I’m delighted to announce the dates for the next Salon du livre anarchiste de Montréal | Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, started almost 25 years ago and still going strong: May 27–28, 2023.

Its longevity speaks to many decades of often-imaginative anarchist(ic) resistance and many generations of anarchists here in Tio’tia:ke, not to mention far more continuity between people, projects, spaces, uprisings, strikes, and so on than in most North American cities. Plus the bookfair is always like an enormous anarchist family reunion, filled with all sorts of events as part of the “Month of Anarchy” here, including the Festival International de Théâtre Anarchiste de Montréal | International Anarchist Theater Festival. And Montreal in May is rebelliously romantic!

So here’s my encouragement, as a collective member who has a longtime diasporic and loving relationship with Montreal, to apply to table at this large, beautiful two-day bookfair and/or propose an event (talks, panels, debates, skill share, care or kidz zone offerings, music, art, performance…). Or *simply* plan to come to the bookfair that weekend! I don’t know about you, but after three pandemic years of too much isolation and fragmentation, the more that a whole bunch of us can gather, socialize, grieve, process, gossip, laugh, play, learn, and so much else together in joyous spaces of our own making, the better!

For tabling and event applications, see www.salonanarchiste.ca (French-language version) or www.anarchistbookfair.ca (English-language version). Deadline for applications is March 15, 2023.

You’ll find other info at our bilingual website too, including that we’re asking everyone to mask up when indoors at the bookfair—because #AllCOVIDsAreBad and #AllCaretakersAreBeautiful.

I’d also greatly appreciate it if you’d circulate these infographics, via my post or by making your own, on your Instagram, other social media, email lists, Signal chats, and other places.

Hope to see many, many, many of your faces (and masks) there!

#AlwaysCarryABook
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful
#ReadWriteRebel
#MontrealAnarchistBookfair

(Part 3 of 6): By way of celebrating my new book “Try Anarchism for Life” being in print and out in the world, and because I have a backlog of photos of circle As in the wild, plus to honor and thank the folks who took the time and care to write blurbs for this book, here’s a trifecta of what I hope are some beautiful expressions of anarchism: street art + the book’s cover + a blurb.

“Freedom struggles produce care, love, art. These things in turn demand courage, transformation, consciousness, ideals, dreams. Above all, struggle. Struggle gives birth to autonomy. And autonomy enables life. This book affectionately defends these things, and all the other things that state, capitalism, and patriarchy systematically steal from individuals, communities, and society. It invites people to see the world of anarchism as an ethical, beautiful way of living. Anarchism not as rigid, static identity or form. Rather, ‘anarchisting’ as a quest for creativity against dogma, solidarity against hierarchy, justice against power. A beautiful piece of work, a companion for the many collective journeys for meaning and liberation beyond borders.”

—Dilar Dirik, author of “The Kurdish Women’s Movement: History, Theory, Practice”

(p.s. Read @Dilar’s book and other writings!)

Copies of the book are available from the publisher, @tangledwilderness, at www.tangledwilderness.org (for folks in and outside of the US too), @akpressdistro at www.akpress.org, or your favorite anarchist(ic) bookstore, and libraries.

(photos: beautiful sentiment about the heart of anarchism, roughly translated as “we can do it together,” as seen on a print in an anarchistic feminist, queer-friendly cafe in Rethymno, Crete, November 2019; strikingly beautiful book cover, designed by @eff_charm with circle A by @landonsheely)

#TheBeautyOfOurCircle
#NewWorldInOurHeart
#PodemosHacerloJuntxs
#WomenLifeFreedom
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful
#WeAreAllWeNeed
🖤💖🌿

(Part 2 of 6): By way of celebrating my new book “Try Anarchism for Life” being in print and out in the world, and because I have a backlog of photos of circle As in the wild, plus to honor and thank the folks who took the time and care to write blurbs for this book, here’s a trifecta of what I hope are some beautiful expressions of anarchism: street art + the book’s cover + a blurb.

“Cindy Milstein teams up with some of the best and most active current anarchist artists to give us this collection of artful circle As, each accompanied by a textual meditation on anarchism and struggle that ranges from the beautiful to cute to didactic to inspiring, and always with a core of wisdom. Milstein has a special touch.”
—Peter Gelderloos, author of “The Solutions Are Already Here”

Or as the back cover describes it:

“‘Try Anarchism for Life’ revolves around a thought experiment: What are some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism? In reply, it blends gorgeous circle A drawings by twenty-six artists with Milstein’s words, forming picture-prose that are at once inviting and playful, poignant and dreamy. The pieces encourage us to notice and expand on liberatory practices, especially in a time when so much feels impossible. In depicting how anarchism gifts us lives worth living, this book warms ailing hearts and offers tender succor.”

Copies of the book are available from the publisher, @tangled_wilderness, at www.tangledwilderness.org (for folks in and outside of the US too), @akpressdistro at www.akpress.org, or your favorite anarchist(ic) bookstore, and with luck soon, libraries.

(photos: postscarcity circle A sticker made by @municipaladhesives, as seen in mid-October at the entrance to @defendATLforest; abundantly beautiful book cover, designed by @eff_charm, with circle A by @landonsheely, as texted to me by my beautiful friend Libertie with @firestorm)

#TheBeautyOfOurCircle
#FlowersNotFascism
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful
#TheSolutionsAreAlreadyHere
#WeAreAllWeNeed
🖤💖🌿

By way of celebrating my new book “Try Anarchism for Life” being in print and out in the world, and because I have a backlog of photos of circle As in the wild, plus to honor and thank the folks who took the time and care to write blurbs for this book, here’s a trifecta of what I hope are some beautiful expressions of anarchism: street art + the book’s cover + a blurb.

“‘Try Anarchism for Life’ is part manifesto, part prayer, part devotional—a rousing collection of vignettes and micro essays that inspire and incite. Read it to be warmed, guided, and changed. Accompanied by a wildly diverse set of illustrations of the anarchist logo, each essay offers a thoughtful meditation on how to do and think about anarchism in our world today. Full of love for the possibilities of the world to come. ‘Try Anarchism for Life’ is a refreshing and necessary addition to the repertoire of anarchist literature.” (—Rivers Solomon, author of “An Unkindness of Ghosts”)

Or as the back cover describes it:

“‘Try Anarchism for Life’ revolves around a thought experiment: What are some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism? In reply, it blends gorgeous circle A drawings by twenty-six artists with Milstein’s words, forming picture-prose that are at once inviting and playful, poignant and dreamy. The pieces encourage us to notice and expand on liberatory practices, especially in a time when so much feels impossible. In depicting how anarchism gifts us lives worth living, this book warms ailing hearts and offers tender succor.”

Copies of the book are available from the publisher, Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, at www.tangledwilderness.org (for folks in and outside of the US too), AK Press at www.akpress.org, or your favorite anarchist(ic) bookstore, and with luck soon, libraries.

(photos: beautiful circle by my beautiful friend @nobonzo as seen in mid-October at the anarcho-beautiful entrance to @defendatlantaforest; strikingly beautiful book cover, designed by @eff_charm with circle A by @landonsheely, with gorgeous photo courtesy of the good folks at @bookspace_columbus)

#TheBeautyOfOurCircle
#FlowersNotFascism
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful
#WeAreAllWeNeed

Because I have way too many #ACAB photos on my phone (part 7 of 7)…

You don’t hate Sundays, you hate capitalism. And cops too.

#CommonsNotCapitalism
#CareNotCapitalism
#AllCopsAreBad
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful

(photo: the kinds of conversational graffiti one is relieved to see on the drab walls of the many pedestrian underpass walkways on the stolen lands of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, summer 2022/5782)

Because I have way too many #ACAB photos on my phone (part 6 of 7)…

You don’t hate Saturdays (especially if you’re Jewish, like me), you hate capitalism. And cops too.

#CommonsNotCapitalism
#CareNotCapitalism
#ShabbosNotStates
#AllCopsAreBad
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful

(photo: one of the many beautiful ways that #FTP has long been expressed on the walls and streets of Exarcheia in Athens, Greece, as seen on a walk in the “before” times of November 2019)

Because I have way too many #ACAB photos on my phone (part 4 or 7)…

You don’t hate Thursdays, you hate capitalism. And cops too.

#CommonsNotCommodification
#CareNotCapitalism
#AllCopsAreBad
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful

(photo: photo of a tag spray-painted over a large advertisement on a wall, making one appreciate the tenacity and abundance of urban redecoration in Athens, Greece, as seen during a walk in the “before” times of November 2019)

Because I have way too many #ACAB photos on my phone (part 3 out of 7)…

You don’t hate Wednesdays, you hate capitalism. And cops too.

#CommonsNotCapitalism
#CareNotCapitalism
#AllCopsAreBad
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful

(photo: until policing is abolished, it bears repeating, as seen on the stolen lands of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal in summer 2022/5782)

Because I have way too many #ACAB photos on my phone…

You don’t hate Tuesdays, you hate capitalism. And cops too.

#CommonsNotCapitalism
#CareNotCapitalism
#AllCopsAreBad
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful

(photo: way-to-go tag seen on a rambling walk about a year ago, in early autumn 2021, with my friend @lokimon in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal)

Because I have way too many #ACAB photos on my phone that need sharing…

You don’t hate Mondays, you hate capitalism. And cops too.

#CommonsNotCapitalism
#CareNotCapitalism
#AllCopsAreBad
#AutonomousCommunitiesAreBeautiful

(photo: sticker seen in October 2022 on the redecorated gazebo at the entrance to @defendatlforest aka #StopCopCity)