We’ve got an incredible lineup of sessions for this year’s bookfair! Times and locations are subject to change so grab a printed program from the welcome table at Firestorm when you arrive on Friday (or in the vendor area Saturday and Sunday).

This year’s keynote, “Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle’s Back,” will be delivered by former Black Panther Ashanti Alston at Sly Grog on Saturday night at 6:30pm.

Friday, June 28th

2:30pm-3:30pm

Firestorm Books
Disabled Ecologies with Sunaura Taylor

West Asheville Library
Boobs Not Bombs: DIY Transdermal Estrogen

4:00pm-5:00pm

Firestorm Books
Abortion Beyond the State with Jex Blackmore and Hydra Mutual Aid Fund

West Asheville Library
Punk—Dangerous Utopia: Revisiting the Relationship between Punk and Anarchism with CrimethInc

Carrier Park Pavilion
Packaging Books for Incarcerated Gays with Tranzmission Prison Project

6:00pm-7:00pm

Carrier Park Pavilion
Potluck Dinner (please bring something vegan / gluten-free to share, if you’re able!)

7:00pm-8:00pm

Carrier Park Pavilion
Trauma-Informed Self-Defense
Shabbat Ritual (all welcome)

8:00pm-11:00pm

Sly Grog
Mixed genre show with Scäretactic, KHX05, Greta Boney, …by the deed, Kat Nzingha, and Annihil. $5 cover, no one turned away for lack of funds

11:00pm

Secret Location
G*y S*x P*rty

Saturday, June 29th

10:30am-12:00pm

The Odd
Movement of the Body Potential: A Somatic Exploration

Firestorm Books
The No-State Solution: Histories and Realities with Mohammed Bamyeh

West Asheville Library
Art as a Vehicle for Anarchist Ideas with N.O. Bonzo, Des Revol, and Sugarbombing World

1:00pm-2:00pm

The Odd
An Anarchism of Despair with Shuli Branson and Cindy Barukh Milstein

Firestorm Books
Nothing About Us Without Us: Analyzing Best Practices for Harm Reduction Services that Equitably Center People Who Use Drugs with Katie Flanagan

West Asheville Library
What Lies Beneath: Welcoming Entropy with The Woven Ends Collective

2:30pm-4:00pm

The Odd
Trans Appalachian Resistance Strategies

Firestorm Books
Death Cult Liberalism and Our Dependency on Domination

West Asheville Library
Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance with Idris and Adi

4:30pm-5:30pm

Firestorm Books
“All Will Be Equalized!”: Georgia’s Freedom Seekers of the Swamps, Backwoods, and Sea Islands with Andrew Zonneveld and Modibo Kadalie

West Asheville Library
Militant Indigenous Abolition & Anarchism with Indigenous Abolition and The Elements of Mutual Aid

6:30pm Keynote

Sly Grog
Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle’s Back with Ashanti Alston

8:00pm-9:00pm

Sly Grog
Karaoke and tabletop games

Sly Grog
SOFT/CORE: Singles Over Forty Tonight/Crushing on Random Elders

10:00pm-11:00pm

Secret Location
Dance party / rave with Ebony Redd, BABY COUSIN TAY TAY, and DJ Bedtyme Stories.

Sunday, June 30th

10:30am-12:00pm

The Odd
Taking the State Out of the Body: Embodied Anti-Zionist Practice with Eliana Rubin (Sanctuary Embodied)

Firestorm Books
From Activist to Terrorist with Jake Conroy

1:00pm-2:00pm

The Odd
Get Your Friends Free with Asheville Community Bail Fund

Firestorm Books
The Lost History of Jewish Anarchism in America with Kenyon Zimmer

Session Descriptions

“All Will Be Equalized!”: Georgia’s Freedom Seekers of the Swamps, Backwoods, and Sea Islands Historians

Andrew Zonneveld and Modibo Kadalie present a new book documenting 350 years of multi-racial solidarity through anti-slavery activity in Georgia.

Abortion Beyond the State

Government control of reproductive capacity has long persisted as a tool to subordinate birthing people, women, people of color, people living on lower incomes, and other marginalized groups. The Supreme Court’s harmful ruling in Dobbs made clear that both the State, its actors, and the non-profit industrial complex have failed the people, giving rise to the urgent necessity for the movement to defend itself through direct provisions to community. This workshop will provide context to the current crisis surrounding bodily autonomy and reproduction and share a roadmap for subverting state control by building networks of support to provide safe and effective abortion regardless of legality.

An Anarchism of Despair

After October 7, the upswell of Palestinian solidarity has been heartening. But in the mechanics of the movement itself, we have found ourselves stuck in outdated forms of protest, marching in circles, making demands that will never be heeded. It feels like each iteration of rebellion meets its end at the blatancy of power: we are shown again that those who govern won’t help us. And all this while watching a genocide in real time, feeling desperate and powerless. We have the energy and will, but not the means. What can we do, then, with this spike of liberatory urges? This discussion with Shuli Branson and Cindy Barukh Milstein will interrogate anarchism at this particular moment from the position of despair. Where does it meet its limits? Where does it show up to keep the energy going? Are we endlessly hitting our heads against the wall ? Or does our effort need to be seen in the long view? When faced with the impossibility of liberation and action, where do we go?

Art as a Vehicle for Anarchist Ideas

Three longtime anarchist artists—N.O. Bonzo, Des Revol, and Sugarbombing World—will explore the role that art plays in resistance and movements, along with remembrance of the past and visions of the future. They’ll look at ways that art brings people together, and can serve as a great tool, whether in organizing and agitating, and/or inviting people into anarchism.

Boobs Not Bombs: DIY Transdermal Estrogen

“We made our own transdermal estrogen and started giving it out to people. Transdermal means you just rub it on your skin and that’s it: no needles, no adhesives, no eating it.” In this workshop we will discuss (and possibly demo) making DIY transdermal estrogen using the Boobs Not Bombs recipe. We will cover history of the project, how it has changed since producing the first batch, how you can get started, distribution strategies, and how to further decentralize the project.

Capture the Flag!

Let’s play capture the flag with the intention and focus of cooperation, strategizing, and playing to everyone’s strengths!

Death Cult Liberalism and Our Dependency on Domination

Part workshop, part presentation, part discussion. The time together explores the death cult liberalism of identity politics. We’ll discuss our dependency on domination and how it forces us into a negetive cycle of victimhood, shame, and fear that only leads to self actualizing sabotage. Our liberation requires sacrifice, our addiction to losing should be the first thing to go!

Disabled Ecologies

Professor Sunaura Taylor will be presenting her book Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert, a powerful analysis and call to action that reveals disability as one of the defining features of environmental devastation and resistance.

Free Peppy and Krystal! Free Jack! Free ‘Em All!: A Letter Writing and Open Discussion Space

We will use this closing space of the bookfair to share pertinent updates from comrades who can’t be with us, and in turn, send them connection and solidarity! June 30th marks one year since Peppy was incarcerated, awaiting trial after being denied bond on overtly political grounds. Let’s show our unbending support and love by writing as many cards to our friends who can’t be here as we can muster! We will use this space to invite informal discussion with interest in hearing: debriefs from the Pittsburgh Anti-Repression Convergence, pending cases that need support, and reflections on the way we engage and build practices in response to repression.

From Activist to Terrorist

Jake will talk about his involvement as an organizer with the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Campaign (SHAC), a decentralized, uncompromising pressure campaign in the early 2000s, that took on some of the biggest pharmaceutical and financial institutions, and pushed them over like dominos. He will talk about how this led to the biggest FBI investigation of the time, as well as the repression they experienced from the US government and corporate investigators, as well as by the Bureau of Prisons while incarcerated. He will discuss being the target of a multi-agency terrorism investigation, what life is like inside the prison industrial complex, learning he was on a high-profile prisoners list, and navigating living a life branded as a terrorist in post-9/11 society.

Get Your Friends Free

The Asheville Community Bail Fund formed in 2021 in response to ongoing calls to address the needs of members of our community facing incarceration. After donations flooded our local political bail fund in response to the 2020 uprising, organizers donated funds to ACBF, recognizing that criminalization itself is inherently “political”. During this workshop, organizers from the community bail fund will engage participants in discussions about the nature of long-term ongoing jail solidarity work and will provide a blueprint for how communities can establish similar funds in their own cities. This workshop will engage participants in complex questions organizers have grappled with in the context of doing this work, such as the relationship between de-carceration and domestic violence, the difficulty of prioritizing which individuals to bail out while operating with limited resources, and what it means to carve out spaces for freedom at the site of jail itself.

Infosec 101

Cover the basics of infosec and security culture. Explore safer uses of technology. Maybe talk about AI and biometrics with policing. Probably some de-doxification iCleanse.

Militant Indigenous Abolition & Anarchism

Throughout time, many variations of Anarchism have left an impression on how to “anarchy.” We’re here to bash back against a passive anarchy that exists solely in bourgeois, academic spaces and bring it back to the streets – with action! Members of Indigenous Abolition, Anti Colonial Auntie Army and The Elements of Mutual Aid will assert the importance of having both a critical understanding of colonialism as well as on the ground (or from the bed) involvement in the liberation of Black and Indigenous Peoples’ centuries long fight against imperial and genocidal governments and policing across what is now known as North America. Anarchy has always referenced (or co-opted) the ways in which Black and Indigenous organized as cohesive, caring communities where everyone was fed, housed and safe in their relations to each other and our more than human relatives, the land sky and waters! Join us to defend the sacred – Anarchy in Action!

Movement of the Body Potential: A Somatic Exploration

The inherent rhythm of the nervous system is one of movement, like that of an amoeba with the ability to alter one’s shape, primarily by extending and retracting, tensing and releasing, inhaling and exhaling, activating and deactivating. Like us, as a social force, our nervous system specifically also craves movement. It is not coincidental that we seek to move with each other, need each other in order that we can move together, that we strategize towards finding one another with goals and dreams in mind, and our bodies are also a part of that. We can let our body carry us, or else we drag our body along. Come explore some somatic practices together, finding ways to include the body and notice the difference it can make. No experience necessary.

Nothing About Us Without Us: Analyzing Best Practices for Harm Reduction Services that Equitably Center People Who Use Drugs (PWUD)

Harm reduction practices amongst people who use drugs (PWUD) have been around forever. Over recent years, harm reduction has become more normalized in mainstream society and has become a central talking point within the medical industrial complex. Specifically, big pharma companies, like Emergent BioSolutions and Hikma Pharmaceuticals, have been spreading propaganda to promote the mass distribution of naloxone, whilst intentionally making their products more harmful and inaccessible to PWUD. Although the messaging that Emergent BioSolutions and Hikma Pharmaceuticals have been sending with their naloxone-based products, Narcan™ and Kloxxado™, seems to be rooted in good faith, the blanket concept that “everyone” should have high doses of naloxone decentralizes PWUD and decreases the likelihood of PWUD having low-barrier access to the resources and knowledge they need for themselves and their communities. This is unacceptable. It’s time we bring harm reduction back to the people. This workshop will be all about liberating knowledge and resources to PWUD and the communities that work closely with them. The workshop will be broken into two main parts: part one will be a conceptual analysis of best practices for harm reduction services, highlighting the importance of liberating knowledge and resources specifically to PWUD, and part two will be basic trainings on wound care and how to perform an OD reversal with both IM and nasal naloxone.

Packaging Books for Incarcerated Gays

Come learn about our local prison books project and help us package free books to send to incarcerated queers.

Punk—Dangerous Utopia: Revisiting the Relationship Between Punk and Anarchism

How did punk emerge out of the countercultures of the 1960s that it claimed to reject? Why did it play such a central role in the resurgence of anarchism around the world at the end of the 20th century? How did it prefigure the participatory media of the digital age? And what can its legacy teach today’s anti-capitalist and anti-fascist movements?

SOFT/CORE: Singles Over Forty Tonight/Crushing on Random Elders

Following up on last years smashing success of AARP (Aging Anarchist Research Project), SOFTCORE will be bringing speed dating for relatively single, relatively 40, absolutely anarchist attendees of ACAB. In this rapid fire prompt driven snack rich cute af session we will meet in a beautiful setting with NO overhead lighting and see who wants to actually go on a date one day.

Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle’s Back

Trusting in solidarity, the mysterium of spirituality, and a promise from god knows where—a “where” that at this historical moment, might just be Palestine. What does it mean TO BE in the midst of all this right now? RIGHT NOW! M. Ashanti Alston is a Revolutionary Black nationalist, Anarchist, abolitionist, speaker, writer, Elder motivator. A long-time member of The Jericho Movement, he is presently an Advisory Board member of the National Jericho Movement and co-founding board member of the Center for Grassroots Organizing (Vermont land project). He continues giving talks and writing inspirational analyses concerning the dismantling of the myriad oppressive regimes in which we find ourselves enmeshed. He is one of the few former members of the Black Panther Party who identifies as an anarchist in the tradition of ancestor Kwesi Balagoon (BPP & BLA) He developed abolitionist politics in the early years of Critical Resistance. He has helped save the life of a baby pig with the Animal Liberationists, learned depth-queer politics from being challenged, and wants to see non-ego Eldership partaking through sincerely loving the younger generations who truly want to ‘CARRY IT ON”.

State Repression of Prisoner Solidarity Work in Florida

This session will be about the repression organizers face in Florida, specific to inside-outside organizing and prisoner solidarity efforts. We will focus on our adaptations to this repression, a reportback on tactics amidst increasing censorship and retaliation, and celebrate some victories we’ve had recently. Our state’s political landscape has become more openly hostile to our work than ever before and this has significant impacts on our inside comrades and their organizing.

Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian Resistance

Palestinian resistance groups have developed over more than 75 years a set of strategic practices that put them at the forefront of anti-imperial resistance today. What can revolutionaries in “the West” learn from the Palestinian resistance, now that the struggle to stop the genocide in Gaza and free Palestine spreads to this terrain?

Taking the State Out of the Body: Embodied Anti-Zionist Practice

The fight for Palestine is a fight for all of our aliveness. We cannot afford to be numb. The ongoing colonization of Palestine and current genocide we are witnessing can feel unbearably devastating. And yet, we must keep feeling so that we can keep fighting. As Jews, our trauma has been weaponized as a moral cover for genocide. And as people in the belly of the imperialist beast of the U.S., the government counts on our numbness as we implicitly consent to billions of dollars being sent to the Israeli apartheid state every year. We must keep feeling. We must keep resisting. We must keep transforming. In this workshop we will: -Disentangle from Zionist propaganda -Root into anti-Zionist and anti-fascist histories of resistance -Workshop difficult conversations -Debrief organizing experiences -Create space for our collective grief -Co-create a transformative environment through popular education and applied practice

The Lost History of Jewish Anarchism in America

Historian Kenyon Zimmer will discuss the story behind Joseph Cohen’s 1945 Yiddish-language history of the Jewish anarchist movement in America, and the multigenerational effort to finally have it published in English translation in 2024. Cohen spent more than four decades as a prominent figure in the Yiddish-speaking anarchist movement, and wrote the only full-length historical study of it from his position as an insider, covering the period from the 1880s through the Second World War. Lifelong anarcho-syndicalist activist Esther Dolgoff translated the book into English in the late 1970s, but was unable to get it published. The project passed through other hands until ending up with Zimmer, who spent several years editing and fully annotating Dolgoff’s translation for contemporary readers. The book’s publication at last allows English-speaking readers to access the story of thousands of radical Jewish immigrants who fought to create a new world without borders, militaries, or bosses.

The No-State Solution: Histories and Realities

Beginning with a sketch as to why the “obvious” solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have never materialized, this talk moves on to identify structures that makes solutions that appear “realistic” to be actually impossible in practical terms. It addresses histories of Palestinian self-organization and agency as well as larger Middle Eastern social histories to show the error of focusing on states and state-centered solutions—the idea being that modern states in the region have all an imposed nature, which each state being the enemy of a substantial part of the population it rules, and further how these states generate conflicts and wars by the very nature of their structure. The larger Middle Eastern context currently includes five major wars, countless smaller zones of hostilities or civil wars, and impending financial collapse of a few countries. The idea of the no-state solution is offered as an adjustment to the historical nature of social self-organization in the region.

Trans Appalachian Resistance Strategies

This workshop focuses on moments of play, fun, and intimacy in sites of struggle, as practices of embodiment and connection, about disassociation and leftist gun culture, about the gun as a prosthetic, about playing with firearms as a method of safety, not unseriousness but a refusal to take ourselves seriously at the expense of aliveness. Pleasure as trans method of resistance in Appalachia!

Trauma-Informed Self-Defense

Beginner self defense led by trans, queer, Latina, and disabled instructors from Autonomy Recovery PDX. We will take scenario suggestions as well as addressing common attack situations, and go over verbal boundaries, bimboification, blocking, etc.

We Heal Together: A Collaborative Discussion on Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Mediation Tactics

The first half of the workshop will be a a presentation where I review some of the ideas, tactics, and resources that authors and organizations have already put out into the world. This section may explore why mediation and conflict resolution is important, tactics for improving communication, how to help someone take accountability, trauma-based approaches to conflict resolution, and case studies (what has worked for someone before). In the second half, participants will be asked to share their experiences – what has worked for their communities, what didn’t work and what they would do differently, their favorite resources. I’ll be collecting all of these ideas as we go with the plan to put it into a zine/digital format so all participants walk away with a resource that they helped create to bring back to their community. My hope is to not only create a resource together, but connect folks interested or experienced in conflict resolution!

What Lies Beneath: Welcoming Entropy

In this workshop we will be “playing” a handmade card game that focuses on discussion around end of life decision making, phobias, desires, systems of power and the potential for something different. The questions and discussion topics focus on creating a more autonomous and self actualized experience during the important moments of aging and dying.