Book Release: The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities

The extent of the violence affecting our communities is staggering. Nearly one in three women in the United States will experience intimate violence in her lifetime. And while intimate violence affects relationships across the sexuality and gender spectrums, the likelihood of isolation and irreparable harm, including death, is even greater within LGBTQI communities. To effectively resist violence out there—in the prison system, on militarized borders, or other clear encounters with "the system"—we must challenge how it is reproduced right where we live. It's one thing when the perpetrator is the police, the state, or someone we don't know. It's quite another when that person is someone we call a friend, lover, and trusted ally.

Based on the popular zine that had reviewers and fans alike demanding more, The Revolution Starts at Home finally breaks the dangerous silence surrounding the "open secret" of intimate violence—by and toward caretakers, in romantic partnerships, and in friendships—within social justice movements. This watershed collection compiles stories and strategies from survivors and their allies, documenting a decade of community accountability work and delving into the nitty-gritty of creating safety from abuse without relying on the prison industrial complex.

Fearless, tough-minded, and ultimately loving, The Revolution Starts at Home offers life-saving alternatives for ensuring survivor safety while building a road toward a revolution where no one is left behind.

Ching-In Chen is the author of The Heart's Traffic.
Kundiman Fellow Jai Dulani is an interdisciplinary storyteller and activist/educator.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is the author of Consensual Genocide.

Andrea L. Smith is Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at UC Riverside. She is the award-winning author and/or editor of several books, including Native Americans and the Christian Right: The Gendered Politics of Unlikely Alliances; Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide; The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex; and Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology. Smith currently serves as the US Coordinator for the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, and she is co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. She recently completed a report for the United Nations on Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools.