from O.R.C.A.
đ´ââ ď¸Pivotal Piracyđ´ââ ď¸
đŤO.R.C.A. Closing PartyđŤ
đŤJune 12
đ޸7pm â 12am
đŤO.R.C.A. (email orca.philly@protonmail.com for address)
Come celebrate two and a half years of aquatic anarchy as we send the ship off! O.R.C.A. is closing and we invite you to come say goodbye and carry away treasures from the space. (Make transport plans if you want to take anything big.)
Expect music, snacks, drinks, and good vibes. This is our last event.
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from O.R.C.A.
TDLR: ORCA is closing; goodbye party 6/12 7pm-12am
O.R.C.A. is closing. This wasnât an easy decision, but given a combination of factorsâpersonal capacity, building frustration, and lack of logistical+financial supportârunning the space is no longer sustainable for us and we donât want to continue this project. We are glad to have helped create an anarchist space for people to meet and learn from each other and encounter anti-authoritarian ideas. Many anarchist spaces often skew white and punk; it was important to us that O.R.C.A. did not fall into this pattern. Over the last 2.5 years, weâve prioritized hosting de-colonial, black liberation, and internationally-oriented events. Shout out to anyone who has booked or facilitated an event! We couldnât have done it without you.
O.R.C.A. opened during an upsurge in the Palestinian liberation movement, and was initially intended to meet a need for a public non-commercial space where people could find each other and engage with anarchism. We knew of an empty room in a building we were familiar with, and we decided to squat it for as long as we could. Our short time squatting revealed to us that the space was fulfilling a need and when squatting became untenable we decided to rent a room. While O.R.C.A. will not continue, the need for non-commercial, explicitly anti-authoritarian political spaces remains, and we encourage anyone with the desire and capacity to open other spaces.
Itâs worth addressing some of the challenges that went along with this project and influenced our decision to close. From the beginning, a 2-3 person collective was not large enough to sustain a space like this. It was difficult to find dedicated people who had the capacity and availability to seriously contribute to O.R.C.A., an unsurprising reality in the face of the increasing misery of today. Relatedly, our own capacities, desires, and commitments have changed since 2023. We encourage anyone starting this kind of project to remember that people and circumstances change, and to prepare accordingly.
If we want spaces like O.R.C.A. to exist, we need community buy-in. That can look like attending or throwing events, donating supplies, helping with workdays, but it also needs to include financial support. We often ended up paying rent with the fruits of our own đ marginalized laborđ´ââ ď¸. Despite never charging to use the space or attend events, behind the scenes, weâve always been concerned about having the money to keep the lights on.
It certainly didnât help that the building was becoming more and more inaccessible. We knew when we opened O.R.C.A. that the building was not nearly as accessible as we would have liked, and the new locks, cameras, and the threat of fees from building management have only added to our discouragement.
To the volunteersâopen hours crew, friends whoâve jumped in when weâve needed it, anyone who has thrown us some moneyâthank you so much!
We made things work! Despite the limitations of the spaceânot very physically accessible, cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and three busy people running thingsâalmost all of our programs were very well attended. On many occasions we filled every couch, folding chair, bench, and extra floor space with friends, comrades, and strangers alike. We want to celebrate the last 2.5 years of aquatic anarchy! Help us send this ship off (and take home all of our treasures*) June 12th.
Love and anarchy,
O.R.C.A.
*Books, zines, couches, rugs, chairs, lamps, paint, a projector, a printer, a well-decorated mini fridge, and so many other items.
from O.R.C.A.
May 16 ¡ 5:00â8:30 PM
Email for address: orca.philly@protonmail.com
Join us for a work-in-progress screening of an untitled narrative feature.
A brief conversation will precede the film, reflecting on the themes and questions that inspired it, and on the process of making a self-funded work.
Afterward, experience a slow cinema work moving through the mundane, and the quiet but constant weight of whatâs at stake.
Filmmaker introduction before the screening.
Post-film gathering at a second location.
Donations will support finishing funds for the film, with a portion going to O.R.C.A.
Film synopsis: Figures pass through a Los Angeles house, engaged in routine preparation for something imminent but never arriving. Time stretches and skips. The outside world encroaches, and the condition of blackness endures.
from O.R.C.A.
Letâs celebrate Philly Jazz month by delving into jazz history and its impact on music beyond the genre. In this interactive lecture Black music historian Lex will guide us through exploring Jazz, the spectacular, and the diffusiveness of Black identity in North America.
from O.R.C.A.
Come melt away the end of winter at O.R.C.A. with some films that look at the technologies of domination. After each screening weâll discuss how we can struggle against this oppressive reality.
4/16 7PM
Koyannisqatsi (1982, 86 min)
Beautifully shot and scored, this wordless documentary brings us on a emotional exploration of the machinery and relations that make progress and our modern lifeways possible. The title is a Hopi word that can be translated to âlife out of balance.â
from O.R.C.A.
A screening of the audio and slides of a presentation about organization, informality, insurrection, and revolution that was given in the Pacific Northwest by the comrades at Fugitive Distro. Weâll watch the presentation and then discuss together.
Original presentation descriptions:
âA presentation and discussion on the question of organization â what is it, how have some anarchists chosen to approach it, and why. In a moment where everyone is talking about organization either in vague terms or asking others to join behind them as followers, we hope to offer tools from one of the many approaches for the struggle over our lives.â
âSo often calls go out âjust organizeâ with little to no content that follows or with an expectation for individuals to simply pad the numbers of this or that Organization, not requiring us to take an active role in the struggle for our and each others freedom.
We wish to offer an introduction to some tools and a perspective that isnât just a /how/ to organize, but also why and to what end.
We hope people will come to this not with the mindset that we are trying to convince you of a position, as if we simply want people to rally around our ideas, but to loot whatâs useful and burn the rest.â
from O.R.C.A.
Come melt away the end of winter at O.R.C.A. with some films that look at the technologies of domination. After each screening weâll discuss how we can struggle against this oppressive reality.
3/12 7PM
A Selection of Short Films (~80 min)
A handful of shorter films about how technology is tied up with colonialism, policing, war, and surveillance as well as some of the fight back already taking place. A list of the shorts is at the bottom of this page.
3/19 7PM
Koyannisqatsi (1982, 86 min)
Beautifully shot and scored, this wordless documentary brings us on a emotional exploration of the machinery and relations that make progress and our modern lifeways possible. The title is a Hopi word that can be translated to âlife out of balance.â
3/26 7PM
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace (2011, 59 min)
(Part Two The Use And Abuse Of Vegetational Concepts)
Exploring the parallel rise of ecology and cybernetics this strange documentary calls into question how we apply mfilmechanical thinking to nature and people. If youâve ever compared your brain to a computer this one is for you.
3/19 Short Films:
Tip 3 Organize Offline
How Israel Automated Occupation In Hebron
Berlin Camover
How âSmart Citiesâ Make Us More Watched Than Ever Before
Russian Camover
How Palantir Is Transforming Modern Warfare
Montreal Camover
No Publicar
Embrace Robophobia
What is Direct Action?
from O.R.C.A.
Bring some Black Radical literature, take some Black Radical literature. Come through to O.R.C.A on Saturday Feb. 28th from 4 â 6 pm. for a literature swap. Stay and chat about what text you brought, took and/or are currently reading. Left over books will be donated to the O.R.C.A library. Please wear a mask + mask will be available
from O.R.C.A.
Can you believe itâs been two years? Come celebrate O.R.C.A. with us! Weâll be screening some short films, hanging out with the heat on, enjoying some music and snacks, and raising money for the space with a raffle with cute prizes! Canât wait to see you all there!
from O.R.C.A.
A group of Philly anti-war activists turned burglars broke into an FBI office and made off with documents. They exposed the bureauâs notorious COINTELPRO and never got caught!
1971 follows up with them decades later and goes into how they planned the action and how their break-in changed the way we understand surveillance today.
Witness what is possible when a dedicated group of people decide to take on the feds, against a backdrop of Phillyâs radical and progressive movements and cultures during the 60s and 70s.
(80 mins)
from O.R.C.A.
A screening in its entirety of a 3 part series imagined and narrated by anarchist Author Peter Gelderloos (How Nonviolence Protects the State, The Solutions are Already Here: Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below) and brought to life by anarchist video media collective subMedia.
Part 1 of Itâs Revolution or Death explores the lies that corporate green energy companies are feeding us and speculates on just how bad things will get if we continue on the current course.
Part 2 examines movements around the world by interviewing participants resisting giant ecologically destructive projects in Wetâsuwetâen Territory in so-called Canada, The ZAD in Notre-Dame-de-Londres in France*, and farmland in the north of territories controlled by the state of Brazil that have been reoccupied by the Landless Workerâs movement and turned into massive organic farming projects providing both food and housing.
Part 3 brings it all home by bringing 3 simple suggestions to newer anarchists or just anarchists who donât already live near one of these big ecological movements. Urgent Suggestion #1: A complete and Total Rejection of All the Institutions Responsible for This Disaster. Urgent Suggestion #2: Pick a Project of Transformative Survival and Urgent Suggestion #3: Connect your project to a revolutionary web of solidarity.
This series was designed to be screened in communities and start or continue the difficult conversations weâll all have to have about making our communities more resilient in the face of worsening climate catastrophe. Run time is about 80 min.
from O.R.C.A.
A film screening, presentation and discussion about Chris Markerâs film The Sixth Side of the Pentagon.
Chris Markerâs film The Sixth Side of the Pentagon (25 min) documents a massive anti-war demonstration in October 1967. During the demonstration, anarchists fought the military and briefly broke into the pentagon. The presentation will explain how anarchists prepared and planned together for this action.
from O.R.C.A.
Tuesday, September 16th
6pm
O.R.C.A.
Join comrades coming from Los Angeles for a report back and Q&A discussion about ICE resistance, from rapid response networks to tactical observations. 
from O.R.C.A.
âThis documentary takes a look at hacking in the place where technology and activists meet. Where the need to circumvent state surveillance and surveillance capitalism is grave. Where people see an unfair system in society and find a way to hack it. This is the true hacker habitat.
In direct opposition to banks, corporations and entrepreneurs who appropriated the words âhack/hackathonâ, the film aims to fill these expressions with the subversive and anarchist tradition they originally contained. Delivered in chapter form, this film shows hacker projects and system hacking from Japan, Cuba, occupied Western Sahara, Belgium and Sweden. These chapters are intertwined with thought provoking interviews where hackers talk about the ethics behind what they do. Furthermore, the film mirrors these ideas in a discussion with the political theorist Emma Goldmanâs writings. Filmed under the 2010s it provides an unique insight into a global political hacker movement.â
