Aid & Abet News

Sharing Our Stories: Exhale Tour to Build a Pro-Voice Movement

Isaac Lev — 2013-03-15T21:31:21+00:00

This February, Exhale, an Oakland-based nonprofit organization craeted by and for women who have had abortions, hit the road to build a Pro-Voice Movement with students around the country on their Sharing Our Stories Tour. The tour visited 13 schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Chicaco and Milwaukee, connecting to over 400 students.

Most known for their national, multilingual after-abortion talk line (the #1 referral of Planned Parentood), Exhale has a decade of experience generating conversations about abortion that are based in real, lived experiences. Pro-Voice Movement is essentially about creating space for intentional listening and sharing stories about abortion without a political agenda. Rooted in nonviolence, it aims to ransform the culture around abortion from one of stigma and shame to one of support and respect. As Exhale fellow Ronak Davé writes, "Being Pro-Voice is about storytelling and listening, and it is also about recognizing strengths. Yours and others."

All in all, the tour was a huge success, and a transformative experience for both the audiences and the speakers. As Natalia Koss Vallejo, one of the Exhale fellows on tour writes, “Going on tour has defied all of my expectations. I really didn't expect that sharing my story this much would actually change the way I feel about it. Nine years after my abortion I thought that I had already processed everything there was to process. I was wrong. Between crafting my story, writing draft after draft, rehearsing it, and finally telling it out loud, I have had to rehash this narrative dozens of times over. This has brought new insights and unexpected emotions. I thought that those old feelings had crystallized with time, cemented in my psyche, unchanging and permanent. I'm trying to take this surprising rush of new thoughts and feelings and use it as creative fuel through this amazing process.”

You can learn more about the tour here.

Bay Area Radical history Project Kicks off February 28 at The Holdout

Jen Angel — 2013-02-11T19:22:34+00:00

We'll be partnering with The Holdout, an Oakland social center, to promote a series of events exploring local radical history.

It probably goes without saying that knowing the history of where you are is important. Our second, but equally as important goal (and the goal of much of our work!) is to move things off of the Internet, and create contexts where people are encouraged to relate to each other face to face. In person. Like, they might have to have actual conversations and things!

Here is the full announcement, and you can find updated details at https://bayarearadicalhistory.wordpress.com/

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In February 2013, The Holdout and Aid & Abet will launch an ongoing series of talks on recent San Francisco Bay Area Radical History, covering 1980 to the present.

The series will kick off on February 28 and will be every other Thursday through May, and then continuing monthly. The presentations will be a mixture of panels, short films, and speakers. Specific details on each presentation will be listed as they become available.

All events unless noted are at The Holdout, 2313 San Pablo Ave, Oakland CA.

Complete Schedule

Thursday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. - History of Dissent in SF
Trace the vital history of political dissent in San Francisco with Chris Carlsson, using the FoundSF collection to connect past movements with today's. RSVP on Facebook.
Thursday, March 14, 7:00 p.m. - Join us in supporting a related event at 518 Valencia in San Francisco, "BUILD TO RESIST" with Linda Evans (All Of Us Or None), Josh Harper (SHAC7), Azadeh Zohrabi (Hunger Strike Coalition), and Jenny Esquivel (Sacramento Prisoner Support).
Thursday, March 28, 7:30 p.m. - AIDS/Queer organizing ('80s and '90s) - organized by Kate Raphael
Thursday, April 11, 7:30 p.m. - Anti Nuclear Movement- organized by David Solnit
Thursday, April 25, 7:30 p.m. - 1989 Anarchist Gathering "Without Borders" - organized by Mike E
Thursday, May 9 , 7:30 p.m.- 1990 Anti War Organizing (Desert Storm) - organized by Eddie Yuen
Thursday, May 23, 7:30 p.m. - 1990 Redwood Summer / Earth First / Forest Defense -Redwood Summer, a summer of civil disobedience actions organized out of base camps in 1990 in the forests of Northern California, was Earth First!'s first foray into mass organizing, and changed the course of the Headwaters Forest Campaign and other grassroots forest defense campaigns. It also took place in the context of the FBI targeting of Earth First!, the bomb attack on Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney and the hotly factional "Timber Wars" as timber corporations cut their workers out of their jobs. This presentation is organized by Karen Pickett, with Earth First! since 1983 was one of the Bay Area organizers of these forest campaigns and worked closely with Judi Bari throughout that era.
Thursday, Jun 6, 7:30 p.m. - 1990s Housing Struggles - organized by James Tracy and Fernando Marti
Thursday, July 18, 7:30 p.m. - TBA
Thursday, August 15, 7:30 p.m. - TBA

This series will continue monthly! If you would like to organize a presentation, please contact Jen.

Also, we would love to cross promote other history-related events! Please let us know and we'll post them.

The Right Profile: Trevor Aaronson Booking Spring Dates on FBI Targeting of Muslim Communities

Mike McKee — 2012-12-06T19:05:35+00:00

After exposing the FBI's "manufactured war on terrorism" in his award-winning 2011 Mother Jones article, "The Informants", Trevor Aaronson has continued to explore the troubling policy of surveillance and entrapment directed at law-abiding Muslim communities. His new book, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism (Ig Publishing, January 2013), investigates how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than 15,000 informants. The primary purpose of this network is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the bureau can then claim victory in the War on Terror. This winter, spring and early summer, Aaronson is setting out to spread the word to audiences, live, throughout the United States.

Trevor Aaronson is an investigative journalist who specializes in the intersection of national security and civil liberties. He is the co-founder of Florida Center for Investigative Reporting and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, and has won more than two dozen national and regional awards, including the Molly Prize, the international Data Journalism Award and the John Jay College/H.F. Guggenheim Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting Award. He is also a two-time finalist for the prestigious Livingston Awards.

He has been featured on national and international broadcasts including NPR’s All Things Considered, C-SPAN's Washington Journal, This American Life, Democracy Now!, Al Jazeera and RT.

Trevor is a seasoned speaker and prepared to talk about topics such as....

Are We Catching Terrorists Or Creating Them? How the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice uses informants, many of them crooks and conmen, to lure hapless men into terrorism sting operations, raising questions about entrapment, ethnic and religious targeting, and civil liberties.
Privacy in an Age of Surveillance: Surveillance technology intended to prevent a terrorist attack is now being turned on law-abiding U.S. citizens, threatening the personal privacy of every American.
Ethnic and Religious Profiling: Since 9/11, the FBI has recruited a network of 15,000 informants. Many are tasked with infiltrating U.S. Muslim communities, and their widespread use has resulted in a minority community whose leaders believe it is constantly under siege.
Ethics and Standards in Investigative Reporting: Trevor has won more than two dozen national and regional awards for his investigative journalism and co-founded the nonprofit Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, a leader in collaborative reporting.

Interested in hosting Trevor for an event in your town or university campus? Contact Mike at Aid and Abet with your requests or ideas. Trevor is an absolute road warrior, aiming to visit all areas of the country, from coast to coast and in between.

Urban Farming is Not a Crime: Get the Dirt on Novella Carpenter

Mike McKee — 2012-11-21T04:38:07+00:00

While the Bay Area garnered headlines throughout the 1990s as an epicenter of unconventional food distribution thanks to Food Not Bombs, in more recent years, the focus has shifted to unconventional food production--or, perhaps, it's more accurate to say hyper-conventional food production. That's right, getting your food the old fashioned way: growing it.

Few in the movement have emerged as prolific, outspoken and recognized a voice as Novella Carpenter, proprieter of Oakland, California's Ghost Town Farm. Having started with little more than a squatted abandonned plot, Novella has grown her project into the fully fuctioning farm named for the neighborhood it calls home. She was already a key name in the region's urban farming scene in 2011 when the City of Oakland attempted to make an example out of her farm, ostensibly unlicensed to sell surplus food to her neighbors and customers. Instead of spelling the end of Ghost Town Farm, the incident propelled Novella and her work to even greater prominence as a lightning rod for the movement.

Her best-selling Farm City: the Education of an Urban Farmer and co-author of the Essential Urban Farmer remains a go-to resource for those just picking up the hoe now in their own city. This spring, Novella will be stepping away from the farm for a number of in-person speaking engagements exploring how her farm and its bounty interact to enrich her blighted neighborhood, sharing some handy, high-brow cooking tips along the way. In this context, abstract issues of food justice and farming act as immediate forces in each of our lives with enormous transformative potential.

Dates along the west coast are being organized now, so if you'd like to see Novella come speak in your town, or for more information, contact Mike today!

Building a Pro-Voice Movement: Exhale Tour on Abortion Stories

Isaac Lev — 2012-11-12T23:29:24+00:00

This February Exhale, an Oakland-based organization created by and for women who have had abortions, will set out on college campuses to connect with students, professors, and health staff to transform culture around abortion from one of stigma and shame to one of support and respect.

These women have shared their stories publicly on MTV, the BBC, and New York Times, and will be traveling across the United States to talk with young people about what we can do to create more social acceptance for the one-in-three women in America who will have an abortion in their lifetime. The tour is part of Exhale's work to build a Pro-Voice Movement to create space for intentional listening and sharing stories about abortion without a political agenda.

If you would like to bring this tour to your campus, email Lev.

Sharing Our Stories: Exhale's National Pro-Voice Tour, Spring 2013 from Exhale on Vimeo.

About Exhale

Most known for their national, multilingual after-abortion talk line (the #1 referral of Planned Parenthood), Exhale has a decade of experience generating conversations about abortion that are based in real, lived experiences. From Glamour Magazine and MTV to CNN and the New York Times, Exhale continues to find new, creative ways to talk personally about abortion and transcend the politics of the day.

About the Tour

This year, Exhale has partnered with women who have shared their stories publicly on MTV, the BBC, and New York Times in order to talk with young people about what we can do to create more social acceptance for the one-in-three women in America who will have an abortion in their lifetime.

Exhale is launching a speaking tour to bring pro-voice dialogue to college campuses. The idea for this tour comes directly from women who have had abortions and are ready to share their stories and talk face-to-face with other young people.

Using Exhale’s proven model for pro-voice conversation, these young leaders will share their stories, engage students in interactive exercises, and teach the basics for pro-voice communication that give students new tools and ideas for how support people who experience abortion. Changing campus culture is just one step to a broader cultural climate of support and respect for each person’s unique experience with abortion.

The tour will take place in Spring 2013 and aims to connect with leaders who shape campus culture, especially students, staff of campus health centers, and resident advisors. The goal is create connections with campus leaders.

About The Speakers

Kassi Underwood's essays, book reviews, and author interviews have appeared in The New York Times, TheAtlantic.com, The New York Daily News, Exhale's Pro-Voice Blog, The Rumpus, Publishers Weekly, and The Days of Yore, among other publications. She is working on a memoir about her quest for post-abortion therapies and cultural rituals. She lives in New York City with her partner, Travis, and their Beagle named Bug.

Kate Hindman is a Political Science major at Cuesta Community College in San Luis Obispo. Raised in Los Angeles, she was always drawn to reproductive issues, and after the election in 2008, really honed in on her beliefs and life goals in this area. She is currently an Exhale talk-line counselor. She hopes to one day make political documentaries.

Mayah Frank is an adventurer and guide by trade, a student and an activist. She has passion in her soul to seek justice and equality for all living things.

Natalia Koss Vallejo is a feminist activist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2011 she appeared on a television program called No Easy Decision, broadcast internaonally by MTV, on which she spoke about the importance of de-stigmatizing abortion and supporting women through this common experience. She is currently working on an undergraduate degree in Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Ronak Davé is a graduate student at Tufts University in Boston, MA, pursuing a dual M.A./M.S. Master’s degree in Urban Environmental Policy and Planning, and Food Policy and Applied Nutrition. Her graduate work focuses on health disparities and the intersections of the built environment, health, and sociopolitical inequities. Ronak was recently awarded the Alvin Levin Fellowship by the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, and the Robert P. Guertin Student Leadership Award from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, both for her leadership in and dedication towards social change.

Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair 2013: March 16-17

Jen Angel — 2012-11-05T17:38:00+00:00

When I lived in Ohio, every couple of years I would travel to San Francisco to go to the Anarchist Book Fair. Coming from a region where there weren't very many political bookstores or spaces, it was awesome to be able to see all the people and books and things that I could only look at over the Internet, all in one place. These kind of large convergences (as well as past conferences like Active Resistance and the National Conference on Organized Resistance) and the opportunity to meet an interact with new people have been so essential to my development.

I've lived in California since 2006, but it's only in the last year that I've been able to paricipate in organizing the fair. Last year I helped with the Cafe - an annual fundraiser held the night before the book fair, which also provides a social space for all of the out of town visitors to interact. This year I'm working on the book fair organizing committee, which mainly means dealing with a lot of logistics of where and how the book fair will happen! This year this is a venue change, which I am hoping will make it easier and more accessible than previous years, and it is also allowing us to lower vendor fees. When does that ever happen?

More info is below, and I hope to see you in SF in March 2013!

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The 18^th annual San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair will be March 16 and 17, 2013.

For the first time, the book fair will be held at The Armory Community Center, located in San Francisco’s Mission District at the corner of 14^th Street and Mission.

The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair is a free two-day event presented by Bound Together Bookstore.

Each year, the book fair brings together over 75 radical booksellers, distributors, independent presses, and political groups from around the world, and features books, pamphlets, zines, art, crafts, and information. The two-day fair includes dozens of speakers, panels, and workshops as well as an art show. Previous vendors and speakers are listed on the website.

Vendor applications and pricing for tables are now available. This year, for the first time, we will be featuring a craft area for handmade and non-book items. To receive a table application, please email abookfair@yahoo.com, or check the news page.

Authors and activists interested in speaking at the book fair should email abookfair@yahoo.com.

The Facebook event page is here.

Bill McKibben’s 20-city Fall Tour, “Do The Math”

Jen Angel — 2012-09-20T23:59:07+00:00

This Fall, Bill McKibben and 350.org will be are planning an impressive educational tour to urge action on climate change. The tour, titled "Do The Math," is based on McKibben's recent Rolling Stone article, "Global Warming's Terrifing New Math."

From the 350.org website: "It’s simple math: we can burn 565 more gigatons of carbon and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. The only problem? Fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons in their reserves, five times the safe amount."

McKibben will be touring the US with a cast of notables, including Josh Fox of Gasland.

We've been working hard on booking the venues and helping with logistics. So far, the tour dates are as follows:

Seattle, WA 11/7
Portland, OR 11/8
Berkeley, CA 11/9
San Francisco, CA 11/10
Palo Alto, CA 11/10
Los Angeles, CA 11/11
Portland, ME 11/13
Boston, MA 11/15
New York, NY 11/16
Philadelphia, PA 11/17
Washington, DC 11/18
Durham, NC 11/19
Atlanta, GA 11/20
Columbus, OH 11/27
Chicago, IL 11/28
Madison, WI 11/29
Minneapolis, MN 11/30
Omaha, NE 12/1
Boulder, CO 12/2
Salt Lake City, UT 12/3

Find all the details and buy tickets at: http://math.350.org

Filmmakers Bring Palestine-Apartheid Comparison to East Coast Campuses

Mike McKee — 2012-09-14T22:01:42+00:00

Are there lessons to draw from the South African experience of Apartheid relevant to conflicts all over the world? The new documentary "Roadmap to Apartheid" explores these connections as they exist in the enduring Israel-Palestine conflict. As much an historical document of the rise and fall of apartheid, the film shows us why many Palestinians feel they are living in an apartheid system today, and why an increasing number of people around the world agree with them.

Throughout late September and early October, filmmakers Ana Nogueira and Eron Davidson will be traveling the NE Corridor and New England for special presentations of this film, including a Q&A session. While the engagements are largely being held on universities campuses, most are open and free to the public.

Watch the trailer.

Check out a screening and discussion of the film near you...

Sept 26 - Burlington, VT @ University of Vermont

Sept 27 - Waltham, MA @ Brandeis University

Sept 28 - New York, NY @ NYU Hagop Kevorkian Center

Sept 29 - New Haven, CT @ Yale U St Anthony Hall

Oct 1 - New York, NY @ Hunter College

Oct 2 - New York, NY @ Columbia University

Oct 3 - Newark, NJ @ Rutgers University

Oct 4 - Syracuse, NY @ LeMoyne College

Oct 5 - Troy, NY @ Sanctuary for Independent Media

Oct 8 - New York, NY @ Brecht Forum

Best African Short Stories: African Violet

Isaac Lev — 2012-09-09T20:03:12+00:00

African Violet, a compilation of stories from the 12th annual Caine Prize for African Writing, is our first endeavor into fiction writing. The Caine Prize has been called "The near-infallible early-warning system for new African talent," and reading this year's collection, we can see why.

The book starts with a punch from prize-winner Rotimi Babatunde:

The old jailhouse on the hilltop had remained unihabited for many decades, through the construction of the town's first grammar school and the beginning of the house-to-house harassment from the affliction called sanitary inspectors, through the laying of the railway tracks by navvies who likewise succeeded in laying pregnancies in the bellies of several lovestruck girls, but fortunes changed for the building with the return of Colour Sergeant Bombay, the veteran who went off with the recruitment officers to Hitler's War as a man and came back a spotted leopard.

Babatunde will be in residence at Georgetown Universisty in Washington, DC this fall, and available for interview.

You can read all about the book at the New Internationalist website, and the press release is below. If you'd like a copy to review, email Jen.

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African Violet

The Caine Prize for African Writing 2012

Published by New Internationalist

US Publication date: September 2012

$16.95

256 pages / Paperback

ISBN 978-1-78026-074-7 print; ISBN 978-1-78026-075-4 ebook

African Violet is the 2012 Anthology of The Caine Prize, Africa’s leading literary prize, which The Guardian calls, “Small nuggets of African gold. A revelation.” Hailed as the predictor of critical contributions to the field, former Caine Prize writers include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Leila Aboulela, Helon Habila and Binyavanga Wainaina.

This year’s winner is Rotimi Babatunde’s “Bombay’s Republic.” Bernardine Evaristo, the Chair of Judges, says, “‘Bombay's Republic’ vividly describes the story of a Nigerian soldier fighting in the Burma campaign of World War Two. It is ambitious, darkly humorous and in soaring, scorching prose exposes the exploitative nature of the colonial project and the psychology of Independence.” Babatunde will be in residence at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, this fall.

This year’s anthology consists of five shortlisted stories fromthe Caine Prize entries, selected from 122 entries gathered from 14 African countries:

Rotimi Babatunde (Nigeria) Bombay's Republic from 'Mirabilia Review' Vol. 3.9 (Lagos, 2011)
Billy Kahora (Kenya) Urban Zoning from ‘McSweeney’s’ Vol. 37 (San Francisco, 2011)<
Stanley Kenani (Malawi) Love on Trial from ‘For Honour and Other Stories’ published by eKhaya/Random House Struik (Cape Town, 2011)
Melissa Tandiwe Myambo (Zimbabwe) La Salle de Départ from 'Prick of the Spindle' Vol. 4.2 (New Orleans, June, 2010)
·Constance Myburgh (South Africa) Hunter Emmanuel from ‘Jungle Jim’ Issue 6, (Cape Town, 2011)

The anthology also includes ten short stories produced at the Caine Prize Workshop held in South Africa in March 2012. Workshop participants featured in the anthology are: Mehul Gohil, Grace Khunou, Lauri Kubuitsile, Beatrice Lamwaka, Brenda Mukami, Tendai Rinos Mwanaka, Waigwa Ndiangui, Yewande Omotoso, Rehana Roussouw, and Rachel Zadok.

Last year the Caine Prize was won by Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo. She has subsequently been awarded the highly regarded two-year Stegner Writing Fellowship at Stanford University and her debut novel, We Need New Names, is forthcoming from Little, Brown in North America and Chatto and Windus in the UK. Follow Caine Prize on Twitter (@CainePrize), Facebook and www.caineprize.com.

The New Internationalist is an independent not-for-profit publishing co-operative. We publish the New Internationalist magazine and a range ofbooks covering current affairs, world food, fiction, photography and ethical living. Follow New Internationalist on Twitter (@newint), Facebook and www.newint.org.

For further information about the anthology, to schedule an interview with Babatunde, or to request a review copy, please contact: Jen Angel, Aid & Abet, (510) 910-5627, jen@aidandabet.org.

Sept 12, New York City: Chris Hedges debates Crimethinc on Diversity of Tactics

Jen Angel — 2012-08-16T15:16:43+00:00

We've been working for quite some time to get this event off the ground, and we're finally ready to make the announcement!

This debate is important - and worth having outside of the Internet. Please help spread the word to friends in and near NYC so they can attend in person, and stay tuned for a livestream link.

Occupy Tactics: Violence and Legitimacy in the Occupy Movement and Beyond
A Debate between Chris Hedges and the CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective on Tactics & Strategy, Reform & Revolution

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 7:00 pm
 Free admission

Proshansky Auditorium 
Lower level, CUNY Graduate Center
 365 Fifth Avenue (@ 34th street) 
New York City, NY 10016

Not in NYC? A free livestream of the event will be available online. Link TBA.

Why a debate?

Since Occupy Wall Street took Zuccotti Park in September 2011, there has been a resurgence of social movement activity in the United States. As momentum has increased, age-old questions over tactics, strategy, and goals have returned to the fore.

What is violence? Who gets to define it? Do illegal actions have a place in our movements? This discussion never takes place in a vacuum or on a level playing field; rather, it occurs within the context of a struggle that is already in progress, where every statement has immediate ramifications for the participants. Differing tactical approaches often reflect fundamental differences in strategy and goals.

At the core of these issues is the question: What are we fighting for and how do we get there?

This moderated debate will feature:

Chris Hedges, Journalist  - Chris Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies. He will speak to the perspectives behind his controversial article “The Cancer in Occupy” regarding black bloc tactics and anarchist participation in the Occupy movement.

B. Traven, CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective  - B. Traven will support the case for a diversity of tactics in the Occupy movement and in broader anti-capitalist struggles worldwide, illustrating an anarchist critique of the status quo and a vision of social transformation. CrimethInc. has produced many books and articles, including “The Illegitimacy of Violence, the Violence of Legitimacy,” composed in part as a response to Hedges’ “The Cancer in Occupy.”   Moderated by Sujatha Fernandes, CUNY Graduate Center Sujatha Fernandes is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Queens College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She is the author of several books on urban politics and culture; the latest is “Close to the Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation” (Verso). She has written about the Occupy movement and recent global uprisings for The New York Times and The Huffington Post.

Opening remarks by Sarah Leonard, Dissent Magazine  - Sarah Leonard is an editor and writer living in Brooklyn, with particular interest in Left politics and the cultural effects of technology. She is an editor of The New Inquiry and N+1, Associate Editor at Dissent magazine, and a co-editor of Occupied!: Scenes from Occupied America.

Download posters and handbills to promote the event: 
Poster: Color : B&W 
Handbill: Color : B&W

Co-sponsored by: CUNY Graduate Center, CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective, Aid & Abet, The Sparrow Project, Occupied Media, The Indypendent, PM Press, Bluestockings Bookstore

For more information:  www.crimethinc.com/occupytactics