This little bookish anarcho-kitty wants to remind you that tabling applications and event proposals are due this Wednesday, March 15, 2023, for the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair / salon du livre anarchiste Montréal!

By events, it can be anything from a talk, panel, structured debate, or facilitated conversation to a performance, skills share, hands-on activity, or kids-oriented workshop—in French, English, Spanish, and/or a combination. Events by engaged authors and organizers are highly encouraged, including intro to anarchism workshops as well as ones on relevant, provocative, or playful topics relevant to the hellscape we inhabit and the world we dream of (and already prefigure).

The bookfair itself, one of (if not the) largest in North America, happens during the “Month of Anarchy” on the weekend of May 27-28, 2023.

To apply, see:

http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca (English)
http://www.salonanarchiste.ca (French)

#AlwaysCarryABook
#ReadWriteRebel
#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom

(photo: sticker for Bibliothèque DIRA as spotted on the streets of Tio’tia:ke/Montreal on a wintery day—keeping most cats indoors to catch up on their reading)

Since I seem to be in a space of not feeling inspired to write my usual picture-prose pieces for social media—call it winter or perhaps pandemic numbness—and as a way to encourage myself to do so again, I’m catching up on sharing some old writing. Or rather, some old talking that Sarah Lawrance kindly curated into a zine years ago, and then Kai Schmidt stumbled across it years later and surprised me by creating a new edition of the zine.

Truth be told, I haven’t had the heart to read my old words here, in the new and improved “Educating for Freedom” zine. Since I gave the talk that became the original zine at the unSchooling Oppression conference in Ottawa in 2007, there’s been much beauty, and yet also so much loss, and so much has shifted in the world, making it wrenching to revisit the “old” one via my musings here. But Kai asserts in the intro that one shouldn’t “be fooled by [the writing’s] age”; that the zine is “sharp, relevant, and generally incredible.” You can be the judge, of course!

And of course, I’m grateful to Kai for putting so much “labor of love” into this new version, from editing and design, to getting full consent from both Sarah and me, to hosting it on Kai’s website (www.ratpokes.com) and uploading it to internet archive. I’m grateful, too, to the good folks at Sprout Distro for making readable and downloadable/imposed versions available on their website, including for freely and widely distro’ing.

As enticement to check out this zine, here’s what Sprout says,

“The zine begins with a brief segment titled ‘why anarchism?’ that situates the rest of the talk, with an emphasis on the notion that a key aspect of anarchism is educating ourselves and inspiring others to question the way things are. For anarchists, education reminds us things haven’t always been like this and gives past, present, and future examples of alternatives. It also helps us to understand complexity and to remain vigilant about the work we are doing. The majority of the text focuses on anarchist projects and how they contribute to an ‘educating’ process within and alongside the anarchist space. The projects explored are local collectives, nonhierarchical institutions, and social movements. In these areas, anarchists educate themselves through practice and interplay with others.“

Excerpt from the zine:

“Because anarchists are interested in this idea of education for freedom, anarchism as an idea, and a huge percentage of the work that anarchists do – despite the stereotypes of anarchism – is actually about education. And some of it we don't even see as education because it's not how we've understood education to be.”

For the zine itself: https://www.sproutdistro.com/catalog/zines/organizing/educating-for-freedom/

#EducatingOurselvesForFreedom
#ReadWriteRebel
#TryAnarchismForLife

RT @CindyMilstein@twitter.com

After 2 yrs of pandemic absence, our #AnarchistSummerSchool will be gathering in person, August 13–21 & our application process is now open (alas, we only have room for about 30 new troublemakers! Share/RT! Apply by April 22: http://tinyurl.com/IATapplication #EducatingOurselvesForFreedom

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/CindyMilstein/status/1506305532524732428

RT @CindyMilstein@twitter.com

After 2 yrs of pandemic absence, our #AnarchistSummerSchool will be gathering in person, August 13–21 & our application process is now open (alas, we only have room for about 30 new troublemakers! Share/RT! Apply by April 22: http://tinyurl.com/IATapplication #EducatingOurselvesForFreedom

RT @CindyMilstein@twitter.com

We’re howling for your aid to bring the Institute for Advanced Troublemaking’s #AnarchistSummerSchool back to in-person, super-affordable, prefigurative life! DONATE TODAY to this all-volunteer project! https://www.gofundme.com/f/aid-the-institute-for-advanced-troublemaking?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1 #EducatingOurselvesForFreedom

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/CindyMilstein/status/1495048313929928713