Hi Friends -
Some comrades from out of the area have contacted us seeking housing during the weekend of the Book Fair!
If you are able to offer someone a couch or floor space, please get in touch by emailing us at bayareabookfair @ gmail.com and we will connect you!
This year as part of our nod to the “fair” theme, we’ll be hosting several carnival games and games of chance! Aside from having fun at the Book Fair, we want to provide a fun way for groups and organizations to raise funds.
Have a silly, creative, insightful or satirical game idea? Want to offer tarot readings? Want to create a dunking booth, wheel of fortune, or ball-toss game? (Remember the “Throw a Shoe at Bush” carny game that appeared in Justin Herman Plaza in 2009? Photo below provided by LisaRuth Elliott)
We’d love to have you! If you or anyone is interested in coordinating a booth, please get in touch! Although space would be free to you, we only have a limited number of booths available. Also, the event runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, and we would ask you to commit to being there during those hours.
You can contact the book fair committee at bayareabookfair at gmail.com
Please pass this invitation along!
We’ve started to update the confirmed workshops and speakers for the book fair, and we will continue to add to these pages as we hear back from session presenters.
Check it:
Complete 2014 info:
http://bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com/2014-information/
Session Descriptions:
http://bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com/2014-session-descriptions/
Speaker Bios:
http://bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com/2014-speaker-bios/
Thanks to the Design Action Collective and Inkworks Printing, we now have posters and postcards for this year’s event!
If you would like to help us distribute them, please email us at bayareabookfair @ gmail.com
19th Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, March 22, 2014
Call for Session Proposals:
The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair is an annual event that brings together people interested and engaged in radical movements to connect, learn and discuss through book and information tables, workshops, panel discussions, skillshares, films and more! We seek to create an inclusive space to introduce new folks to anarchism, foster a productive dialogue between various political traditions as well as anarchists from different milieus, and create an opportunity to dissect our movements’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and tactics.
We are currently seeking workshop proposals for the 19th Annual Book Fair to be held March 22, 2014 at The Crucible in West Oakland. This year, we are making changes to the format and programing, including putting out a call for session proposals.
Here’s how you can help us make this year’s Book Fair dynamic and engaging:
What Are the Sessions?
The Book Fair provides an open forum for discussion among anarchists and individuals/groups who work with anarchists. Workshops will be generally facilitated by one person or a panel of people, and scheduled in blocks of 60-90 minutes. We encourage active hands-on participation, creativity, and enough time and space for questions, answers, and discussion.
We are looking for workshop proposals that:
These parameters provide a starting point for developing a session, but please feel free to get creative and propose something outside of these categories.
How Do I Submit My Proposal?
To propose a session for the Book Fair, please submit the form on website by December 15, 2013. We will finalize the program and confirm sessions in mid-January.
Go directly to the proposal form here: http://bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com/2014-session-proposals/
What Else is Happening Besides the Book Fair?
In addition to the Book Fair, a variety of diverse anarchist themed events will occur at different venues throughout the Bay Area the week preceding and the weekend during the Book Fair. You can propose any type of event or activity; the only limitation is your imagination! These events will be organized autonomously from the Book Fair (think of the Anarchist Café, often held the Friday evening before the Book Fair, or the BASTARD conference, normally held on Sunday), and as such, venues are the responsibility of the event organizer—though the Book Fair organizers are happy to help with suggestions.
The Book Fair organizers are committed to helping promote autonomous events to the best of our ability through the event website and Facebook page.
Hi everyone! We’re looking forward to seeing you this weekend. A few things to know!
Getting There
Food
Hours
Need anything else? Stop by the info table near the door!
Please support these community events! Additional announcements can be sent to abookfair@yahoo.com
* * *
THURSDAY MARCH 14: 7:00 pm: Build to Resist
“BUILD TO RESIST“ with Linda Evans (All Of Us Or None), Josh Harper (SHAC7), Azadeh Zohrabi (Hunger Strike Coalition), and Jenny Esquivel (Sacramento Prisoner Support). 518 Valencia in San Francisco,
FRIDAY March 15 7 pm: Anarchist Cafe
The Anarchist Cafe is on!
The Anarchist Cafe will happen on Friday March 15th from 7-10pm, the night before the San Francisco Anarchist Bookfair.
It is time to step away from our meetings and be social. We will have food, coffee, tea and music indoors and a covered hang out space outdoors. We are serving dinner until 9pm or until the food runs out, whichever comes first. As in past years, the Cafe will happen at 225 Potrero Avenue in San Francisco. We are asking for a donation of $5-20 at the door, but no one will be turned away. The money will go to support political projects.
Please no drugs or alcohol. Note the ending time, so don’t show up late and get disappointed.
If you are interested in volunteering at the Café contact Mike E. at mikee1051 (at) yahoo.com or through the event’s facebook page and include what you would like to do (make food, do dishes, or work the door) and the approximate times you can be available for.
SATURDAY March 16: Subversive Book Event 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Join us at Station 40 on March 16th for a subversive book event. Organized as an autonomous addition to the festivities of the book fair weekend and the Bay Area’s 8 Days of Anarchy, this subversive book event will include tabling by various anarchist projects from around the country. Proceeds from the event will go towards legal expenses for the Cleveland 4. Connor Stevens, Douglas Wright, Brandon Baxter, and Joshua “Skelly” Stafford are four comrades who are collectively serving decades in prison after being entrapped by the FBI. For more information on the Cleveland 4′s case, visit their legal support site at: www.cleveland4solidarity.org. There will also be materials for folks to write and send letters to prisoners.
Station 40 is located directly across from the 16th and Mission BART plaza, and two blocks from the Armory. The address is 3030b 16th Street.
Some tablers include: The Anti-Repression committee, Bay of Rage, Black Spring Press, East Bay Prisoner Support, For I Cannot be Quiet, Gender Anarky Support Team, Grand Jury Resistance, The Holdout Bookstore Collective, Little Black Cart, ofrendas quemadas, QI Publications, Quiver, Santa Cruz Anarchist Projects …and more!
Station 40 is a long-term, collectively run, anticapitalist events space by and for anarchists, heretics, broke people and many others who seek a world without domination. Police and other law enforcement officials, uniformed or otherwise, are not permitted or welcome.
SATURDAY MARCH 16 11 am to 6 pm: Hack for Anarchy!
Join us for a day of skillshares and talks around hacking, anarchism, social disorder, robots, security and all things awesome.
Noisebridge, 2169 Mission St, San Francisco CA
SATURDAY MARCH 16 11 am to 5 pm: A Day of (A) THEORY & DIY Skill Shares!
In The Work presents: A Day of (A) THEORY & DIY Skill Shares!’A Day of (A) Theory & DIY Skill Shares” will aim to retain, deepen and strengthen the subversive and dangerous texts, ideas and ways of being and doing that anarchist thought and practice make possible.The day will include tabling from various anarchist publishers and thinkers, discussion relevant to struggle in our current post-modern trajectory, and craft presentations. If you have an interest in tabling, talking, or presenting something practical drop us a line!
All tables and speakers/discussions will use In The Works event space for free/donation only. All donations received from this event will go
to the <em>Free Jeremy Hammond!</em> legal fund. Jeremy Hammond is a 28 year old anarchist and web-developer from Chicago who is being accused of hacking Strategic Forecasting(Stratfor), and publishing this information via the website Wikileaks.org, as the ‘Global Intelligence Files’.WHERE: In The Works/ is located 1 1/2 blocks from the 16th Street Mission BART station at 3265 17th Street, between Mission & Capp Streets.
SUNDAY March 17: BASTARD Conference
We humbly request your participation in the 2013 instance of the Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development conference. We meet every year to discuss new, old, and interesting ideas in anarchist theory. This year our emphasis is on Ethics & Aesthetics. Submit your proposals to conference@sfbay-anarchists.orgThis year, BASTARD is interested in the relation of ethics and aesthetics to our ideal; are we trying to make the world more beautiful or more ethical? If we are hewing to an aesthetic vision, how does replacing the ‘good’ with the ‘beautiful’ prevent us from recreating the problems of moralism with different language, if we are retaining some concept of ethics, how is it distinct from christian or liberal morality?
What motivates us as anarchists? Not only what is sexy and appealing and easy to say, but what shapes the worlds we are trying to move toward? What criteria do we use to assess our actions or affirm our intentions, how do we make assessments of others?
How does the interplay of Ethics and Aesthetics shape our tactics, relationships, projects, and conceptions of ourselves as anarchists? How is this question related to the broad strains of anarchist thought?
We will be meeting on March 17th 2013 from 10am – 6pm. Most likely this meeting will occur in the East Bay. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Anarchism, Pornography, and Being an Ally: Conflict and Collaboration in the Past, Present, and Future.
Saturday 6:30 to 8:30
CIIS Room 304, 1453 Mission Street (between 10th and 11th)
REVISED!
In response to the criticisms of the Armory Community Center as the venue for the 18th Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, the organizing committee has taken several steps, including organizing a forum to address some of the issues raised, at a venue outside of the Armory so that those critical of the venue would feel comfortable attending.
The forum will be Saturday March 16 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at CIIS. This moderated discussion will include two sections:
Mapping the conflict: What is the actual issue here? Is it pornography? BDSM? Kink.com’s labor practices? How anarchists interact with institutions and/or with non-anarchists? This first section will attempt to parse out the conflict so that those present have greater understanding of the priorities and values that have shaped the debate, and what the divides in our community actually are. This will happen as a large group or in smaller groups depending on how many people are present.
This will be followed by a group discussion with guiding questions provided by the moderators.
For background on this debate, please read:
The Book Fair Committee would like to address the recent criticisms of the new location for the book fair, The Armory Community Center.
As has been mentioned previously, the old venue (The Hall of Flowers/County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park) had become prohibitively expensive and difficult to work with. Rental fees there almost doubled over the last three years, with additional mandatory “hiring” of Park Rangers (an armed branch of law enforcement), coupled with further punitive restrictions (e.g. no valet bike parking, restrictions on selling outside). After an exhaustive search and much discussion, we decided to relocate the Book Fair for 2013 to The Armory Community Center, owned by Kink.com.
In the search for the new venue, we considered many locations, but ruled them out because of several reasons, including size (being large enough to include all vendors), a room for speakers separate from the vendor hall, cost, and availability during March 2013. We have included below a list of the venues considered/investigated in the search to find a successor to the County Fair Building.
The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair does not make a profit, is organized by a committee of volunteers, and is sponsored by the all-volunteer Bound Together Anarchist collective bookstore. We would like the book fair to remain free to attendees and affordable for vendors (current table price is $150 for two days, though in the past it has been as much as $205). In addition to the rental of the venue, there are additional costs to be considered such as: renting tables/chairs, poster design/printing, security, etc.
In an effort to accommodate all of the vendors, as well as to continue having speakers, we chose The Armory Community Center, which in addition to being affordable (and resulting in a 25% decrease in fees for vendors) is located near public transportation. We also considered that a number of local anarchists have or do work there. We announced this decision in August 2012 and have included the information in all of our materials.
It is our belief that there is a valid political criticism of every venue that is potentially available. The universities we considered, it seems almost self-evident to point out, are the prime engines of defense research, vivisection, and genetic engineering. Many of the venues under consideration are involved in labor disputes, and the County Fair Building/Arboretum is pivotal to privatization of the Parks (to say nothing of the corruption scandal involving the overtime pay of Park Rangers).
We acknowledge that pornography and sex work have been divisive issues in the anarchist community. The choice of the Armory Community Center is not a political statement, and the Book Fair Committee is taking no political position on pornography. We accept that members of the community (and even members of this committee) have differing opinions on this issue. We will be organizing a discussion on anarchist perspectives on pornography during the book fair, and if this topic interests you, we hope that you will attend. We will be hosting it at a venue near the Armory and hope to announce the details when the full book fair schedule is released next week.
Because we live in a capitalist society, and until we have created an explicitly anarchist infrastructure that can support this type of event, such contradictions and compromises are inevitable. We would be happy to consider additional venues for next year. If you have a suggestion of a venue that meets the criteria listed below, please email us at abookfair@yahoo.com.
In solidarity,
- Jen Angel, Ramsey Kanaan, and Joey Paxman
The Book Fair Committee
abookfair@yahoo.com
Venue Criteria:
Venues originally considered that were too small / expensive /etc:
Artist Hugh D’Andrade has sent us his sketch for this year’s poster! This will be the 10th poster that Hugh has designed, and he’ll be doing a presentation at the bookfair.
