AK Press is Indie Press of the Month at Modern Times Bookstore
The ever-spectacular Modern Times bookstore in San Francisco has chosen AK Press as its “Indie Press of the Month” for January 2009. Besides demonstrating their good taste, 
this means they’ll be sponsoring two events on our behalf in the upcoming weeks. The first, we decided, will be a party—a chance for AK collective members, authors (past and future), allies, and pals to get together for the sheer fun of it. The second will be a screening of our new DVD, Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War. Hope to see you at both!
Here are the details:
—–
Friday, January 16th: AK PRESS PARTY!
Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco
7PM, Free
Join AK authors, editors, collective members, friends, and comrades in a celebration of AK Press Publishing! We’ll hear from Diana Block (Arm the Spirit), representatives from Critical Resistance (Abolition Now!), David Solnit (The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle), Chris Duncan (My First Time), Brian Awehali (Tipping the Sacred Cow), Jeff Conant (Poetics of Resistance), Barry Pateman (editor of Chomsky on Anarchism and contributor to many, many books!), and many more. Refreshments provided … it’s a party after all!
———————————————————————
Friday, January 30th: Screening of Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War
Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco
7PM, Free 
On March 20, 2003—the day after the (most recent) Iraq war started—San Francisco was brought to a grinding halt by thousands of activists who occupied the streets to oppose the war. It was a mass uprising that forced the police to declare the financial district “shut down.” The planning and outreach coordinated by Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW), filled downtown San Francisco with approximately 15,000 people clogging traffic, stopping business as usual, communicating with passersby, and creating a pandemonium that lasted for several days. But neither DASW nor the mass resistance outlasted Iraq’s occupation.
Shutdown is an action-packed documentary chronicling how DASW successfully organized effort to shut down a major US city and how they failed to effectively maintain the organization to fight the war machine and end the occupation of Iraq.
Created by organizers involved with DASW, Shutdown combines detailed information on organizing for a mass action, critical interviews on organizing pitfalls, and the wisdom of hindsight. It is a must-see film for those engaged in the continuous struggle toward social justice.
*Join us (and the filmmakers!) for the first public screening of this new release from AK Press Video.*