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Events for December 2009
Tuesday Dec 1, 7PM @ Red Emma's : "The Great Anger" - French Ultra-Revolutionary Writing, presented by Mitchell Abidor
Published for the first time, Mitchell Abidor presents the key writings of a series of revolutionaries from the late 17th-early 18th century priest Jean Meslier and the Enlightenment radical Baron d’Holbach, to the leaders of the left wing of the Great French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, Jacques Hébert, Anacharsis Cloots, Jacques Roux, Gracchus Babeuf, and Sylvain Maréchal; and continuing with the tireless revolutionary Louis Auguste Blanqui and the voices of the Paris Commune. There follow the Propagandists of the Deed such as Ravachol and Emile Henry; the unclassifiable Zo d’Axa, and the uncompromising Albert Libertad. The collection continues with the philosophy of the individualist Georges Palante and concludes with Victor Serge, who wrote the last chapter of this school of anarchism and joined the Communist International. In the epilogue, Abidor reflects on the significance of the events of May 1968 in Paris and their connection to the tradition.
These texts, the words of the “men of action” themselves, Les Enragés, give a unique insight into the thinking of that social layer which cannot and will not reconcile itself to inequality, normality, conformity, and injustice. Men for whom the slogan “ni dieu ni maître,” neither God nor master, were words to live by.
Friday Dec 4, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Rethinking Anarchist Studies: A Book Talk by Anthony J. Nocella II
Join us for an evening of discussion with Anthony J. Nocella II, co-editor of the new volume Contemporary Anarchist Studies: An Introductory Anthology of Anarchy in the Academy, out now from Routledge. This volume of collected essays by some of the most prominent academics studying anarchism bridges the gap between anarchist activism on the streets and anarchist theory in the academy. It also brings together a wide variety of anarchist voices while stressing anarchism's tradition of dissent. We're excited to have Anthony here in Baltimore for a discussion of the past, present, and future of anarchist studies, both inside and outside the academy. Don't miss it!
Saturday Dec 5, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Nicole Reynolds, Ryan Harvey, Mark Gunnery, Bean, & Magpie Killjoy!
Join us for another whimsically political night of music at Red Emma's! We're so super excited to welcome the legendary Nicole Reynolds, charming and playful singer/songwriter who lives and works on an organic sheep farm in western pennsylvania. She has earned herself a deserved reputation for smart lyrics and subtly tackling big topics. her latest release, unordinary mine, is a collection of songs released in the fall of 2008. In it are loggers, prostitutes, a congressman, taxmen, indians, a girl who smokes, a girl who doesn't, a canary, a fireman, and some other mysterious figures. Also featuring our own radical troubadours, Ryan Harvey and Mark Gunnery, of the Riot Folk Collective and Odonian Record, fingerpickin' croonette, Bean, and apocalyptic traveling squeezeboxer, Magpie Killjoy. It WILL rule!
Wednesday Dec 9, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Where the War Lives in Us // Café America
Tiffany Higgins and Moisés Nascimento collaborate for a multimedia night of poetry, guitar, images, and song. Two sets will incorporate Brazilian bassa nova rhythms, socially engaged lyrics, and redos of pop culture songs. Tiffany Higgins will perform poems and original songs from her first book, And Aeneas Stares into Her Helmet (Carolina Wren Press, March 2009), a collection of poems addressing the impacts of war on the human psyche. Cafe America is socially engaged music based on Brazilian filmmaker Moises Nascimento's film, Duas Americas, which describes the story of a Brazilian immigrant living in the United States who, throughout the course of his journey, looks back to his homeland searching for answers about himself, his origins, and his purpose in life. Please join us!
Thursday Dec 10, 7PM @ Red Emma's : To Shoot an Elephant: A Film on Everyday Life in Gaza Under Israeli Embargo
To Shoot an Elephant is a film portrait of Gaza under the Israeli embargo. Director Alberto Arce was embedded with the International Solidarity movement, one of the few aid organizations still operating in the area. We are given insight into everyday life in the region through a series of vignettes he filmed between December 25, 2008 and January 16, 2009, focusing particularly on the ambulance services that pick up the wounded and the dead (always referred to as "martyrs") from the streets. The aid workers are risking their own lives, too, because in contravention of the Geneva Convention, the Israeli forces shoot to kill.
Friday Dec 11, 6PM @ Red Emma's : Coal Country: A Film on Modern Coal Mining in the United States
COAL COUNTRY
Tells of the dramatic struggle around the use of coal, which provides
over half the electricity in America. In Appalachia, miners and residents are locked in conflict: is mining
and processing coal essential to providing good jobs, or is it destroying the land,
water and air? What does this mean for the rest of America and the world?
ANOTHER CIVIL WAR
Passions are running high in the mountains of Appalachia. Families and communities are deeply split over what is being done to their land. At issue is the latest form of strip mining called ‘mountaintop removal’, or MTR. Coal companies blast the tops off mountains, and run the debris into valleys and streams. Then they mine the exposed seams of coal and transport it to processing plants. Coal is mined more cheaply than ever, and America needs coal. But the air and water are filled with chemicals, and an ancient mountain range is disappearing forever.
Tuesday Dec 15, 7PM @ 2640 : Get Rid of Yourself
Join us for a special film presentation co-organized with the Baltimore Development Cooperative - Get Rid of Yourself, a 61-minute film from 2003 produced by the Bernadette Corporation in collaboration with Le Parti Imaginaire, the collective pseudo-anonymous French theory syndicate whose two-volume journal Tiqqun saw the first publications of the Invisible Committee, responsible for The Coming Insurrection. Or in other words, if you'd like to see the Genoa G8 protest retold cinematically not from the standard riot-doc perspective, but in artistic anti-documentary form focused on the deployment and development of radical subjectivity, this is the film for you. And apparently Chloe Sevigny's in it, too.
Tuesday Dec 15, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Underground Draft Resistance During the Vietnam War: An Australian Experience of Extra-Parliamentary Opposition and Decentralized Organization
A long-time activist in the Australian libertarian socialist scene, Michael Matteson was imprisoned for draft resistance during the Vietnam War, after escaping an earlier arrest. As part of Australia's very visible underground draft resistance movement, he regularly spoke at union meetings and other public events during his stint underground. Since the war he has been active in efforts to build a movement toward self-management among Australian rank-and-filers in the labor movement, and has written and spoken on the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist movement. Join us for a discussion with Matteson on his experiences and its relevance today.
Wednesday Dec 16, 7:30PM @ 2640 : The Baltimore Free School and Civilian-Soldier Alliance present: Joyeux Noel
The Baltimore Free School and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance proudly present a screening of this dramatization about the Christmas Truce on the front of World War 1, 1914. French, Scottish, and German soldiers, engaged in trench warfare for months, put their weapons down for multiple days around Christmas and celebrated, with each other, in the middle of the war. One of the great stories of soldiers coming to their senses in the midst of pointless bloodshed. Part of the Breaking Rank class at the Baltimore Free School (freeschool@redemmas.org), hosted by the Civilian-Soldier Alliance (www.civsol.org). Free! Donations to the 2640 space appreciated, as always.
Thursday Dec 17, 7PM @ Red Emma's : Anarchism & Fiction: A Mythmakers & Lawbreakers Book Talk
A brief and arguably entertaining evening with Margaret Killjoy, editor of Mythmakers & Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction, a collection of fourteen original interviews with anarchist authors in the world of fiction (including Alan Moore! Ursula K. Le Guin! Derrick Jensen! Cristy Road! Starhawk! CrimethInc! and more!), published this Fall by our pals at AK Press. Discuss the role of storytelling in the anarchist movement -- Learn about novelist assassins, post-colonial african squatters, writers who fought in revolutions and went on to write childrens’ stories! Find out what Tolkien, Camus, Orwell, and Kafka have to say about anarchism! Don't miss it!
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