Mark you calendars, Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair (ACAB) is going down from August 23rd to 25th in beautiful Asheville, NC.
August 23-25, Asheville, NC will host its third annual Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair in conjunction with the third annual Pansy Fest, a queer and trans DIY music fest showcasing LGBTQ musicians from the south. The weekend will feature free workshops, panels, talks, as well as a vendors, concerts, and meals. The Bookfair is a space for community building, learning, and resource sharing, to help strengthen regional networks of anti-authoritarian organizers. We hope that the bookfair will once again be a convergence point for learning and sharing ideas in anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, decolonial organizing. Building on the successes of the last two years, we hope to welcome hundreds of people, from the region and beyond, to participate in a weekend of events, book, zine, and pamphlet selling, concerts, and dance parties.
It has been another year of atrocities by State powers and fascists in the streets, but we have also seen in our area—and around the globe—that those committed to face these powers head on have only continued their fight, all the while inventing new modes of relationship and engagement to supplant the oppressive forms imposed on us. The work that anti-authoritarians do can get easily eclipsed, especially in the run up to a national election, where liberal candidates try to sap the energy and ideas from radical grass roots actions. In the aftermath of horrible climate disasters, this year has been indelibly marked by the impending doom of environmental collapse that comes along with the continued extraction of resources, the genocide and displacement of indigenous people and the global poor, and the legacies and histories of settler colonialism and slavery. Asheville has continued its quick march towards becoming a tourist hellhole empty of anything for the people who live here. The city becomes more and more unlivable, while more and more useless building projects get greenlighted. We are a city funded by Uber, Lyft, and AirBnb, while the city diverts its money to the police to harass the black and POC communities, evict houseless people from whatever shelters they can find, and to endlessly attract financers to make this a spectacle of a city.
On the other hand, this has been a year of building infrastructure, of strategizing to keep our fights in focus and at the center of the work against electoral inertia, of bringing more attention to decolonial and land protection actions, of continuing to oppose police and prisons and support the people on the inside who risk their well-being to do so, of heading off the endless stream of police-protected white supremacist marches, and more. There are more and more projects getting of the ground, and therefore so much more information to be shared, especially as we begin to head into hurricane season. We need our regular events to meet up and collaborate on projects, learn what works in different terrains, and discuss how to implement ideas in our areas.
We are coordinating with Pansy Fest this year, to hold simultaneous events. After a day of vending and workshops, there will be shows and parties, plus a brunch on Sunday. Pansy Fest is a group of queer and trans southerners dedicated to promoting regional LGBT DIY culture, mutual aid, and resistance. This will be their third year holding the festival, which features performers from around the country. We ask participants to understand that their spaces will prioritize the comfort and safety of queer/trans people.
The applications are currently up for vendors and presenters and will remain open until July 25th. We invite vendors of radical presses, small distros, zinemakers, and artists to sign up. We invite workshops, panels, talks, and trainings towards a liberatory horizon. To apply, please visit or website https://acab2019.noblogs.org to contact us, send an email to acab2019@riseup.net and please promote this event by following our social media or printing our flyers and handing them out in your community.
IG: ACAB.2019
FB: https://www.facebook.com/AshevilleACAB2019
Soli, ACAB 2019