Wooden Shoe Temporarily Closing

  • March 18, 2020 1:46 am

from Instagram

The Wooden Shoe is temporarily closing due to growing public health concerns in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. As anarchists we assert that in times of crisis people have the capability of taking voluntary action, both collectively and individually, to mitigate the risks posed by an outbreak such as this. We understand it is imperative to slow the spread of contagion to lessen the chance of the catastrophically unprepared healthcare system becoming overwhelmed. It is in the spirit of these concerns that we make this decision. However, we are also aware that state and government forces are more than willing to exploit crises by abusing tools like quarantines and other states of exception. This often comes at the expense of the most vulnerable, especially those detained and imprisoned in overcrowded jails, prisons, and concentration camps. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and critically and encourage all to do the same. We apologize to all of those in the community who rely on this space.

Protected: Post Removed

  • March 17, 2020 3:13 am

This is a password protected entry.

Financial Support For Food Not Bombs Chapters

  • March 17, 2020 2:44 am

from Facebook

For those who can help us with financial support, we greatly appreciate it! All funds go directly into getting supplies we don’t get donated. Help us out if you got the funds!

https://cash.app/$NPFNB

from Facebook

In this crisis time, Food Not Bombs Solidarity needs to do more.
In addition to our free meal, grocery, and produce distro on Thursdays, we serve 4 shelters on Saturdays.
We need to boost our food supplies (already low) and add cleaning stuff to our distro.
We want to support a community in need #ServeThePeople
So we set up a Cash App, this is a first for us!

$FNBSolidarity

PLEASE SHARE WITH YOUR NETWORKS

Philly ABC Events Postponed

  • March 14, 2020 9:31 pm

from Twitter

We are postponing the Legacy Ball and this month’s letter writing. Please go to prisonersolidarity.com/ and write someone, strike a conversation and make a friend. We will announce a new date for the show when things settle down ????????????
Image

Neighbors helping Neighbors: Request For Aid – Philly Mutual Aid for Folks affected by COVID-19

  • March 14, 2020 9:22 pm

from Google Docs

Though COVID-19 is only just beginning to impact our city many of our neighbors have already been affected. This means we need to show up for each other. Especially for those who are at great risk.

If you would like food or other supplies dropped off at your door, need prescriptions picked up, transportation assistance please use this form.

How this works: When a request for aid is made we will go into our network of community members who have offered services ranging from delivering groceries/medicine, providing transportation assistance, donating money etc and we match the person who made the request with the people/people who can provide support.

We are simply neighbors helping neighbors. The aid provided comes from community support and solidarity thus we cannot guarantee to meet each request but we will be trying our best to do so . We are not funded, we are not a government or medical agency, we are simply neighbors connecting neighbors to neighbors who can help (and we happen to be organizers).

We are prioritizing those most vulnerable and affected by COVID-19 : the sick, disabled, quarantined without pay, those limited in work, undocumented, queer, Black, Indigenous, and or people of color.

Philly mutual aid update!
First over 100 people have filled out the form offering services and support! Keep sharing, sharing.

Second, here is a form for folks who need to request services.
http://bit.ly/phillymutualaidcovid19request

How this works: When a request for aid is made we will go into our network of community members who have offered services ranging from delivering groceries/medicine, providing transportation assistance, donating money etc and we match the person who made the request with the people/people who can provide support.

The important disclaimer: We are simply neighbors helping neighbors. The aid provided comes from community support and solidarity thus we cannot guarantee to meet each request but we will be trying our best to do so . We are not funded, we are not a government or medical agency, we are simply neighbors connecting neighbors to neighbors who can help (and we happen to be organizers

We are prioritizing those most vulnerable and affected by COVID-19 : the sick, disabled, quarantined without pay, those limited in work, undocumented, queer, Black, Indigenous, and or people of color.

We know that some of the most affected and most high risk people may not have access to the internet so please make sure to these point resources to those folks. We’re depending on people to be good faith actors. Don’t request help if you don’t need it. Please, we are trying to help those who need it.

If you would like to become a part of the support network and provide support services to those affected by COVID-19 fill out this form http://bit.ly/phillymutualaidcovid19 and we will connect you with some one in need of assistance.

Thank you to the rad folks at the Seattle area Mutual Aid Solidarity Network for making the request form inwhich this form was modeled after.

*This form was created by Tamara Baldwin on March 12, 2020
Managed by Tamara Baldwin (tblj1234@gmail.com), Rianna Salm (mlsnnr3@gmail.com) and Tab (tabsk@protonmail.com)

Wooden Shoe Events Update

  • March 13, 2020 8:00 pm

from Facebook


Dear friends of the Wooden Shoe,In the past week, we have had a number of event cancellations due to coronavirus-related concerns. We will keep you posted when these are rescheduled. In the meantime, we do a have a few events coming up in the next week at the Shoe. See below for more info.

Also, please check out this local mutual aid resource: Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Philly Mutual Aid for folks Affected by COVID-19: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLScfKlHLhLMEyXyLFN…/viewform

Love and rage,
The Wooden Shoe collective

* * *
Sunday March 15th, 7 pm
Live show & reading with That Bastard, Lexi Spino, OK Mistakes, & Jane-Rebecca Cannarella

A gathering of emotional misfits and anarchists just wanting to have some fun while sharing some words and music

That Bastard aka Tony Strouse aka degenerate from York, Pa. Musician, punk, rambler, ready to scream and scrap. Don’t feed him after midnight

Lexi Spino is a poet from York, PA currently on tour for her newest book release The Electra Complex. She writes on mental illness and suicidal tendencies to bring awareness and help connect to others who may be struggling with the same.

OK Mistakes is an Acoustic folk pop duo originally from York PA and now one half lives in Philly. They sing about love, death, and not much else.

Jane-Rebecca Cannarella is a writer living in Philadelphia. She is the author of the flash fiction collection Better Bones and the poetry chapbook Marrow (both Thirty West Publishing House). She is also the editor for HOOT Review and Meow Meow Pow Pow Lit. She enjoys cats and playing the piano and cats who play the piano.

Thursday March 19th, 7 pm
The Story Hole: Planting Seeds

Take a break from all the hand-washing and get ‘em dirty with us at The Story Hole: Planting Seeds starring Vernon Payne and Katherine Williams! Join us to hear and share stories of new ideas, perspectives, journeys, and plans taking root…or rotting in the pot. Open mic spots will be available.

Vernon Payne is a comedian and storyteller from Brooklyn, NY. He got his start in Albany, NY in 2009 and has gone on to perform at the Emerging Artist Festival “Teenage Love” and “Hilariously Mediocre,” Union Hall, Under St Marks Theater, The Duplex, New York Comedy Club, The Duplex, and other Venues along the east coast. He has also written comic strips for “Spaz Comics.” Vernon’s brand of comedy is set to make you think about the word we live in while laughing at the same time. You can find him on social media as cool_ass_ vern.

Katherine Williams is a Philly-based storyteller, stand-up comic, and writer. She is a two-time winner of the Moth’s StorySlam. She has performed in festivals all over the country, including the Boston Comedy Festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Laughing Skull Comedy Festival and Philly’s Phunniest. She was a finalist in the 2014 Ladies of Laughter competition and She-Devil Comedy Festival. Notable NYC productions include Williams’ full-length play My Dead Mother is Funnier Than You, which got a shout-out on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and two solo shows: Call Me (selected for Midtown International Theatre Festival and Plus One Solo Show Festival) and sold-out hit of the New York International Fringe Festival, SHIKSAPPEAL: Getting the Chosen to Choose Me, which garnered a mention in the New York Times and New York Post. Her work has been reviewed by Show Business Weekly, The Jewish Daily Forward, and nytheatre.com. TV appearances include AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live and online credits include Morgan Spurlock’s series Failure Club and BADMomLife, in which Williams discusses life as a new mom.

The Story Hole is Philly’s shameless monthly storytelling event blending curated and open mic spots. It’s a free show: free to get in, free to say what you want (except bigotry). Come, dump your stuff, and let shit go.

Send questions and pitches to thestoryhole215@gmail.com. Now accepting pitches for April 22 “Oops” and May 21 TBD.

Hosted by Moth-champion and Risk! podcast alum, Vara Cooper. For more about Vara, visit varacooper.com

Friday March 20th, 7 pm
Reading w/ Kirwyn Sutherland & Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey

Kirwyn Sutherland is the author of Jump Ship, published by Thread Makes Blanket Press in 2019. He is a Clinical Research Professional and poet who makes poems centering the black experience in America. He is a Watering Hole fellow and has attended workshops/residencies at Cave Canem, Winter Tangerine, Poets House, Philadelphia Sculpture Gym, and Pearlstein Art Gallery at Drexel University. Kirwyn’s work has been published in American Poetry Review, Blueshift Journal, APIARY Magazine, The Wanderer and elsewhere. Kirwyn has served as Editor of Lists/Book Reviewer for WusGood magazine and poetry editor for APIARY Magazine. Kirwyn is currently teaching Spoken Word/Poetry Performance at the University of the Arts.

Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey is an Iowa based spoken word poet that has performed in multiple cities in over half a dozen states, including Chicago and New York City. He is a winner of the Des Moines Poetry Slam, the Iowa City Poetry Slam, and finalist for the UNESCO City of Literature Global Slam – Iowa City. Caleb is the author of two books, Look, Black Boy, and Heart Notes along with publications in Best Emerging Writers in Iowa 2019, the Little Village, and Black Art; Real Stories.

* * *
For updates and more info: http://woodenshoebooks.com/calendar.html

Neighbors Helping Neighbors: Philly Mutual Aid for folks Affected by COVID-19

  • March 13, 2020 7:42 pm

from Google Docs

This for members of the Philly community to offer skills, resources,supplies, space and time to community members who are affected by COVID – 19 and those most vulnerable among us.

Though COVID-19 is only just beginning to impact our city many of our neighbors have already been affected. This means we need to show up for each other. Especially for those who are at great risk (the elderly, the immunocompromised, those with chronic illnesses, those with little to no access to health care)

How can you care for your neighbor?
Can you pick up groceries or medication for people who it’d be a great risk for them to do so themselves?
Can you help provide transportation for folks. Via your own care or maybe hooking someone up with septa passes (new or unused)?
Are you an herbalist who can make immune system boosting drinks? Can you share recipes?
Could you provide temporary housing to someone in need? (Many colleges are closing their campuses for the semesters and some students do not have homes to go to or meal plans to rely on)
Maybe you have board games or toys that can be loaned to families with children who are affected by COVID-19?
Could you connect with local food banks to provide meals for those in need?

To request aid please fill out the Neighbors helping Neighbors: Request For Aid – Philly Mutual Aid for Folks affected by COVID-19
http://bit.ly/phillymutualaidcovid19request

*This form is managed by Tamara Baldwin and was created on March 11th, 2020*

Any questions or concerns, email : tblj1234@gmail.com

[Fill out the mutual aid form by following this link]

COVID19 AND THE PA DOC

  • March 13, 2020 7:30 pm

from Dreaming Freedom | Practicing Abolition

From: Wilson, Stephen

Date Received: 03/12/2020 06:22 PM

Subject: COVID19 AND THE PA DOC

For the past two days, the PA DOC has finally thinking about the coronavirus and how to protect prisoners from it. Only over the past two days! Announcements have been played over the prison television station reminding prisoners to wash our hands frequently and cover our coughs. The usual mandatory co-payment for medical services has been suspended for those with flu-like symptoms. A post up relating what COVID19 is and how it is contracted is circulating too. Lastly, the monthly van and bus visits have been cancelled. We are anticipating a possible lockdown too.

But here’s the thing. We, prisoners, are already quarantined. The only way we will contract the virus is if one of the employees of the PA DOC brings it inside. We have repeatedly stated this to staff. All these precautions they put in place are to keep prisoners from spreading the virus to one another. What are they doing about the only avenue for the virus to get inside? What are they doing to insure their staff don’t infect us? Because if the virus gets inside, we are done. When anyone on the block gets a cold, almost half the block ends up with it. We are crammed together in cells, on blocks and in rooms. Our ventilation system is the worst.

What is more ironic is how here, at SCI-Fayette, prisoners are not given adequate time to clean their living space. Once a week, 32 cells are given 15 minutes to clean their entire cell. The prisoners must share 1 mop, 2 brooms, 2 spray bottles and one toilet brush. 15 minutes! How are we expected to keep clean living spaces with with less that 30 seconds a piece to clean up? It makes me wonder how concerned is the DOC about our health. Moreover, we are prohibited from possessing any cleaning materials or supplies. And now there’s COVID19.

The PA DOC has to put on a show of concern for prisoners’ health. If there were truly concerned, they would allow us to clean ourselves and our living spaces thoroughly. If they were truly concern, they wouldn’t make prisoners choose between hygiene products and a co payment for medical services. A prisoner must work 40 hours to cover the cost of a sick call visit and a prescription for ibuprofen. If they were truly concerned about our health, we wouldn’t be housed next to over 400 acres of coal ash dust. But as usual, when disaster strikes, prisoners are an afterthought.

I hope that people understand how vulnerable prisoners are in situations like this one. We need people to advocate for responsible health services for all prisoners, even when there is no pandemic. .

In Struggle,

Stevie

A-Space Events Suspended

  • March 12, 2020 10:47 am

from Twitter

open hours and all other events at the A-space are suspended for the next 3 weeks (at least) #coronavirus

Twitter and Instagram Links Updated

  • February 26, 2020 10:42 pm

From here on out we will be linking to Nitter and Bibliogram instead of Twitter and Instagram. Both Nitter and Bibliogram are privacy oriented websites that allow a user to see a Twitter or Instagram page without being tracked by those companies, seeing ads, or having scripts run. Nitter and Bibliogram will also make browsing easier for anyone using TOR Browser or trying to access Instagram without logging in. If you prefer to see a post on the original social media site it was posted to both services provide links to the original post or user.

If anyone knows of a similar service for Facebook let us know.

-Philly Anti-Cap

Rail Sabotage in Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en and Land Defenders

  • February 24, 2020 10:59 pm

Submission

This week we used copper wire to disrupt rail traffic on two different tracks here in occupied Lenapehoking. Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en nation, and all those blockading and sabotaging the economy and the state.

They are trying to extinguish our spirits. Keep a strong heart. Keep your heart burning bright. Reconciliation is dead, insurgency is alive!

Reflections on Black Bloc, White Riot Today

  • February 23, 2020 10:46 pm

from Facebook

Author AK Thompson in conversation with Kim Kelly

This year marks the tenth anniversary of AK Thompson’s classic book Black Bloc, White Riot. Join AK Thompson and Kim Kelly for a lively discussion to consider what has changed—and what hasn’t—since the book was first released. How have street-level political confrontations evolved in the Trump era, and what can we learn from our past? Come find out on March 1st!

AK Thompson got kicked out of high school for publishing an underground newspaper called The Agitator and has been an activist and social theorist ever since. Currently a Professor of Social Movements and Social Change at Ithaca College, his publications include Sociology for Changing the World: Social Movements/Social Research (2006),Black Bloc, White Riot: Anti-Globalization and the Genealogy of Dissent (2010), Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle (2016), Spontaneous Combustion: The Eros Effect and Global Revolution (2017), and, most recently, Premonitions: Selected Essays on the Culture of Revolt (2018). Between 2005 and 2012, he served on the Editorial Committee of Upping the Anti: A Journal of Theory and Action.

Kim Kelly is a freelance writer and organizer based in Philadelphia. She is currently the labor columnist for Teen Vogue, and her writings on labor, politics, and culture have appeared in the New Republic, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Pacific Standard, and many others. She is a proud member of and councilperson for the Writers Guild of America, East, and has been active in multiple organizing and contract campaigns (including serving as a worker-organizer for the VICE Union) since 2015.

[March 1 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM at Wooden Shoe Books and Records 704 South St]

LAVA SPACE Benefit: Moor Mother, Pinkwash, Soul Glo, FOD !

  • February 22, 2020 10:28 pm

from Facebook

They’re back! More details soon! But here are the lineups:

FEB. 29/6pm
*****************
F.O.D.
Soul Glo
Manikineter
OOLOI
Disappearances

MARCH 1/6pm
*******************
Moor Mother
Pinkwash
Camp Candle
Rainbow Crimes
Kahlil Ali

We ask for $10 each day. If you have to give less, or what to give more, we feel ya! All proceeds go to LAVA Space so they can pay fees and taxes after battling to get the space back.

No homophobes, transphobes, racists, misogynists. Seriously, not just “no jerks”; we are tired of your abuse, so stay away because it won’t be cute for ya.

[LAVA Space 4134 Lancaster Ave]

Anarchy Afternoons: Unistʼotʼen Camp

  • February 18, 2020 6:13 pm

from Facebook

During this week’s open hours, we are going to be watching short films about the Unistʼotʼen Camp.

To our north, this month has witnessed an explosion of actions intended to “shut down Canada” with blockades of rail lines cancelling passenger service trains across the country and paralyzing freight shipment. In the cities, protests have blocked streets, highways, and bridges. The present wave of resistance can be traced to the Unistʼotʼen camp’s decade-long battle against proposed pipelines in unceded Wetʼsuwetʼen territory. We will watch films and discuss this history to get a clearer picture of what has been happening.

For more information on recent events: https://itsgoingdown.org/from-sea-to-sea-train-blockades-colonialism-and-canadian-rail-history/

3:00 open hours
4:00 films

[February 21 3-6pm at A-Space 4722 Baltimore Ave]

Fred Arena, Vanguard American Member and Unite the Right 2 Planner, Sentenced to Six Months

  • February 17, 2020 10:08 pm

from It’s Going Down

[This post only contains information relevant to Philadelphia and the surrounding area, to read the entire articles follow the above links.]

Fred Arena, a member of Vanguard America and a co-planner of Unite the Right 2, was sentenced to six months for lying to the FBI about his membership in the group in order to obtain a security clearance.

In January 2019, Arena applied for a security clearance as part of his job as a security contractor at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. According to a Department of Justice press release, Arena was “required to disclose whether he had ever been a member of an organization that used (or advocated the use of) force or violence to prevent others from exercising their constitutional rights. He falsely answered that he had not.”

In June 2018, Arena was doxxed as a member of the neo-Nazi organization when antifascist infiltrators leaked the event’s planning chats to Unicorn Riot. In the chats, Arena repeatedly discussed his capacity for violence, his links to and in a public Facebook post, endorsed a statement from Andrew Anglin associate “Ludovici Alibi,” saying that “The only answer to Antifa is Atomwaffen,” (a neo-Nazi group linked to five murders in the US) adding “Absolutely agreed! And a few other crazy fucks like myself!! HAIL VICTORY!”

In private chats with an antifascist infiltrator posing as a neo-Nazi, Arena claimed that he and other Vanguard America members were planning on hiding weapons in the Charlottesville park, should the permits be granted, and said he was organizing a group of Vanguard American, Hammerskins, and Atomwaffen members to attend.

“At a minimum I would have a shield, a really good stun gun. A medium-sized padlock tight on the end of a handkerchief makes it a very good weapon,” Arena told an antifascist infiltrator whom he believed to be a fellow member of the Unite the Right 2 security team via Facebook, where he used the pseudonym “McCormick Foley.” After Arena’s bail hearing in October 2019, journalist Nick Martin posted prosecution exhibits to Twitter.

A motion for pretrial detention notes that Arena had a history of threatening witnesses, including one Charlottesville resident whom he believed to be a federal informant. “During their investigation, agents also learned that Arena made online and verbal threats against two women with whom he had failed relationships…. In both cases he threatened to sever intimate parts of the women’s bodies and store the parts in a jar,” prosecutors argued in a motion for pretrial detention.

Though Arena faced up to 20 years in prison, he was sentenced to only six months, with two years supervised release.

Though This Week in Fascism does not endorse imprisonment (or the criminal justice system as a whole), as a collaborator of this author noted, this is disappointing because the length of prison sentences is often a shorthand for the importance with which society views a given issue.

Though some will celebrate Arena’s sentence as a victory of the state, it is anything but. It was antifascists, not federal investigators, who exposed Arena’s affiliations.

Even though Arena was interviewed by the FBI in August 2018 after he was doxxed by antifascist activists as a member of Vanguard America, he was allowed to keep his job at the Philadelphia Naval Yard for fourteen more months, and for 10 months after applying for a security clearance.

This is the failure of the State, and the degree to which it does not treat seriously the threat of fascism and white nationalism. The need for antifascists is greater than ever. We keep us safe!