minnehaha free space

Prisoner Letter Writing – Casey Brezik – October 2, 2014 7PM

Posted by

caseybrezik.jpg
Join us for June letter writing at the Minnehaha Free Space this Thursday, October 2 from 7-9PM. October’s featured prisoner is Casey Brezik, an accused anarchist assassin from the Kansas City area who is charged with slashing the throat of the Dean of Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley in a plot to attack the Governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon, during a talk at the college. (Nixon later canceled.)

Casey is currently being held by the state of Missouri for 12 years on each of three counts – assault, and two armed criminal action charges – and seven years on a second count of assault. All sentences will run concurrently. In February 2011, the state declared him to be incapable of standing trial, which means he was forced to stay locked up in a mental institution until June of 2013 when he was sentenced to 12 years in state prison.

What is this? A chance to hang out, write to prisoners, and discuss anti-prison issues and activities with other rad folks! Letter-writing nights happen the first thursday of every month, and a different prisoner is featured each time.

More information on Casey Brezik: http://kansascityabc.wordpress.com/prisoners-abckc-supports/social-movement-prisoners/casey-brezik/

Advertisement

2014 Twin Cities Zine Fair

Posted by

zinefair2014Saturday, September 27
Noon – 5pm

What’s a Zine?

A zine is a self-published work of text and/or imagery often made using low-cost methods like collaging and photocopying. Zines are mediums for artists to print their words, ideas, images, and more. Not having to rely on traditional publishing allows for non-mainstream or marginalized folk to express and communicate with others more freely.

What’s a Zine Fair?

A zine fair is a space for makers and readers of zines to gather in one place and share, exchange and communicate about zines!

RSVP on Facebook

List of Tablers

+Fiona Avocado is a cartoonist and printmaker who has been making zines and politically/socially engaged art for 4 1/2 years. She is originally from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. fionavocado.com

+Boneshaker Books, an all volunteer-run radical bookstore with a large zine collection. We sell zines from local writers and artists on consignment and seek out zines from further afield as well. We’re open 11-8 every day at 2002 23rd Ave. S.

+Anna Bongiovanni is a genderqueer cartoonist and zine kid living in Minneapolis. A graduate with a B.F.A. from Minneapolis College Of Art and Design, they have been self-publishing comics and zines since 2009. Their first graphic novel, Out Of Hollow Water, was published in October 2013 by 2D Cloud deals with body horror and surviving trauma. They are currently working on monthly comics for Autostraddle.com, a queer-women focused website, and recently self-published their new zine ‘A Cheap And Easy Introduction To They/Them Pronouns’.

+James DeWitt, I live in Minneapolis MN where I am a part-time nanny as well as an educator, zine maker, and dance performer. I am white, able-bodied, middle class, queer, transgender, an addict, non-neurotypical, raised Catholic in the Midwest. I use my personal experience to narrate my zines. My zine series “Sex Ed: A Love Story” aims at a holistic approach to sex education for queer and gender non-conforming youth of all ages.

+Erika Hammerschmidt, Author of the novel “Kea’s Flight,” various short stories, and “Abby and Norma,” a comic about a college student on the autism spectrum. It features puns, weird insights, bizarre attempts at logical analysis of the human world, and a character who speaks only in palindromes.

+Synthia Nicole, a zinester from Minnesota creates & self-publishes ‘Damaged Mentality’ which is a personal zine on disability, mental health & (issue #4 and after) recovery from alcoholism.

+Aimée Pijpers, zine, comic, and patch maker. aimeepijpers.net

+Aaron Poliwoda, minicomics mainly dealing with Autism/Asperger syndrome and awareness and discrimination of autism.

+Kyle Quinn, By way of Denver, CO my current work is no stranger to basic structure and depth. Bringing out texture and detail from things that are usually overlooked, such as basic shape and form, I apply imagery that mixes with the past, present and future. The works general theme is based off of peeks in Queer history such as cruise culture, casual encounters and the male form. The collage work highlights a time when men of all shapes, sizes and race could be sexually free with out the handles of current heterosexual standards being placed upon the LGBT community. kylequinn.net

+Matt Reints, mini-comic zines mostly about slice of small town life and high strangeness phenomena.

+Robert Earl Sutter III, author of “Hobo Fires” a graphic novel about queer, sex positive, anti-authoritarian, multi-racial, multi-cultural hobos in the year 2137 who hack rides on robotic freight trains while on the run from numerous roboticized law enforcement agents. Author of zines, “Unsinkable,” how to build plywood pontoons and longtail boat motors from scrap, with the true story of The Snowball, a shanty boat built by four Minneapolis people & one dog that floated down the Missouri River; “Shut Up & Love The Rain”, autobiographical sex positive comics; “Awesome Future,” wild autobiographical travel comics; and “Alive With Vigor!” a book about health care for variously identified people, written by variously identified people.

+Roosterhouse Ideas, Rooster House is a Minneapolis-based publisher of stories, illustrations and found-objects. Roosterhouse.org

+Queer/Trans/Femme Workers Stories Zine Project, creators of an ongoing Zine series, “Queer/Trans*/Feminist Workers’ Stories.” Proceeds benefit the IWW Sato Fund.

Interested in tabling at the Zine Fair?

Please email us at radspacetc((at))riseup(dot)net if you would like a table for your work at the Zine Fair. Please include a description of your zine art to be included in our promotional materials. Reserve your tabling spot (30″ W x 40″ L) by dropping off or mailing $10 (checks made out to “MARS”) to:

Attn: Zine Fair
Minnehaha Free Space
3747 Minnehaha Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55406

We are especially interested in providing tabling space for artists marginalized by dominant society and/or passionate about anti-oppressive ways of relating. To us this includes individuals and collectives that are struggling against white supremacy, patriarchy, hetero/cis-sexism, transphobia, fatphobia, ableism, speciesism, classism, capitalism and civilization.

***
Check out this zine-related event at Architecture Library at the UofM
zine exhibit postcard

Getting to Truths
An Exhibition featuring zines from the Marshall Weber Culture Wars Zine
Collection 1976-2013

September 17 - October 7, 2014

Opening Reception:
Wednesday September 17, 2014 | 11:30am-1:30pm
Guest Speaker: Marshall Weber of Booklyn Artist Alliance

Free and open to the public
Join in the creation of the interactive zine wall
Refreshments provided by Common Roots Cafe

Architecture Library
210 Rapson Hall
89 Church St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-624-6383

Exhibit Curators: Lindsay Keating & Shannon Klug
Exhibit Coordinator: Deborah Ultan Boudewyns

“Until the Rulers Obey” Book Presentation & Dialogue, Sept 20 6:30pm

Posted by

untilrulersobeySaturday, September 20, 6:30PM

Social movements in Latin America have swept governments to power, sustained occupations of housing, land and factories, and rewritten the histories of their countries over the last decade.

Join the co-editors of a new title from PM Press in dialogue on what we can learn from the participants in the 21st century upsurge of change in the Americas. ‘Until the Rulers Obey’ brings together interviews with 70 people from 15 countries, Mexico to Argentina. These interviewees belong to long silent – or silenced – groups, including indigenous peoples, the rural and urban poor, youth, workers, and LGBT communities.

Clifton Ross and Marcy Rein will be at the Free Space at 6:30pm Saturday, September 20. For more information: 510-859-4097 or untiltherulersobey@gmail.com.

Against Extraction: Ⓐ Salon, Saturday, March 15. 3pm

Posted by

Saturday, March 15. 3 to 5 pm.

We oppose destructive extraction projects.  But how can Minneapolis anarchists and radical environmentalists engage critically and powerfully to stop these disasters?  We’re inviting you to join us in learning more about frac sand mining, pipelines, and the proposed open pit sulfide mine on national forest land near Lake Superior.

Presenters will briefly explain how each of these projects work, who’s pushing them, and who’s fighting them.  What are the larger environmental groups doing?  Finally, we’ll highlight resistance by the Unist’ot’en clan, whose lands encompass a wide swath of Northern British Columbia.

After the presentations, we’ll skip the Q&A and have snacks, coffee, and time to talk with one another about possible next steps. Tar_Sands

Prisoner Letter Writing, Thursday, March 6. 7 pm

Posted by

Thursday, March 6. 7 pm.
John Anthony Borell III is a hacker serving a 3 year sentence for hacking police websites in at least 5 states as a part of operation #CabinCr3w, an Anonymous splinter project directly targeting the police as “the foot soldiers of this government- controlled police state.”

What is this? A chance to hang out, write to prisoners, and discuss anti-prison issues and activities with other rad folks! Letter-writing nights will be the first Thursday of every month, and a different prisoner will be featured each time. Facebook event.
Image

Social Movements in Education: An EXCO Info-Session & Discussion // Movimientos Sociales y Educación: Discusión y Sesión Informativa de EXCO

Posted by

chilestudentrisingSocial Movements in Education: An EXCO Info-Session & Discussion

Friday, January 24th
6pm to 8pm
Minnehaha Free Space (3747 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis)

Dinner (vegan & veggie friendly), kids are welcome and childcare will be provided, if desired.

Experimental Community Education of the Twin Cities (EXCO) is a free school that formed directly out of struggles against the privatization and increasing inaccessibility of higher education in the Twin Cities. In opposition to institutional racism and classism that pervades higher education, EXCO seeks to foster places for people to study together on topics that are often excluded from schools — from labor organizing to cooking to plumbing to radical feminisms — and with people who are often denied entry, disaffected by, or pushed out of higher education altogether.

Join us for a short film on Chilean education struggles and a lively discussion with people who have been involved in education projects and free schools in Chile. Learn more about EXCO in the context of local and global education struggles and the free schools movement, meet past class facilitators, and find out exactly how we can support YOU to facilitate a class this Spring or in future sessions!

Applications for this spring are due January 27th.

Everybody is welcome!

Movimientos Sociales y Educación: Discusión y Sesión Informativa de EXCO
Viernes 24 de Enero
6 a 8pm
Minnehaha Free Space (3747 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis)

Cena (apta para veganos y vegetarianos) los niños son bienvenidos, hay guardería disponible si se requiere

EXCO (Educación Comunitaria Experimental de las Twin Cities) es una escuela libre formada a partir de las luchas en contra de la privatización y la creciente inaccesibilidad de la educación superior en las Twin Cities. En oposición al racismo y al clasismo institucionalizado que prevalece en la educación superior y universitaria, EXCO busca generar y albergar espacios para que la comunidad pueda estudiar colectivamente temas que son generalmente excluidos de las escuelas tradicionales ― desde organización de sindicatos hasta cocina, pasando por plomería y feminismos radicales― y con personas que generalmente son apartadas, desestimadas o simplemente rechazadas por el sistema de educación superior.

Acompáñanos a ver algunos videos en torno a las luchas por la educación gratuita en Chile, seguida por una discusión en torno a la importancia de los proyectos de educación comunitaria y las escuelas gratuitas en el contexto chileno e internacional. Aprende más sobre EXCO en el contexto global y local de las luchas por la educación y el movimiento de las escuelas libres, conoce a antiguos facilitadores y descubre como TÚ puedes aportar, facilitando una clase esta Primavera o en las sesiones futuras.

Las aplicaciones para el semestre de primavera cierran el lunes 27 de enero.

Están todas y todos invitados!

Little Black Cart Fall Tour: Conflict Infrastructure October 3, 7pm

Posted by

Join us for a conversation with Aragorn! of the Little Black Cart, publisher of anarchist books, as LBC passes through Minneapolis on their fall tour. The topic of discussion will be conflict and how anarchists deal with it.

RSVP on FedBook

About the event (from Aragorn’s Blog):

In the 1990s the internecine conflict between (North American) anarchists was not red vs green or insurrectionary vs platformist, but those who believed that anarchists should develop infrastructure vs those who believed that anarchists should build a (national) organization. The debates raged but more than that people practiced this difference, something one could do day-to-day.

This conflict isn’t the main one today. By and large, anarchist practices that are day-to-day are dismissed by other anarchists for being charity (FNB for example), or sub-cultural (infoshops or show spaces). The valorized project is an occasional one, whether an insurrection or a bookfair: happening no more often than once a year in a specific location. The rest of the time is for waiting or writing or traveling to somewhere else.

In some ways this is entirely understandable. Paying rent on a space can easily become an onerous focus rather than a small byproduct of inspiration. Feeding people, giving away literature, and devoting energy to strangers is inspiring only to a specific kind of person and that kind of person isn’t exactly the revolutionary subject. (Quite the opposite in fact, since the kind of person who derives satisfaction from the work is usually not the subject of the work itself.) This criticism (of the anarchist project as a separation from anarchy itself) can be crippling and usually entails the most enthusiastic people leaving projects (and often leaving town) leaving the people who continue with the long term project work feeling like the host at a party when the cool kids depart.

Perhaps another approach is that of the role of the anarchist (in projects and in a broader social context). On the one hand the anarchist is an ephemeral character, anonymous and without a home in this world. On the other the anarchist is your neighbor and the human face of a possible world, one where personal responsibility and direct action aren’t opposites. Up till now these two faces of the anarchist have faced in different directions and one part of our question is how to reconcile them. Can the neighborhood anarchists embrace conflict? Can the exalted anarchist consider the germinations under foot?

We will talk about our experiments in conflict infrastructure and, if we are successful, re-transmit an old idea. For anarchism (by the name) to survive the new cold wind of this world, we have to build something to warm our bones. For the stories of anarchy (dramatic and small) to be told, there has to a circle of friends, comrades, lovers, and frenemies. Conflict is the left hand of anarchy but something like home is the right. Let us sit together and warm our hands on these topics.

MARS Secret Cafe! September 29

Posted by

Join us Sunday evening, September 29th, starting at 4pm (the location is secret! ask around!). Come enjoy our menu of seasonal vegetable soup, stuffed acorn squash, cornbread, cabbage salad and several dessert options!

We’ll be serving restaurant-style from 4-8pm. All options will be vegan and many will be gluten-free.

Requested donation of $8-20 sliding scale, no one turned away. All proceeds will benefit the Minnehaha Free Space.

We look forward to sharing this and future meals with you!

sept-secret-cafe-flyer

MARS Attacks School to Prison Pipeline Dance Party Fundraiser

Posted by

POSTPONED—LOCATION CHANGE!!! Due to unforeseen circumstances, MARS Attacks will NOT be happening at Bedlam Theater on Saturday, September 14th.

It will be happening at the VFW in Uptown from 9pm to 1am on Saturday, September 21st.

The return of the MARS Attacks Dance Party! It has been almost 11 months since the last one! All proceeds go to benefit the Minnehaha Free Space and Save the Kids.

Save the Kids is a fully volunteer grass-roots organization rooted in hip-hop and transformative justice, advocates for alternatives for alternatives to, and the end of, the incarceration of all youth.

The Minnehaha Free Space is a social and political activity hub offering meeting space, a radical library/infoshop, event space, regular workshops and skillshares, and more.

Music:
*There will be a mix of DJ’s and Emcee’s. Artists and Set Times TBA

Where:
Uptown VFW
2916 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis

This venue is 21+ please bring your ID :/

When:
9 pm-1 am
Saturday, Sept. 21th

Invite your friends!

More information on Save The Kids:
http://savethekidsgroup.org/
More information on the Minnehaha Free Space:
https://minnehahafreespace.org/

“Precious Waters” Screening & Sulfide Mining Call to Action – Monday, 8/20

Posted by
Monday, August 20th – 5:00 pm – at the Minnehaha Free Space
We are presenting a showing of “Precious Waters: Minnesota’s sulfide mining controversy,” a short film brought to you by the friends of the boundary waters. Afterwords we will have an open discussion.

Join in to learn about proposed sulfide mining in northern Minnesota, the precious waters flotilla from the north woods to the capital and other actions to preserve Minnesota’s clean water legacy.

Bring food to share if you can.

Facebook invite: