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[title]Grace Lee Boggs has spent the past seven decades fighting for civil rights, gender equity and labor issues, while fostering these ideas at the Boggs Center, based in her hometown of Detroit. Her new book, The Next American Revolution, which lays out a path for social change, comes out in paperback May 1. We spoke to the nonagenarian, prior to her appearances at Cooper Union on Friday 20 and the New School on Sunday 22, about our country’s current political situation.
This is the 25th presidential election in your lifetime. What are you looking forward to seeing this time around?
One of the things we’re going to learn, as we learned in 2008, is that elections aren’t about making a difference. President Obama’s half sister was here [at the Boggs Center] and she said that the changes that are very necessary are not going to come from the White House. The people there are too locked in to their system. It’s going to come from the grassroots level.
What kind of change?
People are beginning to see the need for a paradigm shift, not to regurgitate information that is widely available, but to give them an opportunity to exercise their creativity. That kind of education will excite young people. There’s something that people feel at the grassroots that cannot be felt in the Beltway.
What do you think about the rise of 24-hour news coverage, and how that has changed our politics?
I think it has destabilized the country and has created challenges and dangers. When you only had the 6 o’clock news it was very different.
After a lifetime of working as an activist, where do you think Americans need change now?
We’re entering into a period [of economic crisis] when people are looking at human identity in a different way. The Chinese character for crisis can be seen as both “danger” and “opportunity.” You can give up, or you can recognize this crisis as a turning point in which our creativity is called upon. You have to create alternatives or fall apart in despair.
This Is How We Do It: A Festival of Dialogues About Another World Under Construction, Cooper Union Great Hall, 7 E 7th St at Third Ave; thefoundrytheatre.org; Fri 20 at 7pm; $10–$40. • Tishman Auditorium (at the New School), 66 W 12th St between Fifth and Sixth Aves (212-229-5488, newschool.edu). Sun 22 6–8pm; free.