Posted on June 30th, 2014 in AK Book Excerpts, Current Events
“The story of land in Detroit is the story of people re-imaging productive, compassionate communities. The land, poisoned and abused by industrial capital for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, holds the relics of mass production. As technologies advanced and capital became more mobile, Detroit and its people were abandoned. Yet within this devastation, people began to see the opportunity to create something new. Calling on the deepest resources of memory, spirit, and imagination, abandoned land is being reclaimed as urban gardens; old factories hold the possibilities of aquaponics, art studios, and bicycle production; neighborhoods ravaged by drugs and violence are organizing to create peace zones where people take responsibility for public safety and personal problem solving. Detroit, once the symbol of industrial mass production, holds the possibility of becoming a new kind of self-sufficient, productive, creative, and life-affirming city.” [from “A Detroit Story”]
When you read mainstream media accounts of the “options” available to Detroit, remember those are generally only the options that take capitalism as a given. Matthew Birkhold, Grace Lee Boggs, Rick Feldman, and Shea Howell contributed a great chapter to our new book Grabbing Back…which offers a different take on the historical and present-day options available to Detroit, and the rest of us.
Read their chapter, “A Detroit Story: Ideas whose Time Has Come,” here.
Get the book here.
Posted on June 15th, 2014 in Events
The annual AK Press anti-state event is here again. Tons of sale books priced between $1 and $5…and discounts on everything else! Snacks, refreshments, and friendly anarchists. Come for the books, stay for the scintillating conversation.
WHERE: 674 23rd Street, Oakland (between MLK and San Pablo)
WHEN: Wednesday July 2, 2014
from 4pm to 9pm.
WHY: Because you can never have too many great books.
You can RSVP on Facebook, if you do that sort of thing!
Posted on May 27th, 2014 in Uncategorized
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We’ve got eight amazing books scheduled for the upcoming Fall and Winter seasons. We’ll share more detailed news in the future, but for now, here’s the list:
Dispatches against Displacement: Field Notes from San Francisco’s Housing Wars, James Tracey
Drug War Capitalism, Dawn Paley
I Belong Only to Myself: The Life and Writing of Leda Rafanelli, Andrea Pakieser
Militant Anti-Fascism: A Hundred Years of Resistance, M. Testa
Educating for Insurgency: The Roles of Young People in Schools of Poverty, Jay Gillen
Underground Passages: Anarchist Resistance Culture, 1848–2011, Jesse Cohn
Storm in My Heart: Memories from the Widow of Johann Most, Helene Minkin
Complete Works of Malatesta, Vol. 3: A Long and Patient Endeavour—The Anarchist Socialism of L’Agitazione, 1897–1898, edited by Davide Turcato
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Posted on May 16th, 2014 in AK Allies, AK Distribution
Dismantle, the new collection we’re distributing from Thread Makes Blanket Press, has been getting some great press these last couple weeks. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, do yourself a favor! Contributors to the book also have a handful of events lined up—maybe in your neck of the woods—and we encourage you to check them out.
The new book is a collection of writing from the Voices of Our Nation (VONA) workshop, which is a program that supports and mentors young writers of color.
Junot Diaz, one of the founders of VONA, explains in his introduction to Dismantle (an abridged form of which was just published by The New Yorker!):
“I became a published writer and one of the first things I did with that privilege was join some comrades to help found a workshop for writers of color. The Voices of Our Nation Workshop. A kind of Cave Canum, but for all genres and all people of color. Something right out of my wildest MFA dreams, where writers of colors could gather to develop our art in a safe supportive environment. Where our ideas, critiques, concerns, our craft and, above all, our experiences would be privileged rather than marginalized; encouraged rather than ignored; discussed intelligently rather than trivialized. Where our contributions were not an adjunct to Literature but its core.
We’re on our fourteenth year now and the workshop has become a lot of things. We’re a thriving community of artists. We’re a space of learning, of personal growth and yes, at times, of healing. For many of our participants we’re a much-needed antidote to the oppressive biases of mainstream workshops.
But the workshop is deeper things too. Silent things we almost never talk about. For me it’s an attempt to do over that lousy MFA I had. To create in the present a fix to a past that can never be altered.”
Dismantle got this praise from an Afropunk reviewer, too:
“It is important that we feel as though our experiences are represented in the things that we read and Dismantle does a great job of sharing the pure, unadulterated art of writers of color and allowing their work to shine.”
Besides Diaz, contributors to the book comprise a great cast of VONA alumni and instructors including Chris Abani, Nikky Finney, Maaza Mengiste, Minal Hajratwala, Justin Torres, Cristina Garcia, Mat Johnson, Laila Lalami, Mitchell Jackson and many more.
Check out the book HERE, and also at one of these upcoming events if you can:
May 15th, NYC, La Casa Azul Bookstore, 6pm
May 17th, Philadelphia, Wooden Shoe Books, 7pm
May 30th, San Francisco, Modern Times, 8pm (Broadcast live on KPFK!)
June 8th, Seattle, Columbia Branch of Seattle Public Library, 2pm
July 26th, NYC, Bluestockings, 7pm
Details of these events (and up to date event info) can be found HERE.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Eddie Conway, author of Marshall Law (recently released from prison!) will be speaking about his experiences and discussing the two books he wrote while incarcerated as a political prisoner in Maryland for 44 years. Join us for a conversation around his memoir, Marshall Law: The Life & Times of a Baltimore Black Panther and his exposé The Greatest Threat: The Black Panther Party and COINTELPRO. This event will also be a fundraiser to help Eddie pay his legal expenses and get back on his feet in Baltimore.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Visit the AK Press tables in the exhibition area! And go to http://www.leftforum.org for more information and a schedule of sessions.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
The GUIDE TO KULCHUR DIALOGUES series proudly welcomes author Cindy Milstein for her presentation “Ghost Stories: Tales of Displacement from Gentrifying Metropolises,” followed by an open forum discussion of the dynamics of neighborhood redevelopment and gentrification in the modern American city.
“Capitalism is again reshaping the landscape, this time forcing inner-city residents to the suburban and rural peripheries as it (re)appropriates the major metropolises for the ultra-rich. Today’s gentrification—neocolonialism and/or class war—is not only violently destructive of lives, homes, and cultures; it erases memory of what came before.”
In the wake of the financial crisis and thirty years of depopulation and deindustrialization, economic recovery in the American city is an open question with competing visions. On one hand is the attempt to generate real estate investment opportunities through large-scale condo projects and initiatives to attract new, wealthier residents to urban neighborhoods. On the other is a rejection of this vision as a form of enforced displacement and redlining, preferring to focus on the qualitative aspects of these neighborhoods and the history of the spaces.
Cindy will share first-person tales of displacement and resistance, especially in San Francisco, and then frame questions for an open forum evening of dialogue. All attending are welcome to participate.
For some related reading, see “The Power to Stay: Magical Realism from SF’s Mission, http://cbmilstein.wordpress.com/2014/04/08/the-power-to-stay-magical-realism-from-sfs-mission/.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Join Howl Arts Collective for a panel discussion that explores the intersections between artistic practice, social movements and anarchism. Taking place as part of the Festival of Anarchy 2014.
presentations by
* Cindy Milstein
Cindy Milstein, currently a collective member with both the Institute for Anarchist Studies (www.anarchiststudies.org) and Station 40 (a collective social center) as well as engaged in anti-eviction organizing in San Francisco, is author of Anarchism and Its Aspirations (IAS/AK Press) coauthor with Erik Ruin of Paths toward Utopia (PM Press), and blogs at http://cbmilstein.wordpress.com/
* Freda Guttman
Freda is a native of Montreal, has been a practising artist for over 45 years. In the 1980’s she quit teaching art in order to situate her work into the realm of the political beyond art galleries for a participatory and broad range of viewers. She created two very large installations which toured Canada extensively for several years, in artist-run centres: “Guatemala: The Road of War” and“The Global Menu”. She has also created several small installations about the Palestinian struggle.
In 2003, she co-curated an exhibition, “Artists Against the Occupation”, with Rawi Hage in Montreal and has shown her work in numerous “Artists Against the Occupation” exhibits all over the world. She recently completed a continuum of five installations globally entitled, “Notes From the 20th” which was a ten year project.
Facebook event at https://www.facebook.com/events/434268863384141/.
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
For more information and schedule, visit: http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/montreal-anarchist-bookfair-2014
Visit us at the AK Press tables, and see AK author Cindy Milstein speak on “Death on the Commons” (Saturday at 11am) and “Everyday Anarchism” (Sunday at 3pm). Plus lots more excellent speakers and workshops!
Posted on May 9th, 2014 in Events
Author Maia Ramnath will be speaking on Decolonizing Anarchism and Kristian Williams will be speaking on a panel entitled “Informants: Types, Cases & Warning Signs.”
More info and complete schedule are available at https://lawandisorder.wordpress.com/.
“The story of land in Detroit is the story of people re-imaging productive, compassionate communities. The land, poisoned and abused by industrial capital for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, holds the relics of mass production. As technologies advanced and capital became more mobile, Detroit and its people were abandoned. Yet within this devastation, people began to see the opportunity to create something new. Calling on the deepest resources of memory, spirit, and imagination, abandoned land is being reclaimed as urban gardens; old factories hold the possibilities of aquaponics, art studios, and bicycle production; neighborhoods ravaged by drugs and violence are organizing to create peace zones where people take responsibility for public safety and personal problem solving. Detroit, once the symbol of industrial mass production, holds the possibility of becoming a new kind of self-sufficient, productive, creative, and life-affirming city.” [from “A Detroit Story”]