The first ever Orange County Anarchist Bookfair is being held on Saturday, May 16, at El Centro Cultural de Mexico in Santa Ana. The event promises to bring a little anarchy in the OC. The oft-misunderstood political ideal is front and center at the day-long gathering with books, art and action offered up to inform.
After months of dedicated organizing, the OCABC is proud to present an ambitious program of thought-provoking politics. The weekend event includes panel discussions, breakout workshop sessions and keynote speakers. Deconstructing anarchism, feminist activism in grassroots spaces, the non-profit industrial complex and anarchists vs. ISIS are just a few of the topics that will intrigue bookfair goers.
Anti-authoritarian speakers are also lined up throughout the afternoon. Internationally renowned Paulo Freire scholar Antonia Darder joins the bookfair to talk about critical pedagogy and her latest book Freire and Education. UC Riverside professor Andrea Smith will bring her feminist and anti-violence activist perspectives. Anarchist author and activist scott crow visits the bookfair from Austin to close out the event with his thoughts on anarchism and creating power from below.
And what would a bookfair be without books? Vendors include Oakland’s PM Press which specializes in anarchist and radical literature. A solidarity fund at the event will go towards helping AK Press celebrate its 25th anniversary and rebuild itself from a devastating warehouse fire earlier this year.
El Centro Cultural is located at 313 N. Birch St. in Santa Ana. The event is free and open to all.
Our mission statement:
We are a horizontally organized collective that came together to organize Orange County’s first ever anarchist bookfair. Ours is an intersectional anarchism opposing all structures of oppression. We are feminist, queer, gender non-conforming, indigenous, anti-capitalist people of color. The collective actively creates another world within the very navel of this otherwise rotting orange. We subvert popular assumptions of conservative Orange County by unabashedly and daringly imagining a radical alternative. We work to create safer spaces for critical engagement, reflection and accountability without the presence of the state and those who mouth its oppressive tongue. We celebrate the local history of resistance upon this stolen land. We take inspiration from Indigenous peoples fighting the terror of Junipero Serra, the jailhouse cry of Modesta Avila, the Citrus Strike of 1932 and the spirit of Santa Ana’s Black and Brown youth protesting police violence in 1969. The collective wants to end all “isms” and phobias that perpetuate oppression in creating a new reality where many realities exist together.