An Introduction to: Reconstruction – Area – Memory
Join us at our cargo-container studio, the AMMU (Autonomous Mobile Media Unit), in the courtyard of 3032 Minnehaha Ave at 5:30pm this Saturday, Sept. 25th for the launch of our newest social tool, R-A-M: Reconstruction-Area – Memory.
R-A-M is a toolkit for recognizing others committed to constructing neighborhoods of care so that people may engage in conversations on street corners or host community forums to rebuild their neighborhoods, in our case, the 9th Ward enclaves of Powderhorn, Central, East Phillips, and Near Bryant. We’re gathering as creative folks, artists, organizers, and local troublemakers to experiment and collaboratively imagine with our neighbors to plan a different future for East Lake Street, one where a multitude of voices and visions lead.
East Lake Street is being rebuilt in ways that will continue to push out our neighbors, local businesses, and the communities we’ve formed here. Political Representatives, Property Developers, and other PIGs (Private Interest Groups) are hoarding the power to decide on what the future of our neighborhoods and city systems will be rather than creating forums and processes for us all to collectively decide through cooperation, care, and creativity. Our formation, Confluence, is an anarchic Community Design Studio for people to come together and redevelop Minneapolis’ 9th Ward from the grassroots. R-A-M, along with the AMMU, and other mechanisms in the works, are simple, open sourced tools for recognition and cooperative creation. They are free and available for all to use as they see fit.
We’re reaching out to invite you to be a co-inventor of tools that amplify our power as the people who give life to East Lake Street and the surrounding neighborhoods so that we might reimagine and rebuild this place we call home.
Please join us at the AMMU (in the courtyard adjacent to the 3rd Precinct at 3032 Minnehaha Ave.) at 5:30pm this Saturday, Sept. 25th. Duaba, Sam, and Vic will give a brief overview of R-A-M, it’s design and use. From there we’ll test out the tool with your help.
Gabriel Saloman (ex-Yellow Swans), PV Glob, Jonathan Zorn
Gabriel Saloman (ex-Yellow Swans), PV Glob, Jonathan Zorn
Another excursion behind the curtain to the other side of sound with the as-yet-to-be-named series.
Joining us at Assembly (2854 Columbus Ave S. MPLS, MN 55047) this evening will be long time friend and close collaborator, Gabriel Saloman. A Santa Cruz, California based musician and artist, Saloman has been performing experimental, conceptual and freely improvised music for over 15 years. He is best known for his work as half of Yellow Swans and currently composes and performs solo as GMS and Sade Sade. He also collaborates with Aja Rose Bond under the name Diadem and with MRed as Chambers.
Jonathan Zorn is a composer, performer, and curator of experimental, electronic, and improvised music. His electronic music pairs improvising musicians with interactive computer systems to create hybrid, human-machine ensembles. Zorn’s interest in vocal utterance has resulted in a series of pieces in which spoken language is interrupted by electronic forces, drawing attention to the gap between speech and sound. He is currently working on a suite of electroacoustic sound/text/video performance pieces. Zorn has been active as an improvisor on bass and electronics for 15 years and has performed at Red Cat, the Walker Art Center, the Verona Jazz Festival, the Library of Congress, the Seattle Festival of Improvised Music, Line Space Line Festival, and the Chelsea Art Museum. He has performed under the direction of Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, and Alison Knowles. His work has been published in Ord und Bild, the SEAMUS Journal, Notations 21, and UbuWeb.
Glenn Jones is an instrumentalist of unparalleled skill and creativity. As a masterful raconteur Jones’ guitar work is both complex and sublime, intricate and emotional. His deep knowledge of the world of American Primitive music and his abilities on the fretboard have made Jones a pillar in his community. With each album Jones chronicles his experience, looking to the past or capturing the present with limber melodies that potently communicate the underlying emotions of the songs. Jones’ flair for storytelling shines in a live setting where origin stories are quite often the song’s introduction. It not only makes for an exceptional evening of listening, but one that draws on the deep traditions of country blues. The Giant Who Ate Himself and Other New Works for 6 & 12 String Guitar is Glenn Jones at his most vivid, exploring memories old and new through beautifully woven threads of melody.
Jones will be joined by Matt Sowell and John St. Pelvyn on the nights bill. A new chapbook will be available at the event on the life and influence of John Fahey. Edited by Sam Gould and Bradford Bailey (editor of The Hum), the booklet includes texts and interviews by Gould, Bailey, and Steve Lowenthal, author of the Fahey biography Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist
C.R.E.A.M. – An afternoon on Money, Art, Activism, & Intentionality
We’re very excited that two heavyweight minds will be joining us at Beyond Repair’s Assembly space for an afternoon of readings and lectures on Money, Art, Activism, & Intentionality (& More!).
Please join us in welcoming Max Haiven and Cassie Thornton for the launch of Max’s new book from Pluto Press, Art After Money, Money After Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization, and Cassie for Collective Psychic Architecture, an artist talk.
“Art After Money, Money After Art: Creative Strategies Against Financialization” book launch with author Max Haiven
From the publisher (https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338248/art-after-money-money-after-art/): We imagine that art and money are old enemies, but this myth actually reproduces a violent system of global capitalism and prevents us from imagining and building alternatives. From the chaos unleashed by the ‘imaginary’ money in financial markets to the new forms of exploitation enabled by the ‘creative economy’ to the way art has become the plaything of the world’s plutocrats, our era of financialization demands we question our romantic assumptions about art and money. By exploring the way contemporary artists engage with cash, debt and credit, Haiven identifies and assesses a range of creative strategies for mocking, sabotaging, exiting, decrypting and hacking capitalism today. Written for artists, activists and scholars, this book makes an urgent call to unleash the power of the radical imagination by any media necessary.
“Perhaps the most theoretically creative radical thinker of the moment” David Graeber
“Daring, brilliant, provocative. At last a radical critique of the crypto-approach and an abolitionist approach to the problem of money and art” Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi
Max Haiven is Canada Research Chair in Culture, Media and Social Justice at Lakhead University in Northwest Ontario. His books include Crises of Imagination, Crises of Power: Capitalism, Creativity and the Commons (Zed 2014) and Cultures of Financialization: Fictitious Capital in Popular Culture and Everyday Life (Palgrave Macmillan 2014).
“Collective Psychic Architecture” – artist talk with Cassie Thornton
Cassie will discuss a current architectural project in process, (in collaboration with Curator, Taraneh Fazeli) that gives physical form to the invisible, psychological and social ramifications of financialized healthcare and social support. As part of the traveling workshop and exhibition series called “Sick Time, Sleepy Time, Crip Time: Against Capitalism’s Temporal Bullying” Thornton used plain building materials and many hours of help from gallery preparators to produce the physical architecture of financialization, whose invisible powers keep most US residents from getting the care they need to thrive. Collective Psychic Architecture is an opportunity to see, touch, hit or break through the wall that keeps us from seeing or experiencing a world organized around life and health.
Cassie Thornton is an artist and activist from the U.S., currently living in Canada. Thornton is currently the co-director of the Reimagining Value Action Lab in Thunder Bay, an art and social center at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada.
Thornton describes herself as feminist economist. Drawing on social science research methods develops alternative social technologies and infrastructures that might produce health and life in a future society without reproducing oppression — like those of our current money, police, or prison systems.
Rebel Kids: An Anti-Authoritarian Workshop for Children!!!
Join Robby Herbst (Llano del Rio Collective, former Journal of Aesthetics and Protest), Sam Gould (Beyond Repair, former Red76, Tools in Common), and their children (Louis, Honora, Esme, and Juniper) for an afternoon of tactical crafts and group conversation about how kids of all ages can work together to bring about a safe, caring, and critical world of the future, free from bullies, dunderheads, jackasses, litter bugs, fire starters, Nazis, and all who would tilt power in favor of the few over the many.
Come and enjoy barricade and shield building work shops, seed “bomb” cultivation, and training in Jedi Mind-Tricks.
Parents are welcome, as well as those who are young at heart.
A Talk by Robby Herbst: Imagining A Different City/Llano Del Rio Rebel City Los Angeles
City as Commons Group Presents:
A Talk by Robby Herbst: Imagining A Different City/Llano Del Rio Rebel City Los Angeles
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In this talk spanning sociology, movement theory, and urban practices, Robby Herbst of the Llano Del Rio Collective will introduce the new Rebel City Los Angeles guide; presenting the ideas behind the guide, the evolution of the collective’s work, and share their vision for what the city can be.
The Rebel City Los Angeles guide answers the question, what would Los Angeles look like if vertical power as we know it disappeared?. The illustrated two sided guide helps users visualize the city from below, providing details of a developing infrastructure of people-centered institutions supporting human activities outside corporate dominion; from electricity, housing, education, medicine, and banking. Los Angeles born saint Vaginal Davis said “riding on the subway system and buses,,, are the Southland’s true barometer and soul of the city” and the guide hopes to help you take the temperature. Publication lists over 60 sites, and includes essays by Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal and Robby Herbst. Rebel City Los Angeles is a part of the Llano Del Rio Rebel City Project.
Inspired by the 2015 movie Tangerine, the Spanish Municipalist Movement, and David Harvey’s book Rebel Cities, the illustrated two sided guide helps users imagine the city from below, providing details of an infrastructure of people-centered institutions supporting human activities outside corporate dominion; from electricity, housing, education, medicine, and banking. The publication lists nearly 100 sites and includes essays by Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal and Robby Herbst. It is a part of the wider Rebel City Los Angeles project.
Rebel City Los Angeles guide is the 6th guide to Los Angeles created by the Llano Del Rio Collective. Previous guides include: Power Points, Utopias of So.Cal., An Antagonists Guide to the Assholes of L.A., Scores For the City, and A Map For Another L.A.
Since the 2016 presidential elections, the Twin Cities based “City as Commons” group has been meeting to discuss, learn and find out more about municipalism, a form of political organization gaining popularity around the world, based on assemblies of neighborhoods, practicing direct democracy, as an alternative to the centralized state. A goal of the group has been to develop collaboration among academics, activists, and artists interested in urban governance and social reproduction in the Twin Cities and to put them in conversation with colleagues across North America, Europe, and South America who are studying, and/or experimenting with, municipalist forms of governance.
In a two day series of talks, panel discussions and workshops, learn more from local artists, academics, activists, and thinkers, along with three international and rural activists and scholars whose work has explored these issues:
Carol Maziviero (São Paulo, Brazil) – Researcher on insurgent urbanism, and urbanism in the digital age from the Architecture School of the São Judas Tadeu University in São Paulo.
Daniele Tognozzi (Berlin, Germany) – Artist, activist and urban studies researcher from Spatial Strategies at KHB Weißensee (http://raumstrategien.com/) and Tesserae Urban Social Research (http://www.tesserae.eu/).
William “Naawacekgize” Quackenbush (Ho-Chunk Nation / Wisconsin) – Indigenous activist and scholar, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation (http://ho-chunk.com).
THURSDAY MARCH 22 7-9pm
Location: Carlson 1-123 University of Minnesota (West Bank)
“Cities as Commons? Exploring Municipalist Movements in International and Rural Contexts”
Talks and panel discussion with Carol, Daniele, and Bill that will invite comparisons between international and rural perspectives on municipalism, including topics such as direct democracy, social power and reproduction, organizing bottom up movements, rural-urban divides, and the rise of democratic alternatives to the centralized state.
Panel Discussion with: Carol Maziviero, William “Naawacekgize” Quackenbush, Daniele Tognozzi
FRIDAY MARCH 23 1-3:30pm
Location: 1219 University Ave SE (University Baptist Church / http://www.ubcmn.org/)
“What is Possible? Sharing Housing Rights Strategies Across Rebel Cities”
Based on his experiences organizing neighborhoods against the commercial development of Berlin, Daniele will lead a workshop in collaboration with Twin Cities based neighborhood organizers that will demonstrate how international activists and artists can learn from each other about tactics for bottom up organizing of municipalist movements.
Workshop led by Daniele Tognozzi, Kristen Eide-Tollefson (Preserve Historic Dinkytown), Erich Wunderlich (community organizer)
Carol Maziviero will lead a workshop on collective mapping, where participants will use cartography to explore socio-cultural and urban issues of a particular urban area. In the workshop, through a collaborative process, participants will subvert the concept of the map and take ownership of their own territories, building local networks, and helping reveal new possibilities for social action and cooperation.
War Is Trauma is a portfolio of handmade prints produced by the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative in collaboration with the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). This portfolio transpired out of a street poster project, from November 2010, which a number of Justseeds artists provided graphics for “Operation Recovery” – a campaign to stop the deployment of traumatized troops and win service members and veterans right to heal. Posters were pasted in public, replacing many corporate advertisements, to focus public attention towards the issues not being discussed – GI Resistance, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sexual assault in the military or Military Sexual Trauma (MST), and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The action led to another collaboration between Justseeds and IVAW – an “Operation Recovery” booklet published by Printed Matter in NYC and currently the War is Trauma portfolio. For this project over 30 artists from Justseeds, IVAW, and our allies have each created a print that addresses “Operation Recovery,” its larger goals of supporting service member and veterans right to heal, GI resistance, challenging the culture of militarism in the US, and ending the war in Afghanistan. A total of 130 portfolios have been created that we hope inspire 130 exhibitions that can act as a starting point to bring different people together – veterans, civilians, Iraqis, Afghans, and others to dialogue on issues. – IVAW & Justseeds
FRIDAY MARCH 23 6:30-8:00
Location: 3715 Chicago Ave. S (CTUL)
“Imagining the Just City: Movements Across Difference”
We all know that the city is an amalgam of subjects, but how is that played out, and how can we begin to move past certain powerful subjects objectifying others in an attempt to create a “common narrative?” With a nod towards pioneering queer activist Harry Hay and his ideas on subject-subject consciousness, our conversation considers the benefits of a heterogeneous city and how municipalists can create the conditions for subjecthood to thrive and for multiple narratives to flourish simultaneously.
Panelists: Jeremiah Bey Ellison (City Councilperson – Ward 5), Jennifer Newsome (Dream the Combine), Ginger Jentzen (15 Now, Socialist Alternative), Tina Sigel (Restorative Justice Community Action), Sarah Jane Keaveny (RN/BSN, mother, nurse, poet, activist, enthusiast)
Desde las elecciones presidenciales del 2016, el grupo “Ciudad como Comunes” [or “City as Commons not sure if you want to translate this] ubicado en las Ciudades Gemelas se ha estado reuniendo para reflexionar sobre el municipalismo, una forma de organización política que está ganando popularidad en todo el mundo. El Municipalismo se fundamenta en un modelo asambleario en los barrios para practicar la democracia directa como una alternativa al estado centralizado. Uno de los objetivos del grupo ha sido desarrollar la colaboración entre investigadores, activistas y artistas interesados en la gobernanza urbana y en la reproducción social en las Ciudades Gemelas; también es deseo de este grupo poner a estos grupos en contacto con personas en América del Norte, Europa y América del Sur que están estudiando, y/o experimentando con formas de gobierno municipalistas.
En un encuentro de dos días basado en lecturas, mesas redondas y talleres, aprenderemos con artistas locales, investigadores, activistas y pensadores. También contaremos con la colaboración de tres investigadores y activistas internacionales y rurales cuyos trabajo han explorado estos temas:
Carol Maziviero (São Paulo, Brasil) – Investigadora en urbanismo insurgente y urbanismo en la era digital de la Escuela de Arquitectura de la Universidad São Judas Tadeu en São Paulo.
Daniele Tognozzi (Berlin, Germany) – Artista, activista e investigador de los estudios urbanos de Estrategias Especiales en KHB Weißensee (http://raumstrategien.com/) y de la Investigación Social Urbana de Tesserae (http://www.tesserae.eu/).
William “Naawacekgize” Quackenbush (Ho-Chunk Nation / Wisconsin) – Activista indígena e investigador, Oficial de Preservación Histórica Tribal de la Nación Ho-Chunk (http://ho-chunk.com).
THURSDAY MARCH 22 7-9pm
Location: Carlson 1-123 University of Minnesota (West Bank)
“Ciudades como Comunes? Explorando Movimientos Municipales en Contextos Internacionales y Rurales”
Lecturas y mesas redondas con Carol, Daniele, y Bill que invitarán a realizar comparaciones entre perspectivas internacionales y rurales sobre el municipalismo, incluyendo temas como: democracia directa, el poder social y la reproducción, la organización de movimientos ascendentes,las divisiones entre el campo y la ciudad y el ascenso de las alternativas democráticas al estado centralizado.
FRIDAY MARCH 23 1-3:30pm
Location: 1219 University Ave SE (University Baptist Church / http://www.ubcmn.org/)
“¿Qué es posible? Compartiendo estrategias sobre el derecho a un hogar en las ciudades rebeldes”
Basado en sus experiencias organizando barrios contra el desarrollo comercial de Berlín, Daniele dirigirá un taller en colaboración con activistas locales que defienden el derecho a una vivienda. Este taller explorará cómo los activistas internacionales y los artistas locales pueden aprender unos de otros sobre tácticas para organizar movimientos municipalistas ascendentes.
Taller dirigido por Daniele Tognozzi, Kristin Eide-Tollefson (Preserve Historic Dinkytown), Eric Wunder
War is Trauma Pop-Up Exhibit & Social mapping with Carol Maziviero
FRIDAY MARCH 23 6:30-8:00
Location: 3715 Chicago Ave. S (CTUL)
“Imaginando una ciudad justa: Movimientos a través de la diferencia”
Todos sabemos que la ciudad es una amalgama de sujetos, pero ¿cómo se desarrolla y cómo podemos salir de las dinámicas de poder que objetiviza y jerarquiza a la personas para crear una “narrativa común”? Teniendo en cuenta el gesto activista queer pionero de Harry Hay y de sus ideas sobre la conciencia del sujeto-sujeto, nuestra conversación considerareå los beneficios de la ciudad heterogénea y cómo los municipalistas pueden crear las condiciones para que prospere la subjetividad y para que narrativas múltiples florezcan simultáneamente.
Panelists: Jeremiah Bey Ellison (City Councilperson – Ward 5), Jennifer Newsome (Dream the Combine), Ginger Jentzen (15 Now, Socialist Alternative), Tina Sigel (Restorative Justice Community Action), Sarah Jane Keaveny (RN/BSN, mother, nurse, poet, activist, enthusiast)
Tan iyo markii ay dhacday doorashooyinkii 2016, koox ka dhisan Magaalooyinka Mataanaha oo la yiraahdo “City as Commons ama Magaaladu waa Meel la Wada Leeyahay” ayaa shirar yeeshay si ay u falanqeeyaan, si ay wax u bartaan iyo sida ay dowlad hoose ahaan isu dhisi karaan, oo ururkan waa mid ku shaqeeya si siyaasadeysan oo dunida oo dhan aad loogu riyaaqay, iyadoo degaannada dadka magaalada la isu keenayo si ay uga qeybqaataan dimuquraadiyad toos ah oo ka beddelan midda dowladda dhexe. Hadafka kooxdan waa in la horumariyo wada-shaqeyn ka dhaxeysa aqoonyahannada, qabqableyaasha, iyo dadka farshaxanka ah ee daneynaya maamulka magaalada iyo abaabulka bulshada ku dhaqan Magaalooyinka Mataanaha, iyo in ay wadahadal la yeeshaan dadka dhiggooda ah ee ku dhaqan Waqooyiga Ameerika, Yurub, iyo Koonfurta Ameerika, kuwaasoo u dhuun duleela barashada iyo/ama tijaabinta qaababka ay u shaqeyn karto dowladaha hoose.
Laba maalmood oo ah wadahadallo, doodo iyo tababarro gaar ah, oo aad ku baran doonto farshaxanka magaalada, qabqbleyaasha iyo indheer-garadka, kuwaasoo ay weheliyaan qabqableyaal ka socda caalamka, kuwa ka socda dhulka miyiga ah ee gobolka iyo aqoonyahanno sahamin ku sameeya arrimaha kor ku xusan oo kala ah:
Carol Maziviero (São Paulo, Brazil) – Cilmi-baare la socda kacdoonka magaaleyta magaalooyinka, magaalooyinka xilligan casriga ah, oo wuxuu ka socdaa kulliyad lagu barto naqshadeynta dhismeyaasha oo ku dhex taalla jaamacadda São Judas Tadeu University, magaalada São Paulo iyo Sheybaarka Siyaabaha kala duwan ee Magaaleynta Magaalooyinka.
Daniele Tognozzi (Berlin, Germany) – Farshaxan, qabqable iyo cilmi-baare ka tirsan culuunta takhasuska magaalada, oo waxa uu ka yimid Spatial Strategies oo ku taalla KHB Weißensee (http://raumstrategien.com/) iyo Cilmi-baarista Culuunta Bulshada Magaalada ee Tesserae (http://www.tesserae.eu/).
William “Naawacekgize” Quackenbush (Ho-Chunk Nation / Wisconsin) – Qabqable iyo aqoonyahan u dhaqdhaqaaqa dadka dhaladka Mareykanka ah, waana Hawl-wadeenka Keydinta Taariikhda Qabiil la yiraahdo Ho-Chunk (http://ho-chunk.com).
KHAMIIS, 22-ka MAAJO
Faahfaahinta Doodaha
7-da ilaa 9-ka fiidnimo
Carlson 1-123 University of Minnesota (West Bank)
“Cities as Commons? Magaaladu waa Meel la Wada Leeyahay, Sahaminta Dhaqdhaqaaqa Magaalada marka laga fekero miyi iyo magaalo, Caalamka oo dhan”
Wadahadalka iyo doodaha ay sameyn doonaan martida kala ah Carol, Daniele, iyo Bill waxaa la isugu barbar dhigi doonaa sida fikradaha kala duwan ee magaalooyinka, caalamka oo dhan iyo miyiga, oo mowduucyada waxaa ka mid ah dimuquraadiyadda tooska ah, awoodda bulshada iyo wax soosaarkooda, dhaqdhaqaaqyada abaabulka ah ee hoosta laga dhiso, kala-duwanaanta miyi iyo magaalo, iyo arrimaha soo kordhaaya ee ah wax lagu beddelan karo dimuquraadiyadda ka jirta dhinaca dowladda dhexe.
“Maskaxdaada ku sawiro Magaalo Caddaalad ah: Kala-Duwanaanta Dhaqdhaqaaqyada Jira”
Waxaan ognahay in ay magaalo kasta ku nool yihiin dadyow kala duwan, laakiin sidee bay u qabsan karaan dantooda, iyo sidee loo bilaabi karaa in laga tala baxo dadka awoodda sheeganaya ee dadka kale sandulle uga dhigaya in waxa la sameynayo ay yihiin “wax lay isku raacsan yahay?” Waa in loo jiheysto arrin uu bilaabay qabqable la yiraahdo Harry Hay iyo fikradihiisii oo ahaa qof kasta rabitaankiisa in la tixgeliyo, wadahadalku wuxuu manaafacaad u keeni doonaa dadka kala duwan iyo in ay dowladda hoose abuurto tixgelin uu qof kasta barwaaqo ku heli karo iyo in si isku mar ah loogu bullaalo waxyaabaha badan ee ay dadku isku raacsan yihiin.
Doodeyaasha:
Jeremiah Bey Ellison (City Councilperson – Ward 5)
Everyday the thought becomes clearer and more urgent: we need a new way of doing politics, not just new politicians. That’s why you should join us at Assembly, the new space for local gatherings that strive to create realizable political alternatives.
We have lots of ideas for activities for this assembly. We will be distributing, reading and discussing Lumpen Magazine issue 130 (Chicago): The Municipalism Issue, a primer on international activities and activism around municipalism, especially focused on activities here in the US. In attendance will be a few locals who were involved in writing and organizing the issue. In addition, we’ll have updates about the Catalonian independence movement and the municipalists’ role in it, and news about upcoming lectures, gatherings and other activities around municipalist capacity building here in the Twin Cities.
We need a new way of doing politics, not just new politicians:
A politics that is really by and for the people.
A politics that works to combat economic inequality.
A politics that works for the common good.
A feminized politics, driven by collective intelligence and concrete action.
A politics with racial justice at its heart.
A participatory politics, where people have power more than once every four years.
An open source, flexible politics, that can be adapted to the contexts of our big cities and our rural communities.
An ethical politics, with zero tolerance for corruption and cronyism.
A NEW SPACE OF ASSEMBLY
A SOCIAL CLUB FOR THE END OF TIME
Fellow Travelers:
At its conception, Beyond Repair was meant to adapt to its surroundings while encouraging those surroundings to get out of step with their existing habits. The relationships and actions formed as a result helping to transform the project as days go by. What’s become evident over these two years is that the shop is, by evolving design, a transmitter of sorts. As much a speaker as it is a sounding board.
But any work that goes into those efforts would be fruitless without the ability to gather and reflect. A site to pass through, discover, and transmit common ideas yet realized. Without this cyclical relationship between reflection and action all we have is mindless shouting. And there’s enough of that these days.
Taking these considerations into account we are opening Assembly, an expansion of Beyond Repair just two blocks down the road. Co-managed by myself and Tom Kaczynski of Uncivilized Books, Assembly will serve as a site of convergence and reflection, a space of social and material production. In tandem, the space in the market, will transform in the coming weeks, focusing more on free, often tactical, printed matter to distribute, as well as housing a micro neighborhood radio station (W RL / FR: With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance Radio) in collaboration with Derek Maxwell of Feel Free Hi-Fi.
Located on Columbus Ave., just two blocks down the Greenway from our site in the Midtown Global Market, Assembly will house five offices / studios, a common work space and gathering area, as well as room both inside and outdoors, for lectures, performances, group discussions, and simply hanging out with interesting people. We’ll be bringing all of our print equipment to the space so that we can continue our book production and print services, as well as finally get our record lathe up and running.
Our intent is to highlight the market site and the Assembly space within an expanded field of action, of a piece. Two spaces, with different, but symbiotic, social uses. The market a site of distribution, and Assembly a site of convergence and co-reflection.
Like early 20th century mutual aid societies and union halls, as well as all manner of social clubs, Assembly will act as a site to gather, to discuss issues of shared interest, but just as importantly, a landscape to find ourselves running into like-minded individuals, certain that our collisions will produce something larger than just us. A place to plan, to discuss, to hang out, to gather around ideas of what could be.
Wow… it’s transformation day. Louis, Casey, Derek, Jonathan, Chris, Bruce, and Morgan all came over to help move the print equipment from the market to Assembly, the new gathering space down the road. The Beyond Repair market site is looking very much in disarray now, in-between phases, as we switch out to focusing on the radio station and printed matter distribution.
Folks, what are you doing tomorrow night at 7pm? Join us for our last Assembly Reading Group meeting, as well as the beginning of something new. PM for details.
In concept and habit Beyond Repair was established to respond to the relationships that form through its being present. That means that things should change when things are changing. And so we have exciting news to share and hope that you’ll join us to see it into being.
Drop by on Saturday and Sunday evening, Oct. 21st & 22nd as we begin to transform the space in the Midtown Global Market so that we can house With Radical Love & Fierce Resistance Radio, our new neighborhood micro-broadcasting platform. Basically it’s a barn raising… for a radio station.
We have some ideas of how we’d like to build the space out, but we’d love your input as we transform the shop, creating a DJ booth, lounge, and new entrance.
What’s more, we want to tell you about what the future holds and how you can take part. Become a DJ at the station, tell us about your ideas for new, free printed projects to circulate around the neighborhood, and hear about the new parallel space we’ll soon inhabit, just down the Greenway from the MGM, which we’re calling Assembly (more on that soon).
Bring some tools if you got’em and ideas on how you want to get involved.
Municipalism Research Group: Assembly Reading Group
What are you doing tonight at 7pm? Come down to the shop and join the Municipalism Research Group for the start of our reading group centered around Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt’s new book, Assembly. Better still… the Twins are actually in the playoff’s and once finished we can stumble over to Eastlake to have a beer and watch the game!
Here’s a great interview with Hardt around the issue of organizing published in Roar Magazine back in 2015.
Come join the Municipalism Research Group in reading Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s newest book, Assembly. We’ll be meeting at Beyond Repair for two evenings, with a lecture at Macalester College on the book, by Michael Hardt, in between.
The book relates to themes that we’ve discussed in the group so far, in particular, how to organize ourselves democratically outside of currently existing forms of representation? How do we build transformative forms of assembly and decision-making structures that rely on the broadest democratic base?
If you need a copy of the book get in touch. Also, we’ll have copies to give away of the new, municipalism centered, issue of Lumpen Magazine.
October 3, 7pm at Beyond Repair – Reading group (pgs 1 – 70)
October 6, 4:30 – Lecture by Michael Hardt (John B. Davis Lecture Hall, Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center at Macalester College)
October 10 at Beyond Repair – Reading group (add details)
Another thoughtful and inspiring gathering around municipalist strategies yesterday as we read over the draft of the Barcelona en Comu International Committees statement for starting municipalist platforms in America. Much to unpack; from ideas around pluralism, difference, power, and notions of commonness, there’s obviously a lot of cultural and political translation to be done between a European and American municipalist model. And yet, so much to grab on to, desire, feel energized and inspired by. An aspect that stuck out for me which bridged this cultural divide was the necessity to begin and aggressively maintain a desire to build critical connections around ideas between people and existing publics, maintaining a close but healthy distance from the electorate. This isn’t to say that an “authentic” municipalist platform will avoid electoral politics, more so that it will access the electorate as a means and not an end. Much more to unpack, many more connections to form and sustain, and more barbecues to have after our get-togethers as well, because you know, those are where those critical connections take root.
The Zone to Defend is written by a collective residing on the zad, 4000 acres of liberated territory in North Western France, occupied against an airport and its world. The small book pulls you in through its dream-like narrative describing the almost unbelievable transformation of proposed infrastructure site into laboratory of commoning. The zad is a tangible act of hope against the wrecking of our worlds by the megamachines of profit and growth. With its 60 living collectives experimenting with a diversity of forms of life, and with popular support across the country, this occupied zone is a key front line struggle in Europe. The zone brings together farmers and activists in the fight for climate justice, against urban sprawl and for autonomy beyond the state, “its like living in the playground you always dreamt of as a child” is how one of its inhabitants describes life there.
It’s authors experiences on the edge of art and activism inform the books’ politics, and its voice documenting the ongoing struggle in relation both to French politics and, surprisingly, an art world that seeks to find a way out of endless cycles of symbolic struggle.
LA ZAD / THE ZONE TO DEFEND: A Liberated Territory Against an Airport and its World by Mauvaise Troupe (Amber Hickey- contributing editor, Alice Le Roy & Silvie Decaux- Translation) will be published summer of 2017 through the Tools in Common imprint Canary Press, a publishing collaboration between Marc Herbst (ed; Journal of Aesthetics and Protest) and Sam Gould (artist, editor; Red76 / Tools in Common / Beyond Repair).
We need a new way of doing politics, not just new politicians:
A politics that is really by and for the people.
A politics that works to combat economic inequality.
A politics that works for the common good.
A feminized politics, driven by collective intelligence and concrete action.
A politics with racial justice at its heart.
A participatory politics, where people have power more than once every four years.
An open source, flexible politics, that can be adapted to the contexts of our big cities and our rural communities.
An ethical politics, with zero tolerance for corruption and cronyism.
Join us on Sunday, June 18 @ 2pm for our second meeting on Municipalism. We will be meeting at, of course, The Future (2223 E 35th St).
During this meeting, we’ll get to know each other and discuss a draft statement of principles (quoted above) being written by US activists working with Barcelona en Comú international to define municipalism in a way that’s relevant and responsive to the US context.
We’ll use this meeting to talk with each other and to read, discuss, reflect and critique the document. We’ll send this feedback back to the working group as an illustration of the participatory politics we are striving to create.
A full first draft is still being prepared. We will distribute it before the meeting.
Time / Location
When:
Sunday, June 18
2pm
Where:
The Future
2223 E 35th St
Minneapolis, MN 55407
See you at the Future!
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Didn’t get the memo? What is Municipalism?
As we slip deeper into a presidential crisis, we direly need new social and political ideas. Municipalism is a social movement inspired by the idea of creating a new relationship between people and power: Municipalism isn’t about electing better politicians. Municipalism is about changing the relationship between institutions, social movements and citizens. Elected representatives are just the institutional branch of a movement that is based in the streets and neighborhoods, where the real power resides. Municipal movements work both inside and outside of institutions, building dual power and creating concrete solutions. Municipalism depends on active, organized and independent social movements that support representatives to enact their demands – and push them when they don’t… Find out more by coming to the meeting.
