The Utne Reader

The founder of Utne Reader chronicles his adventures on the frontlines of American culture—from the Vietnam era to the age of Trump—as a spiritual seeker, antiwar activist, and minor media celebrity. “Fascinating . . . a remarkable piece of social history.”—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Far Out Man is the story of a life-long seeker who was occasionally a finder as well. In 1984, Eric Utne founded Utne Reader, a digest of new ideas and fresh perspectives percolating in the arts, culture, politics, business, and spirituality. With the tag line “The Best of the Alternative Press,” the magazine was twice a finalist for a National Magazine Award and grew to more than 300,000 paid circulation. In the nineties, the magazine promoted the Neighborhood Salon Association to revive the endangered art of conversation and start a revolution in people’s living rooms. More than 18,000 people joined, comprising nearly 500 salons across North America. Utne devoted the magazine to bringing people together to help make the world a “little greener and a little kinder.” Far Out Man serves as a chronicle of both an individual life and a generation, covering the conflicts of the Vietnam era, the hopes and excesses of the sexual revolution and the Me Decade, the idealism and depredations of the entrepreneurial eighties and nineties, and the promise and perils of the digital age. Ultimately, Far Out Man is the story of Eric Utne’s lifelong search for hope, how he lost it, and what he found on the other side that sustains him in his darkest moments. It is a book dedicated to helping all seekers become finders.

From the ancient Greek symposia to Gertrude Stein's famous Paris gatherings, salons have always been the incubators of provocative - at times even dangerous - ideas: the frontiers of cultural change. People who might elsewhere have been socially ostracized were included in salons, welcomed for their wit, intelligence, charm, and insight. And passionate conversation often led to passionate action.In 1991 Utne Reader launched a salon renaissance all over North America when it featured a cover story on salons. The response to the article was staggering, leading Utne to organize a National Salon Association that quickly drew over 20,000 members. Conceived and written by the folks at Utne, Salons is the quintessential authority on the subject, demonstrating that joining or starting your own salon is just a living room away.Salons offers a fascinating history of the salon and supplies all the tools readers need to join or start a group of their own. Classic salon-keepers like Julie deLespinasse, Mabel Dodge, and Gertrude Stein offer models for modern salons. Variations on the salon theme are explored, from studious book clubs and book circles to creativity salons, and finally online saloning. Chapters are grouped under such categories as choosing a salon site, finding salon members, and selecting discussion topics. A closing chapter looks at salons as bedrocks for activism and institutions for keeping social consciousness alive for the long-haul.

Jay Walljasper, Jon Spayde andThe Editors of Utne ReaderTable of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword by Eric Utne Introduction The Spirit Moving Us Introduction Thomas Berry Satish Kumar Stephen & Ondrea Levine Thich Nhat Hahn Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Starhawk The Sense of Community Introduction Ernesto Cortes Jr. Roberta Brandes Gratz Jane Jacobs Frances Moore Lappé Michael Lind David Morris Helena Norberg-Hodge John Papworth Andres Duany & Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk Virginia Valentine Social Action Introduction Noam Chomsky Gary Delgado Riane Eisler Colin Greer Ted Halstead Jim Hightower bell hooks Andrew Kimbrel lWinona LaDuke Geoff Mulgan Muhammed Yunus Seeing Green Introduction Kenny Ausubel & Nina Simons Fritjof Capra Theo Colborn Edward Goldsmith Paul Hawken Hazel Henderson Jerry Mander William McDonough Bill McKibben Donella Meadows Theodore Roszak Charlene Spretnak Creativity & Culture Introduction Gloria Anzaldua Octavia Butler Eduardo Galeano George Gerbner Barbara Marx Hubbard Kalle Lasn Bobby McFerrin Bill Moyers Neil Postman Rachel Rosenthal John Ralston Saul William Strickland Body, Psyche & Senses Introduction Larry Dossey Chellis Glendenning Susan Griffin James Hillman Tom Hodgkinson Henry & Karen Kimsey-House Jane Maxwell Vicki Robin Gabrielle Roth Alice Waters

“[A] scathing assessment . . . Berry shows that Wilson's much–celebrated, controversial pleas in Consilience to unify all branches of knowledge is nothing more than a fatuous subordination of religion, art, and everything else that is good to science . . . Berry is one of the most perceptive critics of American society writing today.” —The Washington Post “I am tempted to say he understands [Consilience] better than Wilson himself . . . A new emancipation proclamation in which he speaks again and again about how to defy the tyranny of scientific materialism.”—The Christian Science Monitor In Life Is a Miracle, the devotion of science to the quantitative and reductionist world is measured against the mysterious, qualitative suggestions of religion and art. Berry sees life as the collision of these separate forces, but without all three in the mix we are left at sea in the world.

A queer poet documents depression and grief in this autobiographical novel-in-verse.

Eye-opening and thoroughly engaging, this is an indispensible look at American urban/suburban society and its future. In The Great Inversion, Alan Ehrenhalt, one of our leading urbanologists, reveals how the roles of America’s cities and suburbs are changing places—young adults and affluent retirees moving in, while immigrants and the less affluent are moving out—and addresses the implications of these shifts for the future of our society. Ehrenhalt shows us how the commercial canyons of lower Manhattan are becoming residential neighborhoods, and how mass transit has revitalized inner-city communities in Chicago and Brooklyn. He explains why car-dominated cities like Phoenix and Charlotte have sought to build twenty-first-century downtowns from scratch, while sprawling postwar suburbs are seeking to attract young people with their own form of urbanized experience.

All recordings document life, arising from a specific time and place, and if that place is artificial, the results will be as well. Culled from a lifetime of learning through failure and designed to provoke thought and inspiration for artists in every medium, How Music Dies (or Lives) is a virtual how-to manual for those on a quest for authenticity in an age of airbrushed and Auto-Tuned so-called “artists.” Author and Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan chronicles his own journeys to find new and ancient sounds, textured voices, and nonmalleable songs, and he presents readers with an intricate look at our technological society. His concise prose covers topics such as: •The damages of colonization in generalizing distinctive variations •The need for imperfection •The gaps between manufacturing and invention •The saturation of music in everyday life This guide serves those who ask themselves, “What’s wrong with our culture?” Along with possible answers are lessons in using the microphone as a telescope, hearing the earth as an echo, and appreciating the value of democratizing voices. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.