naa programming

Dear friends, as Not An Alternative is busy readying the new NO↔SPACE for public events and programming, we're teaming up with The Yes Lab to present a series of lectures and workshops this Fall at NYU. We hope to see you there.

And stay tuned for info on our new home: a beautiful 1500 square foot space on the waterfront in Greenpoint where we'll have dedicated desks with studio mates and collaborators, space for light fabrication, and film screenings, artist talks, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions. We have just a couple more desks to rent for October 1, if you or someone you know is interested in more info let us know!

Creative Activism Thursdays: Revolutionaries Live!
Fall 2011 Programming Series

Creative activism considers the relationship between representation and action, the material and immaterial. Contemporary activists employ traditional tactics as well as those that take into account our hyper-mediated world of signs and symbols, stories and spectacle.

This Fall, The Yes Lab, Not An Alternative, and the Center for Artistic Activism are teaming up to bring you “Creative Activism Thursdays” a series of lectures and workshops with theorists, activists and artists from around the world.

From the merry militants of Serbia’s Otpor movement to the the anarchic hacktivists of Anonymous, from Spain’s New Kids on the Black Bloc, to the AIDS activists of Act-Up, we’ll unpack cultural tactics and creative strategies from social movements, both current and historic.

• Sept. 22: Ivan Marovic, Otpor.
• Sept. 29: Srdja Popovic and Slobo Djinovic, Otpor.
* Oct 5: (POSTPONED)
• Oct. 13: (POSTPONED)
• Oct. 20: Leónidas Martín Saura from Las Agencias, Yomango, and En Medio.
• Oct. 27: John Jackson, author of Small Acts of Resistance.
* Nov 3: John Stewart and Dan Glass, Aviation Justice, UK Climate Campaign
• Nov. 17: Mark Rudd, formerly of the Weather Underground.
* Dec 1: Gabriella Coleman, about the Lulz in Anonymous.
• Dec. 8: Timothy Patrick McCarthy, The Radical Reader.

Revolutionaries Live! kicks off this Thursday with the great Ivan Marovic, one of the founders of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic.

In October 2000, a group of students from Belgrade University with a yearning to live a democratic life helped to overthrow the rule of Europe’s most bloody dictator, Slobodan Milosevic. Their influences were Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the work of the American academic and guru of non-violent resistance, Gene Sharp. They employed simple but effective tactics: using mobile phones, slogans and Monty Python-style street humor. But their secret was their methodology: unity, planning and non-violent discipline. Using this trio of tactics, they managed to pull together a politically divided Serbia.

After Milosevic’s fall, Marovic began consulting with various pro democracy groups worldwide and became one of the leading trainers in the field of civil resistance. Ivan will speak about the role of humor and creative activism in the struggles he has helped to guide.

Space is limited, RSVP required. After the Ivan's talk at NYU, we'll take the N/R train a few stops down to Liberty Plaza and Occupy Wall Street. There, around 8:30 or 9pm, Ivan will continue his talk for our very own here-and-now revolutionaries. So if you can't get into the talk, you can see it in context around 8:30 or 9pm Thursday!

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
All events are at 7pm at Performance Studies, 6th Floor, 721 Broadway, NY unless otherwise noted.
Dates scheduled so far for fall 2011:

Sept. 22: Ivan Marovic, Otpor. After Ivan's talk, we'll all take the N/R train a few stops to #occupywallstreet! Ivan is one of the founders of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. After Milosevic’s fall, Marovic began consulting with various pro democracy groups worldwide and became one of the leading trainers in the field of civil resistance. Ivan will speak about the role of humor and creative activism in the struggles he’s helped to guide. Introduction by Bryan Farrell of WagingNonViolence.org.

Sept. 29: Srdja Popovic and Slobo Djinovic, Otpor. Srdja is founding member of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. In late 2003 he co-founded the Center for Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a group that supports nonviolent democratic movements through the transfer of knowledge on strategies and tactics of nonviolent struggle. Slobo is an innovator in democracy and technology, founding Serbia’s first wireless internet company and a founder of Otpor. He has since become a leader exponent of sharing strategic non-violence training for democracy movements and peaceful opposition groups in the world’s remaining dictatorships. Introduction by Eric Stoner of WagingNonViolence.org.

Oct. 5: John Stewart and Dan Glass, UK Climate Campaign. John Stewart was a key organizer in the successful decade-long campaign to stop the expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport. He was named Britain’s most effective green activist by the Independent for bringing together aviation-impacted communities, climate activists, and fiscal conservatives. His publications include Roads for People: Policies for Liveable Streets and Victory Against All The Odds: The Story of the Campaign to Stop a Third Runway at Heathrow. Dan Glass was named one of the UK’s youth climate leaders by the Guardian and one of Attitude magazine’s 66 new role models for helping bridge LGBTQ and environmental justice movements. The grandson of four Holocaust survivors, he’s best known for having superglued himself to the Prime Minister to draw attention to communities impacted by aviation climate change. Dan revels in creating militant but cheeky ways to be a thorn in the side for those destroying the planet — occupying airports, dancing with old ladies blighted by flightpaths, and working with aviation justice direct action network Plane Stupid. Introduction by Not An Alternative.

Oct. 13: Gabriella Coleman, about the Lulz in Anonymous. Biella is a professor in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication and a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study. Her book, Coding Freedom: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Hacking, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press and she is currently working on a new book on Anonymous and digital activism. Biella will speak about the revolutionary humor the hacker group Anonymous uses as one of its key tactics.

Oct. 20: Leonidas Martin is a Professor at Barcelona University where he teaches New Media and Political Art. For many years he has been developing collective projects between art and activism, some of them well known internationally (Las Agencias, Yomango, Prêt a Révolter). He writes about art and politics for blogs, journals and newspapers, has created several documentaries and movies for television and internet, and is a member of the cultural collective “Enmedio” (www.enmedio.info). Last but not least, he is an expert telling jokes, often using this divine gift to get free beers and avoid police arrest. Leo will tell stories about the current upheaval in Spain, among other things. Introduction by Not An Alternative.

Oct. 27, 7:30pm, Rm 105, 34 Stuyvesant Street: John Jackson, author of Small Acts of Resistance. John is co-author of Small Acts of Resistance, a collection of stories showing how humor, tenacity, and ingenuity can change the world. Currently Vice President for Social Responsibility at MTV Networks International, John was a founder and Director of Burma Campaign UK, and has been involved in major international campaigns on fair trade, landmines, child labor, and climate change.

Nov. 17, 7:30pm, Rm 105, 34 Stuyvesant Street: Mark Rudd, formerly of the Weather Underground. Mark led the legendary 1968 occupation of five buildings at Columbia University, a dramatic act of protest against the university's support for the Vietnam War. As charismatic chairman of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the largest radical student organization in the United States, Rudd became a national symbol of student revolt, and went on to co-found the Weathermen faction of SDS, which helped organize the notorious Days of Rage in Chicago in 1969 before going underground. Mark will speak about the intended and unintended humor of ‘60s activism. Introduction by Jeremy Varon.

Dec. 8: Timothy Patrick McCarthy, The Radical Reader. Tim is Lecturer on History and Literature and on Public Policy at Harvard University and Director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he hosts the monthly public conversation series, “The Activist’s Studio,” convenes an annual spring conference on “Gay Rights as Human Rights,” and co-chairs the Regional Working Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. He will speak about the ways that humor is crucial to cultural transformation, and specifically the role of humor in the LGBT movement.

Revolutionaries Live! (aka Creative Activism Thursdays) is co-sponsored by NYU Dean for Social Science, the Hemispheric Institute, the Yes Lab, the Humanities Initiative at NYU Working Research Group on Artistic Activism, CAA, and Not an Alternative. Speakers will also attend following Yes Lab Friday.

NO↔SPACE
GOODBYE WILLIAMSBURG
RENTRIFICATION PARTY
Saturday, September 17
84 Havemeyer St at Metropolitan Ave

$10 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
All proceeds go to the move and build-out of our new space.
Cash bar with local beer and wine served.

Please join us for our last event ever at No-Space (formerly called The Change You Want To See Gallery) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. After 7 years and hundreds of artist talks, film screenings, workshops, festivals, block parties, panel discussions and projects, a 240% rent increase sends us packing for new pastures. But first, we play.

We'll kick off the evening screening films shot in Williamsburg over the last 30 years, depicting a changing landscape, both physically and culturally. After that, a benediction by Reverend Billy of the Church of Earthaluliah, and then a dance party with DJs Angel Nevarez, DJ N-Ron, and the Hungry March Band.

This isn't goodbye, this is goodbye Williamsburg. Stay tuned for an inaugural party in the NEW No-Space sometime in October!

Film Screenings: 6pm - 9:30pm
6pm: Metropolitan Ave (1985, 52 mins)
7pm: Made in Brooklyn (1993, 55 mins)
8pm: Up on the Roof (2008, 58 mins)
9pm: Scenes from a Movement: The Fight to Halt Williamsburg's Over-Development (2011, 9 mins)
An Academic Discussion of Gentrification (2011, 6 mins)
Queen of Williamsburg (2009, 10 mins)

Benediction: 9:30
Reverend Billy of the Church of Earthaluliah
Dance Party: 9:30pm - 2am
DJ Angel Nevarez, Hungry March Band, and DJ N-Ron

Special party thanks to Sarah Nelson Wright, Angel Nevarez, Noel Hidalgo, Daniel Perlin, Angela Tran, Sasha Sumner, Jason Cadler, all our friends who are volunteering on Saturday, and most of all you, our audience and collaborators.

ABOUT THE FILMS
Metropolitan Ave (1985, 52 mins)
Metropolitan Avenue is an inspiring film about community, about the changing role of women, and about how powerful ordinary people can be when they join together to fight for something they believe in. The film focuses on a lively Brooklyn neighborhood which, like many urban areas, faces problems caused by racial tensions and cutbacks in municipal services. But in this case, a group of "traditional" homemakers from varied ethnic backgrounds rises to the challenge and forms coalitions to fight for the community's survival. Directed by Christine Noschese.

Made in Brooklyn (1993, 55 mins)
Made in Brooklyn examines the decline of New York's industrial base as economic policy makers shift their focus to a service-based economy. Focuses on the history and current vitality of Brooklyn's manufacturing community, and its implications for New York and the entire country. Interweaving historic photographs and archival footage, it traces Brooklyn's history as an industrial supplier and home to such business giants as Domino Sugar Refinery and the Eberhart Faber Pencil Factory. Directed by Isabel Hill.

Up on the Roof (2008, 58 mins)
The pigeon keepers of New York have been in the spotlight recently, and now a new JL Aronson documentary, Up on the Roof, looks at the gentrification of Williamsburg through their experiences. Up on the Roof follows several devoted pigeon breeders in one predominantly Latino section of Brooklyn through the rigors and rewards of a quintessential New York tradition. All along the waterfront, and throughout blue collar Brooklyn, pigeon fancying has been an active pastime for centuries, handed down from one group of residents to the next, and Williamsburg has long been the center of the action. But as with so many once blighted and now hip districts throughout the world, Brooklyn and Williamsburg in particular is being scrubbed of its old world character to make way for a new urbanism. This colorful, urban-wildlife doc considers what we lose in the process of urban renewal and treats the audience like an insider in an unseen and in many ways vanishing world. Directed by JL Aronson.

Scenes from a Movement: The Fight to Halt Williamsburg's Over-Development (2011, 9 mins)
Footage from the 2005 Williamsburg/Greenpoint rezoning protests' creative actions. Features Not An Alternative, the Williamsburg Warriors, Reverend Billy, the Hungry March Band and neighbors and friends. Directed by JL Aronson.

An Academic Discussion of Gentrification (2011, 6 mins)
Interview with Dr. Winifred Curran, an urban geographer with interests in gentrification and urban change, labor geographies, race and gender. Her dissertation work looked at the effect of gentrification on small scale manufacturers in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Includes archival footage and excerpts from Jonas Mekas' film "Williamsburg, Brooklyn", and Diego Echevarria's film "Los Sures". Directed by JL Aronson.

Queen of Williamsburg (2009, 10 mins)
Leonora Russo is a widower who has been living in the same rent controlled Williamsburg apartment for the past 60 years. This short documentary follows her on an average day, as she walks down Bedford Avenue, past the funky boutiques and expensive cafes. Leonora is known as "The Queen of Williamsburg" (though some call her "The Mayor") and is widely acclaimed for both her unique style and for her advocacy work for the People’s Firehouse. Directed by Klara Egei.

ABOUT THE MUSIC
Angel Nevarez is an artist, musician, and DJ. He, and his longtime collaborator Valerie Tevere, have produced works which investigate contemporary music, dissent, and public fora, and move between the spatial simultaneity of performance and enunciation, reflecting upon the projection of political agency through transmission and song. He is also a faculty member at MIT in the program of Art, Culture, and Technology.
http://www.nevareztevere.info

Daniel Perlin , aka DJ N-RON, is an artist and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. His work includes production for David Byrne's label Luaka Bop records, mixes for Sound-Ink Records, and as a recording artist for Tax records, Broklyn Beats, Apple Core and Giant Corporate Records. Recent releases include collaborations with Dj/Rupture, Dj Small Change, Geko Jones, Anti-pop consortium and Vito Acconci. N-RON's The Collaborator was voted a best mixtape of 2007 by Kid Kameleon in XLR8R magazine. His sound has been heard at the The New Museum, Guggenheim Museum NY, Centre Georges Pomediou, Temporary Contemporary Gallery, London, TN Probe, Tokyo and at festivals such as Pireneos Sur, Spain, Berlin Film festival, Cannes and CMJ.
http://soundcloud.com/djnron

The Hungry March Band
Straight outta Brooklyn, HMB is a community group with a membership as diverse as our music. The band is an ever evolving musical experiment influenced and inspired from Brooklyn’s backyard with Latin flavor, punk rock noise, hip hop beats and the music of the streets. Put on your dancing shoes and break out the fancy threads because we’ve got the party going on – a blazing parade of flesh, blood, steel, brass and wood. We are the music of the people!

HMB has a repertoire of originals and traditionals that borrows from global brass band traditions, including, but not limited to, Balkan gypsy brass bands, Indian wedding bands, and New Orleans second line. The band also references punk rock; techno, hip hop; various jazz traditions, including free jazz and bop; reggae; and chance music. They cite Sun Ra, Charlie Parker, John Cage, the Shyam Brass Band, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Rebirth Brass Band, the Skatalites, Sonic Youth, Weird Al Yankovich and Black Sabbath as influences.
http://www.hungrymarchband.com

Dear friends,

It's been a great run over here at 84 Havemeyer Street, but with the latest rent hike -- a 240% increase -- it's time to move on.

We moved to this storefront in 2000, when there was nary a health food store, bar, condo, or sushi joint this side of Bedford Ave. It was off the beaten path. 99 cent stores abounded, and the Puerto Ricans owned this block. Their lives were lived on the street: barbecues and backgammon, family and friends.

There's a lot of history in this space, and it started well before we arrived. Beka took it over from a woman named Megan who hosted a pirate radio station in her living room, with 24 hr. jam sessions, performance art, and parties. She and her boyfriend built a sort of gingerbread house cum forest cottage in the middle of the space from reclaimed wood. It was Beka’s bedroom for 2 years. Before Megan was a man whose name we can't remember, known by the neighbors as the curmudgeonly guy who'd open the front door, pull out a guitar and amp, and play heavy metal in his bathrobe on the street. Much, much earlier it was a grocery store, and before that, a bagel factory.

We saw potential beyond a home/office, and when the 2004 Republican National Convention was announced Not An Alternative was formed, and we started to use the storefront as our headquarters. We hosted weekend workshops on the sidewalk with a boom box, a grill, and political artists from around the city, recruiting passersby to pitch in with production in advance of the protests. For evening artist talks and meetings we’d carry all of the living and bedroom furniture to a friend’s apartment upstairs and bring it all back down again at the end of the night. It was truly a multi-purpose space!

That soon grew old and in 2005 Beka moved out and Jason, Winnie, Ian, and friends renovated the space to be Not An Alternative’s dedicated events venue, workshop and coworking office, née The Change You Want To See Gallery and recently re-named NO↔SPACE. Over the years we’ve hosted 100’s of events here: from film screenings, artist talks, workshops and trainings, panel discussions, and festivals, it’s been a laboratory for the cross-pollination of artists, activists, and academics.

Beyond pedagogy, we’ve engaged in practice, in collaboration with community groups and cultural producers. Our first major effort involved a series of projects aimed at challenging the 2005 rezoning and gentrification of North Brooklyn. But the neighborhood has changed dramatically since then, and we've had front row seats. The block built up, the foot traffic grew, and so did the rent. The latest hike is the last straw: a 240% rent increase, from $2500 to $6000. And so we find ourselves displaced, like countless other spaces, businesses and residents around here over the years.

It's been a wild ride, with ups and downs, but never a dull moment, and we're grateful for it all. Much gratitude to our residents and coworkers, our audience, our allies, and our collaborators, past and present, as this experiment never would have happened without you.

This isn’t goodbye: we’ll keep you appraised of our next steps! But this is the end of this chapter. And we'd like to commemorate it with you.

Please save the date:

Saturday, September 17
Final Event at NO↔SPACE on Havemeyer St
Film screenings and Closing Party
(Exact Time TBA)

We hope to see you then.

Not An Alternative is participating in a panel on "precarious power" this Saturday, July 16, investigating the intersections of labor organizing, art, and direct action. The panel is part of an upcoming exhibition "The Making of the Chinese New Working Class", curated by the Culture and Art Museum of Migrant Workers in Beijing and hosted by Ludlow 38 in NY. Associated programming is organized by artist Marty Kirchner and The Public School in various NYC venues.

Symposium: Precarious Power: Syndicalism, Solidarity, and the New Organizational Paradigm
Saturday, July 16, 2011, 4-6pm, free
@ Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies
25 West 43rd Street, between 5th and 6th avenues, 19th Floor
The reorganization of production along global supply chains, often through a complicated pattern of subcontracting, has provided significant challenges for the labor movement. Temporary and contingent employment has undermined labor rights protections worldwide. However, in both China and the West, the last few years have seen a proliferation of dissident worker movements, new kinds of workers organizations and workers’ rights campaigns. Some of the most dynamic and innovative have combined elements of community and labor organizing, cultural production, and direct action.

Immanuel Ness, professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York will facilitate the discussion. His writing focuses on social and revolutionary movements, labor militancy and migrant worker resistance to oppression.

Invited guests include the following participants:
Jeff Becker, International Labor Rights Forum
Daniel Gross, IWW/Brandworkers International
Carrie Gleason, Retail Action Project
Not An Alternative

Please join Picture The Homeless at NO↔SPACE in Williamsburg (and other meeting points around Brooklyn) as they lead a vacant property count aimed at confronting the City's division of real estate, property and space. Brooklyn has the highest density of vacant properties in New York City, and the greatest number of people entering into homelessness.

Saturday, June 11, 10am
@ NO↔SPACE (and other Brooklyn locations, see below)
84 Havemeyer St, at Metropolitan Ave

This is a massive borough-wide effort with multiple meeting points. When Picture The Homeless conducted a similar count in Manhattan in 2006 they were able to show that there are more vacant properties in Manhattan alone than the entire homeless population in all 5 boroughs of New York City.

FROM PICTURE THE HOMELESS
On Saturday, June 11th, hundreds of Brooklynites will pound the pavement and walk every block of eight community boards in search of vacant buildings and lots.

Why? Because they know that their community needs housing, gardens, jobs, and open space - and they know that there's a ton of vacant buildings and lots and storefronts that could help transform their neighborhoods in ways that help everyone - not just rich developers.

AND WE NEED YOU! VOLUNTEER SATURDAY, JUNE 11th, AT 10AM, FOR THE BROOKLYN VACANT PROPERTY COUNT at the following locations:
John Wesley United Methodist Church (260 Quincy Street, A/C to Nostrand)
Pratt Area Community Council (226 Lefferts Place; A/C to Franklin)
Neighbors Together (2094 Fulton Street; A/C to Rockaway)
No-Space (84 Havemayer St, L to Bedford or Lorimer)
Office of Council Member Diana Reyna: (217 Havemeyer Street: J/M/Z to Marcy…
Brooklyn Public Library: Clinton Hill Branch: 380 Washington Avenue (G train to Clinton-Washington)
Brooklyn Public Library: Brooklyn Heights Branch: 280 Cadman Plaza West (A/C to High Street)
Brooklyn Public Library: New Lots Branch: 665 New Lots Avenue (2/3/4/5 to New Lots)
Brooklyn Public Library: Brownsville Branch: 61 Glenmore Avenue (L Train to Sutter Ave)

On Saturday, April 23, Not An Alternative took part in A Conversation on Useful Art #1, an event organized by artist Tania Bruguera as part of Immigrant Movement International, a year-long, socio-political movement initiated by the artist in Corona, Queens presented by Creative Time and the Queens Museum of Art. The event took place at Immigrant Movement International headquarters and was held in conjunction with the Useful Art Association and featured an introduction to Useful Art followed by a series of brief conversations with artists and presenters Patrick Bernier and Olive Martin, Mel Chin, Not An Alternative, Rick Lowe, Pase Usted, Creative Time Chief Curator Nato Thompson, QMA Executive Director Tom Finkelpearl, Larissa Harris, Gregory Sholette, representatives from Make the Road, New York, and N.I.C.E. (New Immigrant Community Empowerment), and New York City Council Member Julissa Ferreras.

Further documentation can be found here: http://immigrant-movement.us/?p=2120.

Thursday, May 12, 7:30pm

With the wave of opposition to austerity measures in the UK, many new creative political groups and projects have appeared. Not only the high-profile actions of UK Uncut, but others such as the University of Strategic Optimism, Arts Against Cuts, Precarious Workers Brigade, the Really Free School, and the Free University of Liverpool.

On Thursday, May 12, UK-based academic and art/activist Gavin Grindon will present stories and films from recent groups and activities that experiment with new creative approaches to activism’s materials and performance. From the Book Bloc’s very literate means of protecting crowds from police batons, to The University of Strategic Optimism’s critical theory lectures in high-street banks; from Liberate Tate’s oil spills inside the Tate galleries to encourage them to drop BP sponsorship, to the Space Hijackers driving a tank into an arms fair, and the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination&`;s reverse-engineering of hundreds of bikes into a swarming mass of direct action machines.

Gavin will introduce some of these groups and activities, tell some ridiculous stories of general troublemaking and daring misadventure, show some videos and do his best to answer any of your questions.

Gavin Grindon is a postdoctoral research fellow at Kingston University of London. His research focuses on the history of activist-art practices, and art in social movements in the twenteith century, through both objects and performance, and how these can be theorised and historicised in relation to the institutional bases of art history. He has written articles for the Oxford Art Journal, Third Text, Art Monthly and the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, and is a sometime member of the art-activist group the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination.

SnowFlow is a collaborative event between several organizations interested in creativity, sustainability and organizational awareness.  Our shared concerns regarding environmental issues and the increasing frequency of global catastrophes have focused our efforts into establishing ongoing collaborative projects that raise public awareness and bring together artists, activists, naturalists and concerned citizens into settings that inform, support and energize participants into making a difference.

Registration | Participating Groups | Schedule of Events | Donations | Press Release

SnowFlow will be held the weekend of February 11-13, 2011 at the Full Moon Resort.  Located within the Catskill State Park and Forest Preserve, this region serves as both the main contributor to the New York City watershed and as the headwaters to the Delaware River, recently declared the “Nation's Most Endangered River.”  The main initiative for SnowFlow is to bridge water rights activism between the Hudson and Delaware Valleys in relation to natural gas extraction, hydraulic fracturing, peak water and the foodshed.

The weekend events will combine outdoor activities, art, music and lively conversations to produce and document a variety of works focused on water in it most crystallized form – Snow! During the day, SnowFlowers will cascade down the slopes of nearby Belleayre Mountain and engage in parallel artistic interventions and snow shelter building competitions. The festivities will continue into the evening with a cocktail reception and a regional Catskill foodshed specialtiesdinner, followed by conversations related to peak water & the foodshed and musical performances curated by Suzanne Thorpe and featuring Pauline Olivero, Miguel Frasconi and Tianna Kennedy & Hannah Marcus.

Agri-artists, urban farmers, data visualizers, designers, radical cartographers, performers, waterpodders, activist geographers, and YOU in a veggie-oil powered bus. Join us as we drive upstate to the beautiful Delaware River Valley on the NY/PA border to visit local farms that are fighting hydrofracking in their backyards. $50/person includes transportation, meals, hiking, farm and drill site tours, potluck dinner party, accommodations, and free morning yoga class. Leave Saturday morning November 6th, return Sunday afternoon.

WE ARE NOW SOLD OUT! SPACES MIGHT OPEN UP, REGISTER BELOW TO GET ON THE WAITING LIST. WE'LL LET YOU KNOW BY THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 4. 

Why should you come? Cuz fall leaves rock, so do veggie oil buses, and organic veggies, and road trips, and rivers, and farmers, and food, but fracking doesn't. Pssst, they're all related, find out how. Get out of Gotham and come visit Gasland.

Organized by Not An Alternative, with Sky Dog Projects.

Co-sponsors: Ant Hill Farm, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Electronic Media Foundation/Earth to the Earth, Issue Project Room, Not An Alternative, Riverlights B&B, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Sky Dog Projects, Urban Rustic.

ITINERARY
We'll have two departure points on the morning on Saturday, November 6th, one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and the other near Columbia University in Harlem.

• 9am: bus leaves from No-Space (formerly called The Change You Want To See Gallery) in Williamsburg. The address: 84 Havemeyer St, at Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn NY 11211. Closest subway stops: L to Bedford; J/M/Z to Marcy; G to Metropolitan.
  

Thursday, October 28, 7:30pm

Parallel Lines is a collaborative project that looks critically at the impact of the construction of the High Line park in Manhattan's west side. Since the High Line opened to the public in June 2009, it has become a frequently celebrated example of public space for community, culture, innovative design, and urban renewal. As the High Line becomes a public space, Parallel Lines critically investigates its processes and structure, its surrounding neighborhoods and history. Through dialogue, observation, research and action, the project works to illuminate the blind spots of unchecked gentrification and find ways to occupy the city in a manner that is conscious, creative and vigilant.

Join us this Thursday as we continue our series on Open Sourcing The City with a screening and performance titled A Public Hearing, by members of the Parallel Lines project. A Public Hearing borrows from the physical and communicative structure of public hearings -- open forums held in New York City to introduce community input into urban development and planning processes. The performance aggregates a number of documents from the public record, to consider developments regarding the High Line and its surrounding neighborhoods. These documents form part of Parallel Line's ongoing research into changes affecting neighborhoods such as the West Village, Chelsea, Meatpacking and Hells Kitchen, and include records and board meeting minutes of public hearings and community input forums, legal depositions, newspaper articles, and fundraising publicity over the past five years. Selections from these sources will be read aloud, to explore how communities struggle over space, perform public speech, and produce notions of “the public record.” This research is conducted at a time when neoliberal urban development and its racial, gendered and economic distributions are increasingly uneven and contradictory.