LAVA, the Lancaster

Avenue Autonomous Zone is a center for radical media and organizing located at 4134 Lancaster Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood of West Philadelphia. The LAVA collective's mission is to create an empowering and welcoming physical space where diverse communities converge to build connections and break down barriers, blending media-making, artistic expression and hardy nuts-and-bolts organizing in order to advance movements for justice.

The first floor of LAVA hosts the LAVA library, a community kitchen and an event space where social change organizations hold meetings, lectures, video-showings, benefit concerts and other community happenings. LAVA aspires to host welcoming, strategic and inspiring events that connect diverse communities, building bridges between movements for fundamental social change. Keep up to date with LAVA events at http://lavazone.org/event.

Is there an event/meeting/happening you think would be right for LAVA? If so, contact us at 215-387-6155  and/or e-mail info <at> avazone.org.

LAVA is currently home to several organizations that work for social, political and economic change, including :

• Act-Up Philadelphia (http://critpath.org/actup/): the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power use direct action to win victories for people with AIDS.
• Geoclan (http://geoclan.com):transmitting information to incite hope and inspire people!
• the Independent Media Center of Philadelphia (http://www.phillyimc.org): a grassroots news organization creating alternatives to the profit- driven agenda of the corporate media and providing an open forum for the "passionate and accurate tellings of truth."
• the defenestrator: (http://www.defenestrator.org): a sporadic anarchist newspaper that agitates for a social transformation to end all coercive power.
• the LAVA library (http://lavazone.org/library): a two-way radical lending library.
• Radio Volta (http://www.radiovolta.org): a programmer-run internet radio station
• West Philly Food Not Bombs (FNB):distributes produce and serves cooked food every Wednesday evening at 5pm, at 50th and Baltimore.
• Alpha Labs (alpha@phillyimc.org): a public computer lab on LAVA's 2nd floor with free internet access for all.
• The Philadelphia Green Party:(www.gpop.org)- both a politcal party and a grassroots activist organization. GPOP's four pillars are: Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice, Grassroots Democracy, and Nonviolence.
• rizumu: (funkshun.us): monthly techno parties with tasty vegan treats

Do you want to make your artwork a permanent part of the LAVA space? Visit our LAVA art installations blog to plug in. [WE ARE CURRENTLY SEEKING SUBMISSIONS FOR OUR NEXT ROUND OF PERMANENT INSTALLATIONS.]

How to get involved ?
There's a lot going on at LAVA but there's room for more! Do you have any skills to share with other members of the community? Are you involved with a community-based organization that needs meeting space? Do you have ideas for inspiring events? Do you have any ideas whatsoever for how LAVA could do better? Contact us at 215-387-6155, e-mail us at info <at> lavazone.org or stop by LAVA during our open hours (currently Wednesdays from 4-9pm and Sundays from 1 to 6pm)

Do you want to help with the library, to be on the radio or to become involved with any of the other projects at LAVA? Contact us at info@lavazone.org to plug in.

LAVA is owned and operated by the LAVA collective, a group composed of community activists and liaisons from the organizations that are tenants in the building LAVA meetings take place the second Wednesday of every month, 7pm, and are open to all.

Come visit! LAVA is on the #10 Green Line trolley and easily accessible by the #30, #31, #40 and #43 bus lines.