When both levees and governments failed in New Orleans in 2005, scott crow cofounded the Common Ground Collective. Without government, FEMA ot the Red Cross, this volunteer organisation built medical clinics, set up food and water distribution and created community gardens. They resisted home demolitions, white militias, police brutality and FEMA's incompetence. crow's vivid memoir maps the intertwining of his radical experience and ideas with Hurricane Katrina's reality, and community efforts to translate ideals into action and resist indifference.