Interrupting Violence: One Man’s Journey to Heal the Streets and Redeem Himself - Rilegato

Williams, Cobe; Gryniewicz, Josh

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1538166879 ISBN 13: 9781538166871

Casa editrice: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc, 2024

Riassunto

Part memoir and part call to action, Interrupting Violence is a blueprint for cities across America looking for a new way to address community violence. Readers will be energized by the book Kirkus Reviews calls a "heartfelt, authentic guide for combatting community violence.”

For over a decade, Cobe Williams has been a violence interrupter, a highly trained conflict resolution expert working to stop the killing. Alongside thousands of workers across the country, many of whom he trained, Cobe intervenes in street conflicts before they result in murder. Interrupting Violence follows his evolution from gang leader to vanguard of a social justice movement. More than a memoir, Interrupting Violence spans three generations of trauma to portray a radically optimistic vision for addressing urban violence.

Born into the notorious Black Disciples, Cobe became a drug dealer, hustler, and shot-caller. His father, an influential gang member, was murdered before Cobe turned eleven. Five men, his father’s so-called friends, beat him to death in the lobby of a public housing project. Cobe spent years seeking answers about what happened that night.

As Cobe rose through the ranks of the Black Disciples—at one time commanding over one hundred men throughout the city while still in high school—a gang war turned his world upside down. Its escalation overshadowed his ascent. Stoked by police, who fanned the conflict’s flames, the war would engulf Cobe’s friends and family, nearly costing him his life. Ultimately, Cobe would end up behind bars for attempted murder, a crime he didn’t commit.

Interrupting Violence follows Cobe as he undertakes his redemption journey, offering new hope for the nation’s most violent communities. As the country wrestles with the inequities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the complex intersections of urban violence, racial injustice, police brutality, and poverty in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, this book provides an inspiring blueprint. Cobe’s story demonstrates how the country can resolve the issues plaguing our inner cities, taking readers into an often misunderstood and misrepresented aspect of the Black experience in America.

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Informazioni sugli autori

Cobe Williams is the Director of National Programs for Cure Violence Global (CVG), where he trained over five thousand workers in violence prevention. He appeared in the film The Interrupters and People, Vice, Ebony, and The New Yorker. He received a standing ovation at his TEDx event. He serves as a community ambassador for basketball star Joakim Noah's Foundation. He is a first-time author, with a BA from Northeastern Illinois University and is pursuing a masters in social work. He currently lives in Chicago.
Josh Gryniewicz is an author, storyteller, comic book writer, and health communicator. He was a contributing author to Beyond Suppression: Global Perspectives on Youth Violence and Crime & Society and a regular columnist with PopMatters. In 2018, he founded Odd Duck, a storytelling for social change communication consultancy, which has advised over fifty violence prevention programs throughout the country. He is the former communication director for Cure Violence. He currently lives in Chicago.

Cobe Williams is the Director of National Programs for Cure Violence Global (CVG), where he trained over five thousand workers in violence prevention. He appeared in the film The Interrupters and People, Vice, Ebony, and The New Yorker. He received a standing ovation at his TEDx event. He serves as a community ambassador for basketball star Joakim Noah's Foundation. Cobe earned a BA at Northeastern Illinois University and is pursuing a Master's in social work. He lives in a Chicago suburb with his wife, Andrea, and their four children.

Josh Gryniewicz is an author, storyteller, comic book writer, and health communicator. He was a contributing author to Beyond Suppression: Global Perspectives on Youth Violence and Crime & Society and a regular columnist with PopMatters. In 2018, he founded Odd Duck, a storytelling for social change communication consultancy, which has advised over fifty violence prevention programs throughout the country. He is the former communication director for Cure Violence.

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Excerpt from the Introduction

This book is my story. It is also the story of two families, interconnected, coping with the impact of trauma across generations and the racist history of Black Chicago. It is about surviving hardship and coming out stronger on the other side. It is about finding ways to resolve this pain transmitted, parent to child, to resolve the cycle of intergenerational trauma for a hopeful future.

This book is my story. It is also the story of a movement that has come of age. It is the story of community activists, often formerly incarcerated individuals, working to undo the harm they’ve done. It is the story of ragtag groups of organizers working out of community-based storefronts in ramshackle strip malls to keep tenuous peace on mean streets. Others like me who have left behind gang life to convene peace talks in church basements on borrowed time to save lives. This is the story of connecting those groups from the Bronx and Brooklyn to Cherry Hill, Baltimore, syncing Englewood, Chicago, and Inglewood, California, with movements in Minneapolis and St. Louis, Oakland, and Los Angeles to form a cohesive revolution in violence prevention. A movement that went from unlit, hardscrabble alleyways all the way to the White House.

This book is my story. It is also a guide for what cities need to know to set up a community violence intervention in their community. It is about the nuts-and-bolts logistics of creating a program. The challenges faced from laying the groundwork to launching the site. It is my story, but it is also a call to action for leaders looking for a new way forward in public health for some of the nation’s most violence-impacted communities.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc
• Data di pubblicazione: 2024
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1538166879
• ISBN 13: 9781538166871
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 322
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: non disponibile