What is Interference Archive?
The mission of Interference Archive is to explore the relationship between cultural production and social movements. This work manifests in an open stacks archival collection, publications, a study center, and public programs including exhibitions, workshops, talks, and screenings, all of which encourage critical and creative engagement with the rich history of social movements.
Read more about who we are and what we doUPCOMING EXHIBITION
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Through Padlocks, Behind Barricades
October 17, 2025 – January 5, 2026
Margaret Morton’s Glass House and the Squats of the Lower East Side Through Padlocks, Behind Barricades explores the squatter movement on New York’s Lower East Side (Loisaida) in the 1990s. It features Margaret Morton’s photographs of life in Glass House, an abandoned glass factory at the corner of Avenue D and East 10th Street. Several […]
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Artists on Squatting [SOLD OUT]
Tuesday, November 11, 2025 @ 6:30 PM
Join us for a conversation with artists Fly, Ash Thayer, and Seth Tobocman as they discuss their practices and involvement in the squatter movement in New York City and beyond during the 1990s. This conversation will be moderated by Amy Starcheski, oral historian and author of Ours to Lose: When Squatters Became Homeowners in New York […]
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Collections Working Group Meeting
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 @ 7:00 PM
Join Collections Management working group for our monthly meeting, hybrid at the archive and on Zoom. We will be discussing new donation requests, ongoing cataloging projects, and issues in the archive’s collections. New and seasoned volunteers welcome, no prior experience in archives or libraries necessary. Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84556756017?pwd=AxmnArDLYM85qrF0Yt10osClt1NQF2.1
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Archives, Displacement and the Struggle for Housing Rights [SOLD OUT]
Tuesday, November 18, 2025 @ 6:30 PM
Join us for a conversation with Lynn Lewis, Maggie Schreiner, and Cynthia Tobar as they discuss the role of the archive in documenting the housing crisis. This discussion will be moderated by Stephanie Neel, archivist at the Margaret Morton Archive. Space is limited. Please RSVP to reserve your spot. Physical space of the Interference Archive […]
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Our Collections
Our collection includes tens of thousands of items created as part of social movements around the world, by the participants themselves: posters, flyers, publications, zines, books, T-shirts and buttons, moving images, audio recordings, and other materials. For us, making this material accessible to the public is an act of preservation, not only of the physical materials, but of the collective history of those struggling for social change. Learn more about our collections and set up a time to visit them in-person in the archive.
About the Collection
Now Streaming
Audio Interference 88 – Archiving Stop Cop City: This Is Not A Local Struggle
Hear from one of the organizers behind the Stop Cop City exhibition currently on view at Interference Archive (Sep 2024 – Jan 2025). We learn about the goals of the show, how it came together, and the important role that archiving has in the movement. This episode was written, narrated and co-produced by Rob Smith. […]
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Armed By Design Pre-Sale
We are excited to announce pre-sale orders are open for Armed By Design, a book forthcoming from Common Notions about internationalism, solidarity and the legacy of art of the Organization of Solidarity of the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (OSPAAAL). Support this project by pre-ordering a copy of our forthcoming book!
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Art In Action, Across Borders: A Collective Zine of Solidarity
On Saturday, February 11, neighbors from all around New York City came to Interference Archive to participate in collaborative zine-making while listening and contributing to a live broadcast to Radio AlHara, coordinated with Musicians For Palestine. Download and read the zine we made together here, and listen to the mix: “This collective gathering to make […]
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Exhibition Catalog: Walkout: A Brief History of Student Organizing
May 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of the Kent State and Jackson State massacres, which set off a historically large-scale student strike across the nation. With the anniversary as an entry point and frame of reference, this 96-page full color publication uses posters, buttons, pamphlets, flyers, zines, and more—to examine the broader scope of student movements that both led up to and followed those of May 1970.