Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair: August 11th – 13th, Asheville, NC

Announcing Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in Asheville, NC, August 11th – 13th. For more info, see here.

Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair is back from COVID hiatus and will be held in Asheville, NC from August 11-13. This year we will be working once again with our comrades in Pansy Collective, who will complement days of workshops and tabling with evenings of queer music and parties. It’s a special year, as well, since we’ll be helping our local, collectively-owned anarchist bookstore inaugurate their new location as a hub for the bookfair.

 

Let’s be honest, in the years since we last held space together, things have mostly gotten worse. An ongoing pandemic has killed millions, and laid bare the organized abandonment that the State and Capital has in store for most of us. Though we saw the biggest uprising in the US, which brought new tactics and new people into our movement, along with hyping the ideas of abolition to new ears, we have also seen a concerted effort to consolidate policing and continue to funnel all public funding into the armed wing of the State. After a fifty year campaign by the Right, Roe v. Wade was finally overturned, reminding us that any right we think we have under the State can be taken away on a whim. This predicament is part of a broader sweep of white supremacist/Christo-fascist assaults on communities, to force birth (and prevent “the great replacement”), erase the history of slavery and racism from education, and to eradicate trans people, starting with kids. Armed militia protest at drag shows, books are banned, everything is tilted further and further towards overt fascism, with no alibis. All the while, we are facing imminent collapse through capitalism’s environmental destruction, with the irreversible date of shocking changes looming ever closer. This is only some of what we’ve faced.

A signal flare in the movement, Stop Cop City/Defend the Atlanta Forest, has brought many of these fronts into focus as correlated struggles, becoming one of the boldest expressions of our strength in resistance, creating spaces where we can meet, make life and confront the powers that want to destroy us. It has inspired support across the world, with people taking action in solidarity near and far. But it has also, in its strength, brought down the violent hand of the State. We are at a pivotal moment, with a comrade murdered and dozens of people facing intensified charges to try to diffuse our moment and scare us away from fighting back. This will be a long fight that requires our energy and emotions, and will call for new forms of solidarity to show the people facing these charges that we have their back, that we will not be silenced.

Over these three years, we have loved and fought together, we have come together and broken up; our lives have been utterly changed with so much grief and sorrow, along with the sparkling moments of joy that mark our rebellion, from the streets to our dinner tables. Groups and actions have come and gone, new relationships blossom, old ones fade, and we get stronger as we see what helps us in our struggle and what no longer serves us. Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair invites you to participate in a space to share feelings, rage and grief, joy and care, and everything we’ve learned over this pivotal moment of struggle. We wish to think together, to share tactics and ideas, to make connections for bolder actions, and to find love amongst comrades. There will be two days of tabling, three nights of workshops and speakers, and two nights of parties. So many places to plug in, to choose what catches your fancy, and to find each other across the room. Bookfairs are an anarchist ritual space, an intentional coming together to learn from our ancestors and elders and youth, to celebrate with comrades spread across the globe, and to practice new forms of devotion in our daily effort to build better worlds here and now. Join us! We welcome you to help us make this space something we’ll never forget! ​​​

The applications are currently up for vendors and presenters and will remain open until June 15. We invite radical presses, small distros, zinemakers, and artists to sign up. We welcome proposals for workshops, panels, talks, and trainings towards a liberatory horizon. To apply, please visit our website ACABookfair.noblogs.org. To contact us, send an email to [email protected] and please promote this event by following our social media or printing our flyers and handing them out in your community.

Workshop/Speaker: https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/z78BZJZAgnNcLWaMzg-UcuS4XGWwhN0PhSwj7IHTykA/

Vendors: https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/Rz1Mx9OKur2kq2yi-pRiJ9i70gDo8tYjB5fZTArsMM8/

IG: @ACABookfair

Soli,

ACAB collective