Anarchist bookfair (not just for Anarchists) Sept 11-12, Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis, MN

[annm4peace]

Saturday-Sunday, September 11-12, Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis, MN

Sponsored by various organizations, including Mayday Books.


Expect a “Celebration of Anarchy” at the Twin Cities Anarchist Bookfair, Sept. 11-12

On Saturday, September 11, featured speakers at the fair will include Cindy Milstein, author of the new AK Press title Anarchism and its Aspirations, and Diana Block, prison abolitionist, feminist and author of the memoir Arm the Spirit—A Woman's Journey Underground and Back. Workshops will be led by groups including the Experimental College, Twin Cities Avengers and Twin Cities Indymedia, and participants are coming from as far away as the Beehive Design Collective in Maine, Oakland-based PM Press and Edmonton's ThoughtCrime Ink; regional groups like the Cream City Collectives and Wisconsin Books to Prisoners; and a slew of local organizations and individual mediamakers.

In the interview below, two Twin Cities Anarchist Bookfair organizers talk about the purpose of the fair, what anarchists and non-anarchists will find, and the state of anarchism in the Twin Cities.

Bookfair hours are Noon-6pm on Saturday and 2:30-8pm on Sunday. All events, as you might expect, are free.

We decided early on that we wanted this to be an explicitly anarchist bookfair - not with watered down wording like "progressive." However, we also agreed that groups that didn't self-identify as anarchist would still be welcome, provided they agree with the principal aims and values of anarchism. So we have groups like Veterans For Peace or the TC Avengers, who don't really call themselves anarchists, but have so much to bring to the discussion.

It's the difference between capitalist and anarchist values, really. At any other bookfair, attendees are customers who pay to get in and are expected to buy something once inside. The vendors and speakers have the knowledge and the attendees are paying to get a small chunk of it. We completely reject that model for a bookfair and for society at large. The anarchist bookfair is free. We want attendees to be participants and workshop facilitators and learn as much as they teach. And we'll be in a park, so there'll be ample space for anyone to organize their own guerrilla workshop.

And as far as books go, you'll find many out of print books and hard to locate radical publications at the bookfair that aren't usually available in the Twin Cities.