PAUL AVRICH MEMORIAL FORUM

LIBERTARIAN BOOK CLUB / ANARCHIST FORUM

On Tuesday, April 11, at 7:30pm, the Libertarian Book Club's
Anarchist Forum will present a memorial for the beloved anarchist historian
Paul Avrich.

Paul Avrich is considered the most important 20th century American
historian of anarchism. But he is remembered not only for his scholarship
but also for his wit and his human closeness. His research included not
only the discovery of important material dealing with the anarchist actions
in the Russian Revolution but also numerous interviews with American
anarchists as real people not just public figures. His books on anarchist
events in this country were important and numerous. Information on his life and works can be found
here and here.

The event will take place at the Brecht Forum, 451 West Street,
Manhattan (between Bank and Bethune streets) (212-242-4201).
Take an A, C, E, or L train to the 14th Street and 8th Avenue subway stop
or take a 1, 2, or 3 train to the 14th Street and 7th Avenue stop.

Everybody is welcome and invited to come and to have their say.
Admission is free for the presentation, but a contribution to aid the LBC
is suggested.

If you have questions, contact the LBC /Anarchist Forum, 212-979-8353 or
e-mail: roberterler@erols.com .

Culture Project, New York, April 17, 2006

Jason Grote

Dear artist and activist friends,

I am helping to organize a joint Theaters Against War/No Passport
event on April 17 (Patriot's Day) at the Culture Project at 8 PM and
looking for speakers and performers working around the subject of
freedom of expression in the arts.

Ideally we're interested in people reading or performing their own
work or speeches. Monologues, songs, readings from new books, and
stand-up/improv comedy are especially welcome. Alternately, you may
read a statement on freedom of expression written by someone else. We
can also provide people with writing, speeches, or statements from the
likes of Brecht, Fugard, Havel, Arthur Miller, Naomi Wallace, Hannah
Arendt, MLK, Subcommandante Marcos - and many more!

Depending on the volume of acts/speakers, were looking for things in
the 5–15 minute range. We are hoping to keep the whole thing down to
two hours max.
If you're interested, please email me as soon as possible. Feel free
to forward this as well. Apologies for duplicate or erroneous
postings.

Health,
Jason

Howard Zinn's Play "Marx in Soho" with Jerry Levy

Two Benefit Performances for Autonomedia

New York City, 8 PM, March 31 & April 1, 2006

Brecht Forum, 451 West St
(btw Bank & Bethune St, A/C/E/L to 14th St & 8th Ave, 1/2/3 to 14th St & 7th Ave).
$10-$25 donation.
Reservations recommended.

Info:
718-963-2603, info@autonomedia.org & www.autonomedia.org

Beyond Biopolitics: State Racism and the Politics of Life and Death

New York City, March 16–17, 2006

The Center for the Study of Women and Society/CUNY

March 16–17, 2006

At the Graduate Center, CUNY

365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY

Room 9206–9207

Thursday, March 16

9:00 – 10:00 AM Breakfast

9:30 – 10:00 AM Welcome: Patricia Clough

10:00 - 11:30 AM Race, population and technologies
of control
Eugene Thacker, Georgia Institute of Technology

Eyal Weizman, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Jasbir Puar, Rutgers University

Moderator: Patricia Clough, The CUNY Graduate Center

11:30 - 1:00 PM Detention, death and documentation

Cagatay Topal, Queen’s University

Sora Han, UCLA School of Law

Derek Gregory, University of British Columbia

Moderator: Jeff Bussolini, College of Staten Island, CUNY

1:00 – 2:00 Lunch

2:30 - 4:00 PM Indebtedness, freedom and state
racism
Ann Anagnost, University of Washington

Richard Dienst, Rutgers University

Stefano Harney, University of Leicester

Fred Moten, University of Southern California

Moderator: Craig Willse, The CUNY Graduate Center

4:00 - 5:30 PM Commentary

Craig Willse, The CUNY Graduate Center

Anahid Kassabian, University of Liverpool

Randy Martin, New York University

Jackie Orr, Syracuse University

Joseph W. Schneider, Drake University

Friday, March 17

9:00 – 10:00 AM Breakfast

9:30 – 10:00 AM Welcome: Patricia Clough

10:00 – 11:30 AM Invested nature and the science of
death
Michael Dorsey, Dartmouth College

Richard Doyle, Pennsylvania State

Cori Hayden, UC Berkeley

Moderator: Ananya Mukerjea, College of Staten Island CUNY

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM Eventuation, bodies and memories

Saidiya Hartman, UC Berkeley

Brian Massumi, Université de Montréal

Amit Rai, Florida State University

May Joseph, Pratt Institute

Moderator: Couze Venn, Nottingham Trent University

1:00 - 2:30 PM Lunch

2:30 – 4:00 Commentary & discussion
Jamie
Bianco, Queens College, CUNY

Grace Mitchell, College of Staten Island, CUNY

Couze Venn, Nottingham Trent University

Peter Hitchcock, The CUNY Graduate Center

Patricia Clough, The CUNY Graduate Center

Access to Knowledge Conference

Yale Information Society Project

April 21-23, 2006

Yale Law School

The information revolution holds great promise for development, freedom, and justice, but this potential is fragile. Without a coherent framework for why access to knowledge matters and an agenda how to achieve it, this potential could be undermined by the growing propertization and regulation of knowledge. The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School invites you to help determine the future of A2K.

In March We Remember

Thoughts About Peace in a Time of War

New York City, March 8, 2006

An event of contemporary concert music, poetry readings, and visual images, with showcases of several independent publishers including Seven Stories Press, The New Press, Akashic Books, Verso Books, and Autonomedia.

Participant artists include composers Frederic Rzewski, Elias Tanenbaum, composer/performers Kristin Norderval and Philip Wharton in collaboration with Ensemble π, led by pianist Idith Meshulam.

Poetry readings by Charles Bernstein, Carolee Schneemann and Peter Lamborn Wilson.

Visual images selected from the archives of the art critic David Levi Strauss.

The event is made possible by the support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Edward T. Cone Foundation, and Cooper Union.

In March We Remember

Thoughts About Peace in a Time of War

New York City, March 8, 2006

An event of contemporary concert music, poetry readings, and visual images, with showcases of several independent publishers including Seven Stories Press, The New Press, Akashic Books, Verso Books, and Autonomedia.

Participant artists include composers Frederic Rzewski, Elias Tanenbaum, composer/performers Kristin Norderval and Philip Wharton in collaboration with Ensemble π, led by pianist Idith Meshulam.

Poetry readings by Charles Bernstein, Carolee Schneemann and Peter Lamborn Wilson.

Visual images selected from the archives of the art critic David Levi Strauss.

The event is made possible by the support of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Edward T. Cone Foundation, and Cooper Union.

"Sexual Sedition:

From the Espionage Laws to the War
on Terror"

Molly McGarry

New York City, March 8, 2006

A talk by Molly McGarry (Dept of History, Univ.
California, Riverside)

'Sexual Sedition' traces a genealogy of the current
War on Terror to the early years of the last century
when the U.S. Congress passed the 1917 Espionage Act
and the 1918 Sedition Act. These pieces of legislation
dramatically restricted free speech, created new legal
definitions of conspiracy, and fed into a current of
anti-immigrant political agitation, resulting in the
arrest and deportation of thousands.

This paper uses
the case of Dr. Marie Equi, an I.W.W. organizer who
was imprisoned under the sedition laws as "an
anarchist, an abortionist, and a degenerate," to
examine the links between sexual and political
dissidence, "unnatural" identities and un-American
acts.

Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 2–4pm

CUNY Graduate Center

History Dept Lounge (room 5111)

365 5th Ave (between 34th & 35th St)

(One block east of the 34th St/Herald Square subway.
You don't need to be a student, but you need to show
some kind of picture ID & sign in to get into
the building.)

Anonymous writes:

First General Assembly of New York Metro Anarchist Alliance

New York City, March 4, 2006

Calling all anarchists, anti-authoritarians, grass-roots anti-capitalists, and fellow travellers!

The New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists is holding its very first General Assembly and you're invited.

Time: Saturday, March 4th, 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Place: Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (107 Suffolk Street, corner of Rivington Street), second floor.

NYMAA is a new anarchist organization that has been formed in response to the isolation, stagnation, and frustration felt by many anarchists and anti-authoritarians who live in the New York metropolitan area. We feel that in order for anarchism to truly spread and take root, anarchists need to band together for the purpose of initiating and nurturing a wide range of revolutionary projects. Our aim is to build a genuine culture of liberation and resistance that will ultimately be capable of rejecting the brutality of authoritarianism and domination.

As our organization is still in its infancy, the main function of this first General Assembly will be to bring people together in the same room in order to propose and begin concrete, coordinated anarchist activity through the formation of project-based working groups and geographically-based local unions. There will be ample time allotted for both casual socializing and facilitated discussion. Food and drink, as well as childcare, will be provided.

You can read more about NYMAA and familiarize yourself with its basic organizational structure (we strongly encourage this) at: http://www.anarco-nyc.net/nymaa.html

Proposals and other agenda items for the General Assembly are welcome. Please e-mail them along with any RSVPs (especially if you're bringing kids) to: nycfed-owner@lists.riseup.net

If you're unable to attend this General Assembly, we will be holding another one on April 8, so keep your eyes peeled for that announcement.

Our Lives Ahead

Because capitalism is worthless
Friday May 26 - Sunday May 28, 2006

Indianapolis, Indiana

a focused conference exploring the theories and practices of confronting
and dismantling capitalism from anti-authoritarian, anti-statist
perspectives.

Introduction

Capitalism isn’t the only system that restricts, demeans and sacrifices
our personal desires while striving for a liberatory life, but here and
now, it is the most identifiable, pervasive, consuming, and destructive.
It creates and perpetuates unfulfilling and exploitative relationships
through hierarchical frameworks. It swallows the time and space needed to
construct our lives on our own terms.

To put it succinctly, it is a monster that strives for totality.

If we desire to eliminate the exploitation and disparity of hierarchy, to
save all life from an increasingly desolate and mono-cultured environment,
to reclaim what is necessary for the realization of our desires, then we
must act to confront and ultimately dismantle the institutions,
relationships, and controls constructed and perpetuated by the capitalist
system.

From this basis, the Our Lives Ahead organizing group seeks to gather a
community of anti-capitalists and anti-authoritarians, or anyone curious
regarding such approaches, to discuss the theories and practices of
confronting and dismantling capitalism. The Our Lives Ahead conference
will be strongly focused on invigorating an anti-capitalist approach to
our theories, activism, and lifestyles while showing working examples of
the many ways we can reclaim our lives from the strongholds of a
capitalist framework.

So yea yea, the same ‘ol anti-capitalist jargon we’ve all been repeating
for some time now. What makes this conference any different from the rest
and why should I make yet another trip across the country?

Trust us, we too are tired of spending all our resources traveling to
conferences, sitting in the same old workshops year after year, feeling
our time is better spent socializing then developing our perspectives, and
frankly, being bored. So instead of offering up the default conference
structure of the past, we are making an attempt to invigorate our culture
with something more exciting, more engaged, more effective at
understanding what it’s going to take to create our own lives right now
and on into the future.

We’ve thought a lot about what turned us off at radical gatherings, and
most importantly, what inspired us. Taking these dynamics into
consideration we’ve set up a framework for the Our Lives Ahead conference
that puts our values into practice by instantly engaging everyone in the
conference creation and leaving behind as many of the soul-sucking
elements of capitalism we could think of.

We hope you are inspired by our efforts and want to come to Indy for Our
Lives Ahead. See you in May!

The Our Lives Ahead organizing group

www.ourlivesahead.org