OMFG, this year’s Radical Bookfair in Baltimore’s gonna kick ass
I will now proceed to use the AK Press Blog to shamelessly promote an event that I have been co-organizing for the past five years: The Mid-Atlantic Radical Bookfair, a three-day cavalcade of radical and anarchist authors, publishers, zinesters, and bookgeeks of all varieties that takes place every year here in Baltimore. After two years of organizing the Bookfair as a standalone event (including one year wherein we took over a gigantic theater in the middle of the downtown and crammed it with more than 50 tablers and another 50 panels & workshops), we were approached by the organizers of the Baltimore Book Festival with an invitation to bring the Radical Bookfair inside the larger city-sponsored Festival and organize our own tent & speaker stage. Weird, right? We thought so too, but we like to try new things, so we gave it a whirl for the first time back in 2008 and you know what? It was awesome. It was so awesome that we did it again the next year. And now, 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of the Radical Bookfair, which takes place in Baltimore this September 24-26.
If you are anywhere within traveling distance of Baltimore, I really suggest you think about coming out for the event. Check out some of the amazingness that’s in store for you:
Friday, September 24:
6:30PM: Anarchism 101 with Cindy Milstein
Saturday, September 25:
Noon: Indigenous activist Jessica Yee on Colonization, Communities of Color, and Sexuality
1PM: Bitch Magazine co-founder Lisa Jervis and author Sheri Parks discuss Representations of Women
2PM: Tricia Shapiro and Mark Nowak on the costs of coal (a release event for Mountain Justice!)
3PM: A panel discussion on the history and legacy of the Panthers and the politics of imprisonment with Eddie Conway
4PM: Political cartoonist Ted Rall launches An Anti-American Manifesto
5PM: Radical urbanist Matt Hern & Take Back the Land founder Max Rameau discuss the city from below
6PM: The Uses of a Whirlwind super panel, with Craig Hughes, Stevie Peace, Max Rameau, Betty Robinson, and more!
Sunday, September 26:
12PM: Chris Williams on Ecology and Socialism
1PM: Ben Dangl, Jeff Conant, and Marina Sitrin on Lessons from Latin America
2PM: Kari Lydersen on the Chicago Factory Takeover, in conversation with Deborah Rudacille on Sparrow’s Point
3PM: Penelope Rosemont and Noel Ignatiev on the critique of whiteness from Surrealism to the steel mill
4PM: Dan Berger and Daniel Burton-Rose on Rethinking Resistance in the 1970s
Seriously? That’s an incredible lineup. It’s also a bunch of AK authors (because we seriously have far too many great books coming out this Fall), so it’s even vaguely legitimate for me to promote this on the AK Press blog!
I love all of the panels, I really do … but, I mean, come on. Everybody’s got to have a favorite, right? I think Max Rameau and Matt Hern on Saturday evening is going to be min-blowing. These are two of the all-time best speakers I’ve ever seen … last March, during the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair, I saw Matt Hern speak twice in the same day and was captivated both times. And Max Rameau’s talk was definitely one of the strongest parts of The City From Below conference. And, on Sunday, if you’re in Baltimore and you miss Penelope Rosemont and Noel Ignatiev … well, you should probably just go ahead and kick yourself now. I hear there’s folks coming into town just for that panel … let’s hope they stay for the rest of the day too!
All in all, I really think this will be one of our best bookfairs yet. More info to come, I’m sure, but feel free to check out the bookfair website at http://redemmas.org/bookfair for more details!