Read & Revolt

This project is going on an indefinite hiatus.

On Tuesday, October 17th, starting at 7 PM, we will be discussing “The Dragon and the Hydra: A Historical Study of Organizational Methods” by Russell Maroon Shoatz at Boxcar Books.

This text is an outline of different struggles against European colonialism and slavery in the last couple hundred years. It highlights the contrasts between decentralized forms of struggle with those that are centralized, and is meant to argue for the effectiveness of the former.

Russell Maroon Shoatz is an imprisoned Black Liberation fighter who was part of the Black Panthers and Black Liberation Army, who wrote this essay from prison.

On October 3, 2017, we will be reading – “A Very Short Introduction to Afro-Pessimism” by Isidore.

This is the preface of the new book “Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction.” Afro-pessimism is a theoretical tendency that centers anti-blackness as opposed to white supremacy itself, and explores how the concept of the human is made in antithesis to that of the slave. These theorists re-examine the definition of slavery and the social death that accompanies it in order to demonstrate that this society is structured by the social death of black people, that blackness is defined in this way, and that it is impossible to eliminate this social death without destroying the foundations of this society

On Tuesday, September 19th, we will be reading “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” by bell hooks, which is a chapter from her 1992 book Black Looks: Race and Representation.

This text analyzes how blackness is viewed by white people as being more intense, authentic, and therefore threatening, and how a commodified form of blackness is sought after because it is seen as more pleasurable. You can pick up a free copy the text at Boxcar Books for two weeks prior to its discussion, or read it online here.

This is the second in a series of discussions we will have about anti-blackness throughout September and October. By sharpening our ideas, we hope to better fight against racism and this monstrous society that it is deeply woven into.

We will be meeting at Boxcar Books, 408 E. 6th Street, starting at 7 PM. Read & Revolt is a discussion group seeking to analyze this society and the potential for liberation from an anarchist perspective.

For September and October we will be trying something new. Up to now, each text we read would not have any connection to the text before or previous. They were nominated and chosen with no theme in mind, and were simply individual texts that we wanted to read and discuss.

What will be different about these upcoming two months is that we have a theme that unites all the readings. The idea is that the conversations we have can build over the course of four readings, since each text is related by theme. We will try this out and see if it works before committing to doing the same thing for November and December.

The theme for September and October is anti-blackness. We will be discussing where it fits in to perpetuating this society, what it does to both those who suffer from it and those privileged by it, and resistance both historically and in present day.

By sharpening our ideas, we hope to better fight against racism and this monstrous society that it is deeply woven into.

As always, we meet the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Here is the schedule for September and October, with a description of what each text is about:

9/5 – “Democracy, Disposability, and the Flint Water Crisis” by Third Coast Conspiracy – Analysis from anti-state, anti-capitalist blogs in Michigan about the
water crisis in Flint, and what it says about how this society treats the lives of the mostly black people who live in Flint (and similarly in Detroit).”

9/19 – “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance” by bell hooks – The second chapter of Black Looks: Race and Representation. This chapter analyzes how blackness is viewed by white people as being more intense, authentic, and therefore threatening. A commodified form of blackness is sought after because it is seen as more pleasurable.

10/3 – “A Very Short Introduction to Afro-Pessimism” by Isidore – This was written to be the preface of the book “Afro-Pessimism: An Introduction.” Afro-pessimism is a theoretical tendency that centers anti-blackness as opposed to white supremacy itself, and explores how the concept of the human is made in antithesis of that of the slave. These theorists re-examine the definition of slavery and the social death that accompanies it in order to demonstrate that this society is structured by the social death of black people, that blackness is defined in this way, and it is impossible to eliminate this social death without destroying the foundations of this society.

10/17 – “The Dragon and the Hydra” by Russell Maroon Shoatz – A historical overview of decentralized organizational methods of resistance, including that of maroon societies.

As always, you can find free printouts of these texts two weeks prior to our discussion of them. Here is the flyer and quarter-sheet.

For the next discussion we will be reading “Towards an Anarchist Ecology”, which is a series of essays written by the group Knowing the Land is Resistance, who are concerned with deepening their relationships to the land and natural world. In these texts they discuss their experiences engaging in these processes, while taking on some tough questions regarding their statuses as settlers on stolen Native land, ecology in urban settings, and their attempts to deflate the assumed importance of “expertise” in ecology/naturalist circles.

The texts can all be read online here, and a PDF for printing here (heads up, it’s 25 MB).

We will be meeting at Boxcar Books, 408 E. 6th Street, starting at 7 PM. Read & Revolt is a discussion group seeking to analyze this society and the potential for liberation from an anarchist perspective.

The upcoming Read & Revolt discussion taking place July 18th at Boxcar Books starting at 7PM will be Yalensky’s Fable: A History of the Anarchist Black Cross.

You can pick up a free copy of the text at Boxcar Books for two weeks prior to its discussion, or read it online here.

Read & Revolt is a discussion group seeking to analyze this society and the potential for liberation from an anarchist perspective. We meet the first and third Tuesday of every month at Boxcar Books, from 7 – 9 PM, to discuss readings collectively decided upon beforehand.

Facebook event

The upcoming discussion taking place July 4 at Boxcar Books starting at 7PM will be the Introduction and Chapter 1 from The Unquiet Dead. It’s a study of fascism from an anarchist perspective, and specifically an analysis of fascist mythology with gender and race essentialisms as its core components.

You can pick up a free copy of the text at Boxcar Books for two weeks prior to its discussion. It’s a longer one, so you might want to pick up a copy sooner rather than later!