Free Education! The Free University of New York, Alternate U, and Learning Liberation

October 11, 2018 – January 27, 2019
Opening reception: October 11, 6-9pm

Rooted in an examination of the history of the Free University of New York (FUNY), a 1960s experiment in radical education, this exhibition and event series reflects on the questions: What is a university? What does the university have that we want? What does the university have that we don’t want? How would a university look if we could build one from scratch?

Audio Interference 56: WTO Protests, Seattle 1999

“I remember walking home from that huge protest and feeling this sense of huge hope in the air…And it was just really exciting and it felt like things actually could change.”

Celebrate PROTEST! the latest issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly

Tuesday, November 6, 6:30pm

Join us for the launch and celebration of PROTEST – the latest issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly! Editors and contributors will offer a brief glimpse into the issue, reading excerpts of our texts and sharing images of the artwork to generate a discussion of feminist protest that moves us beyond a focus on highly visible acts of protest, such as marches and demonstrations, to the multiple registers and repertoire of tactics that individuals and groups engage to call for and build another world.

Radio Documentary: The Greyhound Diaries

Friday, November 9, 7pm

Join us for a listening session of highlights from David Goren’s audio documentary, The Greyhound Diaries, about singer-songwriter Doug Levitt’s journeys across the United States by bus, and a live performance of Levitt’s songs inspired by the experience.

Contemplating War and Peace: films and poetry for Veterans’ Day

Saturday, November 10, 7pm
The battles of our daily lives are fought with images. And the images we choose to create and consume define who we are as both individuals and as a society. This evening of films by Chris Benker, with poetry reading by Jerome Mazzaro, serves as an opportunity to contemplate the role of empathy as our only hope for a peaceful future.

Propaganda Party: LOVE AND PROTECT EACH OTHER

Saturday, November 17, 1:30-5:30pm

Interference Archive and Hate-Free Zone Queens (HFZ) are excited for our second collaboration producing propaganda to spread HFZ’s message. Join us on Saturday, November 17 from 1:30-5:30pm at Interference Archive (314 7th Street, Brooklyn NY 11225) to make posters, t-shirts, buttons, and more. HFZ proactively builds a strong community defense system that centers those most impacted by current discriminatory policies and actions.

K-12 Radical Education in NYC: a collaborative investigation

Saturday, December 1, 3-5pm

Radical education on the K-12 level also has a rich history in New York City, dating back as early as 1901. This two-hour event will be split into two parts: the first hour will be a presentation covering the definition and a brief history of radical education in New York City (including a love affair and an attempted bombing) and a look at the current state of radical K-12 education in New York City. The second hour will be a collaborative workshop, discussing realistic ways in which to get involved in radical education and children’s rights in our city today.

Audio Interference 55: Steal This Radio and WBAD

“We knew it was illegal, and we knew the FCC would probably come after us at some point, and they did.”

Radical Education Wikipedia Editathon

Sunday, December 2, 2-5pm

In recognition of our current exhibition, Free Education, we are holding a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on the theme of radical education throughout history. We’ll work to improve representation of the individuals and organizations involved in radical education movements worldwide — including those represented in our exhibition, and those that are not. Our objective is to make information and documentation related to this work more accessible for current and future movement makers, educators, and learners. Childcare is available if requested by November 28, 2018.

Politics of Sound: Listening to the Archive

Thursday, October 25, 7pm

Interference Archive presents a panel discussion that brings together a group of archivists, oral historians, librarians, and others working with collections of sound. They work in a range of disciplines–from poetry to oral history–all informed by a political approach to sound. We’ll discuss the various ways archiving sound can be a political act, including how sound archives can support organizing work, and how sound collections can contribute to the creation of historical memory, broadening the range of stories that are part of our collective history.

Re-imagining Death

Saturday, October 27, 2-4pm

Please note that this workshop has a limited number of spaces and has received the maximum number of RSVPs.

What is the relationship between death awareness and social change? This workshop will highlight the communal possibilities that open when we make space to discuss our fears and visions together. In this workshop we will consider inspiring models for supporting each other in community. We will provide local resources for today while imagining a radically different future.

Poetry and women’s theater at Free University of New York and Alternate U

Sunday, October 21, 3pm

An afternoon with Susan Sherman, Sue Perlgut and Miriam Frank, featuring the poetry and theater of women in FUNY and Alternate U.

Interference, Absurdity, Performance, and Political Change: A Workshop Series

Thursdays 7-9pm,
September 27-October 18

In this series of (no)work(no)shops, we will collectively discuss ‘the absurd’, how this intersects with political action and performance, and how this relates to the specific context of New York City in 2018. Drawing from a selection of readings and materials from Interference Archive, we will learn about historical and contemporary absurdist/anarchist/dadaist/ni hilist/(t)errorist political performance. Following these explorations, we will build new transgressive, anti-normative characters and creatures and conspire in the creation of new performances and disruptions.

Research Skills Workshop with MACC

Saturday, November 3, 3-5pm
Organized by the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council press working group

We all know that knowledge is power, but researching this knowledge properly can sometimes be a challenge. Between questionable sources, paywalled articles and more search results than anyone could conceivably get through, it’s easy to go looking for something online and finding everything but the thing you needed. Members of the Metropolitan Anarchist Coordinating Council’s press working group will be available to share some of their tips and tricks on building your skills and capacities as a researcher, and answer whatever questions you have on how to find the information you need.

Fascism at the Gates: Bolsonaro and the Brazillian Elections

Saturday, October 20, 3-5pm

The past few years in Brazil have been marked by intense political turbulence. Now, in 2018, there is a new electoral period marked by a strong polarity between left (and center-left) and right (and far right), with a frightening factor, the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro. Anarchist groups in Brazil, invited by Black Rose/Rosa Negra Anarchist Federation, will analyze the political moment from a libertarian socialist perspective, and discuss strategies for fighting back. 

Indigenous People’s Justice Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon

Sunday, October 14, 2-5pm

In honor of Indigenous People’s Day and Anti-Thanksgiving, we are holding a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on the theme of Indigenous peoples’ movement histories. In an effort to learn from and support the myriad movements that have arisen in response to this violence, we will glean relevant information from the collection at Interference Archive to share through Wikipedia. Our objective is to make information and documentation related to Indigenous peoples’ movement histories more accessible for current and future movement makers, educators, and learners. Snacks provided; childcare available with RSVP.

Audio Interference 54: Just Leadership USA

“There’s only a certain amount of time that a person can languish in prison while they prepare for a trial.”

Social Justice Book Club: How Not to Be a Boy

Tuesday, October 16th, 6:45pm

Join us at our next meeting to discuss How Not to Be a Boy by Robert Webb. Looking back over his life, from schoolboy crushes (on girls and boys) to discovering the power of making people laugh, and from losing his beloved mother to becoming a husband and father, Robert Webb considers the absurd expectations boys and men have thrust upon them at every stage of life. 

Talk and Screening with Robert Machover and Norman Fruchter

Wednesday, October 17, 7-9pm

Filmmaking played an active role at the Free University of New York in 1965-66, as evidenced by the work of Norman Fruchter and Robert Machover. Interference Archive is thrilled to host these two filmmakers for the world premiere of Dog Burning at Noon (5 min), a short film produced collectively at FUNY as commentary on the Vietnam War, alongside a screening of excerpts of Troublemakers, a direct cinema-style documentary about living conditions in Newark and the young SDS organizers working with  people in Newark.

Agitate! Educate! Organize! Agit Prop into the 21st Century

Exhibition Dates: June 12 — September 30, 2018
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, June 12, 6-9pm

Our daily lives are saturated with information; we consume supposedly “neutral” media that implicitly supports existing power structures, yet we simultaneously fear “fake news” without critically analyzing the truths and biases that coexist in every message we see or hear. The reality is that all media has an agenda: for hundreds of years, people have used art, culture, graphics, performance, and design as central elements of social and political organizing across all realms of the political spectrum, to spread information and reimagine reality. This exhibition reflects historic and current uses of agitprop, or agitational propaganda, at the intersection of design and political organizing.