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The murder of Alton Sterling attacked the idea that public space and culture should belong to those who produce them
Alexander Billet
I'm a music journalist, writer and activist living in Chicago, and sit on the editorial board at Red Wedge magazine. A regular contributor to SocialistWorker.org, the Electronic Intifada and Green Left Weekly, my articles have also appeared at TheNation.com, Z Magazine, New Politics, CounterPunch, PopMatters.com, Dissident Voice, the International Socialist Review, the Washington Peace Letter, MR Zine and Razorcake.org among others.One of my articles “Is Russell Simmons Playing Politics with Hip-Hop?” appears in the academic collection At Issue: Should Music Lyrics Be Censored For Violence and Exploitation? released in 2008 by Greenhaven Press. My first book, Shake the City! How Crisis and Resistance Are Reshaping Music, is currently being written and will be released in early 2014.I have discussed music and politics on WBEZ's "Eight Forty-Eight," on Radio Free Adelaide in Australia and W.E.A.L.L.B.E. radio show. I'm a member of the National Writers Union/UAW 1981, a founder of Punks Against Apartheid and is a longtime activist in various movements for civil rights, economic justice and international solidarity. If you're interested, an archive of my work can be seen at my website Rebel Frequencies, and I can be reached at [email protected], or through my Facebook and Twitter.
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