Publications

Si’s most recent book is Creative Community Organizing: A Guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice (Berrett-Koehler, 2010). The book features forewords by Angela Davis and Jim Hightower. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman wrote about the book:

Democracy is not a gift bestowed by the powerful on the rest of us. If we want democracy now, we have to be willing to fight for it – and we need to know how. Si Kahn’s passionate new book, based on a lifetime of organizing for justice, offers hope for all of us who will not compromise the dream of democracy.

Si’s most recent book prior to Creative Community Organizing is The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy (Berrett-Koehler, 2006), co-authored with public/feminist philosopher Elizabeth Minnich, his long time partner and spouse. Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor of The Nation, wrote of this book:

Inspiring to read, this book will be of great value to organizers, activists and citizens of conscience . . . Nothing less than our democracy is at stake when extremists want to roll back our hard-earned rights. It offers a spirited blueprint for all citizens who care about renewing America’s best and most generous traditions.

Si is the author of two widely used organizing handbooks, How People Get Power and Organizing: A Guide for Grassroots Leaders, which together have sold over 80,000 copies. Both were published by McGraw-Hill, and later reissued by the National Association of Social Workers Press (NASW Press).

He is the author of the Si Kahn Songbook (Hal Leonard, Publishing, 1989), as well as of articles in such magazines and journals as The Nation, Liberal Education, Alternet, New York University Law Journal, The Journal of Community Practice, Social Policy, The Journal of Appalachian Studies, Southern Exposure, New South, South Today, Southern Patriot, Mountain Life and Work, People’s Appalachia, Old Time Music Magazine and Horizons, the magazine for Presbyterian women. He wrote the section on community organizing for the 19th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work, published by the National Association of Social Workers Press.

He is the author of Si Kahn Songbook (Hal Leonard, Publishing, 1989), as well as of articles in such magazines and journals as The Nation, Liberal Education, Alternet, New York University Law Journal, The Journal of Community Practice, Social Policy, Southern Exposure, New South, South Today, Southern Patriot, Mountain Life and Work, People’s Appalachia, Old Time Music Magazine and Horizons, the magazine for Presbyterian women. He wrote the section on community organizing for the 19th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work, published by the National Association of Social Workers Press.

In Honor of Si’s 80th Birthday Today, April 23,

Please Join Us in Launching the Si Kahn Living Legacy

Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, John McCutcheon

The goal of the Si Kahn Living Legacy is to build awareness of, support for, and public access to the amazingly large body of Si’s creative work that no one except Si has ever seen, and ultimately to keep it alive and easily accessible after he’s gone.  Si has been recognized internationally as one of the most important English language social justice songwriters, connecting his cultural work and social activism like so many before him, including Pete Seeger (with whom he worked, toured, and recorded) and Woody Guthrie.  

Nora Guthrie and others started the Woody Guthrie Archives long after Woody’s passing. As Si turns the corner to his 80th birthday, it’s a perfect time to think ahead, to gather, catalog, and make available those of his songs, stories, book manuscripts, poems, and other creative works that have never before been seen or heard by anyone except Si. The time to do this is now, while he’s healthy, still actively creating, and available as a friendly resource to the Living Legacy’s growth and development. 

It of course takes funding to build and maintain a major project like this. Your contributions are tax-deductible, as the project is managed by and part of the 501(c)3 non-profit Generations: Music for Justice (EIN 87-1647310).

Let’s do this together, recognizing the importance of Si’s life not just as an organizer and musician, but as a humane, generous, deeply kind person, who has spent his entire life trying to make this tired world a kinder, gentler, more just place for all of us.