Occupy Philly - 6 Oct to 30 Nov

Occupy Philly was only in place for a little under two months, but the echoes of it will remain. Following is a combination of both the PhillyIMC retrospective composed by PhillyIMC staff members and my own photoessays published on PRAWNWorks and other spots.

OWS

 

patches!

 

 

We now have LAVA patches! They're hand-silkscreened in West Philly on canvas and unused bedsheets with found ink.

 

Finally, you can represent your favorite community space on your book bag, jacket, pants, and even your long underwear! Get in touch if you would like one, or just come by!

Our library has gone space age!

 

 

 

 

After countless hours, LAVA's lending library has been entered into an online database. Thats 2,378 books! Simply go to to this website to see our entire library,  or go here to browse by category. 

RVIVR show not at LAVA!

 

 

The September 23rd RVIVR show is unfortunately

NOT happening at our beloved LAVA, but at Cha-Cha'Razzi.

But see you there! It's gonna be a blast!

Fall Cleaning

 

Today, collective members Brian and Bryan help kill/prune the Paulownia Tomentosas that tower over LAVA. The seeds of this monster tree were supposedly used as natural packing peanuts in China two hundred years ago. Today, they try to eat our humble community center. Thanks to a handful of folks, and a curious dog, we rid the roof of this invasive beast.

This was another project that escalated from LAVA's weekly work day. If you want to clean/party with us, get in touch here.

The scanning begins!!!!

We're going digital!!

After years of writing down books checked out, shuffling through messes of disorganized paper records, we're getting our act together and starting an automated checkout system. Not only will it be much more organized, we'll have the ability to instantly pull up offending no-returners of books, locate missing titles and have a quickly searchable database of titles. On top of all that, it will be tons of work. We need to re- enter ALL OF OUR BOOKS into our online catalog.

Our intern Bryan and Nyko have already started this exciting process and are basking in the ecstatic delirium only achievable from scanning bar codes. Click "read more" to see the madness set in.

btw: interested in helping? Let us know!! We'll put you to work ASAP!

A Poem for LAVA

I was asked to share this poem with the greater LAVA community. The subject matter comes directly from incredible  lived experiences in the Belmont neighborhood of West Philadelphia.

A Tuesday Afternoon WTF

a guy (Ibrahim) was waiting inside a locked and closed lava upon arrival. he said someone let him in and told him someone from the library would be there soon. Who let him in? WTF?

food (vomit ?) spilled all over one of the computers??? WTF?

random shit everywhere: socks, clothes, broken stuff, etc. (put most of the non-trash stuff on the pile that said someone from the RRFM would be by the next day to move it) WTF?

can for basement keys on the floor and keys all over the 1st floor randomly. WTF?

couch torn the fuck up and pillow innards all over the place. WTF?

neighbor from the grocery store came by to complain about someone from lava's dog biting someone outside of his store. WTF?

every plastic bag on the sidewalk outside is covered in dogshit. WTF?

trash and sticky surfaces everywhere. WTF?

a hundred pages of the same photo of beyonce, the printer out of ink. WTF

it's tuesday afternoon and NATO drones are killing children half way around the world. WTF?

WTF?

dave onion , Lancaster Ave, August 30, 2011

Slutwalk 2011

women

A Canadian police officer started it all 

On January 24th, 2011, a representative of the Toronto Police gave shocking insight into the Force’s view of sexual assault by stating: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”.


Women, quite understandably, were annoyed at this as this is a view that should have died a long, long time ago. The view that a woman dressing in a provocative manner would provide a man with an excuse to rape the woman should have died when Susan Brownmiller came out with "Against Our Will " back in 1975.

Protest in solidarity with Pelican Bay hunger strike



group

Philadelphia Weekly did a piece on our protest.

FREE BRIAN! Help Us Bail Him out!

Update!! Yesterday, thanks to all of you who responded with the most generous solidarity, we posted bail and got him. A huge word of thanks to all who put down the money to help get Brian out on the street again! We all appreciate it a ton!

In April, Brian was arrested during the police response to a robbery of a corner store in West Philadelphia. Neither armed nor having taken part in the robbery, Brian has been locked up since the incident, and while confident he will beat the charges, he’s not been able to make bail.

In the meantime Brian has been separated from his partner who is now several months pregnant and taking care of their children. Brian is also an important fixture at LAVA, a community space on Lancaster Ave., often helping out at the Library and at our Thursday food giveaway.  He’s needed and missed out on the street!

We need to raise $3000 for Brian to get back out and back holding things down at LAVA and providing important support for his children and his partner.

We are asking for donations for his bail as well as loans which can be paid back when his trial wraps up (possibly up to a year from now).  Donations using paypal should be sent to freebrian@lavazone.org.

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