book
Somebody Blew Up America w/ Amiri Baraka and Rob Brown
The poet icon and political activist Amiri Baraka performs with Rob Brown, one of the New York City downtown music scene’s most in-demand saxophonists, in a reading of his new book Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems.
This event in the “Free Jazz from the Sanctuary” series is co-sponsored by
the Arts Department at RPI and the Albany Sonic Arts Collective, with support
from the NY State Council on the Arts and the NY State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Our press release:
The Autobiography of a Black Panther w/ Robert Hillary King
Robert Hillary King became a member of the Black Panther Party while in prison for a crime he did not commit, where he remained in solitary confinement for 29 years as one of the Angola 3. He wrote From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King after the state admitted his innocence and set him free. Co-sponsored by the Albany Political Prisoner Support Coalition.
Our press release:
30 Years in Solitary Confinement and Found Innocent;
Robert Hillary King to Speak in Troy
Shoot an Iraqi w/ Wafaa Bilal
Iraqi–American digital artist Wafaa Bilal’s new book “Shoot an Iraqi: Life, Art and Resistance Under the Gun” tells the story of the Domestic Tension project that placed him 24/7 on the receiving end of a paintball gun accessible online to a global audience—and what really happened on his infamous visit to Troy NY last spring. He's returning to Troy to talk about his experiences and the new book.
Missed the controversy last year? See the photos and watch the oniine documentary!
Our press release:
"Virtual Jihadi" artist returns to Capital Region with new book;
Wafaa Bilal braves fear of RPI/Troy censorship to speak again!
A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years
Area authors Christian Peet, Sam Truitt, Jibade-Khalil Huffman and Laura Didyk will read in celebration of the publication of A Best of Fence, a new anthology of collected works from Fence magazine's first nine years of publication. Refreshments will be served and copies of A Best of Fence will be available for purchase.
Founded in 1998, Fence is a biannual journal of poetry, fiction, art, and criticism that has a mission to redefine the terms of accessibility by publishing challenging writing distinguished by idiosyncrasy and intelligence rather than by allegiance with camps, schools, or cliques. It is part of their mission to support writers who might otherwise have difficulty being recognized because their work doesn’t answer to either the mainstream or to recognizable modes of experimentation.
Doug Henwood: The Crisis of Neoliberalism
More than twenty years ago, convinced that the 1980s experiment with free-market economics was a financial and social disaster and that much writing on economics was dry and dated, Doug Henwood founded the critically-acclaimed Left Business Observer.
Invited here as part of the Capital Region Social Forum, he’ll be addressing the current crisis of neoliberalism.
Read Henwood's review of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.
Our press release:
A Night Out with “The Narcotic Farm”
On Saturday November 8 at 7 PM, The Sanctuary for Independent Media hosts a multi-media presentation of "The Narcotic Farm"--featuring the creators of a new book and documentary film about the U.S. Narcotic Farm in Lexington, KY.
The U.S. Narcotic Farm just outside Lexington, KY, was a legendary meeting place for America’s drug addicts. This performance interweaves verbal, visual, and musical memories of a place that was a crossroads for drug addicts from 1935-1975.
Authors Nancy Campbell and JP Olsen will read and screen portions of their works on this historic place, mixed with live jazz performed by Elizabeth Woodbury Kasius (piano), Linda Brown (bass), and Jonathan Greene (woodwinds).
NOWTOPIA - Practical Rebellion & A New Politics of Work
How do the Open Source software movement, bicycle sub-culture, guerilla gardening, and the Burning Man Festival fit together?
Author and Critical Mass co-founder Chris Carlsson connects these dots as he profiles the social networks that are cooperating outside of economic regulation and laying the foundation for a genuine movement of liberation from market life.
Plus an presentation by the Rhizome Collective.
9 September 7 PM Doug Blackmon on "Slavery By Another Name"
Join us at Christ Church United Methodist in Troy where we're co-sponsoring a talk and book signing by Doug Blackmon, New York Times bestselling author of "Slavery By Another Name" at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 9!
Filled with archival photographs, "Slavery by Another Name" is the true account of the re-enslavement of African Americans from the end of the Civil War until World War II.
Contrary to public understanding, emancipation did not end slavery for hundreds of thousands of people in the southern U.S. African Americans were arrested for minor offenses, often for no offense at all, and sentenced to hard labor in coal mines, lumber camps, farms, and mills across the South. Most were never released from deplorable working and living conditions.
.