Interference, Absurdity, Performance, and Political Change: A Workshop Series

Thursdays 7-9pm,
September 27-October 18

In this series of (no)work(no)shops, we will collectively discuss ‘the absurd’, how this intersects with political action and performance, and how this relates to the specific context of New York City in 2018. Drawing from a selection of readings and materials from Interference Archive, we will learn about historical and contemporary absurdist/anarchist/dadaist/ni hilist/(t)errorist political performance. Following these explorations, we will build new transgressive, anti-normative characters and creatures and conspire in the creation of new performances and disruptions.

Research Skills Workshop with MACC

Saturday, November 3, 3-5pm
Organized by the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council press working group

We all know that knowledge is power, but researching this knowledge properly can sometimes be a challenge. Between questionable sources, paywalled articles and more search results than anyone could conceivably get through, it’s easy to go looking for something online and finding everything but the thing you needed. Members of the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council’s press working group will be available to share some of their tips and tricks on building your skills and capacities as a researcher, and answer whatever questions you have on how to find the information you need.

Celebrate PROTEST! the latest issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly

Tuesday, November 6, 6:30pm

Join us for the launch and celebration of PROTEST – the latest issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly! Editors and contributors will offer a brief glimpse into the issue, reading excerpts of our texts and sharing images of the artwork to generate a discussion of feminist protest that moves us beyond a focus on highly visible acts of protest, such as marches and demonstrations, to the multiple registers and repertoire of tactics that individuals and groups engage to call for and build another world.

Fascism at the Gates: Bolsonaro and the Brazillian Elections

Saturday, October 20, 3-5pm

The past few years in Brazil have been marked by intense political turbulence. Now, in 2018, there is a new electoral period marked by a strong polarity between left (and center-left) and right (and far right), with a frightening factor, the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro. Anarchist groups in Brazil, invited by Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation, will analyze the political moment from a libertarian socialist perspective, and discuss strategies for fighting back. 

Indigenous People’s Justice Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

Sunday, October 14, 2-5pm

In honor of Indigenous People’s Day and Anti-Thanksgiving, we are holding a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on the theme of Indigenous peoples’ movement histories. In an effort to learn from and support the myriad movements that have arisen in response to this violence, we will glean relevant information from the collection at Interference Archive to share through Wikipedia. Our objective is to make information and documentation related to Indigenous peoples’ movement histories more accessible for current and future movement makers, educators, and learners. Snacks provided; childcare available with RSVP.

Audio Interference 54: Just Leadership USA

“There’s only a certain amount of time that a person can languish in prison while they prepare for a trial.”

Social Justice Book Club: How Not to Be a Boy

Tuesday, October 16th, 6:45pm

Join us at our next meeting to discuss How Not to Be a Boy by Robert Webb. Looking back over his life, from schoolboy crushes (on girls and boys) to discovering the power of making people laugh, and from losing his beloved mother to becoming a husband and father, Robert Webb considers the absurd expectations boys and men have thrust upon them at every stage of life. 

Talk and Screening with Robert Machover and Norman Fruchter

Wednesday, October 17, 7-9pm

Filmmaking played an active role at the Free University of New York in 1965-66, as evidenced by the work of Norman Fruchter and Robert Machover. Interference Archive is thrilled to host these two filmmakers for the world premiere of Dog Burning at Noon (5 min), a short film produced collectively at FUNY as commentary on the Vietnam War, alongside a screening of excerpts of Troublemakers, a direct cinema-style documentary about living conditions in Newark and the young SDS organizers working with  people in Newark.

Agitate! Educate! Organize! Agit Prop into the 21st Century

Exhibition Dates: June 12 — September 30, 2018
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, June 12, 6-9pm

Our daily lives are saturated with information; we consume supposedly “neutral” media that implicitly supports existing power structures, yet we simultaneously fear “fake news” without critically analyzing the truths and biases that coexist in every message we see or hear. The reality is that all media has an agenda: for hundreds of years, people have used art, culture, graphics, performance, and design as central elements of social and political organizing across all realms of the political spectrum, to spread information and reimagine reality. This exhibition reflects historic and current uses of agitprop, or agitational propaganda, at the intersection of design and political organizing.

Silvia Federici: Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women

Sunday, September 30, 5-7pm

Join Common Notions and Silvia Federici in the launch of her latest book, Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women. In this new work that revisits some of the main themes of Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici examines the root causes of a new surge of interpersonal and institutional violence against women, including new witch hunts. This surge of violence has occurred alongside an expansion of capitalist social relations.