Events

Peter Gelderloos, author of How Nonviolence Protects the State, will give a presentation on his new book, Anarchy Works, which details over 90 histories and recent stories showing anarchy in practice.

According to Gelderloss, "Anarchism is the boldest of revolutionary social movements to emerge from the struggle against capitalism—it aims for a world free from all forms of domination and exploitation. But at its heart it contains a simple and convincing proposition: people know how to live their own lives and organize themselves better than any expert could. Others cynically claim that we need a government to protect us. They claim anarchy is impractical and utopian: it would never work. On the contrary, anarchist practice already has a long record, and has often worked quite well."

All those who identify as a woman are invited to join us for a meeting to discuss our upcoming events: a bellydancing workshop, a self-defense class, film screenings and events just waiting to be planned!

Unfortunately, this event has been canceled because Jeni and Billy's vehicle has broken down. We'll let you know when we're able to reschedule.

Sharing the duties of songwriting, arranging, and performing, Jeni & Billy bring to the work very distinct musical backgrounds that both draw from the deep well of Appalachian roots music.

Jeni & Billy met in the spring of 2005 when Jeni recorded at Billy’s Maryland studio. Within months they began writing and performing together. In 2006, they pressed a six-song EP, Sweet & Toxic, which was praised for its pure vocals, excellent instrumental work, and heartbreaking tales of tragic love.

Urban Geographer Eliot Tretter will give the third part of his series on Austin's history and geography, titled "The Privilege to Stay Dry: Racism, Flooding, and the Emergence of Austin's Lower Eastside Mexican Barrio, 1890-1940."

Join us for a screening of the CrimethInc. documentary "Pickaxe." The film follows an eclectic mix of activists who take a stand to protect an old growth forest from logging at Warner Creek in the Willamette National Forest of Oregon, blockading the logging road and repelling the State Police. Over months a community builds around the illegal blockade as it develops into the Cascadia Free State and similar actions spread across the region. Years after its release, Pickaxe has become a classic document of the potential for grassroots direct action to achieve victory against the forces of both government and big business. Lovingly crafted by the participants themselves, the film expertly presents every moment, from confrontation to celebration.

Join us for a screening of the documentary "Coal Country." Passions are running high in the mountains of Appalachia. Families and communities are deeply split over what is being done to their land. At issue is the latest form of strip mining called ‘mountaintop removal’, or MTR. Coal companies blast the tops off mountains, and run the debris into valleys and streams. Then they mine the exposed seams of coal and transport it to processing plants. Coal is mined more cheaply than ever, and America needs coal. But the air and water are filled with chemicals, and an ancient mountain range is disappearing forever.

Author/artist Casimiro De la Cruz, who lives in the central Sierra indigenous Huichol community in Mexico, will be showing his film, "Narry," and presenting his original Huichol art.

Casimiro is an artist, cultural promoter, illustrator, filmaker & musician, who recently joined the band, "El venado Azul".

For more information about Casimiro and his art, see the following link: http://www.cafepress.com/tekayuawy

Come out and see some amazing bands at MonkeyWrench! Here's the line-up:

Chicken Little (Nashville, TN) 12:00
Your 33 Black Angels (New York, NY) - 12:45
Gold Lake (Madrid, Spain via Brooklyn, NY) - 1:30
Peter and the Wolf (Austin, TX) - 2:15
The Eastern Sea (Austin, TX) 3:00

The shows are free, but we'll be selling books and taking donations, so come on out!

Bring your favorite vegan dish and graze, chat, and share with other female-identifiers. Yum!

An out-of-this-world line-up. All starting at high noon!

Loup Garoux 12:00 (NOLA)
Hurray for the Riff Raff 12:40 (NOLA)
No Mas Bodas 1:30 (Austin, TX)
Bad Credit No Credit 2:15 (Brooklyn, NY)
Munch Munch 3:15 (Bristol, UK)

Why not!?!

Please join us for a screening of "Crude."

The film documents not only the devastation Chevron (then Texaco) has
wrought on the region, but also the communities’ 16-year struggle for
justice in the Ecuadorean court system.

The feature will be shown outside if good weather prevails so bring
blankets and chairs for comfort; or indoors if conditions don't allow
where setting will be provided. The show starts at 7:30pm with music
videos, short documentaries and viral vids with the main attraction
beginning at 8:00pm to be followed by open discussion. All are welcome as
the event is free and open to the public.

Austin Amnesty International group shows a documentary that raises key questions about where the products we consume originate and at what cost? In the Dominican Republic, a tropical island-nation, tourists flock to pristine beaches unaware that a few miles away thousands of dispossessed Haitians have toiled under armed-guard on plantations harvesting sugarcane, much of which ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequently lack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare. Narrated by Paul Newman, "The Price of Sugar" follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismatic Spanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorest people to fight for their basic human rights.

Join us for the Indymedia documentary "Miami Model" screening. The film explores the tactics employed by law enforcement agencies during demonstrations in Miami, Florida relating to the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) trade agreement in November 2003. The term "Miami Model" refers to the distinctive features of crowd control technique used in Miami, which included large scale pre-emptive arrests, heavily armed sometimes unidentifiable law enforcement, the collection of intelligence from protesters, and the "embedding" of corporate media with the police. Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle responded to allegations of police brutality saying "The police were very professional, very controlled... I think we have a model here for the rest of the world to emulate in the future when these sort of events take place."

The Queer Sol Collective presents Loose Lips: Speak out, Lash out, Act out.
Loose LIps is a Queer open mic night hosted by Austin based arts collective, Queer Sol. Come support local poets and musicians and queer artistic expression. Expect to be moved, expect a packed house, expect the unexpected, but above all come with an open mind and ear.

Sign up begins at 730, Show at 8.

All donations from the event will go to the Queer Sol collective, a multidisciplinary artist collective founded by Queer People of Color to explore our diverse abilities, and share our experiences. Queer Sol seeks to provide a safe space for queer identified people of color and their allies to meet, dialogue, connect, and enact social change through artistic means.

Meet us in the MWB backyard and feel free to BYOB!

Please join Fair Food Austin for a delicious tamale dinner fundraiser -- including a report from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' "Modern-Day Slavery Museum" tour and a preview of the upcoming Farmworker Freedom March from Tampa to Lakeland, Florida!

The event will include a vegetarian tamale dinner option available via RSVP for a sliding scale cost of $7-$15. However, dining with us is not reciw-sfaquired, so please feel free to attend the presentation itself, which is free and open to the public, and also kicks off at 7pm. Proceeds will help defray travel costs for the fifteen Austinites joining the three-day march in Florida. To RSVP or to find out more information about the caravan from Austin, email sfaatx@gmail.com.

As a Neoliberal Economic Order continues to spread across the world, displacing people from their lands and privatizing their public resources, communities across Latin America are increasingly turning  to community media as a tool of resistance to capitalist globalization. In this multi-media presentation The Prometheus Radio Project and Palabra Radio will highlight the central role that media has played in building popular power from the women in Oaxaca, Mexico who led a take-over of corporate and state media outlets in protest to the complete media black-out of the popular rebellion; to a rural Guatemalan Community using a radio station to fight a mining project; to migrant farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida broadcasting programs about economic human rights on their Low Power FM radio station.

AUSTIN'S ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT DISCUSSION Scott Swearingen reads from his new book, Environmental City: People, Place, Politics, and the Meaning of Modern Austin. An open discussion of our city's environmental efforts follows. 7:30pm. MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North Loop, 407-6925. Free. www.monkeywrenchbooks.org (Civic Interest)

Environmental City: People, Place, Politics, and the Meaning of Modern Austin

By William Scott Swearingen, Jr.