August
August Open Hours Monday August 3, 10, 17 & 24 6-8pm
Drop in for chats, coffee and tea, to pick up something new from the distro, or to browse the library!
Writing New Worlds Wednesday August 5 & 19, 7-9pm
Writing New Worlds is a bi-weekly meet-up for anarchist and anti-capitalist creative writers. These sessions will be a space where we can break the rules of form while we engage with ideas like mutual aid, direct action, and solidarity.
Reading Hours Thursday August 6, 6-8:30pm
Have you been meaning to browse the library, look closer at the zines, or just sit down with a book? Come read and relax for Reading Hours – A dedicated time for quietly reading at Black Oak.
Noodle Arms Tuesday August 11 & 25, 7:30-8:30pm
For people who don’t think they could fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Please arrive early; space is limited.
Prairieland Prisoner Letter Writing Night Wednesday August 12, 6pm
Join the Prisoner Solidarity Writing Group & Certain Days for an evening of food & prisoner solidarity. No experience necessary, all supplies provided.
Writing to prisoners helps break the isolation for those behind bars. Importantly it also grounds us in struggle by fostering connections between struggles, normalizing anti-repressive cultures, and helping us personally measure what’s at stake to prepare for our own risk-taking.
This time we’ll be writing the non-cooperating Prairieland defendants, who were recently sentenced between 30-100 years in prison for their connections to a solidarity noise demo at an ICE detention facility in Texas.
Care and Combativity Discussion Group
A discussion of the ‘Care and Combativity’ zine that challenges us to re-orient how we care and how we fight. Copies of the zine to pre-read are available at Black Oak – the reader will not be made available digitally.
Part 1: Combativity: What holds us back? Thursday August 13, 6pm
This discussion will focus on the topic of what holds us back from engaging combatively, and also what brings us back to struggle. What ways do our own individual and collective behaviour sometimes discourage those who want to take action or escalate from doing so? How can we shift those cultures or behaviours if necessary – and how much of this is even our collective responsibility?
Part 2: Imagining Mutualized Care & Combativity August 27, 6pm
This discussion will focus on imagining new ways of weaving care and combativity that build new worlds while destroying what destroys us. What are issues in how care and resources are delivered (to eachother) currently that we can imagine shifting? Which of these things could an interwoven web of carers & combatants look like? How can imagined models still be implemented securely?
Movie Night: Union Thursday August 20, 7pm
Union follows current and former Amazon workers as they seek to unionize Amazon’s JFK8 Warehouse in Staten Island in 2020.
Part of a monthly series screening documentaries found on kolektiva.media, an anarchist-run media hosting site.
Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes