ivan Coyote, Julie Flett, Zora Moniz, Tomas Moniz, David Maduli, Ren Antrop-Gonz lez, Daniel Grego, Anthony Meza-Wilson, Mathew Davis, Jay Gillen, Carla Bergman, Mike Jo, Benito Miller Deale, Chris Mercogliano, Liz Lichtman, Fly, Michael Hardt, Yotam Marom, Geoff Mann, Anita Olson, Seth Tobocman, Hari Alluri, Gabriel Teodros, Nadia Chaney, Anna Hunter, Starla Blue David Disaster, Strangers In A Tangled Wilderness, Stephanie Mcmillan, Marisela B. Gomez, Diana Pei Wu, Pete Jordan, Mark Douglas, John Holt, Shawna Murray, Sev Torres, Lee Naught, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Dan Savage, Rj Maccani, Leroy Wan, Shira Tarrant, Kenneth W. Tupper, Chrystal Smith, Peggy Millson, Mark Haden, Dawn Paley, Isaac K. Oomen, Andrea Schmidt, Chris Carlsson, Andalusia Knoll, Corin Browne, Guerrilla Girls, Sassafras Lowrey, Ivan Illich, Ching-In Chen, Tieraney Carter, Romi Chandra-Herbert, Cindy Crabb, Melia Dicker, Wendy-O-Matik, Wwoof Canada, Cole Robertson, Bianca Bockman, Elise Boeur, S. Brian Willson, Eylem Korkmaz, Beast Hero, Tiny, Aka Lisa Gray-Garcia, Dave Markland, Dana Putnam, Autumn Brown, Michelle Alexander, Yvonne Yen Liu, Luam Kidane, Antonio Te Maioha, Alan Goodman, Ijeoma Madubata, Imani Oliver, Janelle Kelly, Alex Mah, Jamie Heckert, Reg Johanson, Cynthia Dewi Oka, Marty Fink, Josiane Anthony-H, Sunaura Taylor, Bethany Stevens, Aj Ivings, Carmen Papalia, Eli Clare, Mia Mingus, Sylvia Mcfadden, Melanie Yergeau, Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Gord Hill, Ward Churchill, Joi T. Arcand, Andrea Lee Smith, Andrew Curley, Richard J.F. Day, Hilary Moore, Derrick Jensen, Jo-Anne McArthur, Oliver Kellhammer, Ben West, Madhu Suri Prakash, Alexandra Henao-Castrillon, Sozan Savehilaghi, Guillermo Verdecchia, Bushra Rehman, No Borders, Carmen Aguirre, Victoria Law, Harsha Walia, Marla Renn, Arlin Ffrench, Pamela Cross, Test Their Logik, Testament, Adam Lewis, Vikki Reynolds, Sarah Quinter, Angela "El Dia" Martinez Dy, Dan Bushnell, Aaron Munro, Peter Morin, Sascha Altman Dubrul, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Ben Holtzman, Kalamity Hildebrandt, Ana Ambroz, Buffie Irvine, Joe Biel, Fiona De Balasi Brown, Manisha Singh, Danny Mcguire, GaChing Kong, Gustavo Esteva, Tasnim Nathoo, Adrienne Maree Brown, Dan Chodorkoff, One Crimethinc Ex-Worker, Mike Davis, and Maia Ramnath.

In Oakland, California on March 24, 2015 a fire destroyed the AK Press warehouse along with several other businesses. Please consider visiting the AK Press website to learn more about their fundraiser.

About the Author
Matt Hern lives and works in East Vancouver with his partner and daughters. He founded, and for nine years has directed the Purple Thistle Centre, an all-ages youth-run community center for arts and activism. Among his other projects is a youth exchange program with an isolated town in northern Canada designed to bring native and non-native kids together to live, work, and travel.

His books and writing have been published on all six continents and translated into ten languages. He writes features and articles for a wide variety of publications, and continues to lecture globally.

He is the author of Field Day (New Star, 2003), Watch Yourself: Why Safer Isn't Always Better (New Star, 2007), and Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future, and is the editor of Deschooling Our Lives (New Society, 1996), and Everywhere, All the Time (AK Press, 2008).

Matt holds a PhD in Urban Studies and lectures at SFU and UBC in Urban Studies and Education departments and is on faculty at the Institute for Social Ecology and Prescott College in Arizona. He remains active in a number of movements in Vancouver, is a food security activist, avid gardener and unrepentant sports fan. For more info, be sure to visit his website: www.mightymatthern.com.