A weekly guide to action.
The times may be dark, but they’re not hopeless. We have the power to join together and fight back. Now more than ever, we need to shore up our bonds of community, activate our networks, and make our voices heard. To this end, Blunderbuss will begin compiling a weekly roundup of events in our hometown of New York City that offer a chance to push back against the rising tide of hate and authoritarianism. Don’t expect this list to be exhaustive – this city is too full of energy and activism for us to be on top of everything. But if you’ve got an event you’d like to see listed, feel free to hit up Travis at tmushett@gmail.com. All descriptions are authored by event organizers, and occasionally trimmed for length.
Friday, December 2
NoDAPL Teach In For Standing Rock
Time: Fri. 12/2, 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, 66 W. 12th St., Manhattan.
[link]
We are excited to bring you the second teach-in event coordinated by the New York Stands with Standing Rock Collective! Join us for a teach-in on Standing Rock at The New School on December 2nd, 2016 from 3-6pm in The Auditorium at 66 West 12th Street. This is free and open to the public! We are bringing together some amazing youth organizers, scholars, artists, and media makers — Nick Estes, Jaque Fragua, Zaysha A Grinnelll, Kettie Jean, Jarrett Martineau, Teresa Montoya, and Dean Saranillio — to discuss their active involvement and opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.
The teach-in builds on the #StandingRockSyllabus. Please register at: https://
This event is organized as part of the New York City Stands with Standing Rock Collective with generous funding from the Dean’s Office at Eugene Lang College, Schools of Public Engagement Executive Dean’s Office, Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Studies, Global Studies, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Milano and the Vera List Center at The New School.
After the teach in you’re also invited to the Decolonize This Place where we will have an awesome show hosted by Revolutions Per Minute. Admission is by donation, and all proceeds will go to #RezpectOurWater and the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.
Nicholas Mirzoeff: White Light/White Supremacy
Time: Fri. 12/2, 5:00pm – 6:30pm
Location: 19 University Place (Room 229), Manhattan
[link]
NYU’s Comparative Literature graduate student organization—the Comparatorium—presents Professor Nicholas Mirzoeff on White Light/White Supremacy: Visual Activism for the Trump Era #blacklivesmatter. Join us for Professor Mirzoeff’s presentation and discussion to follow. Light refreshments will be served. This event is co-sponsored by the NYU Graduate School for Arts and Sciences.
NICHOLAS MIRZOEFF is professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. He is the author of several books, most recently How to See the World (Pelcian 2015/Basic Books 2016).
Hate Free Zone: Love and Protect Each Other
Time: Fri. 12/2, 5:30pm – 8:00pm
Location: Diversity Plaza, 37th Rd., Jackson Heights
[link]
In this period of uncertainty and attacks on many of our communities (immigrants, Black, Muslim, LGBTQ, women, Latino, workers, youth, and many others), it is more critical than ever that our communities come to the forefront of leading the fights internally within our own communities, and in partnership with other communities.
Please join us this Friday, December 2nd, for the launch of a community defense and “hate-free zone” in Queens.
We need to have average, everyday people see that our own communities can do something without relying solely on elected officials to defend and protect us. We can recall the successes of the immigrant rights movement from a decade ago when our communities took to the streets in millions across the country to not only protect ourselves from racism and xenophobia, but to also defeat the racist, backward 2006 Sensenbrenner bill that would have criminalized undocumented people and their allies. We are now reliving a similar moment in history. The call to action must be answered with thoughtfulness and urgency if we are to push back against the attacks by the incoming Trump administration.
We are inviting you to join us on Friday, December 2nd for an action here in Jackson Heights with a press conference, rally and march through the heart of communities in Queens, that have a special place in NY and the country as being diverse and having a large immigrant, Muslim, LGBTQ, Latino communities and all largely working class. These are all frontline communities who are looking for ways to come together to defend themselves and gain mutual support for the days to come. We hope this action will help jumpstart similar efforts in immigrant neighborhoods in the city and nationwide to declare our neighborhoods as “Hate-Free Zones”
ER ACTION #WeStandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL
Time: Fri. 12/2, 7:00pm
Location: Union Square, Manhattan
[link]
Today on November 26 2016 The Army Core Of Engineers put out a letter to say they are going to evict the camps in #StandingRock. They stated will be given a free speech zone. The same core of engineers also told DAPL to stop drilling and they did not. We are asking all to come out to take a stand with Standing Rock here in NYC because #waterislife. #NoDAPL
RMP Live: NYC – #NoDAPL Benefit Concert for Standing Rock
Time: Fri. 12/2, 7:30pm –10:00pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
Please join us on December 02 for #RPMLive : NYC—a benefit concert for #StandingRock—curated by Revolutions Per Minute! The concert will be held at Decolonize This Place following a #NoDAPL teach-in at The New School from 3-6pm. Admission is by donation. All proceeds will be donated to #RezpectOurWater and the Standing Rock Sioux Nation.
The show will feature performances by:
+ Dio Ganhdih
+ Sacramento Knoxx
+ Laura Ortman
+ Chauncey Tails
Admission: By donation
More info: http://rpm.fm/news/
A big shout out to The New School and Decolonize This Place for working with us to host these events. Both events are organized as part of the work of the New York City Stands with Standing Rock Collective.
Saturday, December 3
New York Against KKK Rally
Time: Sat. 12/3, Noon – 4:00pm
Location: Union Square, Manhattan
[link]
As hundreds of people are reporting this page to be “offensive”, Facebook admins are trying to make us shut it down! To prevent this page from being banned, we decided to change its name to anti-Klan rally. Join us at the same place, at the same time! December 3, 12 PM, Union sq. Garden near the Lincoln statue!
Stop Police Violence with ECRB – Open Organizing Meeting
Time: Sat. 12/3, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Location: Freedom Hall, 113 W. 128th St., Manhattan
[link]
We are coalition of groups and individuals organizing for an Elected Civilian Review Board (ECRB) – a grassroots body that would be empowered to discipline the NYPD and work with an independent Special Prosecutor to bring justice to victims of police violence.
Join the NYC Campaign for an Elected Civilian Review Board! Come out to the next organizing meeting to learn more and contribute your ideas.
We work together democratically and consciously build the participation and leadership of those most affected by police violence.
For more info, call (212) 222-0633 or email nycfsp@gmail.com
After the Elections: The Future of the Status Quo
Time: Sat. 12/3, 2:00pm – 4:30pm
Location: NYU Kimmel Center (Room 808), 60 Washingto Sq. South, Manhattan
[link]
Panelists: Howie Hawkins (Green Party, USA), R.L. Stephens (Labor organizer and editor of The Orchestrated Pulse), Benjamin Serby (volunteer-organizer, Team Bernie NY and PhD Candidate in US History, Columbia), Karl Belin (Socialist worker from Pittsburgh, labor organizer). Moderated by Tana Forrester (Platypus).
The Left has for over a generation — for more than 40 years, since the crisis of 1973 — placed its hopes in the Democratic and Labour Parties to reverse or slow neoliberal capitalism — the move to trans-national trade agreements, the movement of capital and labor, and austerity. The post-2008 crisis of neoliberalism, despite phenomena such as SYRIZA, Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring and anti-austerity protests more generally, Bernie Sanders’s candidacy, and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership, has found expression on the avowed Right, through UKIP, Brexit, the U.K. Conservatives’ move to “Red Toryism” and now Donald Trump’s election. The old neoliberal consensus is falling apart, and change is palpably in the air. Margaret Thatcher’s infamous phrase “There Is No Alternative” has been proven wrong. What can the Left do to advance the struggle for socialism under such circumstances?
Recent generations of marginalized radicals have been forced to grapple with an impossible choice: they must either submit to a “realistic” electoral compromise with the status quo, often in the form of “lesser evilism,” or they must vote for a third-party candidate, hoping that by making their platform public the winning party could be pushed leftward. Alternatively, out of exhaustion with this impasse, they may choose not to vote, advocating instead a principled abstention from electoral politics.
What lessons can the Left draw from the history of mass electoral parties for socialism to create more emancipatory choices in the future? How do we reimagine the role of electoral campaigns for Leftist politics today? Given that a significant number of working people in America have left the Democratic Party, what is possible?
*****
This event is free and open to the public. All are welcome.
*****
The Platypus Affiliated Society, established in December 2006, organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.
http://platypus1917.com/
Secure & Resist! A Cryptoparty
Time: Sat. 12/3, 2:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Eyebeam, 34 35th St., 5th Fl., Brooklyn
[link]
NO RSVP REQUIRED
FREE
This CryptoParty is for everyone! As the tools of surveillance become more sophisticated and more common, it’s important to learn the fundamentals of securing your digital presence.
An introductory talk will cover the most basic principles, including security as a process, “power vs paranoia”, threat modeling, all in the context of the current political landscape.
Trainings may include: Tor browsers, riseup.net alternatives to Google docs, Signal for encrypted communications, two-factor authentication, as well as a general venting session.
Bodies of Light: Exit Strategy
Time: Sat. 12/3, 6:00pm – 11:00pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
A conversation between the King and Queen cities. A night of gathering, presence and celebration, centering POC, queer, trans and indigenous folk. Come take a seat at the table.
++Open Gallery on bottom level – 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
++Words, performance, party on upper level – 7:30 – 11:00 PM
Featuring:
Chauvet Bishop
Jahmal B. Golden
Jordan Weatherston Pitts (http://
Baxter Wordsworth
Ida Divine (https://soundcloud.com/
Truey V (https://soundcloud.com/
We Stole The Show (https://
The Black Bandit
Stefa (https://soundcloud.com/
+ more
Bodies of Light portrait series started in Buffalo, NY as a way to celebrate artists of color to clapback at the systematic marginalization within established creative venues. The portrait installation was complemented by an all-night gathering and party that served as part general assembly, part collective catharsis. We recognize there is an equal need for such an event in New York City, where artists face gentrification, appropriation, an ever-present colonial gaze and the stress of creating in a city where community is not easily fostered or protected. We feel this is especially urgent and are working to create moments of radical presence, during political and social times that challenge our very ability to collectively gather under one roof.
Along with Decolonize This Place, we invite artists and people of color, indigenous people, queer, trans and disabled folk to come rejoice, release, share, discuss survival tactics, and celebrate themselves via the tradition of gathering that has underpinned generations of perseverance throughout continued attempts at our erasure. In the advent of Trump’s America, we reject the idea of safe space and put forward the question of “protected” and “sacred” space. The night will consist of an exhibition of the portraits, as well as performances from featured NYC artists and select Buffalo artists, followed by a revelry.
We hope you join us in solidarity and communion.
UMS & DTP
———–
United Melanin Society was formed by artist of color to meet the urgent need to build and mobilize community via the arts in Buffalo, NY.
Decolonize This Place is a movement space, action-oriented around indigenous struggle, black liberation, Free Palestine, workers and de-gentrification.
WITCHES BREW: A Cathartic Dance Party & Fundraiser for Planned Parenthood
Time: Sat. 12/3, 9:00pm – 4:00am
Location: Starr Bar, 214 Starr St., Brooklyn
[link]
A Cathartic Dance Party and Fundraiser for Planned Parenthood
bring your broken hearts and break on through to the other side
Get in. We will max out:
https://
Sunday, December 4
Stand Up Fight Back: Bystander Intervention
Time: Sun. 12/4, Noon – 4pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
Please join us for a special workshop in bystander intervention and de-escalation, conducted by Rachel Sarah Blum Levy, LMSW, Decolonize This Place this coming Sunday, Dec 4, at noon.
Bystander intervention and de-escalation involve a series of tools that can be consciously employed to defuse volatile situations. In this interactive workshop, bystander intervention and de-escalation will be presented in the context of self-defense and harm reduction. Students will identify verbal and non-verbal techniques and tactics to de-escalate conflict. Students will also learn the four Ds of bystander intervention – direct, distract, delay, and delegate. All of these tactics will be presented in tandem with the importance of larger scale community organizing and alternatives to policing.
The workshop will be run by Rachel S Blum Levy. Rachel has a Master’s Degree from CUNY Hunter College in macro social work and community organizing. She has professional clinical experiences working in the field of HIV / AIDS and as a crisis counselor at an abortion clinic. She is a former Collective Member / Part Owner of Bluestockings Bookstore, one of the last 13 feminist bookstores in the country. She is additionally a long time zinester, and the cofounder and assistant editor of the feminist compilation zine Hoax.
#DecolonizeThisPlace
NOTE: This workshop is not about physical self defense. It is specifically about de-escalation and bystander intervention, using verbal techniques to defuse potentially violent situations, and emphasizing the importance of combining this with larger scale community organizing in confronting racism and white supremacy.
Black Art & Activism Now – Round Table
Time: Sun. 12/4, 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Location: Decolonize This Place, 55 Walker St., Manhattan
[link]
As we face the prospect of a Trump Administration and the need to resist and protect ourselves from a growing wave of race-based aggression and violence unleashed in the wake of the presidential election, how should black artists and activists move forward? We are convening a roundtable of artists, activists, and cultural workers currently engaged in the cause of social justice and black liberation to discuss and strategize our options within the art world. In this open forum, we hope to address which artistic and institutional practices are currently working best, how should art and activism prepare to adapt in an ever more perilous racial climate, how can we ensure that our civil rights and artistic freedoms persevere?
Communicating in Trump’s America
Time: Sun. 12/4, 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Verso Books, 20 Jay St. (Suite 1010), Brooklyn
[link]
Join digital security pros from Freedom of the Press and revolutionaries from the Middle East for a discussion and workshop on how to communicate for social change under repressive conditions. To prepare for life under Trump, we’ll have to do more than download Signal and learn PGP. We’ll have to learn how to scheme in the shadows, pass notes, and encrypt our offline communications as securely as we do our emails.
***Panel will be followed by a Cryptoparty. BRING YOUR LAPTOP!***
Panelists will include:
Harlo Holmes, Director of Newsroom Digital Security at the Freedom of the Press Foundation
Olivia Martin, Digital Security Intern at the Freedom of the Press Foundation
Ahmed El-Hady, neuroscientist at Princeton University and Egyptian revolutionary
Loubna Mrie, Middle Eastern Studies student at New York University and Syrian revolutionary
***Panel will be followed by a Cryptoparty. BRING YOUR LAPTOP!***
Facilitators from Freedom of the Press will lead a workshop on basic digital encryption and security following the panel discussion. This will include lessons on basic threat modeling, secure browsing, and various forms of encryption.
FREE
RSVP NOT REQUIRED
EVENT WILL BE LIVESTREAMED
Co-sponsored by Verso and The New Inquiry
States of Emergency: Haiti & Dominican Republic Fundraiser
Time: Sun. 12/4, 7:00pm – 11:30pm
Location: Starr Bar, 214 Starr St., Brooklyn
[link]
Join us for a night of solidarity with Haiti and Dominican Republic… two nations that share an island devastated by recent “natural disasters.”
The death toll and displacement in Haiti from Hurricane Matthew continues to rise to the thousands. DR has declared a State of Emergency as more than 40,000 people were driven from their homes due to massive flooding. We’re raising resources and collection donations to support grassroots groups on the ground helping communities rebuild and meeting immediate needs.
Sliding scale $10-20 tickets pre-sale, $20 at the door. No one turned away! Can’t make it? You can still donate: http://bit.ly/2fOzTMd
Haitian food and treats!
Music from:
�Sabine Blaizin (Oyasound) – DJ Sabine’s work focuses on the exposure and pleasures of African Diasporic music.
�DJ Bembona (Vibras NYC) – DJ Bembona combines Latino-Afro-Global sounds with her Brooklyn environment to create a euphoric & unique experience for her audience. [accompanied by Ricky on live percussion]
Presentations from:
�Community2Community (https://
Community2Community (C2C), founded in 2010, is a non-profit service organization committed to creating self-sufficient communities by working with the community. C2C exists to give the Haitian Diaspora and those with a heart for Haïti a platform to come together and share their expertise in a variety of areas – from education to medicine and from carpentry to communications – toward C2C’s goal of establishing sustainable change in Haïti, and ultimately, other communities by working with indigenous leadership on the ground.
Art from:
�Nelson “Host” Santiago
www.nelsonhostsantiago.com
�Albert “TainoImage” Areizaga
www.tainoimage.com/
�r é x
Growing up in Haiti I used to draw on my free time but didn’t think that it would take me this far. I went from drawing, to painting and now I use the camera as my main platform to express myself. My imagination is my source of power for when I need to create and that’s something I’m very proud of. I put a lot of thoughts and energy when I have a vision and try to make it into a reality. I plan on making it big so that those that looks like me or come from the same neighborhood can see that it is possible for them to make it much bigger.
MORE TBA!
��� Want to get involved? Email us at starrbarbk@gmail.com!
Proceeds benefit Community2Community.
Monday, December 5
America Divided: Housing Inequality in NYC
Time: Mon. 12/5, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Starr Bar, 214 Starr St., Brooklyn
[link]
Join us for the first screening of “America Divided” with an introduction from activists and organizations featured in the first episode:
▶︎ Fair Housing Justice Center: www.fairhousingjustice.org
▶︎ Sam Stein (Housing Activist)
“A House Divided: Inequality in Housing in NYC”
https://
Norman Lear explores the housing divide in New York City, where he is confronted by one of the nation’s starkest images of inequality: a record number of homeless people living in the shadows of luxury skyscrapers filled with apartments purposely being kept empty. The creator of “All in the Family,” “Good Times” and “The Jeffersons” speaks with tenants, realtors, homeless people, housing activists, landlords and city officials — investigating the Big Apple’s affordability crisis, hedge fund speculation on residential housing, and a legacy of racist discrimination that still persists today.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Benefit for Standing Rock: Sharkmuffin, TAOTSS, WMT, Sodium Beast
Time: Mon. 12/5, 8:00pm – 11:00pm
Location: Shea Stadium, 20 Meadow St., Brooklyn
[link]
Stand with Standing rock!!!
: Sharkmuffin / http://sharkmuffin.com/
:: The Adventures of the Silver Spaceman – taotss (EP Release) / http://www.taotss.com/
::: What Moon Things / http://
::::: Sodium Beast / https://
Tuesday, December 6
Shut Down the Wells Fargo Pipeline Investors Symposium!
Time: Tues. 12/6, Noon – 4:30pm
Location: Waldorf Astoria New York, 301 Park Ave., Manhattan
[link]
This is a call to action for East Coast #NoDAPL solidarity activists and Native community leaders to join peaceful and spirited protest confronting the Dec. 6 – 7, 2016 Wells Fargo Pipeline Symposium taking place at NYC’s Waldorf Astoria.
This symposium runs from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both days. The main protest action is from 12 noon to 4:30 pm. We urge water protectors and solidarity activists to be present during the start and/or finish of the symposium in order to make the strongest impact on those entering and leaving the building, including President/CEO of Wells Fargo Tim Sloan, President/COO of Energy Transfer Partners Matt Ramsey and his VP Brent Ratliff. These are the men responsible for the Dakota Access Pipeline and they are expected to be present. This is your chance to make your concerns heard! Let us remember Sophia Wilansky! May her tears and pain not be in vain!
Wells Fargo organizes an annual conference for oil and gas pipeline investors, called the “Wells Fargo Pipeline, MLP, and Utility Symposium.” This year’s gathering – the 15th annual – takes place at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria on December 6th-7th. The keynote speaker “will address the growing challenges of building new pipeline infrastructure including rights of way, eminent domain, environmental impact and governmental approvals,” according to the brochure. Wells Fargo is one of the top investors in Dakota Access Pipeline and has earned a reputation as “Big Oil’s biggest banker” owing to its cozy relationship wtih the oil industry, including DAPL owner Energy Transfer Partners.
Wells Fargo is the US’ most controversy-laden bank of the moment, owing to the revelation that it reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in extra profits by opening roughly two million bogus customer accounts from 2011 to ’15. The fact that it is the Dakota Access Pipeline’s second largest financial backer, with $467 million invested to date, is therefore an attention-grabber in itself. But Wells Fargo also acts as Energy Transfer Partners’ so-called “administrative loan agent,” the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings show, giving it a qualitatively greater role in fueling the pipeline than any other bank.
Wells Fargo performs all record-keeping associated with all of ETP’s loans, handles the interest and principal payments made in connection with those loans, and monitors their ongoing administration. In other words, all bank financing ETP receives passes through Wells Fargo.
This relationship did not emerge in a vacuum. In 2014, Wells Fargo assumed the mantle of Wall Street’s top oil and gas banker, having more aggressively ramped up its investments than any other following the 2008 economic crash. One of Wells Fargo’s executive vice presidents, Mike Johnson, bragged about the San Francisco-based banking giant’s top role in fueling these planet-cooking sectors at a 2014 investors conference, and industry analyst Thompson Reuter has also made note of it.
Critically Engaging Race and Racism in Higher Education
Time: Tues. 12/6, 3:00pm – 7:30pm
Location: The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 5th Ave., Manhattan
[link]
Event 1: Workshop, 3pm – 5pm
Navigating Race and Racism in the Classroom: Integrating Teaching Materials Across the Disciplines
In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, college educators are seeking to meaningfully integrate teaching materials into their courses that address issues of race and racism in their disciplines. Join us for a workshop where groups of GC student instructors
in the Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM will collaboratively locate, generate, annotate, and organize a range of materials, resources, and strategies that college teachers can integrate into their courses. In the aftermath of the elections, this workshop presents an avenue for college educators to engage more deeply with responsive pedagogy and socially conscious practices across the CUNY classrooms.
Event 2: Round Table, 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Teaching, Research, Service:
A Roundtable with Graduate Center Students of Color
Doctoral students of color at the Graduate Center represent a significant percentage of the student body, the teaching faculty, and the labor force across CUNY. Their experiences offer valuable insights and perspectives on higher education that are rarely discussed, and which would benefit from exposure and support. In this roundtable discussion, graduate students of color will share their experiences learning, teaching, and working at CUNY. Following this discussion, the panelists and the audience will engage in conversation about the specific challenges that students of color face at CUNY and in the academy more broadly.
Stop Cuomo’s Nuclear Bailout!
Time: Tues. 12/6, 5:30pm – 7:00pm
Location: Longacre Theatre, 220 W. 48th St., Manhattan
[link]
Join us outside Governor Andrew Cuomo’s birthday party to stop the Cuomo Tax and say no to nuclear bailouts!
Together we’ll send a strong message straight to the governor: New Yorkers don’t want to pay higher electric bills to bail out failing nuclear plants. We deserve 100% clean, affordable, renewable energy.
What Now: The Artist-Writer as Activist-Critic
Time: Tues. 12/6, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: e-flux, 311 E. Broadway, Manhattan
[link]
Please join Paper Monument on Tuesday, December 6, at 7pm at e-flux for a conversation about artists writing as a mode of activist critique, with Social Medium: Artists Writing, 2000–2015 contributors Mariam Ghani, Gregory Sholette, and Pablo Helguera, and editor Jennifer Liese. At a moment when activism feels more necessary than ever, we will discuss the strategies and insights offered by these artists’ critical writings and address the question: What do we do now?
Mariam Ghani’s work recovers and illuminates hidden political histories. She has archived documentation of the human costs of post-9/11 policies (Index of the Disappeared, with Chitra Ganesh, 2004–) and salvaged abandoned footage from the Afghan national film institute (What we left unfinished, 2014–). Her writing has appeared in Ibraaz, Manifesta Journal, and Creative Time Reports. Her text in Social Medium, “The Islands of Evasion: Notes on International Art English” (Triple Canopy, 2013), speculates on how opaque “linguistic loopholes” in artists’ writings and speech may serve to mask and protect opposition.
Pablo Helguera is the author of the indispensable guide Education for Socially Engaged Art (2011) and several defining volumes on the social dynamics of contemporary art. His own projects often take an educational turn, as when he traveled in a mobile schoolhouse from Alaska to Chile, giving workshops and performances along the way (The School of Panamerican Unrest, 2003–2006). He has recorded dying languages on wax cylinders (Conservatory of Dead Languages, 2004–) and created a traveling Spanish-language used bookstore (Librería Donceles, 2013–). His text in Social Medium, “The Pieces of the Game,” reflects on power and strategy in the art world by comparing it to chess.
For four decades, Gregory Sholette has developed a “viable, democratic counter-narrative that, bit-by-bit, gains descriptive power within the larger public discourse.” His latest book, Delirium and Resistance: Activist Art and the Crisis of Capitalism (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming in 2017), persists in documenting activist art that, for its ephemerality, politics, and market resistance, might otherwise remain invisible. “Occupology, Swarmology, Whateverology: The City of (Dis)order vs. the People’s Archives” (Art Journal 2012), his text in Social Medium, surveys the handmade signage, scrawled slogans, and resonant visual record of Occupy Wall Street.
NYC Democratic Socialists of America Citywide Emergency Convening
Time: Tues. 12/6, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: Mayday Space, 176 St. Nicholas Ave., Brooklyn
[link]
Since a Trump presidency became reality on November 9th, more than two thousand people have joined DSA, many of them in New York City.
Let’s come together across NYC DSA branches to build the resistance to Trump and a movement for democratic socialism.
This meeting is also an opportunity for new DSA members to learn about and start working with the various branches and committees within NYC DSA.
Wednesday, December 7
Mad Solidarity in a World Gone Mad!
Time: Wed. 12/7, 7:00pm – 9:30pm
Location: Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St., Manhattan
[link]
Mad Solidarity in a World Gone Mad: Building Support and Empowerment after the Election
The recent election results have been shocking and hard on many us. Join us for discussion, solidarity-building group activities, and resource sharing in support of surviving, coming together, and keeping up the fight in the aftermath of Trump’s unlikely win.
We will explore questions such as: How has the election affected us? What are our fears and what can we do to increase feelings of safety? What does support look like to us now and how do we support those around us? What can we do to feel empowered? How do we balance self care with staying up to date and taking direct action? Help us brainstorm what the radical mental health community can offer to the greater community at this time, as well as what we can do to fight for the rights of those in the mental health system at this time.
We will also celebrate each other through the holiday season, a season that stirs up many emotions and is often a time where many of us revisit complex family dynamics. You are not alone.
*BRING TREATS TO SHARE IF YOU WISH!
*Call for organizers*
If you’d like to help out with planning monthly events and other Icarus NYC projects, we’d like to meet you! Please contact us at nycicarus@gmail.com
Non-Facebook link: http://nycicarus.org/
Hope to see you there!
Mad Love and Solidarity,
Icarus Project NYC
What Rough Beast? Contending with Trumpism
Time: Wed. 12/7, 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: The Bell House, 149 7th St., Brooklyn
[link]
Please join us for a live recording of the Podcast for Social Research, an event sponsored by the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research! This session of the podcast responds to an urgent need for critical reflection in the wake of the recent, deeply divisive presidential election. Faculty and guests including Tony Alessandrini, K. Soraya Batmanghelichi, Ajay Singh Chaudhary, Samantha Hill, Audrey Nicolaides, Rebecca Ariel Porte, and Jude Webre will wrestle with the implications of an increasingly authoritarian executive branch, the problems of political resistance, and the question of how afraid we should really be. A sequel to Slouching Towards Election Day, our first live recording of the podcast, which took place in October, this event will be free and open to the public. 21+, suggested donation: $8.
Thursday, December 8
The Global Rise of National Populisms
Time: Thurs. 12/8, 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location: The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 5th Ave., Manhattan
[link]
Branko Milanovic (CUNY Graduate Center), Marla Stone (Occidental College) and Richard Wolin (CUNY Graduate Center) in conversation. Moderator: John Torpey (CUNY Graduate Center).
RSVP required – email eusc@gc.cuny.edu. For questions email Patrizia Nobbe at pnobbe@gc.cuny.edu.
Co-Sponsors: Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, CUNY, Center for Jewish Studies, Dankwart Rustow Fund
NYC Wide Student Assembly and Action Planning
Time: Thurs. 12/8, 7:00pm – 11:00pm
Location: Mayday Space, 176 St. Nicholas Ave., Brooklyn
[link]
FACT: There are less than fifty days left until an anti-gay, racist, xenophonic, sexist, rapist and generally unqualified person–Trump–swears in and takes office as President.
Also, FACT: It’s TIME for us as students, as organziers and as activists–including all of the folks who are new to the protests / activist scenes–to join forces and build a community!
As organizers we do NOT want to simply plan actions against Trump, but to also intersect our causes and raise awareness for the fights we take on as, and in support of, marginalized people and radical movements.
Some of us students and organizers were already protesting and taking actions before the election and now we’re calling on ALL students (activists or not!) to come out and assemble with us.
Collective action at this point depends on gathering all of the students whose are interested, getting everyones ideas, and organizing together.
Join us on Thursday, December 8th, from CUNY to NYU to New School to SVA to Pratt to Columbia to Cooper Union and all the other NYC institutions.
We’ll be meeting from 7 to 11 PM to discuss actions, to voice our frustrations and concerns, to find intersections between all of our causes and to use this post election climate to organize actions / plans together and ultimately to build a community—a students in solidarity movement!
Please come out and share with all your friends, looking forward to see you all there!
love and solidarity,
Students in Dissent
P.S. There’s flyers to, if you shoot us an email at studentsinsolidaritynyc@gm
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Illustration by Yvonne Martinez.