Speakers and participants from across the Midwest and the country, as well as a diverse cross-section of Chicago’s own radical community, will come together for two days of workshops, panel discussions, networking and strategy sessions on the past, present, and future of anarchist work and life.
The theme of this year’s conference is SPACE. Why and how is space important to the theory and practice of anarchism; what is “anarchist space”? How are anarchists involved in struggles around space, both within and beyond our community? How is space central to the struggles of oppressed and marginalized groups? How does space operate within the social landscape and machinations of capitalism, as well as within resistance to capitalism? Topics to be explored in workshops include gentrification, Queer space, collective living, community organizing, demilitarization, radical education, and many more.
Featured speakers include veteran activist and former Black Panther Lorenzo Ervin, author of Anarchism and the Black Revolution. In his presentation on “Prison as Liberated Space,” Ervin will speak about his own experiences in the radical prison movement of the 1970s, including his work with the prisoner-support organization Anarchist Black Cross. “There are more people in prison today in the USA alone than in the entire anarchist movement worldwide,” says Ervin. “We cannot ignore the role of prison as a repressive tool of the state and structural racism, and more importantly, cannot ignore the history of struggles against it.” Ervin will also lead a workshop on neighborhood organizing within poor communities of color.
Other featured presenters include members of Bash Back Chicago, and longtime Chicago activist Darrell Gordon, both of whom will give workshops on radical Queer space.
The conference will close with a panel discussion on “The History of Anarchist Spaces in Chicago,” featuring founding members of the Autonomous Zone, and other veterans of the struggle for anarchist space in Chicago.
Taking place the same weekend will be our “sister event,” the 9th Annual Chicago Anarchist Film Festival. The Festival features new film and video, as well as rediscovered classics, from filmmakers engaged in social change with an anarchist vision. Screenings begin at 7:00, each evening April 24-26, at Jane Addams Hull House Museum, 800 S. Halsted St. on the UIC campus. For more information visit http://home.comcast.net/~more_about_it/.
For a complete Finding Our Roots conference schedule and list of workshops, please visit www.findingourroots.org."
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