Well here’s an interesting turn of events. Remember, they didn’t cover #OWS for weeks into the campaign. And let’s remember still, in the first days of Occupy, Troy Davis was unjustly murdered by the state and a joint contingent protested in his memory in Zuccotti Park. With the rise of BLM in the last two years let’s really get these two unbelievably important, meaningful, and deeply intertwined concerns together – no matter how difficult the conversations might be – and take up space. And lest you forget, space that is, by our rights, our own. #democracyspring #blacklivesmatter
Notebook
Sam, Hy Thurman (founding member of the Young Patriots), and Daniel Tucker (curator of Organize Your Own: The Politics and Poetics of Self-determination Movements)
Last night we released this book, the first in the Society Editions series, in Chicago. Members of the Young Patriots and their families were there to celebrate the re-publishing of poetry works that they and their neighbors published in the chap book series Time of the Phoenix, now more than 40 yrs ago in the same neighborhood we held our party at. The Young Patriots, poor white southern migrants from the Uptown area of Chicago got radicalized in the mid-60s going on to, as Kwame Ture urged, “organize their own.” The group went on to found the original Rainbow Coalition with the Young Lords, and Fred Hampton and the Chicago BPP chapter. Their work, along with its insistence that street politics can and must exist in parallel with the creative act is a huge touchstone for Beyond Repair. What a gift and honor to work with founding Young Patriot Hy Thurman to help illustrate this bridge between time, place, and people. And a huge thanks to our old friend and compatriot, Daniel Tucker for inviting us into the fold of this conversation.
Finishing spreads for the Time of the Phoenix book. Almost there.
Today’s shop playlist:
Caetano Veloso: Transa, & Caetano Veloso (1969)
Charlie Haden: People’s Liberation Orchestra
Charles Mingus: Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Staple Singers: Uncloudy Day
Against the Picture – Window: A Time of the Phoenix Compendium is rolling and ready for its release during the Young Patriots Uptown walking tour Friday afternoon in Chicago. Can’t wait! This book is fantastic.
BLACK GIRL – Shirley Clark
They call me black girl,
But yet, I am not black.
I say to myself , “why do they call me black?”
Black means something dead or bad.
I know I am not dead for I am breathing.
I don`t feel like I`m bad,I`m good.
But then again what is bad? What is good?
They call me black girl
I don`t understand.
I do understand that, that is my name
They put on me.
So be it me or not be it me.
I am proud, I stand tall, I am brave
And strong.
I cry , laugh, and reach out…
They call me Black Girl.
1973 TOP
from Against the Picture – Window: A Time of the Phoenix Compendium
In the coming weeks we’ll begin a series of on-going conversations and programs in collaboration with Hennipen County Public Defenders and independent criminal defense lawyers regard individuals rights specific to the social landscape that is the 9th Ward of South Minneapolis. Simply put, how are you and your neighbors being screwed with and where at?
While, admittedly, nothing can protect you from a cop on an aggression kick, knowing your rights and how they can protect you when in proximity to the police is an asset of use to us all, especially for our neighbors most targeted by the police here in the Ward.
With this said, in the planning stages of this groups formation, hearing from neighbors about specific events, tendencies, or repeated actions by individual members of the 3rd Precinct is helpful.
Any suggestions for subject matter on programs specifically relating to the neighborhood would be great to know. Please feel free to
The Walker Art Center just published this really great piece about the shop and the theories and interests of the project in full. Check it out.
This is Willie. He was here in the market to have lunch and noticed our poster focusing on how the MPD took 61 seconds to kill Jamar Clark from the moment they arrived to the point of the shooting. Willie took a handful of posters to distribute to friends and family. Come in and grab some too. Let’s keep up the pressure. #byemike #justice4jamar
It took the MPD 61 seconds to kill Jamar Clark. We printed up a few hundred of these posters as a reminder to ourselves, MPD, the police federation, and city hall that the state does not have the right to decide when any of us are “ready to die.” Please stop by the shop and take as many as you’d like to display yourself. They are, of course, free, and we are happy to print as many as needed if we run out. Share them with friends. #byemike #justice4jamar
Sam’s going to be away with his family for a week, but we’ll still be open (with somewhat erratic hours) with Lacey, Fiona, and Rachel holding down the fort. 
Had to repair our first Enzo Mari chair, built about two years ago. Somethings, mind you, are not beyond repair.
Fri, May. 13, 2016 ⁄ 7:30–9:00pm
Book Release: We Believe in Infinite Intelligence by Lacey Prpic Hedtke
“This is a little of what I’ve learned through talking to Spiritualists, researching the religion, looking at it through art, and practicing mediumship and healing. I’m also interested in the religion and its relationship with photography–both grew up around the same time (March 31, 1848 is the official anniversary of Modern Spiritualism), and photography is recognized as officially starting on January 7, 1839.
It feels good to be connected to a history of a religion that has been feminist and anti-racist from the start.” – from We Believe in Infinite Intelligence by Lacey Prpic Hedtke
Let’s celebrate South MPLS Society Librarian and resident Beyond Repair Spiritualist and weirdo, Lacey Prpic Hedtke’s new – and quite hefty booklet – We Believe in Infinite Intelligence. It’s Lacey’s own personal guide to Spiritualism here, in the 21st century, all coming from her own long engaged experiences with the practice.
Along with useful histories and tools, the booklet comes with amazing Risograph printed 19th c Spiritualist photographs.
Booklets and posters will be available. Chanting, snacks, spirit songs! After 8pm we’ll move to Eastlake Brewery for more revelry and kombucha or beer on tap.
Thu, Apr. 7, 2016 ⁄ 5:30–6:30pm
Book Release: Queer Rocker by Caroline Woolard
“This rocking chair is ‘queer’ because it is simultaneously a dividing wall, a window, a table, and a chair. It is ‘queer’ because its holes become its strength and its structure. It is ‘queer’ because it makes the politics of its own production visible.” from Queer Rocker by Caroline Woolard
Join us at Beyond Repair for the release of Queer Rocker, a new booklet from artist Caroline Woolard. Equal parts reflection, instruction manual, and manifesto for a freer, more freeing, cultural practice, Queer Rocker sketches out the history of the rocking chair, its connection to the communitarian Shaker movement, as well as Woolard’s interest in equitable art making that both compensates the practitioner as well as the participant, while simultaneously thinning the divide between distinctions of a binary separating the two at all.
About Caroline Woolard
Caroline Woolard is an artist and organizer whose interdisciplinary work facilitates social imagination at the intersection of art, urbanism, architecture, and political economy. After co-founding and co-directing resource sharing networks OurGoods.org and TradeSchool.coop from 2008-2014, Woolard is now focused on her work with BFAMFAPhD.com to raise awareness about the impact of rent, debt, and precarity on culture and on the NYC Real Estate Investment Cooperative to create and support truly affordable commercial space for cultural resilience and economic justice in New York City.
Caroline Woolard’s work has been supported by MoMA, the Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund, Eyebeam, the MacDowell Colony, unemployment benefits, the curiosity of strangers, and many collaborators. Recent group exhibitions include: Crossing Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY; Maker Biennial, The Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY; and Artist as Social Agent, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH. Woolard’s work will be featured in Art21’s New York Close Up documentary series over the next three years. Woolard is a lecturer at the School of Visual Arts and the New School, is an Artist in Residence at the Queens Museum of Art, and was just named the 2015 Arts and Social Justice Fellow at the Judson Church.