This was a nice episode: Live Like The World Is Dying, Cindy Barukh Milstein on Trying Anarchism for Life
"Margaret and Casandra talk with Cindy Milstein about what anarchism actually is, why you should try it, possibly for life, the many horrors of fascism, and once again why community is all too important. They also talk about Milstein’s new book from Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, “Try Anarchism for Life.”

#Anarchism #LiveLikeTheWorldIsDying #Milstein #TryAnarchismForLife #ABetterWorldIsPossible

https://www.liveliketheworldisdying.com/s1e55-cindy-barukh-milstein-on-trying-anarchism-for-life/

This was a nice episode: Live Like The World Is Dying, Cindy Barukh Milstein on Trying Anarchism for Life
"Margaret and Casandra talk with Cindy Milstein about what anarchism actually is, why you should try it, possibly for life, the many horrors of fascism, and once again why community is all too important. They also talk about Milstein’s new book from Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, “Try Anarchism for Life.”

#Anarchism #LiveLiketheWorldisDying #Milstein #TryAnarchismForLife #ABetterWorldIsPossible

https://www.liveliketheworldisdying.com/s1e55-cindy-barukh-milstein-on-trying-anarchism-for-life/

Snapshots of day 1 of the 3-day anarchist holiday called the @ACABookfaire—with few accompanying words, because I’m tired in that good kind of way where you feel full and nourished from being around so many friendly, unpretentious folks putting their hearts into practicing other possible worlds in the here and now. It’s making me fall in love all over again with what anarchism should and can be, especially in terms of mutual aid, solidarity, and communal care.

Photo 1. The good type of flags flying proudly outside Firestorm Books.

Photo 2. The start of an altar to mourn the dead and remember them well so as to better fight for the living (please add to it this weekend), also outside Firestorm Books.

Photos 3-4. Asheville’s own anarchist bingo, times two—apparently already in the works even before my post the other day about bingo at this year’s Salon du livre anarchiste de Montréal | Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, and with its own regional flair.

#AlwaysCarryABook
#TryAnarchismForLife
#BingoNotBorders

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

this is sweet. @cbmilstein interviewed by @shane_burley1

https://www.full-stop.net/2023/08/01/interviews/shane-burley/cindy-milstein/

#anarchism #TryAnarchismForLife
#writers on #writing

My longtime friend @spirochristoff sat down with me on a park bench this past winter, both of us bundled in coats and scarves, to chat about anarchism. It wasn’t all that cold outside. Still, it was March in Montreal—meaning there is often a long way to go before one reaches the possibility of warmth, (re)emergence, and blossoming.

Perhaps it was the perfect time for a conversation—or rather, interview for Stefan’s Free City Radio show—about trying anarchism for life, because we often have a long way to go, too, as warm-hearted rebels before the possibilities we offer up against this icy-cold social order start to (re)emerge and blossom.

Now Stefan’s labors have flowered into episode 169 of Free City Radio, recently broadcast on five stations in so-called Canada, and I’m delighted to share the link with you, if you feel so moved to listen.

https://soundcloud.com/freecityradio/169-cindy-milstein-try-anarchism-for-life

Ostensibly, the show was supposed to revolve around my latest book, #TryAnarchismForLife (@tangled_wilderness, with joyous cover design by @eff_charm using a circle A by @landonsheely). Yet one of the many things I appreciate about Stefan, who has been and remains anarchistically awesome for years, is that he curates all sorts of imaginative cultural spaces, leaping off the predictable (in this case, a straightforward book interview) to weave artful alternatives and dreamy otherworlds.

Not that this short radio chat does all that. Nonetheless, I like to think that our real-life friendship shines through and our shared commitment to not merely the #ArtOfResistance but also conversing and organizing as of social relations matter. As if promise and possibility and care matter.

One can only do that, I think, if one hangs onto prefigurative politics, which brings us full circle to my book—made up of picture-prose that look at some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism.

Which circles us to one of the artists, @the_sabot_cats, who sent me these two photos of their circle A framed by their adorable graffiti!

#AllCatsAreBeautiful
#TheBeautyOfOurCircles

How rad to be side by side with @margaretkilljoy for this early May Day celebration—at least in spirit via our books, both published by the equally rad Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness collective!

And while our anarchist holiday thankfully doesn’t revolve around shopping, anarchist books have a long, storied history in educating, agitating, and being the inspiration for all sorts of good troublemaking. They also make for good bedtime reading given that they’re filled with the stuff of sweet dreams. Plus in this case, you can get both our new books through May 7, so you can focus fully and freely on May 1.

That said, I hope you do decide to snag copies of my “Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle” and Margaret’s “Escape from Incel Island.” I also hope that my book encourages you to remember some of the many beautiful reasons we’re in the streets, forests, cities, and elsewhere, not merely fighting for a better world, but already living as if it were here.

May Day and books—and who we are and what we put into this world—are crucial carriers of the flames of liberation and freedom, especially in a time that feels and is so antithetical to all we strive for and try hard to prefigure. We need our blessed flames more than ever as the gloom and doom of fascism descends.

So write, read, and rebel, knowing that words can shape and transform lives, that words can be our weapon and collective defense, that words can keep us going and lend comfort and joy to each other. Words can sabotage the current social order by sharing stories of what’s possible instead.

Plus both our books, in this specific instance, are fun to read.

To order, see www.tangledwilderness.org

Use the promo code: MAYDAY.

#TryAnarchismForLife
#BeautyOfOurCircle
#ReadWriteRebel
#AlwaysCarryABook
#AnarchistsCareAboutBooks
#HappyMayDay

(photo features the covers of the two books—Margaret’s with a drawing of swords and palm trees sticking out of an island, and mine sporting a big, bright pink circle A with a simple floral pattern in it surrounded by a spring-green background)

This graffiti should be an Earth Day greeting card.

At least on my #FuckCapitalism walk today, besides spotting this tag on the wall of an abandoned industrial building on stolen Anishinabeeg lands, an enormous great blue heron spread its wings and soared past me, a wild turkey ran gobbling across my path, robins and field bunnies hopped around alongside me on the wet grass in search of nibbles, and a yellow fuzz ball of a newborn gosling waddled on the riverbank with wonder at the abundance of life that resists what humans—some humans—and the violence of inventions like profit and private property have done to this planet.

(photo: concrete-brick wall painted brown with the words “How much must they take before we revolt?” spray painted in black on it)

#EcologicalCrisisIsASocialCrisis
#RespectExistenceOrExpectResistance
#TryAnarchismForLife

Mini review of my latest book, #TryAnarchismForLife, published by the amazing Strangers In A Tangled Wilderness collective, with springlike-joyful cover by @eff_charm and life-giving circle A by Landon Sheely.

Grateful to @AntifascistMoon for posting their thoughts, in three tweets, about my 26 tightly crafted prose pieces revolving around some of the many beautiful dimensions of anarchism, all paired with a gorgeous circle A dreamed up and drawn by 26 different anarchist artists.

As they write:

“I couldn’t have higher praise for Try Anarchism for Life by @cindymilstein — absolutely incredible, beautifully written prose about the beauty found in a boundless, liberated, free existence for all!

“Ecotones of Possibility [one of the pieces] honestly made me cry — the beauty in [Milstein’s] descriptions of liminal space-times and the joy expressed in the anarchist grabbing their friend by the hand to come see those places found the perfect heartstring to pluck.

“The entire book made me realize I was an anarchist before I ever even properly understood what anarchism was. Thank you for sharing this view with the world!”

As always, this book is a labor of love for me. Any proceeds go to support the rad work of @tangled_wilderness to put out all sorts of other anarchic media from books to games to zines to podcasts.

http://www.tangledwilderness.org

#BeautyOfOurCircle
#TryAnarchismForLove
#EverydayAnarchism

(photos: book seen in the wild at Insoumise, a longtime anarchist bookstore in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal; 3-part mini review posted on Twitter, 3/20/23)

The word “adorable” often isn’t associated with anarchism. But WTF, why not?

After all, so many anarchist experiments fling open windows into just how sweet the world could and should be.

Take yesterday’s anarchist zine fair on a snowy day in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal as an example.

The minute one entered the door of the homey cafe that hosted the fest for free, two tables of free literature warmly greeted you, including ones explaining anarchism—under the red-and-black homemade sign pictured here. Yet so did the tablers themselves—circled up cozily by the big front windows of the cafe, with the sounds and smells of coffee in the background.

Indeed, an air of anarcho-friendliness seemed to pervade the space. There was as much, or more, socializing than shopping, perhaps because many of the zines were free, pay-what-you-can, or cheap. Folks seemed intent on having political conversations, introducing folks to each other or catching up with friends, and excitedly sharing something they’d newly designed or newly written, or both.

The fair was small, so it had a certain intimacy about it. It helped that the tablers didn’t present an overwhelm of zines but instead curated their selection based on their own passions. You felt like you got a sense of each person tabling even if you didn’t know them simply by looking at their offerings. You could take time to meander around the tables, without that frantic feeling of some zine/book fairs that you’ll miss out if you don’t rush. And that slowness seemed to aid the social glue.

Same for workshops; there were only three of them, and the third happened after the zines were stowed away at the fair’s end, so that everyone could join together.

Maybe we anarchists are just so starved for such spaces, that any of them feel precious (true), and we anarchists are thus more open and friendly, if only from the high of going to such events (true too). Still, deciding to do a small fest in a comfy space at a time of year when folks don’t see each other as much, and making it so welcoming and adorable, showed care on the part of the organizers.

And WTF, we can all definitely use some sweetness these days.

#AnarchismIsAdorable
#TryAnarchismForLife

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

This mini review of “Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle” (Strangers In A Tangled Wilderness) is the perfect size for my latest book, which involves me trying to say as much possible as, in as finely crafted a way as possible, within a series of tightly written essays. Moreover, I’m humbled by and grateful for @dmw’s words capturing much of the heart of this project—like all my books, a labor of love, yet in this case intended as a love letter to anarchists old and new. Or maybe my book can be read as a message in a bottle, reminding whomever finds it to keep on doing what we anarchists do best, even if so much of this fascist catastrophe of a world seem to make our life-giving practices feel futile. (They aren’t.)

Immense thanks to Dana Williams, including for getting my pronoun correct (a genderqueer “they”)!

And in case it’s tough to read Dana’s mini review via the screenshots of Dana’s Mastodon post, here’s the text:

“It’s hard to write a book about anarchism that doesn’t follow the same histories, platitudes & polemical style. But @cbmilstein has done just that with their poetic, philosophical, intimate, sometimes funny & always entertaining, and profound book, ‘Try Anarchism for Life: The Beauty of Our Circle.’ It includes two dozen pieces analyzing different characteristics of anarchist thought and movements, accompanied with drawings of the ‘circle-A’ by some pretty rad artists. A great primer.

“It seems written simple and engaging enough for a lay-audience, but also sophisticated enough for those who are well versed in the topic. I suspect it’s the kind of book that’ll continue to reward on additional reads too. That’s not an easy kind of book to write!

“It takes a different, yet in some ways similar, approach as their earlier book, ‘Anarchism and Its Aspirations’ [@akpress], a book that I still recommend to those wanting to learn more about anarchism. Both are highly recommended!”

For a copy, or a bunch, of the book, head to www.tangledwilderness.org.

🖤💖🌿

(photo by @plantneighbor, who contributed a beautiful circle A to the book, featuring the book’s joyful pink+green cover, designed by @eff_charm, held up against the backdrop of a field, trees, and mountain)

#TryAnarchismForLife
#EverydayAnarchism
#TheBeautyOfOurCircle

It’s a bittersweet challenge these days to figure out, much less practice, what it means to “live like the world is dying.” After nearly three pandemic years, given how much has died, “living life” can feel more elusive than ever.

I’ve been thinking a lot—on obsessive #FuckCOVID19 walks again—about an observation that @mbsycamore made in a tweet-story recently: we squandered the “we take care of each other” opening at the pandemic’s start and now the widespread loss of “communal care” feels “all the more brutal.” Especially when the abandonment of collective care for all (emphasis on “all”) occurs too often now in our own circles, as if the pandemic were over. That “squandering” has been cutting me to the core.

So it was not merely an honor to be asked to join @margaret and @house.of.hands for an episode of Live Like the World Is Dying; it felt reinvigorating to hear their words on the joy of living anarchism for life.

https://www.liveliketheworldisdying.com/

Since we recorded that podcast, many days haven’t feel reinvigorating. And even when recording it over a month ago, I was speaking/dreaming of the world I yearn for and wish I lived in, not the one I inhabit, as if voicing my aspirations can conjure them into existence.

I’ve been reflecting on that a lot ever since, but keenly once the podcast came out. I was struck by the unusual number of folks who messaged me to say that listening to this episode gave them “care,” “kindness,” and “love”—and reasons to go on with “living life” for themselves and others.

Around that same time, some friends who I hadn’t heard from in a while randomly reached out to me for a catch-up phone call, text exchange, or walk—just when I desperately needed extra support. Their words gave me “care,” “kindness,” and “love”—and reasons to go on with “living life” for myself and others.

I write. And talk. So even if I’ve forgotten of late, I know that words count—as political practice, as lifeline and love letter, and as the stories that we swap to tangibly reshape this miserable world for the better.

Let’s reinvigorate #CommunalCare with words that remind us to engage in life-giving deeds.

#TryAnarchismForLife

(photo: “you are loved” street heart, seen in Tio’tia:ke/Montreal, summer 2022)

Truth be told, it’s been hard to get out of bed this winter. More pointedly, it feels hard to find reasons to get out of bed.

Some call that depression, set in motion by trauma and grief. And no doubt there’s much truth in that. Yet I call it trying to live with “the gap between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’”—a gap that these pandemic years has pried so far apart, it’s now (in winter three) nearly unbridgeable. And without a bridge, any sense of being able to wander forward toward horizons of possibilities gets blocked.

Hence the limited reasons to peek out from under the comforter and see promise in a new day.

That gap, mind you, is always there. And I know that we anarchist types, no matter how beat down we feel, continually have to build our own bridges—again and again. But we can’t do it alone, nor without bridging the generations so that we can come at the project of constructing a new world from multidirectional vantage points of brilliance and inspiration.

So I’m super grateful to @marixfort and her 7- and 10-year-olds for supplying me with some much-needed scaffolding right now.

Marixfort read my new book “Try Anarchism for Life” (@tangledwild) to these two kids, who both loved it, and had lots of questions and comments. Last week, out of the blue, the youngest said, “You know what, mamá, I will raise my kids to be anarchists. Thank you for reading us that book.” Then the two children dreamed up and drew the bridge-building “blueprints” (pictured here), and asked their mamá to share them with me, and their mamá said I could share them with you.

The beauty of anarchism is that even if you (or me) can’t see across the rumble at times, but can only see the ruins, there are always other anarchistic spirits who will hold up a cobbled-together lantern to aid you in noticing (again) the flowers and rainbows in the misty distance, and thus help you go the extra mile. Or in my case, get out of bed.

#BeautyOfOurCircle
#EverydayAnarchism
#AWorldInWhichManyWorldsFit

(photo of #TryAnarchismForLife by @blkstarseed, featuring cover design by @eff_charm with circle art by @landonsheely)

Great episode on Live Like the World is Dying featuring @cbmilstein.

Heartfelt, sincere, and inspiring as always. Psssst…buy Cindy’s new book #TryAnarchismForLife

I haven’t seen the moon in ages. Gray days blur into overcast night skies. Instead, I relied on written pages to tell me what I want to trust is out there this Hanukkah eve: the new moon, and thus a new month, Tevet 5783.

That, in turn, meant turning the page on my @radicaljewishcalendar to find the art of my friend @alias_alice, who’s across oceans, but lighting candles under the same moon that’s hard to see and so from the looks of this drawing is relying on books too.

That makes sense. Jews are “people of the book,” and some believe that the book preceded the creation of the world and was written in fire. Books can shape, reimagine, and transform the world, and make new ones. Books can save lives in this one.

Many, many new moons ago, when the pandemic was new, I felt beyond lifeless. Each morning, I woke startled anew, wondering why I was still here, and only wanting to sleep again. And walk, obsessively, for hours. For some reason, one day I tucked a big book of speculative fiction under my arm and set off on foot. I’d never read the genre, and as it was, my broken heart had no ability to read at all. Yet I sat by a lake and somehow got through one chapter. Then another chapter the next day, and so on, until I had something to look forward to, even if I still couldn’t clearly see it. I got lost in trusting the written fire of the other worlds and other moons created in this book.

Perhaps we Jews light candles with such ritual persistence because colonialism, christianization, and capitalism have stolen the moon—our illumination—ripping apart our lunisolar calendar, bloating out the skies with climate catastrophe, letting trillionaires like Musk make it their playground. Perhaps we write and read books as our weapon against them, and fiery promise of other worlds to and for each other.

So while we have to trust, hopeless as that feels these fascist-gray days, that the moon will reappear, new and maybe even whole, let’s always carry a book of our rebel wisdom and use its fire to the fullest.

Come, watch the moon with me, even if we can only imagine its guiding light, now obscured by all that pains us.

(photos: my night 7 candles in front of a drawing of a book, set against a pink floral background, with a 1940 Walter Benjamin quote, “The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the ‘state of emergency’ in which we live is not the exception but the rule” and the words #AlwaysCarryABook, or #ACAB; red spray-painted outline of a heart on a gray wall with the tagged words inside it, “If you want, we can watch the moon?!,” spotted in an alley in Montreal, May 2022)

#WeMustOutliveThem
#RitualAsResistance
#AllChanukkahsAreBeautiful
#TryAnarchismForLife

For those who missed @firestormcoop’s lovely offering of (cyber)space for a celebration of my new book, Try Anarchism for Life (@tangled_wilderness), here’s the video for your leisurely viewing:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=PAAaZvsqhh6MVlY4dN_bRDEFass3Evq4ltqQuf2DdP7n8t1I9nmaxli3oHw0E&v=87Ru1Rf9nrk&feature=youtu.be

What I love about crafting events with Libertie, besides loving Libertie as a dear friend, is her/their willingness to be creative and think outside the (Zoom) box! So shoutout to Libertie for suggesting and doing the logistical work to turn this launch into a visual feast of anarchist artworks, from the streets to walls to book covers to the beauty of the event promo image.

That wouldn’t have been possible, though, without three other dear friends agreeing to share images of their anarcho-gorgeous creations (drawings, paintings, graphic design, etc.) and each speak for 15-20 minutes on how they think about art, beauty, and anarchism. So shoutout too to @lokimon, @muquuuuu, and @nobonzo (all of whom have beautiful circle A drawings in the book) for not only joining this event but, damn, also all being so ridiculously insightful, provocative, and inspiring with when they shared their thoughts and feelings. Indeed, feel free to skip past my opening (though maybe listen to my 5-minute reading of a piece from this book) to get to all their gems!

And last but not least, shoutout to my friends and part of the collective that published this book, @house.of.hands and @margaretkilljoy, for their willingness to speak briefly at the beginning about Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness!

If you know me, you know I generally hate doing Zoom events, or at least usually feel awkward during them and letdown afterward. Yet thanks to everyone above, this actually did feel joyful and celebratory, save for making me miss chatting with and learning from them all in person (may that happen soon[ish] somehow too).

I hope watching/listening brings you some or even much joy—something we all need a lot more of these days.

(photo: screenshot of the opening image from the YouTube recording of Firestorm Book’s #TryAnarchismForLife event on November 29, 2022, featuring the book’s cover in green and pink, designed by @eff_charm with circle A art by @landonsheely)

#ArtOfPersistance

#tryanarchismforlife

#tryanarchismforlife

#tryanarchismforlife

Chanuka/Hanukkah/Janucá/Khanike/Xanuqa (etc.) fundraiser for two Jewish anarchist spaces that are near and dear and queer to my heart: @ratzonpgh and @dirozevepave!

Because it’s that time of year when I want to #AbolishXmas (along with capitalism, cops, christian fascism, and so much) and lean into the time-space of eight nights of much-needed light, illuminating resistance and resilience. And because I have some brand-new copies of six of my books “leftover” from a few events that got cut short by me sadly catching COVID this fall, after 2.5 years of being communally careful.

So rather than these titles getting lonely in boxes on my floor—I can always get more when I have the delight of trying again to do book-related events (DM or email me if you ever want to host one)—I’m turning them into this modest fundraiser!

Whether you’re Jewish or not, whether you hate Xmas or not, join in raising some gelt. I’ll donate anything over the material cost to me of each book to the two projects above.

DM or email (cbmilstein at yahoo) me if you want any of the following titles, sliding scale (or more) plus media mail ($3-5 per book) via my PayPal, while supplies last (alas, only for shipping in the US):

Anarchism and Its Aspirations, $6-9

Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism, $6-9

Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief, $9-16

Deciding for Ourselves: The Promise of Direct Democracy, $9-15

There Is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists, $10-19

Try Anarchism for Life, $8-15

(photos, featuring the covers of all six books, borrowed from @camasbooks, @cryptotaenia.plant.sanctuary, and @scottcampbell, with much appreciation; all these books are also available from @akpressdistro, with #TryAnarchismForLife at @tangled_wilderness too)

#AlwaysCarryABook
#AllChanukkahsAreBeautiful