Levitating the Pentagon

A bold, unflinching memoir from the front lines of American protest by lifelong activist Nancy Kurshan.

In Levitating the Pentagon and Other Uplifting Stories, longtime activist Nancy Kurshan offers a vivid, woman’s-eye view of seven decades of radical social change. From the founding of the Yippies and the theatrical feminist resistance of W.I.T.C.H., to solidarity work with political prisoners and indigenous liberation movements, Kurshan’s life chronicles the evolution of the U.S. Left-from civil rights to antiwar to feminist, abolitionist, and internationalist struggles.

Kurshan was not just a witness-she was a key player. She marched at the first major Vietnam War protest in D.C., co-organized the 1967 “levitation” of the Pentagon, and ran the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. She was in court for the Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial. She traveled to North Vietnam in 1970, and returned four decades later as an honored guest. This insider’s account brings to life a half-century of resistance-from the shadow of McCarthyism to today’s fights for justice. Along the way, Kurshan reflects on the internal tensions of the movements she helped shape-especially the fraught intersection between radical politics and emergent feminist consciousness.

More than a memoir, Levitating the Pentagon is a vital historical document and a passionate call to action, grounded in an ethic of humility and truth. As African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral once said, “Tell no lies and claim no easy victories”-a motto Kurshan lives up to in life, and in this captivating memoir.

Author Biography

Nancy Kurshan is a lifelong activist, writer, and organizer whose work spans civil rights, antiwar, feminist, and criminal justice reform movements. A co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippies) and the feminist guerrilla theater group W.I.T.C.H., she played a central role in organizing major protests of the 1960s, including the 1967 Levitation of the Pentagon and the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest events. Later, she joined the Weather Underground as a public member until its demise. She participated for many years thereafter in the efforts to free political prisoners such as the Puerto Rican political prisoners, Sundiata Acoli, Geronimo Pratt, and many others. She is the author of Out of Control, a foundational text on control unit prisons, and her widely cited essay, “Women and Imprisonment in the United States,” has appeared in numerous anthologies. Kurshan remains active in climate justice and Indigenous solidarity work through 1,000 Grandmothers for Future Generations. She lives in Oakland, California.