What Is The Bronx Anarchist Fair?

Thanks to all the vendors, workshop participants and attendees who made the first Bronx Anarchist Fair a success! Special shout-out to DJ AMEN for the sweet tunes, and the women's cooperative for providing delicious food!

If you liked the Bronx Anarchist Fair, or are interested in anarchist stuff but didn't get a chance to attend the Fair, check out the NYC Anarchist Bookfair this weekend in Manhattan! It'll many times larger than the Bronx Anarchist Fair, with hundreds of books, a full program of workshops, a film festival and caucuses for women and people of color.

Four days out from the Fair, and things have really come together. Now there's lots of last-minute work going on.

Folks in the organizing collective are busy finalizing the program for the day-of, painting banners to decorate the fairgrounds, and helping clean up Brook Park in preparation for the big event.

If you're in the neighborhood in the next few days, swing by the park and you may see us there clearing concrete and, yes, erecting a big tipi.

Otherwise, check out the semi-finalized Schedule for an overview of what's happening during the Fair this Saturday. It includes a whole bunch of workshops, movies, a Really Really Free Market, and a spring healing circle put on by Casa Atabex Ache. See you on Saturday!

Tryna buff up your anarchist knowledge before you attend the Bronx Anarchist Fair? Well, see if you can match the seminal anarchists above with their descriptions below. To see the correct answer, click on "Read More."

Ricardo Flores Magon
Mexican anarchist whose organizing and incendiary writing helped plant the seeds of the Mexican Revolution. Popularized anarchism in a time of growing social movement, in which "Magonistas" declared general strikes against the Diaz dictatorship, and even declared a Baja Commune following a popular insurrection in 1912. Arrested in the U.S. for obstructing the war effort in World War I, Magon died in Leavenworth prison in 1922.

Kuwasi Balagoon
Member of the Black Panther Party, and a defendant in the famous Panther 21 case. Beat false charges leveled against NYC Pathers in 1971, and went underground with the Black Liberation Army to engage in militant armed actions for black self-determination and autonomy. Escaped prison twice throughout the 1970s, always returning to fight with the BLA, and was an unabashed about his bisexuality in a political milieu that often shunned queerness. Captured after a botched armed car robbery, Balagoon died in prison of AIDS-related illnesses in 1986.

Emma Goldman
One of the most renowned anarchists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Popularized anarchism with her skills as a fiery orator in a time of raging class conflict in the U.S. Goldman's writings and speeches on class struggle, direct action, birth control, free love and philosophy revolutionized political movements of the time. After being deported to Russia in 1918, Goldman exposed the brutality of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Died peacefully in Canada in 1940.

Lucy Parsons
Fiery anarchist-communist writer and orator who championed working-class struggles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Probably born as a slave to parents of mixed indigenous, black and Mexican heritage, Parsons participated in the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World--one of the most militant and influential unions in the history of the U.S. labor movement. Advocated for direct action and the direct takeover of workplaces by workers, rather than waiting for bosses to meet strike demands. After her death in 1942, the U.S. government confiscated, and most likely destroyed, Parson's library and personal papers.

Folks from the organizing collective involved with Can't Afford 'Em Buttons have produced an 11" x 17" poster for the Bronx Anarchist Fair, and it's pretty cool.

Over the next couple days, we'll be printing runs of the design on heavy brown paper in many different colors, and putting them up in shop windows around the South Bronx. Keep an eye out.

Copies of the poster will also be for sale at the Fair!

Two weeks to go until the Bronx Anarchist Fair, and folks from the organizing crew were out flyering again this weekend!

On Friday fliers were distributed at the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective space, where emcees and poets performed to a live band in the birthplace of hip hop. On Saturday peeps put shoes to the pavement, and walked all over the South Bronx doing outreach.

Quartersheets were distributed at the hub and along Willis Ave, Brook Ave, 138th St and 149th St. If you saw us out there and received a flier, hit us up with comments!