A People’s History of Grand Rapids with Jeff Smith

Join us for an event with Chapbook Press author Jeff Smith and learn about the history of Grand Rapids from a new perspective; the history of its social movements.

This event is free to attend. However it helps us in planning to receive your RSVP. Please register here so we know you plan to join us: https://peopleshistorygr-schulerbooks.eventbrite.com

About the Book:

A People’s History of Grand Rapids provides a chronological history that presents history through the perspectives and experiences of people and movements that have been marginalized in this community while providing context for what was happening at the time these individuals or movements were organizing since the early part of the 19th century, including a critique of the systems of power and oppression they were dealing with. 

Smith wrote this history about social movements in Grand Rapids, to both celebrate and to lift up the people and movements that make A People’s History of Grand Rapids as well as to critique of those in power who have oppressed and exploited people, the very same systems of power for whom individuals and social movements have been fighting against over the past two centuries.
A People’s History of Grand Rapids, is not a complete history of Grand Rapids, but seeks to inform and elucidate the rich history of social movements, a history that too many of us are unfamiliar with. This history is in sharp contrast to the official history that we are taught, a history which is celebrated and canonized by the very structures that have contributed to the oppression and exploitation of so many in the geographical area we call West Michigan.

Not able to join us? Order your copy here: https://www.schulerbooks.com/chapbook-press/peoples-history-gr-smith

About the Author:
Jeff Smith has been part of social movement work for more than four decades in Grand Rapids. He co-founded the Koinonia House, which practiced radical hospitality for the unhoused and was a Sanctuary for Central American refugees fleeing US-sponsored terrorism in the 1980s. Jeff spent a significant amount of time doing accompaniment work in Central America and Mexico, working with and learning from movement organizers in those countries. Jeff started the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy in 1998 and The Grand Rapids People’s History Project in 2010. Jeff and his partner have several rescue dogs, and he loves to work in his garden. This is Jeff’s third book.