11th Annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair call for participation

We are pleased to announce the eleventh annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, located on unceded Coast Salish Territory in Victoria, British Columbia.

The Bookfair is for anarchists and non-anarchists, with participants from all over North America and beyond. Events include book and information tables, workshops, readings, films, presentations, and much more! Get involved! Please get in touch with proposals for workshops and tables by July 15th, 2016. Late proposals will be considered but may not be included promotional material.

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1. Bookfair Dates & Contacts
2. How to Request a Table
3. Call for Workshops & Presentations Proposals
4. Festival of Anarchy
5. Volunteers needed!
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1. Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Dates & Contacts

September 9th and 10th
UVic Student Union Building Upper Lounge, Victoria, BC, Lekwungen Territory

We are pleased to announce the eleventh annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair, located on unceded Lekwungen Territory in Victoria, British Columbia. The Bookfair is for anarchists and non-anarchists, with participants from all over North America and beyond. The Bookfair always includes workshops on a wide range of topics. We seek to challenge colonial attitudes, introduce anarchism to the public, foster dialogue between various political traditions, and create radical, inclusive, anti-oppressive spaces.
Participants with different visions, practices, and traditions are welcome. Events include book and information tables, workshops, readings,films, presentations, and much more!

Please consult our Statement of Principles before sending your proposal. It can be found on our website:http://victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca

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Contacts:
TABLES:tables@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca
WORKSHOPS:workshops@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca
FESTIVAL:festival@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca
VOLUNTEER:volunteer@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca
GENERAL INQUIRIES:info@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca

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2. How to Request a Table for Sept 9th and 10th

The heart of the Bookfair is the main room including booksellers, distributors, independent presses and activist groups from all over BC, North America, and abroad. If you’d like to table this year, please provide a short description of your group and the materials you intend to distribute at the Bookfair.

There is no fee for tabling at the Bookfair, but we will be requesting 10% of sales after expenses in order to help us cover costs.

EMAIL:tables@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca

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3. Workshop & Presentation Proposals: for Sept 9th and 10th

The Bookfair organizing collective is currently seeking workshop and
presentation proposals.

As stated above this Bookfair we are looking to convene in order to
challenge the ongoing colonization of our communities and our minds. We are looking for workshops that discuss Indigenous perspectives, de-colonialisation, social struggles, and environmental issues. We also aim to foster a growing movement in resistance to colonialism through the sharing of practical skills. Together we can acknowledge our past and move forward with meaningful solidarity.

Workshops may be aimed at people who are curious about, or new to, anarchist ideas and radical practices; alternatively they might address a topic in depth for people who are already familiar with the subject.

Standard Bookfair workshops last for 50 minutes with a 10-minute break in between. While we are open to a variety of workshop formats, we recommend that facilitators leave at least 20 minutes for discussion at the end of their presentations. Each year we get a lot of submissions, but if we don’t have space at the Bookfair, we still want to help make your workshop happen!
Please provide a title and short description of the workshop’s content in your submission. If your workshop is accepted, this information will be reprinted in the program zine.

EMAIL:workshops@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca

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4. Festival of Anarchy Events: Sept 5th – 11th (various locations TBA)
In addition to the Bookfair, a “Festival of Anarchy” will take place during the preceding week with diverse anarchist-themed events occurring at different venues in Victoria. You can propose any type of event or activity: the only limit is your imagination. Installations, flash mobs, bike races, dance parties, punk shows under bridges, guerilla art, ghraffiti, performances… and beyond.

Festival of Anarchy events are organized autonomously from the Bookfair and, as such, venues are the responsibility of Event Organizers—that’s you! The Bookfair Collective acts as a hub to promote and coordinate these events. We’re committed to helping promote autonomous festival events to the best of our ability through the program zine and the website.

If you’re interested in having us promote your event, please provide a title and short description of your program by August 15, 2012 so that we can include it in our zine and on our website. We strongly recommend Festival Events are NOT scheduled during the Bookfair’s operating hours. In general, contacting the Bookfair Collective about scheduling dates before our proposal deadline is a useful way to ensure the least number of event conflicts.

EMAIL:festival@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca

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5. Volunteers
We need your help! The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair & Festival of Anarchy Collectives are always looking for new people to assist behind the scenes. We’re looking for help in all kinds of areas such as postering, welcoming & information tabling, room set-up, kids activities, counselling and safe-space support, cleanup and more. The Bookfair is entirely volunteer-run and helping out is a great way to get involved and meet new people. If you’re interested, please read the volunteer descriptions, our collective principles and accessibility statements on our website, and let us know how you’d like to help out!

EMAIL:volunteer@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca

10th Annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair

VICTORIA, UNCEDED SONGHEES TERRITORY, BC – The waves of anarchy will be hitting Victoria this September as we gather to celebrate the 10 years of anarchism in Victoria with The Annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair at the Fernwood NRG, located at 1240 Gladstone Avenue. The bookfair raises awareness about anarchism and social justice while celebrating the values of autonomy, mutual aid, community, and solidarity. Participants include booksellers, presses, zine makers, and artists from all over North America and abroad, as well as affiliate groups such as Camas Books, UVIC Pride Students’ Group, Food Not Bombs, CFUV Women’s Radio Collective, VIPIRG, AK Press (from San Francisco), Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network (VIC FAN), The Anti-Violence Project, and many more!

Workshops will focus on personal, practical, and political applications of anarchist theory and practice as well as historical and contemporary Indigenous issues, notably efforts to stop proposed pipeline developments on Indigenous territories in British Columbia. Some of the topics covered at this year’s Bookfair include Solidarity Politics for Building Resilient Communities, Parenting and Teaching so that Kids can learn to Resist, Self Care for People Who Care, and How to Preserve Veggies using Home Canning Techniques, to name just a few. We will also be hearing from Mark Wilson of YES2SCS, who will be talking about the benefits of Harm Reduction and how safe consumption sites save lives.

Bookfair attendees can look forward to a lively exchange of ideas, stimulating literature and entertaining events all weekend. Food will be available and a family space will be provided for parents and children. As media spokesperson Nate Moss says, “We are encouraging anarchists and non-anarchists alike, to gather and exchange ideas on alternative ways of being.”

The Bookfair will be preceded by a Festival of Anarchy—a whole week of entertainment including a film screening and skype in discussion with Frank Lopez who will be showcasing “subMedia.tv a Decade of Subversion Megamix,” performances by Indigenous Hip Hop group Savage Family, as well as the CFUV Women’s Radio Collective dance party on September 12th and a folk show on Sunday the 13th.

The Festival of Anarchy and Bookfair exemplify the positive changes that can be achieved when we take action. Because anarchism eschews political representation in favour of personal choices and decision-making, the supportive, curious, and skeptical are encouraged to act for themselves: come and see how anarchism works.

10th Annual VABF Poster by Gord Hill