Nestled in our billion-dollar-endowed ivory tower, we at Hopkins often don't see much of the "alternative" Baltimore. We might think we're pretty alternative when we listen to Rage Against the Machine, talk about the Ottobar or buy a reusable eco-bag at Eddie's, but when it comes down to it, most of us don't see much of the alternative culture movement. Fortunately for those with liberal leanings, or simply the curious, Red Emma's bookstore brought the Mid-Atlantic Radical Book Fair just down the street to 2640 St. Paul St., also known as the non-commercial, cooperatively-managed concert venue 2640, or St. John's United Methodist Church. The organization took advantage of the experimental space to bring dozens of book vendors, organizations and speakers together to share ideas about radical movements.
Organizers of the Fair decided to add an additional component this year to the usual two-day event, with a film festival on Friday that featured documentaries on "zines," a plan to expand a ski resort on Native American land and a revelation of the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in and around the Detroit area. Additionally a number of creative pieces were shown such as The Short Doctrine by Naomi Klein, directed by Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron (the director of Children of Men), that illustrates the power behind political change.
The bulk of the event took place on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The main room of 2640 was filled with tables covered with books, flyers, zines, buttons and posters. Most organizations took this as an opportunity to spread their messages, make connections with others sharing the same interests and educate those who might not be acquainted with radical politics and beliefs. While most of the attendees tended to be pierced, tattooed, dreadlocked and hemp-wearing, the reps were almost always eager to discuss their ideas with anyone who stopped by, no matter how straight-laced.
Jacinta Bunnell from girlsnotchicks.com, one of the many vendors, described her venture as "just a group of people who have decided to publish coloring books about gender." The books send a message but not just to kids. "They're for everybody who likes to color," Bunnell said. A standout example of her work is an image of a girl in a wheelchair with a hammer.
The text reads, "Shirley took her Barbie down to the toy swap and traded it in for something a bit less destructive." Radical, indeed - but perhaps not unfounded. Bunnell was also impressed with the venue itself. She said, "I think it's really exciting to get together with a group of people who are thinking and learning and excited about radical things." Later she said, "I do really like the sense of community I get from the folks who are organizing the book fair, Red Emma's and some of the people that I've met here. There seems to be a lot of solidarity and working together and a lot of direct action."
Also in attendance were the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Trey Kindlinger, a veteran who did not serve in Iraq but did go overseas, took some time to explain his organization's beliefs. He said that IVAW "call[s] for three things. We call for the immediate withdrawal of the troops. We call for taking care of the troops once they get home, the ... healthcare system - the military healthcare system especially - and reparations for Iraq." Kindlinger explained that one of the main goals of IVAW is awareness. He said, "We're just trying to educate, and one way [to do so] is just to be around the different types of folks that are tabling here, and the folks through Red Emma's and other organizations here in Baltimore are great about letting us come in."
From Off Our Backs, the longest running feminist news journal, since 1970, Gretchen Kuhlman expressed her admiration for the Book Fair and what it has achieved. "I think it's really a fantastic place for a lot of organizations to get together. It's good to see that a lot of us have similar ideals in mind and things that we want to do. The bigger problem is coordinating all those efforts into one place." And that, she said, is what Red Emma's and the Radical Book Fair manages to do.
Attendees also noted that the Fair was trying to achieve. Bonnie Kasperek, a local Baltimorean said, "It's just a place where people can get together and exchange ideas." Additionally she noted that, "It fits into Baltimore mostly because we're so close to the government headquarters, and you get to see first hand what the government does and how it controls people's lives. This is probably the best place to go for [radical information and organization] because it's still underground, and not a lot of people know about it."
Magi Ferguson and Andrew Schmidt, two teenagers from Annapolis found out about the Book Fair at a Defiance Ohio concert where there were flyers and brochures. "I've heard of a lot of the vendors before and I was just interested in coming here and experiencing it face-to-face," Schmidt said.
"I think that's the problem," Ferguson added. "Things like this are so important and we should try and assimilate that into our own culture. People can work on a daily basis to try and make their surrounding culture better."
Throughout both days, lectures and workshops were led in the various side rooms. Saturday featured a presentation on radical libraries, the Open City Collective, an arm of the Northeastern Federation of Anarchist-Communists, led a discussion about cross-border networking for anti-authoritarian class struggle, and an award-winning magazine for sex workers called Spread Magazine, gave attendees information on how radical activists can "support the sex worker trade."
Sunday's star presentation was certainly that of Joy James who, using her new book Warfare in the American Homeland: Policing and Prisons in a Penal Democracy as a jumping off point, inspired a serious dialogue with Ashanti Alston, a former Black Panther and current anarchist activist, and Dr. Robert Paul Wolff, a philosophy professor the University of Massachussetts Amherst.
Beginning with a quote from Toni Morrison's "Home," James said that "The U.S. doesn't know democracy without penalty. The U.S. has never been a free space, not just for the imprisoned, but for all of us by extension." She noted that what the listeners were about to gain was "worth more than one semester or one year in college - it's all about opening your heart and your mind."
With this, Alston talked about his education in prison, where he served a 14-year sentence for radical activism. "We studied radical psychology, feminism, history - not to be voracious intellectuals.
but because we had lost and we had to find out what went wrong. We want to win this revolution. I was able to see much more about our struggle, more so than when we were on the street."It is precisely this sense of empathy that invigorated the conversation when Eddie Conway made a call-in from his prison cell in Hagerstown, Md. Also a former Black Panther, Eddie has been in prison for 37 years - he was incarcerated in 1970 when contention brewed between the Black Panthers and the Baltimore City police.
Throughout the course of a Q&A with Eddie, the audience discovered what it meant to be a political prisoner, what a prisoner does during the day and how one remains hopeful.
Eddie talked of the grandfather-grandson relationship he has with younger prisoners and how his perspective on life, politics and action hasn't changed much.
"What I would have advocated then, I would now," Eddie said. He is constantly making connections with outside activists who are helping him to obtain his freedom and who are spreading his message while he cannot roam freely.
After the phone-in, the discussion became more heated, with mention of the oppressive police-dog state and the unjust imprisonment of a man who torched SUVs in environmental protest. Participants yelled, cried and express concern.Joy James made a heavy statement: "Anyone who wants out of conformity, creates his or her own wanted poster." Ultimately, however, Alston points out, "We're not going to overthrow the government and create socialism if we can't treat each other well."
Not every workshop, however, was political. The Downthere Health Collective is "a group working to better understand our bodies and care for ourselves and each other in a more holistic way."
Based in Washington, D.C., seven women lead discussions on self-care, health and autonomy and fertility awareness. For the Radical Book Fair, they decided to lead a dialogue on consent. One of the seven founders explained, "We want to redefine consent and what it means with regard to dynamics such as age, sex, class and race, that give structure to the concept of consent. We want to provoke thought and healthy discussion."
A puppet show started it off, as a good way to approach the subject of sex, with non-gendered puppets portraying scenes in which consent and how to give it were addressed.
In between each scene, the ladies of Downthere did an "oompa-loompa" chant, asking questions including whether or not an inebriated person make an informed decision. What are non-verbal ways to obtain or give consent or non-consent? How do you define consent for different genders, classes and ethnicities?
After the puppet show, Downthere facilitated a discussion about the issues raised, encouraging participants to share personal experiences and talk about feelings and ideas honestly.
Ultimately, as the Downthere workshop exemplified, the Book Fair isn't just about selling anarchist books.
John Duda, one of the primary organizers of the event explained that, "We [Red Emma's] are really trying to reach out to as many people as possible, because we think that information is very powerful ... We think information is a way people can get enraged, get excited, get enthusiastic about what's going on ... So what we want to do is make all that information available. We don't want to tell people what to think, we want to give them the tools to think for themselves."
In the same vein, he expressed the desire to maintain a broad appeal: "One of the things we try and do is avoid pigeonholing ourselves in a narrow, sectarian political focus. We think there's a lot of room for discussion, a lot of room for debate, a lot of room for alternate strategies."
Duda also helped put the Book Fair in the context of the greater goals of the radical movement, as spearheaded by Red Emma's and the 2640 collective.
He explained, "This is a space that's basically a blank canvas - a book fair's here today, we might have a benefit concert here tomorrow. That's what we see our role as - opening up these alternative spaces where little bits of a public's here that's not just focused on talking about The Wire and then going back to work in the morning, but people who are really interested in changing the way this city runs, giving them a space where they can start to do that, and where they can come together and meet each other."
