ON THE LOWER FREQUENCIES
(SOFT SKULL, 2008)
On the Lower Frequencies is at once a manual, memoir, and history of creative resistance in a world awash with war and poverty. An icon on the 1990s zine scene, writing then as Iggy Scam, Lyle traced not only the evolution of cities, but of her own thinking, from her early focus on more outré forms of resistance through more contemplative times as she became preoccupied with the need for a more affirmative vision of the future. In one of the book’s key pieces, Lyle celebrates the history and passing of Hunt’s Donuts in San Francisco’s Mission District. On one level an epitaph for a beloved hangout and on another a metaphor for the effects of gentrification, it’s the untold history of an entire neighborhood in a single retail establishment. Whether handing out fake Starbucks coupons or dreaming of a future with more public art and punk holidays, Lyle gives the reader inspiration for living defiantly.
“Everyone talks about ‘guerrilla art,’ but Lyle and her crew are the real deal, Viet Cong in the interstices of gentrification.” —Mike Davis
“Forget statistics and pretentious analysis of ‘urban society.’ Take a walk through the city with Erica Dawn Lyle and discover the reality of how people live in an American city.” —Howard Zinn