Stu Levitan welcomes one of the most interesting and politically important UW graduates from the late sixties, Helen Shiller, whose career encompassed almost 30 years of civic activism and community organizing with the Black Panther Party, the Students for a Democratic Society, the Intercommunal Survival Committee, and 24 years as a member of the Chicago City Council. nteresting and important, enough so for the legendary Studs Terkel to include Helen’s oral history as a chapter in his book Hope Dies Last.

Helen has written a memoir of her time on the streets and in the suites. It’s called Daring to Struggle Daring to Win: Five Decades of Resistance in Chicago’s Uptown Community from the good people at Haymarket Books. It has been quite a life and career, and it is quite a memoir. And it is quite a pleasure to welcome to Madison BookBeat Helen Shiller