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/

In getting enthused for the upcoming 3-day holiday of anarchist bookfairing—my first time at @ACABookfaire—I was reminded of one of the biggest bonding exercises among all the anarchist tendencies in attendance at this past May’s Montreal Anarchist Bookfair: anarchic bingo! Nothing like collectively engaging in a humorous adventure to help everyone set aside differences and savor some playful cooperation.

Somehow it feels like this risograph-printed bingo, dreamed up and designed by a crew in Montreal that only does paper media, no social media, could easily be repurposed for the ACAB gathering in Asheville starting this Friday. So I’m sharing my bingo card, unmarked because it was pregame for me, in case others want to have some additional fun with it.

Note: I had the honor of crossing off the tankie square first thing, before the bookfair officially opened, when some hammer-and-sickle folks thought they could rogue table (gifting me a second square to cross off), and on behalf of our bookfair collective, I got to shoo them away—though not without going from friendly anarchist to not-so-friendly one when they went from friendly Marxist-Leninists to belligerent and loud-mouthed ones.

But whether there’s bingo or no bingo this weekend, I already know this bookfair is going to be a winner. See the awesome schedule at:

https://acabookfair.noblogs.org/

#BingoNotBorders
#GamesNotGovernments
#PlayNotPolice