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Author Event: Zayd Ayers Dohrn celebrates Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
Past event
Featured Book
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Zayd Ayers Dohrn was born underground. His parents were fugitives after a decade fighting the US government; his mother was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. All his life, Dohrn’s parents said his birth marked a clean break with violent revolutionary struggle, but in this explosive memoir, he discovers that story wasn’t entirely true.
This masterpiece of personal and social history brings us inside an infamous family and their lives underground. Drawing on exclusive interviews, declassified FBI files, and long-hidden letters, photos, and diaries, Dohrn tells a new story of radical resistance, including revelations about the Weathermen’s bombing campaign, their secret alliance with the Black Liberation Army, and the dramatic prison break of Assata Shakur.
Reckoning with the emotional damage the Weathermen inflicted on their victims, their children, and themselves, Dohrn’s unflinching memoir explores the roots of radicalism and asks how a young person survives when the place they feel safest—with their family—also puts them in danger.
This book will be available for purchase at the event.
About This Event
Join Zayd Ayers Dohrn to celebrate his new memoir, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young.
Featured Author

Zayd Ayers Dohrn
An acclaimed playwright and screenwriter, Zayd Ayers Dohrn is a professor and director of the MFA in Writing for Screen and Stage at Northwestern University. He is creator of the hit narrative podcast Mother Country Radicals and the rock protest musical Revolution(s).
About the Venue

City Lit Books
Located in the heart of Logan Square, City Lit specializes in contemporary fiction and non-fiction, with a richly curated collection of children's literature, speculative fiction, poetry, and more. Our store is a literary hub for the community, hosting many book clubs, poetry readings, and author events.
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