Comprehensive List of Everything That Ever Was, and Is:

Art and Music

ABC No Rio

One of the last few active signifiers of the radical roots of the LES…you know, before that hotel up on Ludlow went up. But it’s best not to romanticize the past or to get into the discussion of the causes of gentrification (or to talk about gentrification and the LES. Ever. Again). But anyway, a space that has a computer lab, a ‘zine library, a darkroom and a silk-screening lab. Hosts punk shows, poetry readings, and art exhibitions. Is the space out of which Books Through Bars and Food Not Bombs operates.

http://www.abcnorio.org/

156 Rivington St. between Suffolk and Clinton Streets (After a 26 year battle with the city ABC finally acquired the rights to the building this year.)

Anthology Film Archives

Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video with a particular focus on American independent and avant-garde cinema and its precursors found in classic European, Soviet and Japanese film.

32 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003 USA
Telephone: (212) 505-5181
Fax: (212) 477-2714

Art for Change

The AfC office is located at:

Art for Change

131 East 101st, Suite #1

New York, NY 10029

Tel: 212.348.7044

E-mail: info@artforchange.org

The Brecht Forum

The Brecht Forum offers a wide-ranging program of classes, public lectures and seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops, and language classes.

451 West Street

(212) 242-4201

http://www.brechtforum.org/

Carlitos Café y Galería

1701 Lexington Ave (bet 106-107st)

New York, NY 10029

tel: 212.534.7168

www.carlitosny.com

The Empty Vessel Project

A Salvaged WWII rescue boat in the Gowanus canal! Hosts work parties, movie nights, seminars, concerts, dinners, and workshops.

http://www.emptyvesselproject.org/

info@emptyvesselproject.org

DUMBA

“The DUMBA Queer Performing Arts collective, is the oldest and largest live in non-profit arts collective in the Brooklyn NY, solely devoted to the contemporary art practices of the queer community”. Typical events include contemporary art exhibitions, live music shows, performance art, benefit dinners, movie screenings, political/activist meetings etc.

57 Jay Street, Brooklyn

718 858 4886

http://www.myspace.com/dumbacollective

Rooftop Films

Rooftop Films is a non-profit film festival and production collective that supports, creates, promotes, and shows daring short films worldwide and in a weekly summer rooftop film festival. Rooftop Films is more than a film festival; above all, we are a community. We are a collective collaboration between filmmakers and festivals, between audience members and artists, between venues and neighborhoods. Our goal is to create a vibrant independent filmmaking community that bridges cultural boundaries. At Rooftop Films, we bring the underground outdoors.

http://www.rooftopfilms.com/

232 Third Street, Studio E103

Brooklyn, NY 11215

(718) 417-7362

New Mindspace

Newmindspace is interactive public art, creative cultural interventions and urban bliss dissemination based in New York and Toronto. We also organize custom events.

(http://www.newmindspace.com/index.php)

Nuyorican Poets Cafe

The mission of the Cafe is to create a multi-cultural venue that both nurtures artists and exhibits a variety of artistic works. Without limitation, we are dedicated to providing a stage for the arts with access for the widest public. The Cafe's purpose has always been to provide a stage for the artists traditionally under-represented in the mainstream media and culture; promoting their work while building an audience and providing an ongoing support system for them as they grow. Our organization provides cultural programming to the whole of our community.

236 East 3rd Street

 New York, NY 10009

212-505-8183

www.nuyorican.com

The Living Theater

“To call into question, who we are to each other, in the social environment of the theater… To move from the theater to the street.” 

and from the street to the theater.” Hosts performances, theater workshops. 

http://www.livingtheatre.org/

productions@livingtheatre.org

Toyshop Collective

“Artists transforming the physical and social structure of their environment.” The art collective Swoon is associated with.

http://www.toyshopcollective.com/

swoon@nycmail.com

Visual Resistance

‘We aim to explore the spaces where art and activism interact and help develop a visual language for political action.’ Most recently, the group organized a benefit gallery show for Daniel McGowan. I think they are also responsible for the ghost bike memorials put up for fallen cyclists as well.

visualresistance@gmail.com

http://visualresistance.org

Nonsense List

‘A discriminating resource for independent art, weird events, strange happenings, unique parties, and senseless culture in New York City.’

http://www.nonsensenyc.com/about/

Bikes –

Black Label Bike Club

Not scotch, tall bikes.

http://www.blacklabelnyc.com/

Freecycle

Times Up!

A self-described “not-for-profit New York City-based direct-action environmental group that uses events and educational programs to promote a more sustainable, less toxic city.” Really, its primary focus is bicycling (got sued by the city for promoting Critical Mass, nonetheless). Check the website or stop by their space to pick up a calendar for a comprehensive list of events (rides, bike maintenance nights, movie screenings, parties, barbeques, etc).

http://www.times-up.org/

49 E. Houston St., between Mott and Mulberry (though this maybe changing in the near future as the building may or may not be going up on the housing market).

Critical Mass

Manhattan -

Last Friday of every month

Union Sq North, 7pm

(for the saga that has been the Manhattan Critical Mass after the RNC, read the back entries of www.bikeblog.blogspot.com)

Brooklyn –

Second Friday of every month. 7pm.

Has two meeting places: Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Side of the Williamsburg Bridge

http://nybma.com/

NY Bike Messenger Association. The website is a great resourse for anyone riding a bike in nyc.

http://www.bikeblog.blogspot.com/

Good internet resource of bike happenings in NYC.

Recycle A Bicycle

“an innovative, fun youth training and environmental education initiative that has taken root in New York City public schools and respected after-school youth programs.” They also run two shops that sell used bikes, and have basic mechanic training in their DUMBO location.

DUMBO (Main Office): 718-858-2972; 55 Washington Street, Brooklyn.

East Village: 212-475-1655; 75 Avenue C.

http://www.recycleabicycle.org/

Transportation Alternatives

Has been round since 1973, working to encourage ‘bicycling, walking and public transit as alternatives to automobile use, and reduce automobile use and its attendant environmental and social harms.’ The website is a great resource within itself, including maps, crash statistics, cycling tips, bridge tips and bike shop listings.

http://www.transalt.org/

212-629-8080

127 West 26th Street, Suite 1002.

Books -

Bluestockings Books

An incredibly well organized and staffed (regular hours! What?!) radical bookstore (with a strong feminist lean) & cafe. Hosts events (mostly readings and discussions) almost every single day. Check website or stop by the store for a full list.

http://www.bluestockings.com

172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington

MayDay Books

An anarchist bookshop (I think the only one in NYC that identifies as being explicitly anarchist) that rose out of the ashes of Blackout Books. Overall, I find it to be a bit cheaper than Bluestockings but also; less organized (you’ll have more luck stopping by in the afternoon).

www.maydaybooks.net

155 1^st Ave. Located in the Theater for the New City (which created a weird, and often tense dynamic when I volunteered here a while ago, and is probably still a problem. By the way, volunteering here or at Bluestockings is a great way to meet likeminded people, if you are just getting into the city).

Housing Works Books

New and used books and volunteer café. Has a small music section as well. Proceeds go towards housing and medical services for those living with HIV.

126 Crosby Street

http://www.housingworks.org/

Vox Pop

‘Vox Pop is a coffee-house, a bookstore and a publishing company.’ Often hosts events as well (event listing available at the store and on the website). Apparently, there is a nice selection of microbrews on tap? ($14 Pitchers, $12 64 oz. (!) Growlers to Go)

1022 Cortelyou Rd.

718 940 2084

http://voxpopnet.net/

Education –

Brooklyn Free School

Radical free school with a curriculum put together by the students. No grades or tests.

contact@brooklynfreeschool.org.

http://www.brooklynfreeschool.org/

(917) 715-7157

City Lore

City Lore was founded in 1986 to produce programs and publications that convey the richness of New York City’s cultural heritage. Increasingly our many efforts embrace national audiences as well. (http://www.citylore.org/)

The New Space

The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education (New SPACE) is a new anti-capitalist educational project dedicated to developing and advancing ideas for liberatory social change. Together with the new movements for global justice, we believe that “another world is possible” — a world free from the domination of capital and free for the flowering of human powers and talents.

new-space@mutualaid.org

1 (800) 377-6183

The New SPACE, P.O. Box 19,

Planetarium Station, NY 10024

http://www.new-space.mahost.org/

NYC CORE

A collective of radical educators. Has open events about the militarization, standardized testing in NYC public schools and the criminalization of youth.

http://www.nycore.org/

info@nycore.org

Libertad School Collective

“an autonomous group of revolutionary dreamers striving to create social change through educational direct action: artistic projects, film screenings, group projects, shows, skill shares, study groups, workshops, and whatever else inspires us!”

http://www.impassionedinsurrection.info/libertadskool/Libertad%20Skool%20Collective!.html

Food –

Freegan

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

http://freegan.info/

Food Not Bombs

Vegan food in Tompkins Sq. Park,

Friday and Sunday 3.30 pm.

Food is prepared at ABC No Rio after 1pm, Friday and Sunday.

Grub

community-building meals, 1st & 3rd Sundays of every month.

hosted by The Toyshop Collective and the In Our Hearts Collective at

338 Flushing, at Classon, Brooklyn

http://www.toyshopcollective.com/grub.html

Just Food

“Just Food is a non-profit organization that works to develop a just and sustainable food system in the New York City region.” NYC CSAs.

212.645.9880

www.justfood.org

Gardens and Parks –

More Gardens

‘The More Gardens! Coalition is a group of community people, gardeners, and environmental and social justice activists who promote the development and preservation of community gardens.’ From what I gather, most of their work is done up in the Bronx. Meetings every 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 7 pm

At 376 E162nd Street between Melrose and Courtland

Call 917 518 9987 to confirm

http://www.moregardens.org/

Green Guerillas

Has been around since 1973 and works with communities to create, maintain, and preserve community gardens. With the real estate situation in NYC, I am guessing they are doing much more preserving than creating these days.

http://www.greenguerillas.org/

214 W. 29th St. 5th Floor
(212) 402-1121

info@nycgreen.org

Edith Garden

Free computer classes, workshops and food. Not sure on how active this place remains though. More Gardens would probably know.

836 Elton Ave, the Bronx

LES Park

Compost, greenhouse, grey water system, solar energy area.

1^st street and avenue A, Manhattan

Nuevo Cabo Rojo

The 4^th reincarnation of the Cabo Rojo garden.

162^nd and Cortland avenue, the Bronx

East 6th Street Garden

Has an amazing towering structure made out of wood scraps, children’s toys and other fun stuff.

E 6^th and Avenue B, Manhattan.

East 9^th Street Garden

Has a pretty fence and beautiful decorations made out of soda cans. Across the street from a shiny police precinct, and in close proximity to C-Squat (which is by definition a co-op actually).

East 9^th street and Avenue C

Health Resources –

StreetWorks NYC

Food, showers, counseling, needle exchange, medical & legal services for homeless youth (13-24).

33 Essex St between Hester and Grand.

646-602-6404

http://www.safehorizon.org/page.php?page=homelessyouth

Dispossessed Network

An anarchist collective helping homeless (by choice and otherwise) youth gain access to social services in NYC.

http://www.dispossessednet.mahost.org/

dispossessednet@mutualaid.org

1-800-MY-YAHOO -
voice box: URBAN NOMAD (872-266-6623)
(Please leave a message and a way to contact you back)

The Door

Provides prenatal care and health education, mental health counseling, legal services, GED, ESL, computer classes, tutoring and homework help, college preparation and computer classes, career development services and training, job placement, daily meals, arts, sports and recreational activities for people ages 12-21.

www.door.org

212-941-9090

555 Broome St btwn Varick and 6^th

The Icarus Project

An alternative support network for those struggling with bipolar disorder. “We believe that when we learn to take care of ourselves, the intertwined threads of madness and creativity can be tools of inspiration and hope in a repressed and damaged world.” Meeting are held every Tuesday from 6:30 to 8:30pm at the 6th Street Community Center at 638 6th st between Avenues B and C.

http://theicarusproject.net/

info@theicarusproject.net

MANY – Medical Activists of New York

Can help with referrals to activist friendly health care professionals in the event of on-going illness or injury. Also I am not sure whether or not ‘activist friendly’ means cheap. They may or may not still be doing street medic training.

http://www.takethestreets.org/

nycmedics@lists.riseup.net

1-888-744-7856

New York Council for Nonviolent Communication (http://nycnvc.org/)

NYC AIDS Housing Network

A membership organization comprised and led by low-income people living with HIV/AIDS working in a unique coalition with nonprofit housing providers and AIDS service organizations.

80A 4^th Ave, Brooklyn.

718-802-9540

http://www.nycahn.org/

NYC STD Clinics

A list of clinics operated by the Dep’t of Health that do free and confidenitial STD screening.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/std/std2.shtml

Planned Parenthood

Brooklyn - 44 Court Street (between Remsen and Joralemon Streets)
(FREE pregnancy tests available Tuesday – Friday (except not on the first Wednesday of the month from 1:30 pm onward); Walk-ins welcome for emergency contraception Tuesday – Friday.

Manhattan – 26 Bleecker Street (at Mott Street)

(FREE pregnancy tests available Tuesday – Saturday, 12:30 – 4 PM (except not on the first Tuesday of the month from 1:30 pm onward); Walk-ins welcome for emergency contraception Monday – Saturday.

Bronx – 349 East 149th Street at Courtlandt Avenue.

(FREE pregnancy tests available Tuesday – Saturday (except not on the last Wednesday of the month from 8 AM to 1:30 PM); Walk-ins welcome for emergency contraception Monday – Saturday.

Storm NYC

A medical collective that used to offer two hour half and safety trainings for street medics. Not sure if they are still active though.

stormnyc(at)stealthisemail.com

http://www.freewebs.com/stormnyc/aboutus.htm

Yoga For the People

“Yoga is meant to help strengthen and stretch your arms and legs, not cost you one!” Sliding scale yoga classes.

12 Saint Marks Place, 2 nd Floor ~ 2-R

http://www.yogatothepeople.com

917.573.YOGA (9642)
info@yogatothepeople.com

Legal –

People’s Law Collective

An NYC anarchist legal collective. Provides advice and legal support.

CANT TRACK DOWN INFO. Is this still active?

National Lawyers Guild

“Through its members–lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers and legal workers united in chapters and committees–the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.” Largest organization of its kind in the US. The website itself is a pretty good resource.

212 679-5100

http://www.nlg.org/

Prisoner Support -

Books Through Bars

“an all-volunteer project which sends free books and reading material to prisoners nationwide.”

Meets every Sunday from 5:00 to 8:00pm and Tuesday from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

at ABC No Rio, 2^nd floor.

http://www.abcnorio.org/affiliated/btb.html

Critical Resistance

A nationwide group working against the Prison Industrial Complex.

The NY Chapter holds open Political Education meetings on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Call 718-398-2825 for more info.

http://www.criticalresistance.org/

National Jericho Movement

A group working towards winning amnesty and freedom for these political prisoners.

http://www.thejerichomovement.com/

718-220-6004

nycjericho@riseup.net

Different things you may want to get involved with –

APOC-NYC

Anarchist People of Color, NYC Chapter. Not sure on the activity level, no website, there is a listserv.

http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/apoc-nyc

Estacion Libre

“Estación Libre was formed January 1, 1998, in recognition of the political importance for People of Color to see and understand the principles and strategies of the Zapatista movement while contributing to international solidarity. Since 1998, Estación Libre has conduced 16 delegations in Chiapas.”

http://www.estacionlibre.org

e-libre@riseup.net

Fur Free NYC

(http://furfreenyc.org/)

In Our Hearts Collective

Hosts monthly community dinners, dumpster tours, and other events, former organizers of the Brooklyn Free Store (RIP).

inourhearts@gmail.com

IWW

NYC branch of the IWW. Mostly focused on the Starbucks campaign currently. There are active meetings every few weeks, contact jdcrutch@mindspring.com for more info, or stop by Mayday and ask about it.

http://www.iww.org/en/branches/US/NY/nyc

MAMA

“MAMA is a grassroots collective of radical mothers and kids. MAMA’s members include working-for-pay mamas, stay at home mamas, mamas of color, poor mamas, mamas looking for work, former teen mamas, mamas that have used government assistance, mamas who unschool, mamas whose kids are in public school, single mamas, queer women, partnered mamas, and girls and women who aren’t mamas.”

mamariseup@yahoo.com
212-714-4725

NYMAA

New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists. A budding loose network of anarchists in NYC. I think there is a plan for an anarchist bookfair in the works. There are General Assemblies every two months, and more frequently meeting local & working groups as well.

http://nymaa.org

http://www.freebrooklyn.net/ – future website of the Brooklyn local.

Queer Fist

Born after during the RNC, the organization tackles a ‘variety of causes, such as police brutality, public space, radical visibility, trans identity, and doin’ it! We also engage social issues around queer sexualities and queer genders seeking to undermine the assimilation of the LGBT community into conservative consumerist culture.’

www.queerfist.org (the website seems pretty inactive)

info@queerfist.org

Workers Solidarity Alliance

Syndicalist Group. “Workers Solidarity Alliance is an anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian organization of activists who believe that working people can build a new society and a better world based on the principles of solidarity and self-management.”

212-979 8353
wsany@hotmail.com

NYC and Activist Recourses -

http://historyisaweapon.org/

Bombs and Shields

http://bombsandshields.blogspot.com/

Stories of resistance. Heavy on the environmental stuff, with a general anarchist lean.

Infoshop

http://www.infoshop.org/

Not NYC specific, but is a good anarchist resource, including the anarchist FAQ.

NY Independent Media Center

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/index.html

NYC Craigslist

http://newyork.craigslist.org/

End all resource of everything. From apartments, to legal employment, to bikes, to sex work.

http://overheardinnewyork.com/

IMPORTANT.

NYProtest listserv

(http://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/nyprotest)

Straphangers

Subway information. In the maps section you can imput an address and it will tell you how to get there.

www.straphangers.org

Paper Tiger

‘Through the production and distribution of our public access series, media literacy/video production workshops, community screenings and grassroots advocacy PTTV works to challenge and expose the corporate control of mainstream media.”

http://www.papertiger.org/

(212) 420-9045

info@papertiger.org

Radical Reference

‘Radical Reference is a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality. We support activist communities, progressive organizations, and independent journalists by providing professional research support, education and access to information.’ Started as a response to the RNC, has an actively meeting NYC chapter.

info@radicalreference.info.

http://radicalreference.info

Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives

At New York University’s Bobst library on the 10th floor, this archives houses probably the largest collection of radical American history in the country! Amazing collection of anarchist, socialist, communist, feminist, black, native, and labor movement histories.

70 Washington Square South, 10th Floor

212-998-2630

The flyer from the infamous GF town hall meeting with Dean Lee in 2004

The Charismatic Moment of the GF has passed.”

-Dean Lee

Do YOU agree with this?

Would you like to ask him what he meant?

Come hear Dean Lee answer questions about his “new progressive vision” for the GF.

-What that means for us, our education, and the controversial new faculty hiring procedures

-Find out details about the $10 million grant from the corporately funded Starr foundation.

-Ask questions about our building move out of 65 5^th Ave, and what that will mean for concrete concerns such as study space, computer rooms and our crowded classrooms.

Did you not know about these things? Find out what Dean Lee’s plan is to increase transparency so we will know what is happening WHEN it is happening.

Ask anything you want to ask! This is our opportunity to be heard.

The backpage of an old Canon issue, when the Graduate Students of Color Network fought for more classes on race and ethnicity at the New School

This flyer comes from an old Canon issue, when students were advocating for Gender Studies at the GF.

Stealing Your Education at Columbia:

A User’s Guide to a Free Education in New York City

Disclaimer

You don’t need go to a university to get an education. In fact, it may not even be worth your time. Universities are corporations that sell stale, cut-rate ideas at a swindler’s price. They dress up the shabby, broken-down old ideas they sling by glossing them up with a thick layer of “prestige.” But a shitty car with a new coat of paint is still a shitty car. They’ve become so good at convincing us that their product is necessary that people eagerly line up to drive their lemons (and are thrilled for the opportunity.)

Some people will say, however, that universities are actually packed with radical professors spouting revolutionary new ideas. Granted, there are some smart professors with interesting things to say, and it’s worth your time to get whatever useful information you can out of them (which is why this pamphlet exists.) But don’t be fooled by these so-called “radical” academics. If they’re so radical, why do they spend all of their time writing books and sitting in their offices? Writing and reading and sitting around should support radical activity, not substitute for it. “Radical” professors, like all professors, are just intellectual bureaucrats without the courage to pursue a radical course of action, no matter what their ideas may be. Like all professionals, they’ve sacrificed their humanness for the supposed perks (more like curses) of a middle-class life. Approach them with caution.

Power, Privilege, and Prejudice

Universities, especially Ivy League schools like Columbia, are elitist institutions steeped in exclusivity. They are traditionally places that foster white privilege, male superiority complexes, and ardent Euro-centrism, among other prejudices. Nowhere is this more obvious than in their admissions policies. Students who are admitted to Columbia have generally gone to private schools, had SAT tutors, been advised on their applications by trained college counselors, and received innumerable other advantages showered on the children of the upper class and the very lucky. Clearly, this is completely fucked up. Education should be free and accessible to everybody, not the exclusive property of any class, caste, or selected group.

The obvious solution is to take it. Reformist movements have made significant progress in prying open the doors to higher education to a broader group, but the basic elements of elitism remain. Education is still a commodity that is bought and sold, or, if you’re lucky, given as charity. Neither option is truly acceptable. Education—the process wherein human beings interact constructively to create greater understanding—should not be owned by anyone, whether they chose to give it away to a select few or not. With this in mind, the term “stealing” takes on a new meaning. The world rightfully belongs to all of us and it is for all of us to use as we desire. When a few jerks declare that they have a monopoly on a particular type of human interaction, such as education, you should keep two things in mind: 1) they’re lying, you can do whatever they claim to own without their stamp of approval and probably better than they can, and 2) they have as much a right to make such a claim as you do (which is to say, none), they just have a bigger army than you do. To “steal” your education is just to take what rightfully belongs to you anyway.

Naturally, there is a hierarchy of power and privilege when it comes to stealing too. Expensively dressed white kids can get away with things that other people can’t. This guide is designed for everyone, but some people will find it easier to pull off some things than others. No one should have a problem sitting in on classes, otherwise this guide would be useless. But stealing from the bookstore and other schemes I describe will be more complicated depending on the privileges you may or may not enjoy based on your appearance. Unfortunately, African American and Latino people, and dark-skinned people in general, draw a great deal more attention from campus security guards (almost all of whom are themselves African American and Latino, see how fucking insidious racism is?) Although, again, this should pose no problem for attending classes, it may force you to think more creatively about other things.

One of the advantages of stealing your education in a group is that you can share resources amongst yourselves. White people or other folks who attracts less negative attention can use their privilege to the advantage of their group by stealing items for communal use and can take on the burdens of interacting with security guards and other authority figures. Negative prejudices can also be used to collective advantage. For instance, knowing that the bookstore security guard usually follows African American customers around can create opportunities for a group to work together at the same time, with some members distracting security while the others steal needed items to share later.

Stealing your education is taking direct action against educational injustice. By forcibly democratizing something a few people have stolen from the rest of us and doled out at their leisure (reflecting their prejudices in the process), you are chipping away at their grip on power. And if you think we can do better than what we’ve got now, the more people chipping away the better.

How to Use This Guide

You may decide that all you want to do is go to the odd lecture here and there and do nothing else. And that would be fine. You might learn something interesting and no harm would come of it. But I suggest that you be the proactive go-getter that you are (which is why you picked up this pamphlet) and make the most of this opportunity.

Stealing an education can be an empowering experience if you make it work for you. Instead of just attending random lectures by yourself (and receiving your education passively), find some other people who are interested in doing the same thing and form a study group. As Fanny Lou Hamer said, “The only lesson to be learned from our movement is that three people is better than no people.” Find the courses or lectures that interest you and make a curriculum together. Then, after you’ve decided which classes you want to attend, set aside some time when you can all get together to talk about what you’ve read and heard about.

Many college classes have mandatory “discussion sections” which are usually led by disaffected, bored teaching assistants and filled with unmotivated, bratty students. And they’ve all been forced to read the same thing, whether they are interested in it or not. Unlike these sad creatures, you and your co-thieves may decide that you don’t want to read the book assigned that week, maybe you want to take your conversation in a totally different direction, or maybe you’re all too busy with other things to meet that week. See, you’re stealing back your freedom too! When you start taking control over your own education it stops being a boring obligation that you’ve got to psych yourself up for. A stolen education is something you do on your own terms: as much or as little as you want, within your own parameters, at your own pace, and with people you feel comfortable with.

Stealing your education collectively provides numerous major bonuses. Talking to other excited, motivated people helps you gain perspective, forces you to defend your own thoughts, and usually leads to new ideas you never would have thought up on your own. Studies have shown that people only retain 10% of the information they hear in a lecture. Don’t just passively accept what you hear; instead, use it as a jumping off point to have your own discussions, wherever they take you.

Oftentimes, study groups become the platforms that other things are built on. Sometimes, in the course of conversations, people decide that something needs to be done, and then they go out and do that something together! In this fashion, study groups can become a space where inspiring, radical ideas are born and carried out with the help of willing accomplices. You’ve already stolen your education together. What else could you do together? What else is out there that’s worth stealing, remaking, destroying, or subverting? After all, if the only thing you do is read, it doesn’t matter if you’re reading Frantz Fanon or People magazine. Either way you’re still sitting on your ass.

If this whole scheme doesn’t sound too complicated, it’s because it’s not. All you need is yourself, a desire to educate yourself, and other people with the same desire. Add a university with open lectures (such as Columbia), a public library (to get course books or other books you may become interested in reading), and some creativity. Mix with a little game-planning and serve. Congratulations! You’ve just formed a study group and started getting an education for free! You’re already smarter than the kids who are paying for someone else to do it for them!

The key is to be flexible. Don’t just do the same thing the rest of the students do except without paying. Don’t force yourself to read a boring book just because it’s assigned, and don’t sit through a boring lecture just because it’s scheduled. Customize your education. Mix and match lectures to construct your own syllabus. Allow yourself to read books you discover that sound interesting. Spend hours debating big ideas with your friends, and then write down your thoughts when you’re feeling inspired. That’s what I’m doing right now. This sure as hell wasn’t assigned for any class!

Self-education can lead to amazing surges of creativity that you never thought you could have. Just trust your instincts and set off in whatever direction your mind takes you. Who knows what’ll happen next?

Planning Your Education

As mentioned earlier, attending university classes is a purely optional aspect of self-education. However, classes can be a valuable information resource that may help you find things you want to pursue on your own. Since you won’t be getting a degree (and, really, who the fuck cares about that? If you really ask yourself that question, you’ll probably think of some people you don’t really like anyway, people whose expectations of you have little to do with what you really want for yourself), it’s entirely up to you to decide when you’ve “finished” your university education. A good rule of thumb is to only do something as long as you find it useful. Don’t feel obligated to meet any abstract goals. If you decide you’ve found something better to do, go do it.

If you decide that university classes would be useful for you, the first thing to do is to find that classes that interest you. This is done relatively easily. The easiest way is to go to the admissions office in 213 Low Library (this is the giant domed structure in the center of campus, on 116^th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave, the office is on the left after you walk in the front door) and pick up a course catalogue, which is free. While you’re there you can also go on a campus tour, which is also free, and will help you figure out where things are. Tours are at 11AM and 3PM Monday through Friday except on holidays. If you need any more info call the Visitors Center at (212) 854-4900.

If you’ve got a computer you can also find classes on the Columbia website. From the Columbia homepage (www.columbia.edu), click on “Academic Programs” on the table on the left of the screen. There you’ll find a list of all of the different programs offered by Columbia, undergraduate and graduate programs. Explore these to find out about programs you may be interested in. To most efficiently explore the courses offered by the university, click on the link titled “Directory of Classes” on the right of the screen (http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/). There you can find classes by subject, department, or keyword. Explore to your heart’s content.

When you click on a course that interests you, it’ll tell you when it is, what room it’s in, who the instructor is, and how many people are registered for it. Obviously, these are the vital stats. The words “Day/time” will be followed by something like “MW 10:35am-11:50am.” “MW” means the class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays. “TR” means the class meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually only introductory language classes meet on Fridays.

Once you’ve found a class that interests you, it’s time to get the syllabus. Some classes (usually big classes) have their own websites, which you might find on this page too, and they’ll probably have all the information you’ll need there. Most will not. To get a syllabus online, your best bet is to go to the website of the department that the course is in. There should be something that says “courses” on the department website, and oftentimes the syllabus will be posted online with the course names.

If you don’t have a computer, you can get a syllabus a couple of different ways. The first option is to go to the department office and ask the secretary for it. Have the course number, instructor, and course title ready; they should have it on file, even if the course isn’t being offered that semester (a handy tip: if you find a course that interests you but it’s not being offered when you want to take it, you can get the syllabus and read the books on your own or with your friends.) Another option is to attend the first day of class and get it then; professors almost always hand out the syllabus on the first day of a class. If you can’t make it to the first day, just show up later on and ask one of the other students if you can copy theirs, or ask the professor if you can have a new copy (unless this will attract undue attention to yourself.)

So now you’ve got the syllabi for all the classes you’re interested in. These will be your roadmap to the classes you want to attend. Go to all of them or none of them, it’s up to you. But first, here are something important things to keep in mind about attending Columbia classes.

Getting into Columbia Classes

It’s relatively easy to go to most classes without being a registered student. In most large lecture classes (any class with over 100 people in it), the students are completely anonymous to the professor and absolutely no one will notice if you start showing up or come and go as you please. However, it is highly recommended that you do your best to avoid drawing attention to yourself. Causing disruptions, dressing or smelling outlandishly, reading the newspaper during a lecture, and other attention-getting activities will all work against you. Almost all classes at Columbia have middle-aged and elderly people in them, so you’re presence will not raise any eyebrows. I’d also recommend not speaking in class if you can avoid it. If you just sit there taking notes or listening, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will take notice.

There are quite a few professors at Columbia that will not care and may even encourage you to attend their class regardless of your registration status (there is a list of amenable professors and recommended classes at the end of this pamphlet.) Professors generally love it when students go to their office hours, and you should take advantage of this option too if you feel comfortable (office hours are generally listed on the syllabus or announced in class.) This can be a good way to develop a friendship with a professor which may lead to a more lasting intellectual bond than mere class attendance. Superstar professors and obvious jerks probably will not devote much time to you and may be less excited about your educational approach, so be cautious about who you approach. The same goes for other students. Some of them may think you’re awesome for stealing your education and want to help you out, others may be obnoxious spoiled brats that will try to turn you in. Again, it’s best to feel out the situation as thoroughly as possible and then be sufficiently cautious.

In medium-sized classes (30-100 people), it is likely that during the first class or two the professor will try to take attendance to figure out how many people who are registered for the class have actually shown up. You can usually just sit there without saying anything and not draw any interest, but more attentive professors will ask if you’ve registered. Their primary concern is with how many students they will have to grade and how many discussion sections they will need to create (since classes are given a limited number of teaching assistants.) If you are forced to speak, the best thing to say is, “I’m just sitting in, I’m not taking this for credit” which will almost certainly be fine with them as long as they think you are a student and there is not a shortage of classroom space. This will nullify both of their major concerns. If they don’t want you in the class after you’ve said that, it’s probably best to move on, unless you think you can convince the professor some other way (like meeting with them after class or at their office hours.) To avoid scrutiny entirely, simply skip the first couple of classes.

In a small class (less than 30 people), you’re options are more limited. You will probably be asked by the professor at some point what your deal is. It probably makes sense to get to a small class early on the first day and ask the professor if it’s okay for you to sit-in on the class without taking it for credit. If you tell them that you’re really interested in the class but there is some reason why you can’t take it (like you have a very heavy course load, or something similar; be imaginative but reasonable with your excuses), they will probably be okay with you sitting-in. Sitting-in on very small classes, like seminars, can be tricky though. Some seminars have competitive processes for admission and the professors probably won’t let you sit-in. It is certainly worth asking though. Many seminars are simply unpopular and the professor may be delighted to have another student. This will make it harder to explain why you’re not registered, unless you just show up to one particular class session you want to attend, in which case you should get to class early and introduce yourself to the professor. Explain that you weren’t able to take the full course, but you really didn’t want to miss this one class. They’ll probably be fine with you attending as long as you don’t make yourself a nuisance. Regularly attending a seminar without registering will be harder to explain, but if you strike up a conversation with the professor and they take a liking to you, they probably won’t care, even if you tell them the truth. Who knows, they may even respect you for it.

In all classes, be respectful of the professor and unobtrusive to the other students. Walking into classes late, especially small classes, is a great way to draw an entire room’s attention to yourself. Talking to other students, making frequent comments, or generally screwing around will have the same effect. Remember, the goal is to avoid detection. Behave accordingly.

Don’t take any of the tests or hand in any of the assignments. Tests and homework are stupid to begin with, but it would be a doubly bad idea in this situation. If you want feedback on your work, ask someone whose opinion you trust to go over it with you. Or better yet, develop mutually beneficial collaborative relationships with your co-thieves.

Food, Books, and Other Necessities

Columbia is an expensive place to get a degree and the services at the school and in the neighborhood have been tailored accordingly. The area is almost entirely owned by Columbia, which gentrified it in the 1950s and 1960s by forcibly evicting all of the working class African American and Latino tenants in the neighborhood and moved in a bunch of upscale, yuppie businesses. Consequently, everything in the area caters to the upper-middle class and their children. Services provided by the university itself, such as the bookstore and the cafes, are similarly priced. Fortunately for you, there are ways around this problem.

Food can be obtained from a variety of locations on and around campus. Café 212 is a small deli-type place located in the front part of Lerner Hall (the student center.) They have many different kinds of sandwiches, salads, fruit bowls, smoothies, sodas, and other such items. These are all located in two large refrigerators on your right when you enter from the front. All of these items are easily stolen. The line to pay often stretches far behind the refrigerators themselves and out of sight of the cashiers. It is exceedingly simple to take what you want and simply walk out without being noticed. If the line is shorter and there are fewer people walking around, it is advisable to take whatever you want (most of the sandwiches fit perfectly into a large jacket pocket or slip easily into a book bag), and then get in line to pay. Buy an orange or a banana (50 cents each) and you can easily walk out with a few pockets full of loot. Be aware that there is a camera in the Café and keep your eyes on the staff, but in general no one is watching nor do they care much either way.

Just as useful and not even illegal to take are the free condiments. To your left as you walk in is a large stand with thermoses of free milk, cream, and soy milk, boxes of sugar, salt, and pepper, and unlimited napkins, stirrers, and straws, among other items. Go ahead, stock your kitchen.

Another good spot very similar to Café 212 is the Uris Deli located on the first floor of the Business School (the hideously modern building located behind Low Library.) Although laid out a little less favorably than 212, Uris is almost always busy with many people coming and going. This makes it much easier to slide an energy bar or smoothie into your pocket or bag even if you have to buy the occasional banana to avoid detection.

Slightly trickier but potentially more bountiful is the student dining hall. Located on the first floor of John Jay (one of the freshman dorms), the dining hall is stocked with unlimited supplies of mediocre food. In addition to the prepared food, the dining hall usually has lots of readily available peanut butter, jelly, bagels, bread, lettuce, cereal, soy and dairy milks, coffee, fruits, various deserts, utensils, plates, and trays. Meals are served everyday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for brunch and 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for dinner.

The hard part is getting in. Pretty much the only reliable way to get into the dining hall is to stand by the entrance during a busy mealtime and ask someone to swipe you in with one of their guest meals. You can tell them you forgot your card in your dorm and you’re too lazy to go get it or whatever excuse you like, but the key is to appear normal and unthreatening. Remember, these are probably freshmen you’re talking to and they tend to be timid and easily frightened. It’ll probably take you a few tries before someone says yes, but once you’re in you’re good to go. Bring a large backpack and plenty of containers because you’ll want to load up for the week. It is best to do this as inconspicuously as possible; dining hall management is pretty uptight about students leaving with food.

For a full list of dining locations on campus, helpful maps, and other relevant food info, check: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/dining/

There are plenty of other free food sources in the neighborhood. The Garden of Eden supermarket on Broadway between 108^th and 107^th is a prime New York dumpstering location. They make their money selling immaculate, very expensive food, so that means a lot of edible things get thrown out. The “trash” gets taken out everyday at 9:00 and left on the curb. There are a number of other upscale supermarkets in the neighborhood with similar set-ups, including Gristedes (Broadway and 110^th), D’Agostino’s (also Broadway and 110^th), and Morton Williams (Broadway and 115^th). Needless to say, all of them are chains that exploit the shit out of their workers and charge absurd prices, so feel free to take whatever you like. The employees are generally demoralized and getting out with a few items is usually easy. Keep your eye on the security guard.

Books are also obtainable without the use of money. The Columbia Bookstore, which stocks many of the text books, is owned by Barnes and Noble and is thus fair game. It has the standard corporate set-up: lots of cameras with no one watching them (most of them are pointed at the employees anyway), completely disinterested employees, and minimal security. The store has one security guard that always wears a suit and almost always stands next to the alarm thingy you have pass through when you’re leaving. 9 times out of 10 he’ll wave you through if you set off the alarm. Most of the books will not set off the alarm at the door, but almost all of the computer and electronic items will. A great way to walk out with a bunch of free books is to buy the cheapest Ethernet cable they sell. The Ethernet cables always sets off the alarm, much to irritation of the staff, and you will get waved right though without a bag search.

The best time to visit the bookstore is at the beginning of the semester, especially in the fall. It is invariably packed with anxious students and their parents and the alarm goes off incessantly. Use the chaos to your advantage.

Many of course books, especially in the humanities, are ordered from Labyrinth Books on 112^th St. Labyrinth is a fabulous independent bookstore, easily the best academic bookstore in the city, and in direct competition with the corporate chains. Stealing from there would be a mortal sin. Almost all of the books at Labyrinth are available from the New York Public Library (nypl.org, to find books catnip.nypl.org), so stealing is completely unnecessary anyway. If anything, Labyrinth is the place to shell out for those one or two books you really want to own.

The Rest is Up to You

So now you’re going to classes, reading books, and discussing ideas with your group of like-minded companions, all for free. Where you want to take this and what you hope to accomplish is entirely up to you. Good luck.

But allow me to propose some questions to help you figure out where to go from here. There is not one right answer to any of these questions. Find the one that is right for you, that comes from your own experience and use it as a guide to move forward with your education:

Why does education cost money in the first place? Who benefits and who misses out when people have to pay for education? What opportunities are lost when people have to pay for education?

Who decides what gets taught in classrooms? What gets ignored at most universities? What gets included? What qualifies something to be taught in a university classroom?

Who gets to become a professor or an administrator? How are professor and administrators different from the people who, say, clean the classrooms or work in other parts of the university?

What do you really want to learn? What do you want to teach? What’s useful to you? How? Why?

What makes you want to learn in the first place? How do you learn best? Under what circumstances? In what kinds of interactions? With who? What can you do to create those conditions more often?

What else can you get without paying for it? What are things that you need that you have to pay for? What would happen if you started taking those things? Who else needs those things too? Can you take the things you need together?

What’s stopping you from taking them now? Are there ways to get around the things? Should people be allowed to stop you from getting the things you need? What would happen if there was nothing to stop you?

What would happen if everybody stole their education, like you and your friends? What would happen if they didn’t just steal their education?

What if they stole everything?

Moxie, the feminist organization of the New School, wants new members
(of all genders) to help plan events, play, and envision a campus (and
a world) without sexism and gender constraints! We have diverse views
on what feminism is and are open to your interpretation.

In the past, we’ve hosted our twice-annual film festival, Moxie Masturbation Month, the Vagina Monologues, a DIY Women’s Gyno Health event, and we’ve hula-hooped with OPEN.

This semester, we are continuing to knit blankets for kids in foster homes who come from families with domestic violence; host women-centered, freestyling ciphers with the amazing Toni Blackman and the Institute for Urban Education; and we are planning our first-ever Women Teaching Women Media Conference and are looking for people to run skillshares, organize workshops, or just help out in planning.

Come hang out and help make us who we are!

Campus Resources
What You Need to Know about The New School
NS Provides
Health & Body
Moxie Ladies’ Recommendations…
NS Provides
Safety
Know Your Body: Medical Care in NYC
Events
Members
How To Join
Founding Sisters
Current Leadership
Goodies & Fun
Places to Indulge
FREE
Change the World

Know Your Representatives (Senate, House)
Volunteer
Contact

Campus Resources

What You Need to Know about The New School

Your School, Your Rights.

Important facts to know about NSU

Policy and Conduct

In the student handbook the term Residence Hall means “any building, room, facility or premises owned and/or operated by New School for use as a dormitory…” While resident means (20)

1. Why is this important? Because: “NSU reserves the right WITHOUT A SEARCH WARRANGE”
2. Also, “requires students to comply with any instruction”

Sexual Harassment is possible in any community and althought we all hope to not have to deal with it anywhere, especially in our community which ideally should be a safe space, it is still important to know NS’s policy on it. NS uses the Federual Equal Employment Opportunity Comission’s guidelines for sexual harassment for their faculty, however, because sexual harassment is strictly prohibited by the unicersity they are applied to the community as a whole. “”

NS Provides

What you Get (Mental & Physical Health Services)

NS provides these services FREE OF CHARGE:

Are covered, however your extensive/acute wor- observations, and aid will be added to your account as a student.

While attending NS many people have no idea about the services that are available to them, many of which free of charge thanks to someone’s hard earned pennies. These free or accessible amenities are also things one should know about ot get them through the upcoming year a little less stressed.

Besides the Uni automatically adds these fees to your account, so don’t feel bad. Instead let them help you feel good!

To find out more about what is available, please check out

www.newschool.edu/studentaffairs

Allergy Injections (provided you have the serum)

Birth Control Pills

Morning After Pill (and advice)

Dental Referral Services

HIV/AIDS Referral Services

SAFE Sex/Sexuality Counseling

Health Edu

Student Crisis Counseling

Gynecological Examinations and Routine services

Counseling services with licensed and experience health professionals.

23

Harassment, however, is not limited to sexual harassment, in which case as a feminist, feminist in the making, or plain old person, should know their rights and also as a student of the NS regardless of sexual or gender identitu it is important – Discrimintary Harassment. (Define)

*There are many more rights, policies and guidelines one should know as a student, including how to deal with conduct and harassment, the free exchange of ideas, and so on. If oyu would like to learn more about these things check out

Newschool.edu/studentaffairs/rights/nonacademic.html/#b

Health & Body

Moxie Ladies’ Recommendations…

College tends to be hard on people’s body health. For many people it is a big change with lots of pressure. (And living in NYC * that it’s really hard!) When thinking about this guide some people suggested “mind/body/spirit”, I personally thought about Vegan food and stripping. What I realized is it is really up to each of us to decide our bodies are important and need taking care of whether that be image disorders, sex issues, healthy eating, pumping iron—whatever! Here are some specifics that I know help other Moxistas:

· Lots of good healthy Vegan food! Also potlucks, naked dinner parties, and free food at school events

· Free yoga, dance for credit, shaking booty for life, hula-hooping, biking, discounted iron pumping

· Friend support, getting naked for feminist money (cakenyc.com), deep breathing, daily naps, on our backs

· Hot Pants DIY Gynecology, Our Bodies, Ourselves, The Keeper, Bloodsisters, Burlesque

Ok, so there is my body rant. Talk to any of us about specific questions and let us know if you want to run a body-related Moxie event.

PS: You have a sexy ass.

Women’s Health Hotline: 212-230-1111

NS Provides

While attending NS many people have no idea about the services that are available to them, many of which free of charge thanks to someone’s hard earned pennies. These free or accessible amenities are also things one should know about ot get them through the upcoming year a little less stressed.

Besides the Uni automatically adds these fees to your account, so don’t feel bad. Instead let them help you feel good!

To find out more about what is available, please check out

www.newschool.edu/studentaffairs

Allergy Injections (provided you have the serum)

Birth Control Pills

Morning After Pill (and advice)

Dental Referral Services

HIV/AIDS Referral Services

SAFE Sex/Sexuality Counseling

Health Edu

Student Crisis Counseling

Gynecological Examinations and Routine services

Counseling services with licensed and experience health professionals.

Safety

Keeping Yourself Save! 10 Tips

By Susan Bartelstone, Safetyologist™

1. Avoid Problems. Use common sense and learn what actions and behaviors make you vulnerable to crime by collecting and studying safety information from as many sources as you can find.
2. Early warning avoids problems. Be relaxed but aware of your surroundings. Practice ‘people-reading’ and ALWAYS listen to your instincts. Take action immediately if you sense danger.
3. Don’t look like a ‘good’ victim. Adopt a confident, ‘non-victim’ manner (head up, shoulders back, a brisk firm walk, and a casual alertness) that will deter – defense problems.
4. Be Mentally prepared. Identify at least 5 safety problems in your personal life—ie, coming home late at night, riding the subways, frequent business travel, a burglar breaking into your home when you are there. Formulate a safety plan for such problems and rehearse so you can act quickly and safely if something should happen.
5. Defuse confrontations. Respond with a ‘non-victim’ attitude and act assertively. Don’t beg, plead, cry, or argue. Make eye contact unless the person is high, drunk, acting crazy, or enraged. Practice assertive verbal phrases that can be used to stall for time and/or set up an opportunity to take action.
6. Yelling is a good deterrent. Don’t hesitate to draw attention to yourself or make a scene if you are in a dangerous situation. Attackers are often scared away by noise. Yelling also turns fear into anger.
7. Use strategy if you are trapped. Keep a defensive spray lice Mace or a small fire extinguisher by your bed or in your car, at work, or wherever you feel vulnerable. Try to take the assailant by surprise.
8. Fight to win. If you have no other choice but to fight, strike at the most vulnerable targets—eyes, ears, nose, throat, groin, knees, shin, instep. These targets take the lease amount of strength or ability to hurt. Get angry, yell, and fight as — as you can.
9. Use common objects as weapons. Many weapons can be found in the environment.

http://dearsafetysolutions.com/pdf/bigtenscan.pdf

Know Your Body: Medical Care in NYC

Know Your Body!

Get tested, in NYC everyone should know their status!

Completely free clinic! Get tested for everything from herpes to HIV/AIDS. Get results same day and everyone is super friendly!

NY Department of Health

(Be there early!)

(Call day before to make sure it’s open!)

Gay Men’s Health Center

Testings and counseling totally free!

PS: You don’t have to be gay or even a man to go here!

Gmhc.org

Planned Parenthood NYC

Great place… testing, birth control and pregnancy testing! FREE.

Events

Members

How To Join

Moxie welcomes all feminists and feminists-in-training, from all divisions of The New School. If you are curious about finding out more about us, come to one of our open monthly meetings!

To make it official (and we do need official members!), send an email to moxie@newschool.edu. We will send you an invite to your Yahoo Group, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MOXIE_NSU/

Founding Sisters

MOXIE’s Core Members…

Taryn is a recent lang graduate who is a walking new york college grad cliche’. she lives in brooklyn, drinks on mondays and likes to play on friendster. she slings sex toys and teaches workshops at the awesome establishment toys in babeland instead of looking for a “job-job” in her “craft”, television production. taryn likes swearing and has a real special affinity for nerds, which is great because moxie is full of both.

Allison bear

5th year lang senior, ex-parsons student, flying trapeze instructor, acrobat. likes to wear overalls and eat ice cream. hopes there comes a day when she can stand on one hand for a whole minute.

Ashley Miller, Ashley, otherwise known as Smash or Asslee. Lang Alum, New School employee. Consumes large quantities of tofu and dreams of big muscles. She hasn’t read a damn thing since graduating except trashy lesbian novellas. She listens to talk radio more than to music and prefers board games over bar scenes. Although she has no idea what she will do next, when

she grows up she wants to teach young girls how to fix cars, stick it to the man, knit ties, shake their ass, kick ass, and kill a street

harrasser with their baby toe. The end.

eRiN

aka.keebes

the craziest hula hooper you’ll ever meet…once caught a hoop and started it spinning immeadiately from a rooftop in the village. legs of spring rolls from cheap chinese food joints, stomach of salt and vinegar chips, hair of Velveeta mac and a heart of…..ballantines 40 oz., of course. full of late night giggles, the perfect one for snuggles and reading when it is snowing. throws the best mother fuckin parties at school…..and must have the most talented tongue at school seeing as everybody just keeps comin back for more eRiN.

Mona Weiner, founder of Moxie, graduated from Lang in 2003. She currently teaches early education and finds ways to sneak feminism in as much as possible, be it by placing “Happy to be Nappy” on the bookshelf or by changing to lyrics in “Wheels On The Bus” to include “parents” rather than “mommies.” She is in the process of applying to graduate schools for social work. Mona grew up in New York City but now lives in Williamsburg with her girlfriend Jaime, also a Lang alum. Mona was one of the main organizers of Ladyfest East 2002, which she is still in recovery from. In her spare time, she knits, skateboards, writes about her sordid past, obsesses over “Queer as Folk,” and is creating a photography collective.

Jeana Marie

You can take the girl out of the south…but you can’t take the south out of the girl. education/dance concentration at Lang. wears pearls and obnoxious/fabulous lingerie with reckless abandon. cooks a mean sweet potato pie. strives to teach girls and young women about feminism, safe sex and masturbation. loves herstory, dessert, super spicy food, and burlesque. secret passions include 70s soul music like earth, wind and fire, stilettos heels, rollerskating, booty/harlem shakin, love makin and fierce positive social change.

Andrea

I am a lang graduate, law school bound, fixed gear riding, book devouring, bad spanish speaking, kick yer ass if i have to feminist. I bake the best vegan cinnamon rolls and have conversations on deconstructing gender roles at the same time. I am tired of explaining that feminism is good for everybody. It is. When ya’ll gonna wise up?

Shante’

Shante’ is Lang Senior double concentrating in psychology and writing. She is a bad skateboarding, ear stretching, lip gauging, meat eating, music junkie, hooping (not basketball), book reader with wanderlust and poet tendencies. Also a sneaker obessed, mesh hat wearer with smelly tunnels. When she’s not modifying the body or possibly falling on it she wants to save the world one disenfranchized community at a time and has a top*secret 12 year revolution plan.

Current Leadership

Harmony

Richenda

Shen was raised by baby boomers to only listen to authority when it has a point—not when it’s just throwing its weight around. She came to Lang to study creative writing and ended up embroiled in Moxie, the music program, and Seminar Fellows. To keep up momentum, she sticks to her allergen-free diet (gluten, soy, egg), and reads a mixture of intricate scifi/fantasy and trashy romance novels. She is your CyberMistress and you shall bow before her and lavish praise upon this fabulous website! Savvy?

Vered

Goodies & Fun

Rainy day? Try some of MOXIE’s Favorites to Spice up

your Life…

Books:

House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

Susie Bright’s Sexual State Of theUnion

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Little Birds, Anis Nin

all about love, bellhooks

Life of Pi

Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Michelle Tea

The Red Tent

Films/Movies:

The Openings of Misty Beethoven

Edward Scissorhands

Chasing Amy

Spellbound

Soylent Green

Magazines/Zines:

BITCH

Fierce

Bust

Highlights

Keep loving, keep fighting by hope [New Orleans]

Rocket Queen [New Orleans],

America? by Travis [Gainesville],

Greenzine by Cristy [Miami/New Orleans],

I’m johnny and I don’t give a f**k by Andy [Vancouver]

Websites:

http://www.cakenyc.com/

http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/

http://explodingdog.com/

http://www.emilyslist.com/

http://thesideproject.com/

http://www.babeland.com/

http://www.guerillagirls.com/

http://www.feminist.org/

http://www.aclu.org/

Favorite Quotes:

“Life Shrinks or Expands in Proportion to One’s Courage”

Anais Nin

“Too much of a good thing can be wonderful” Mae West

“We’re all born naked, the rest is drag” RuPaul

“Give me liberty or give me death” Patrick Henry

(still relevant eh?)

Places to Indulge

Toys in Babeland

Everyone’s favorite feminist run sex shop.

And don’t forget… there are GOODWILLS in NYC!

And remember, Salvation Army doesn’t care for queers!

Bookstores

There are tons of Indy/small bookshops just look around

PS lots of public libraries, too.

Many of these stores are small/independent and have a generous selection of feminist texts along with other political

Bluestockings Books (activist resource center) Used to be feminist, now activist, but still a great space for hanging out. Amazing political sections and you can hold/attend events there!

St. Mark’s Books (good radical selection)

Good hangout space, no pressure.

Strand Books (Largest used book store in world)

Good for browsing, hard for finding specifics.

Forbidden Planet (comics)

Any secret comic dorks?

Housing Works Used Book Café (cool space)

NOTE: Our NSU store is Barnes & Noble but lots of the time you can find the books at small places with some effort. Also encourage professors to use other locations. Ann Snitow once took us on Blue Stockings/Toys in Babeland Tour to buy our books!

If you get off the L at Bedford/Lorimer, lots of little bookstores.

Liberation Books (black struggles/political)

Clovis Press (Zines, lefty books, etc)

Soft Skull Press (radical independent publisher)

Revolution Books (communist)

FREE (pg 10)

In New York anyone can easily be convinced that everything is expensive all the time, but if you look around and read between the letters and lines you will find those little treasures no one explicitly tells you is free.

We’ve taken the time to make your search that much easier. Enjoy!

Museums

American Numismatic Society

Artists Space

Greene St

National Museum of the American Indian

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Tuesday & Saturday Free until noon

Asia Society

Fridays, 6-9pm

Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conversation Park

Wednesday (Pay what you wish day)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brooklyn Museum of Art

So now you know a few free ones you should know which are suggested donation, meaning you pay what you wish when you wish and if they hassle you please feel NO QUALMS in reminding them it is a suggested donation

The Cloisters

American Museum of Natural History

Now that you’ve had your fun, you may want some exercise, so how do you get a workout in NY for free?

Bike?

Critical Mass the last Friday of every month

Run?

NY Road Runners site could help you find a local running club

Need a Gym?

Most fitness centers in NY (especially the “big guys”) will let you have at least a free 7 day gym membership as a trial period. You may like them, you may not, but you got to try it out.

Skate?

Union Square is home to many skateboarders, rollerbladers, and bmx bikers. You could make friends and learn a new trick. There’s always need for feminism in male-dominated sports!

Change the World

Know Your Representatives (Senate, House)

# of women in NYC, # owning businesses, # earning minimum wage. (US Conference of Mayors)

*list Mayor & Governor

NOW NYC Branch

Center for Reproductive Rights

ACLU

Lesbian & Gay Law Association of Greater NY

Legal Momentum

Know Who’s On Your Side

Feminism isn’t restricted to marches and DIY events. Feminism should be present in our laws and policies as well. Make it your business to know what a politician’s agenda is about. Vote for people who protect women’s rights and let those who try to erode the gains made over the past 50 years know that you won’t take it.

Register to vote at the County Board of Elections

Apathy is lame… you can vote, so you should.

ProjectVote vote-smart.org

-A great source to look up your local politician and check out their stance on issues that are important to you. Look at how they actually voted and find out how to contact them.

Volunteer

Brooklyn Women’s Shelter

A shelter supporting homeless, mentally ill women. Give a helping hand to someone who needs it.

Women’s Prison Association and Hopper Home.

Services include halfway house for ex-offenders, GED training program for high school drop-outs and young offenders. Help tutor someone so they can get their GED.

Green Guerrillas

Dedicated to community gardening and environmentalism through the beautification of NYC. Make this city a little greener.

AMFAR

The American Association for AID Research is a pioneer organization leading the way in AIDS research. Always an important subject to be a part of.

Victims for Victims

Peer support organization for victims of violent crimes. Most violent crimes are committed against women. Help council another peer.

Contact

When I was selected as a student speaker for the

New
School commencement about two months ago I had no idea that I’d end up on CNN and in Maureen Dowd’s column in the New York Times, among other places, when it was all over. One day after the big event I’m still reeling from all the media attention and emails from professors, students, and other supporters from all over the country, so forgive me if my writing is a little scattered.In my speech yesterday I had hoped to talk about social responsibility in a time of war, but in much more oblique terms. I wanted to speak about communication, and how I have found that one of my strongest and most enjoyable methods of communication is music. I wanted to talk about the
New York City public school preschoolers with whom I work each week and how they’ve been empowered through music, how they’ve been able to learn linguistic and social skills by singing together. I wanted to talk about my grandfather, who, despite the fact that he has Alzheimer’s disease and cannot remember even my name, still knows all the songs he sang in his youth. I wanted to talk about music as a powerful tool for peace. I wanted to encourage everyone to identify his or her talents and to always use them for the greater good.Unfortunately, a certain not-so-dynamic duo of “centrist” politicians foiled my standard graduation speech and forced me to act. Until just the day before commencement I really hadn’t understood the gravity of the situation. I suppose I should tell the story. On Thursday I attended two graduation ceremonies for my two degrees, one at the New School Jazz Program and one at
Eugene
Lang
College at the

New
School. The Lang graduation was a pretty raucous affair, owing mostly to the dissenting voices of Elijah Miller, a student award recipient, and Mark Larrimore, a religious studies professor and our keynote speaker. Through the cheers at that event I got a sense of just how widespread the student outrage was. Forgive me now if I seem out of touch with my student body, but as a double degree student who had spent the last month in hibernation working on her recital and her thesis, in addition to working with the preschoolers, I hadn’t done anything else for weeks. At some point that day I was introduced to Irene, a student who was involved in organizing pins and armbands for students to wear during commencement the next day. We figured out a way to get me and the other student speaker armbands before the event. This same day all of us in the platform party got an email from the event organizer letting us know that certain media representatives would be in attendance, among them Fox news and National Public Radio. The situation seemed pretty serious.When I got home Thursday night after a rehearsal, I decided I needed to at least insert a line in my speech about the armbands. And I would’ve left it there, had the other student speaker, Christina Antonakis-Wallace, not reminded me in a telephone conversation that night that I should read John McCain’s speech from his other two speaking engagements which was conveniently posted on his website. Of course! I had to do my research. I checked the schedule for the ceremony and realized that I would be speaking just before the senator got his award. And that’s when the idea for a preemptive strike began to brew in my little stressed-out brain. What if I tore McCain’s speech apart before he even opened his mouth? After reading his speech a couple of times I picked out a few particularly loathsome sections–and believe it or not, none of these actually came from the extensive section where he defends his position on the war in Iraq–and I began planning an attack against him using his own words.At two in the morning when my boyfriend came home I hadn’t even started writing yet. I was in a terrible state of anxiety. What if it didn’t work? Didn’t my earlier speech make my position clear enough? I told him my new idea. “Jean, you have to do it. You’ll kick yourself later if you don’t.” “But it’s two in the morning. There’s no way it’s going to be any good.” “Jean, do it. You’ll have nothing to regret.”So in the wee hours of the morning I set out to revise my speech, re-saving it as “mccain speech subversive.doc”. And at three o’clock in the morning I woke up my other roommate as I practiced reading it in our living room. She wasn’t upset. “Sounds like you’re running for president,” she told me. We all agreed that I had no choice. It was the only thing I could do at the commencement. And so, tingling with nerves, I tried to go to sleep.The morning of the event I shared my speech over the phone with my mother who predictably enough, cried. She gave me her words of encouragement. And moments later, in the driving rain, I set off alone for

Madison
Square
Garden. The entire afternoon leading up to my speech I imagined that everyone who saw me knew what I was up to. I felt like an infiltrator. I wanted to go home and I was sick to my stomach. But when I heard an organizer on her walkie-talkie speaking nervously with another coordinator about the students outside who had leaflets and armbands, I knew that I would have my supporters. Later, John McCain arrived in the green room, and with the encouragement of Laurie Anderson, another honoree, Christina and I introduced ourselves to him. I almost wanted to warn the guy that I was about to make him look like an idiot so that he would at least have a fighting chance and an extra moment to change his speech to save himself. But he didn’t even make eye contact when we shook hands, so I figured I didn’t owe him anything.The rest is a blur. I didn’t have a high school graduation, so I was kind of looking forward to the whole ceremony of it, but all I remember is suddenly being in a robe, walking down the aisle of the MSG Theater to the cheers of my friends (who, incidentally, had no idea what to expect) and then I was on stage staring out at thousands of people and trying not to vomit. Eventually I spoke, and everyone loved it. And McCain spoke and we all had a bit of déjà vu. Then some other people spoke and I tried to pay attention but I couldn’t stop gawking at the protesters in the audience. And just before the end of the ceremony Bob Kerrey asked if I wanted to walk out with McCain. I said that would be OK. Kerrey led me over to him as the recessional music began, and I took McCain’s arm. “I’m sorry, man,” I told him, “I just had to do it.” He mumbled something about it being alright, but I think he probably would’ve rather not had me there. It really wasn’t his fault that he got invited into a pit of very well-educated vipers, and it really wasn’t my fault that I did what I had to do in the situation. Had he been speaking at something other than our graduation, or had he spoken about almost anything other than his life and his position on the Iraq War and
Darfur it might have been OK. But what did he expect? Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination at the

New
School is like trying to catch fish in a swimming pool. It was just totally out of place. Many thanks go to the people in the audience who managed to capture with a few yelled and widely-quoted phrases, just exactly what was going on there.I suppose I’ve written enough already, none of which has been particularly journalistic. But I do feel that I need to respond to a couple of things that have been floating around in the news. It’s been noted in several columns that anti-McCain sentiment coming from the left may actually help him to garner support from the conservatives by giving him the opportunity to paint us as extremist liberals, so we should all keep our mouths shut. I say we need some “extremist liberals” if we’re ever going to get our democracy back. Others have said that he’s a moderate at heart and that we should let him continue pandering to the religious right so he can get the vote. Once he gets into office he’ll show his true colors and be the centrist he always was. I don’t buy that. People who truly care about human beings don’t vote for an unjust war, among other things, simply as a political maneuver. Enough said.More importantly, I feel obligated to respond to one thing that McCain told the New York Times. “I feel sorry for people living in a dull world where they can’t listen to the views of others,” he said. This is just preposterous. Yes, McCain was undoubtedly shouted-out and heckled by people who were not politely absorbing his words so as to consider them fully from every angle. But what did he expect? We could’ve all printed out his speech and chanted it with him in chorus. Did he think that no one knew exactly what he was about to say? And it was precisely because we listen to the views of others, and because, as I said in my speech, we don’t fear them, that we as a school were able to mount such a thorough and intelligent opposition to his presence. Ignorant, closed-minded people would not have been able to do what we did. We chose to be in
New York for our years of higher education for the very reason that we would be challenged to listen to opposing viewpoints each and every day and to deal with that challenge in a nonviolent manner. We’ve gotten very good at listening to the views of others and learning how to also make our views heard, even when we don’t have the power of national political office and the media on our side.I think we must remember that as big as this moment may seem to me today and perhaps to other supporters who are reading this article, this is a very small victory in a time when democracy is swiftly eroding under the pressure of the right wing in this country. We all have much work to do, and for the most part the media do not represent us, the small people who don’t hold any special titles but who feel the weight of our government’s actions on our backs each and every day. I never expected to get the opportunity to speak the way I did yesterday, but I’m so glad that I did. I hope that other people found strength in my act of protest and will one day find themselves in my position, drawing out their own bravery to speak truth.

Here’s my commencement speech:If all the world were peaceful now and forever more, Peaceful at the surface and peaceful at the core,All the joy within my heart would be so free to soar,And we’re living on a living planet, circling a living star.Don’t know where we’re going but I know we’re going far.We can change the universe by being who we are,And we’re living on a living planet, circling a living star. Welcome everyone on this beautiful afternoon to the commencement ceremony for the

New
School class of 2006. That was an excerpt of a song I learned as a child called “Living Planet” by Jay Mankita. I chose to begin my address this way because, as always, but especially now, we are living in a time of violence, of war, of injustice. I am thinking of our brothers and sisters in Iraq, in Darfur, in Sri Lanka, in Mogadishu, in Israel/Palestine, right here in the
U.S., and many, many other places around the world. And my deepest wish on this day–on all days–is for peace, justice, and true freedom for all people. The song says, “We can change the universe by being who we are,” and I believe that it really is just that simple. Right now, I’m going to be who I am and digress from my previously prepared remarks. I am disappointed that I have to abandon the things I had wanted to speak about, but I feel that it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge the fact that this ceremony has become something other than the celebratory gathering that it was intended to be due to all the media attention surrounding John Mc Cain’s presence here today, and the student and faculty outrage generated by his invitation to speak here. The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded. Not only this, but his invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all, and to commemorate our achievements. What is interesting and bizarre about this whole situation is that Senator Mc Cain has stated that he will be giving the same speech at all three universities where he has been invited to speak recently, of which ours is the last; those being Jerry Falwell’s
Liberty
University,
Columbia
University, and finally here at the

New
School. For this reason I have unusual foresight concerning the themes of his address today. Based on the speech he gave at the other institutions, Senator Mc Cain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our “civic and moral obligation” in times of crisis. I consider this a time of crisis and I feel obligated to speak. Senator Mc Cain will also tell us about his cocky self-assuredness in his youth, which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others. In so doing, he will imply that those of us who are young are too naïve to have valid opinions and open ears. I am young, and although I don’t profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous and wrong, that George Bush’s agenda in
Iraq is not worth the many lives lost. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction. Finally, Senator Mc Cain will tell us that we, those of us who are Americans, “have nothing to fear from each other.” I agree strongly with this, but I take it one step further. We have nothing to fear from anyone on this living planet. Fear is the greatest impediment to the achievement of peace. We have nothing to fear from people who are different from us, from people who live in other countries, even from the people who run our government–and this we should have learned from our educations here. We can speak truth to power, we can allow our humanity always to come before our nationality, we can refuse to let fear invade our lives and to goad us on to destroy the lives of others. These words I speak do not reflect the arrogance of a young strong-headed woman, but belong to a line of great progressive thought, a history in which the founders of this institution play an important part. I speak today, even through my nervousness, out of a need to honor those voices that came before me, and I hope that we graduates can all strive to do the same.

Jeremy Syrop

Eugene
Lang
College 

I conducted the following interview with Ramona
Africa, Minister of Communication for the MOVE Organization, during the First Annual Student Social Justice Conference on April 7^th, 2006.  Ramona is the sole adult survivor of the May 13^th, 1985 MOVE massacre to whom upon escaping her enflamed home was wrongfully charged with conspiracy, riot and multiple counts of simple and aggravated assault which she spent seven years in prison for, as a political prisonerMOVE’s history cannot remain disconnected from the many years of directed repression and assault acted against the Organization at the hands of the city of Philadelphia and the
U.S. government.  On August 8^th, 1978 the city of Philadelphia staged its first of two assaults on the MOVE headquarters, as city construction vehicles bulldozed the MOVE house, cops shed thousands of rounds of bullets and water cannons flooded the house in an attempt to drown those inside.  Fatally shot by one of his own officers in the unorganized offense was Officer James Ramp to which the nine MOVE members inside of the house were collectively blamed and sentenced for 30-100 years.  In 1985 the city again aggressed in its second attack, which resulted in the infamous 1985 MOVE bombing killing 11 members.Liza Minno from Inprint (

Eugene
Lang
College Newspaper) sat in on the interview, and contributed a number of questions which are included and credited. 

-  -  -  -  -  -  - 

Jeremy:  Does being a student imply a certain level of compromise with the system? 

Ramona:  Only if you let it.  There are so many things that people will be involved in for a long time within this system.  Nobody is going to stop doing everything systematically overnight.  The most important thing that people need to get in touch with is making everything they do revolutionary no matter what it is.  I mean if you’re going to school then introduce revolution into your classes.  If you’re part of a student organization, then you bring in revolutionary speakers.  You challenge the teachers with information.  You bring information to your class.  I mean, if you’re a teacher in a school whether its elementary, middle school, high school, college, whatever, the same thing applies.   You teach revolution, you introduce it into whatever subject your teaching about.  You bring in speakers to speak on things.  What’s important is simply that you take whatever you’re involved in and make it revolutionary. 

Jeremy:  As a people who are inevitably bound to a certain extent within the hierarchical structures of colleges and universities, what do you recommend for students who see the system as un-reformable and are interested in battling the system from the outside? 

Ramona:  The same thing applies.  When I was introduced to MOVE, well personally I had read about MOVE for years.  But when I was personally introduced to MOVE I was in my third year of undergraduate school at

Temple
University.  I was on my way to becoming a lawyer.  I just made the personal decision that I didn’t want to continue with that once I heard what I heard and saw what I saw.  I made a personal decision not to continue on that path.  Nobody in MOVE tried to pressure me or convince me in one way or another.  That was my decision.  If I had chosen to keep going to school and figured if I could use my law degree to help or whatever, I could have done that.  Chances are though if I had continued that way and became a lawyer, I would not have remained that close, who knows.  All I’m saying is that this is something that everybody has to struggle with and you go the way that you feel works for you best.  Again the bottom line is, the only important thing is that you make revolution your priority and that means using whatever you’re involved in to push revolution. 

Jeremy:  To many revolution is a romanticized image of cigars, rifles and guerillas fighting in the mountains… 

Ramona:  Ha-ha (laughs). 

Jeremy:  Knowing that in most American ghettos there are no mountains, how do you define revolution in today’s world?   

Ramona:  Revolution really starts with how you think.  That’s what I was telling people when I addressed them just a little while ago.  Revolution is how you think because in order to be strong and be right, you have to think strong and think right.  A young woman had come up to me after I spoke and asked me, what do you do?  How do you generate this?  And I was telling her once you think the right way that its just a matter of making daily decisions that reflect that.  What you eat, how you eat it, what you buy, where you buy it.  You know, just daily decisions that reflect the direction you’re going in.  That’s the real revolution.  How we think and how it reflects itself in the things that you do and don’t do.  So for a poor person living in the ghetto, you might want to encourage them with more on self reliance because one thing about the ghettos is that there is very little, if any, municipal service.  I mean the trash truck will come around during the week and you may get some services, but the thing is to be more self reliant.  Get to know your neighbors, organize block clean-ups, get together with neighbors that are willing and able, and patrol your areas.  Make it a point that every night at seven or eight o’clock, or even rotate a little bit so it’s not a consistent pattern.  Just go out, walk around your neighborhood and see what’s going on.  If you see a problem in your area with somebody or a certain thing, get together with people and start doing things yourself and stop relying on a system that is unreliable to take care of your problems for you.  You start maybe pushing people who are in a ghetto situation that way.  I mean you have to deal with the situation you are faced with.   

Liza:  Was that a priority with MOVE, to mobilize the immediate community? 

Ramona:  More so sometimes than others.  When the MOVE Organization first emerged in the early 70’s in west
Philadelphia there was a priority to work with the gangs.  We did street clean up, etcetera – looked out for the older people in the neighborhood, made wood burning stoves for them when their gas got cut off and heat got cut off, stuff like that.  We went into confrontation mode because the cops was coming at us.  So we were repaid for the work we did by support from neighbors.  While the media always tried to portray that our neighbors were always against us, well there was always a few, but you can’t go to any neighborhood in this country where some people don’t have a problem with some neighbors.  In the 80’s prior to the second police attack on MOVE, the bombing, we, in a mode more so where we were pushing the neighbors to understand what was happening here – to understand that we were doing what we had to do for our family and that this system didn’t care any more for them than it did for MOVE – reminded them of what had happened in 78 where it wasn’t just MOVE that was attacked.  I mean people were beat up, cops rode horses up on people’s porches, went in peoples’ houses, were beating people, people who didn’t have anything to do with anything.  So we were reminding them of that, where their allegiance should be and who they should not be loyal to.  This was more of a middle-class black neighborhood in the 80s and middle class black people have a lot of problems because they feel like they’re moving on up like the
Jeffersons, getting a foothold in this system.  And they don’t want anything or anybody as they see it, trying to take that away from them.  So they have a lot of problems and a lot more resistance, but we had to do what we had to do.  So we had a lot of support in that area but there were definitely people that didn’t want to hear what we had to say…until after everything happened and they lost everything. 

Liza:  After? 

Ramona:  After the bombing, and saw how the government treated them.  Then all of a sudden there were things like “we gonna have to get like MOVE.”  I mean they were saying that.  Our priority was not making enemies but we were not going to let the possibility of making enemies stop us from doing what was necessary 

Jeremy:  Amongst many young activists there is a disconnect between different struggles which are more or less fighting against a similar if not the same enemy.  For example, here at the
New
School students who are dealing with the devastation in
New Orleans have trouble relating to the students who are fighting for the liberation of Mumia Abu-Jamal.  Should and if so, how and why do you believe we can break down this disconnect? 

Ramona:  Of course its necessary to break down the disconnect, but the way to do it is to stop focusing so much on the issue and focus on those who are responsible.  Because when you start focusing on that and seeing who is responsible for all of this, then that leads you to the common denominator and will encourage people to support each other because they will see that the one common denominator is the one common enemy that’s causing all these problems.   

Jeremy:  What type of threat do you believe the youth poses to the system?  Is it a bigger threat than those posed by other generations? 

Ramona:  Oh, absolutely because the youth is full of energy and what the system would see as idealism, which is not really idealism.  It’s a yearning for what’s right and the way things should be.  You know, a yearning for freedom.  Yeah, this system is threatened by that because if they can’t control the young then they have lost control of maintaining the status quo, maintaining things the way they are which is what they want and have to do in order to keep going.  Yeah, that’s why in MOVE our sister Sue Africa, one of our white members – she came form a very affluent background, her father was a scientist that worked on the team that invented the ejection catapult seat that’s used in jets.  I mean she went to
Jamaica for weekends.  She lived the American dream and she was miserable.  Her father was cold, her mother was a manic depressant, up and down, you know up and down.  She got no attention really and stayed sick with migraines and all kinds of problems which was all coming from her mind because she was so miserable.  And she came to MOVE, was introduced to MOVE by a friend of hers and ended up in MOVE.  And when she started going to demonstrations, etcetera, this system focused on her more than the black members because this was an upper middle class, young, white woman.  When they looked at her they saw their daughters, their wives, their grandchildren and knowing the kind of background she came from they were not gonna have her influenced this way.  I mean they beat her worse than black members.  They gave her longer jail terms than black members, they even put her in a mental institution for 90 days for an evaluation because “she must be crazy,” ha-ha.  They fear the youth like that because they’re always thinking about the future and keeping this thing going the way it is, and if they see young people going another way of course they feel threatened. 

Jeremy:  What type of commitment do you see appropriate for young people who want to make change in today’s society? 

Ramona:  The only commitment that’s necessary is one thing, a commitment to yourself because this isn’t about something or somebody else, something outside of you young people.  Its about young people, its about you personally, you know.  So the only commitment necessary is a commitment to yourself just like you are committed to breathe, just like you’re committed to eat and drink.  The things you see as necessary to be committed to, you never stop doing these things because you know it would hurt you.  Well that’s the same kind of commitment we need to have to our freedom, to revolution, because just like you must have what we are trained to see as food to eat in order to survive, you must have freedom, satisfaction, health in order to survive, to sustain.  It is just as much as food as what we are trained to see as food.  Got to have it.   

Jeremy:  Hungry for revolution… 

Ramona:  Yeah!  That’s what John Africa teaches us.  All those categories don’t mean anything.  You must have it.  Just like you must have food we are trained to see as food, it is food.   

Liza:  Are you from
Philadelphia originally? 

Ramona:  Yes.  Born and raised. 

Liza:  Where in
Philadelphia? 

Ramona: 
West Philadelphia.  I live in southwest
Philadelphia now.   

Liza:  How old were you when you started with MOVE? 

Ramona:  24.  23 going on 24.   

Liza:  You mention God given rights and god given instincts as like being things to work off of, you know, to recognize those and go with them.  So in the MOVE philosophy where John Africa is the teacher, does God play into that at all?   

Ramona:  God is very simply that all coordinating force.  We don’t control the heartbeat in our chest.  We don’t keep water moving.  We don’t lay ourselves down to sleep and wake ourselves up.  We didn’t instill in ourselves the instinct of hunger to push to food, or the instinct of thirst to push us to water.  We don’t have anything to do with that.  We don’t control that.  There is a force, a coordinating force that does that.  We don’t push food up through the ground to feed all living beings.  There is a force that’s coordinating that, that coordinates it all.  It gives the sun its brilliance.  We don’t have anything to do with that.  The force that does that is the force that MOVE believes in.  That is our God, Mother Nature.  We don’t believe in no bearded man in the sky kind of thing.  We don’t believe in a heavenly hereafter or a hellish hereafter.  Your heaven or hell is right here and if you’re doing what is right, what is Godly, now, how could it turn out bad later no matter what you believe the later is?  We don’t believe in the bible or the systematic religious God.  We believe in the God that you can see, in the food that you eat, the water that you drink, the air that you breathe.  Our God is real.   

Liza:  About Philadelphia politics, do you see, because
Philadelphia has such a history of corruption in politics – if the MOVE Organization had been handled differently, in particular the confrontations in 1978 and 1985… 

Ramona:  By who, the cops or us? 

Liza:  No, I guess…I guess I’m speaking about Wilson Goode in particular as
Philadelphia’s first black mayor.  Do you think that that could have – that
Philadelphia history would have been different? 

Ramona:  Absolutely.  I mean if he had not dropped the bomb on us given his consent to do it, things would have been different.  I mean he didn’t have to and should never ever have agreed to that.  We understand that no black man in this country has any real authority.  He did what he was pushed to do and told to do but he did not have to do it.  He could have been a real man and have said no.  The question with us is not what he knew and when he knew it, if he knew this before – it don’t matter.  After everything had happened and he knew people including babies and animals and adults had been burned alive, he said he would do it again.  So what he knew and when he knew it is irrelevant.  He said he would do it again.  That tells you the kind of person he is.  He didn’t have to do it.  It didn’t have to be that way.  And had he stood up and said, “if your doing this, your doing it without me,” yeah it would have been different.  Absolutely.   

Liza:  You don’t have to answer this obviously if you don’t want to.  I was just wondering where you guys got the money for building the barricade and stuff like that?  

Ramona:  MOVE people have skills.  I mean, most of my brothers and some of my sisters know how to do home renovation work.  We used to do shampoo rugs, clean out garages, all kinds of work.  In the very early days of MOVE we had a very lucrative car wash.  People would give us donations, large donations sometimes, for washing their cars and we didn’t charge a regular price.  People just gave us a donation for it.  So we earned money that way.  At some times, MOVE Organization people had regular jobs.  I have brothers that do landscaping work.  A brother that has his own home renovation business is with us.  We earn money in various ways.  I do lectures to raise money for the Organization.

by Brian Lewis

Last Monday morning, on the way to class, I ran into one of my favorite radical professors buying coffee and a bagel at a stand on West 4th. He asked me how my classes were going. I’ve learned that such a question is a usually a polite rhetorical one, so I responded accordingly with “they’re fine…” or something along those lines “Yeah but I tell ya man, Lang’s getting whiter everyday.” I cracked a smile at this, initially because it was rare to hear a white male, even one as politically astute as him vocalize the racial disparities here.

Many students of color, voice these concerns all the time. Everyday we congregate in the lunchroom and relate these stories. The narratives remind us we are not alone here. But despite this camaraderie, I still feel alone, because amongst the few black students at the school, almost all are women. I am virtually the last black man who is a student at Lang. I am who I am today because of a community of strong Black women who raised me and my level of consciousness. I’m glad the college environment allows me to at least have that. But I am missing part of myself because I am no longer able to learn and build with my brothers. I am able to talk it up with the security guards and Chartwell workers after class, but this is a different experience from sharing the classroom with them. However, I was thrilled to realize a couple days into school, that I had three black male professors this semester. One of which, stated on the second day of class that he stopped being black in 1999, he hated for people to see him as black and he frequently went out his way to bash black radical and feminist politics. I dropped his class on Thursday. He was infatuated with Nietzsche, and he wanted all of our texts and readings to be viewed and critiqued through “The uses and abuses of history”.

On Wednesday, I found myself in Sekou Sundiata’s class contemplating Nietzsche, that “black” teacher, and what it means to be American. I cannot relate to Nietzsche because of his insistent focus on radical individualism. In class, we discussed frequently, what changing the phrase in the constitution, “Life liberty and the pursuit of property” to “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” meant. Nietzsche says happiness only exists in the moment of euphoria. A moment where one’s history, place in the world is the last thing on their mind. This was evident for me in the Black teacher’s total refutatation of blackness and in the responses from other students in The America Project Class. The most important thing was for people to talk about America as a safe haven for those individuals escaping religious or ethnic persecution, people who came to these shores seeking happiness. Discussion of collective African enslavement and indigenous peoples genocide was an afterthought to the construction of European people’s personal happiness. In class Sekou asked, if it were possible to talk about experience outside of history? America would respond yes, and of course we need to, or how else will we reach the plateau of happiness. But for me, happiness is not sheer bliss but instead is the most profound knowledge. I believe happiness is an imagined and real state, not where people forget their past, history and selves, but understand it fully enough to make all of these things work toward a better society. Sekou mentioned that a constant theme in American society is reinvention of the self. I’ve thought hard about what “reinvention” means to me. Yes I “reinvent” myself all the time, in the American sense of the word. Any given day I might switch up from wearing my hair up in braids and shaving off my facial hair, wearing brand name designer clothes and timberlands, to picking my hair out letting my beard grow and bumping t-shirts adorning Che, Zapitistas or Tommy Smith and John Carlos with black power fists held high. Yes America, “allows” me and us all the this kind of freedom. Even if I changed my speech, forced myself to think differently, in the words of the roots crew “it wouldn’t feel right.” Maybe unlike America, I have a soul, an essence that grounds me and acts as my foundation. I can never run to far myself.

America, especially white rich America, surely has found a way to occupy itself so much with the culture, the affairs and ways of everything not itself that it has managed to elude itself for some time. I’m interested to read the pieces by authors who wish to face America’s foundation and its roots. I wonder if their representation will be brutally honest. I think anything too honest, will make America as we know it cease to exist, and too many people have become too comfortable and complacent in the modern day America to take a deep look under the surface. So in school, in society, those of us who wish to continue to peel away the skin of America are seen as those with failed imaginations, as if we are the ones who cannot reinvent the wheel or ourselves. But Its not that we want to always place the race or class card, its that nothing has radically changed about the way most of white America sees or talks about itself.

by Brian Lewis

We want ethnic studies at the New School. When I say we, I mean the community of students, faculty and some administrators who are fully committed to transforming the New School into the kind of the revolutionary space we believe it can be.

I say revolutionary deliberately, although I’m told that term is outdated, now tabooed and extremely clichéd. But, in my mind, and the minds of a large number of students, it is impossible to separate ethnic studies from the sixties, from revolutionary theory and praxis.

Any form of it we choose to adopt, will reflect an evolved perception of what it was meant to be back then. Perhaps that struggle was not “successful”, but dialectically, it is part of this continuum. Our push for Ethnic studies now, is a thread in the struggle that was forged to utilize and redistribute the resources of the university. Because back then people of color who had been historically excluded from the academy believed that our goal should not be to build and enhance, yet another Academic department. We wanted and want to aid and abet an emerging grassroots struggle for low income, Black, Latino, Asian and first nations people’s liberation.

As a Black man, activist, and radical. I recognize a myriad of issues at the New School, which need to be addressed through organizing and mobilization.

The kinds of problems which exist here, are the same institutional problems which exist in our wider society. Here at the New School, we deal with and fight White Supremacy, Eurocentricity, Cultural Hegemony, Sexism, Homophobia, Academic Elitism and a severe separation from the activism constantly taking place in the community that surrounds us (New York City, where struggles against police brutality, gentrification, military recruitment and more are being waged.)

Its important that we all understand the history of student struggle around many of these issues and the explicit demand for ethnic studies. There is a movie called the mobilization which I suggest every member of the New School community who cares about this stuff, see. The mobilization was a radical student demonstration which occurred in 1996. During that time, students rallied and protested around a long list of demands which sought everything from better contracts for the school’s service workers to an exponential increase in the percentage of students of color enrolled here. Also in 1996, at the same time New School Students made the news for shutting down fifth avenue with a human barricade and staging die-ins and hunger strikes in the same building (65 fifth ave.) we find ourselves in today, Columbia students were using many of these same tactics to get their own ethnic studies program instituted. Today, Columbia has ethnic studies and The New School does not.

It’s important that we not view the mobilization as a failure. Although most of the demands sought were not won, and the administration in fact cracked down harder on activists (for example, unapproved protests on school grounds are now prohibited) there were some crucial concepts brought up and critical contradictions pointed out during the mobilization. One action which came out of the mobilization which was very beneficial, was the creation of the university in exile. During the hunger strikes and student demonstrations, students set up tables in the lobby of the school and held class outside of class, a kind of urban tent city. In the University in exile students chose to read, discuss and debate the work of people of color, Feminist, queer and radical authors. This tradition continues today, through the Kawaida Café and Liberation seminars developed by myself and other students who wish to look at the works of Karenga, Fanon, Davis, Lourde,  Awa Thiam, Cabral, Baraka and many others whom we get no, or only an inkling of access to in our regular classes.

There was also a conference, called Diversity: A state of Emergency, put on by several of us student activists last year. The conference brought back former New School professors, and administrators who were no longer employed for reasons that all correlated to the to the New School’s overall push toward conservativism and corporatism. Jim Fischer spoke about the need for a student government with real power. Ahmit Rai spoke about the necessity of combating the corporitzation of the university. Sam Anderson addressed the nature of the struggle and particular radical trajectories it would most likely take and Barbara Emerson, a former administrator during the mobilization who one faculty member keenly reminded us prior to her arrival “was no friend of that action at that time”, gave our keynote address. Ms. Emerson came bearing the message that we the student activists were right, that the New School needed structural change from the top down and bottom up to address the multi-tude of oppression which still flourished. She called for a high level department to increase diversity and fully backed our calls for an innovative ethnic studies program.

Presently the Women of Color organization is active and doing great work. They have hosted successful health series, movie screenings and reignited an interest amongst the general academic community for justice and revolution. This conference (The Ethnic Studies Conference), along with an upcoming Student Social Justice Conference will also move us forward. Students of Color and radical students are also creating our own monthly newspaper called Habari Gani (what’s the news) and a yearly Journal that will be called Mawonaj (to resist oppression).

So from my perspective and the perspective of those who are most concerned with making the New School revolutionary and the liberation of our comminutes real, the most important question is: will an ethnic studies program created at the new school, solve all or any of our problems? That remains to be seen. We need to understand that this program would be coupled with all of the incredible work we are already doing. The answer to this question will also reveal itself in the manner in which ethnic studies is formed.

I believe two equally important and inextricably related factors will affect the nature of a future ethnic studies program at our school. The politics of the faculty who would teach it and the course materials we would use.

First, the problem of faculty. We have been told many times by high level administrators that although the school has hired more faculty in three years than it has in the last twenty, there are not presently enough teachers qualified in the Africana, Latino or Asian Studies disciplines to bring them all together and constitute a concentration or major.

While this may be true, and certainly speaks to a need to hire more faculty with that kind of training. We must look deeper into this issue. We know based on the history of ethnic studies and the way it exists in many schools that a degree in ethnic studies does not necessarily imply radical politics or progressive political affiliation. This is a problem because as I stated earlier, and as the history of ethnic studies points out, it is impossible to talk about ethnic studies divorced from student activism. If you say, ethnic studies would have never happenned at San Francisco state for example (one of the first schools to institute it) without the corporate money and foundational grants Noliwe Rooks talks about in her book White Money Black Power, then you must also say it started with organizing of the Panthers, Students for a Democratic Society and others who came together to demand, not just another department, but a whole school on organizing from a third world perspective. The people in power and with money, were forced to concede an ethnic studies program because their power was FIRST challenged by an emerging student movement with popular support. They had no interest in instituting such a program on their own, and if they had, they would have just done it, and there would have been no need for student struggle.

One of the most poignant scenes in Spike Lee’s satire, Bamboozled, is when the Mr. Dunwitty, a white network CEO who is the biggest hype man for airing and distributing De La Quoi’s New Millennium Minstrel Show, reveals that he knows black people, because he got a masters in black studies from NYU. Certainly, the field and discipline can be used by exploiters of the culture in various ways (The culture industries, as described by Adorno, is only one of the most obvious) and there needs to be an awareness around why the program exists and what particular needs of the community it serves.

I think the likelihood of a pan-africanist or black nationalist professor being hired at the new school under any circumstances is extremely low. I come to this conclusion based on the fact that professors with those kinds of political affiliations have left, been pushed out and deliberately looked over in the hiring processes. If a potential new school ethnic studies program is sentimental to the history of ethnic studies development and also takes into account the deep desire of many of students here, such as myself, to have more full time professors who can not only teach the courses and materials we want taught around our history, but also express solidarity with us on political and personal levels, then I think we could call that program a success.

The problem of materials is enmeshed with this issue of faculty representation. Certain faculty, with specific kinds of education have not even been exposed to the materials which might constitute an affective ethnic studies curriculum, let alone mastered it enough to teach it in a way that will challenge the student and enhance our skill sets. Of course we could theoretically just read more radical, feminist, people of color authors and in our current classes and not consolidate an ethnic studies concentration but this would not maximize the educational experience of the student. The materials would most likely be tokenized, or, as I have often found to be the experience in many of my other classes where we read one Davis or Fanon passage along with for example, a series of works by white British cultural theorists, the materials would be taken out of context by the professors and other students who were not as interested in them, or the professors and/or the students would choose to disregard the relevance of above selected texts because they disagree with the particular political stance those authors posit. In a small seminar style setting especially, this process completely stifles any hope for productive discussion and debate and therefore stifles the learning experience itself. So you see you can’t have one without the other.

Therefore I conclude where I began. We want Ethnic studies at the New School. We want an ethnic studies program that will meet the needs and interests of a community who demands it. Hopefully today and throughout this conference, we will learn more about the history and present status of ethnic studies programs all over the country. Hopefully this understanding will help us envision and articulate just what it is we want to create here at the New School so that we can take the necessary steps toward achieving it. And we must also understand that the creation of an ethnic studies program will not mean the work we must do in our schools and communities can stop. If anything, ethnic studies should significantly contribute to, and be a vital resource for this ongoing work and for ourselves.