
Happy New Year from Aid & Abet! We have a lot going on in 2010 that we would like to share with all of you out there…
First, we are excited to announce the addition of two fabulous new collective members! Walidah Imarisha and Katie Heald–both veteran activists based in Portland, Oregon–have joined Aid & Abet. We are planning an in-person meeting in Portland next month to plan for the new era ahead of us.
We are also thrilled to announce that we now have an intern! Christiana McDougal is a sophomore at UMass-Amherst, double majoring in Social Thought and Political Economy (STPEC) and Journalism, and a writer for the Daily Collegian newspaper. We’re excited to have Christiana on board.
Unfortunately, Justine will soon be leaving the collective in order to fully pursue her calling as an aspiring radical librarian. We wish her the best of luck and will miss working with her and everything she brought to the group.
AK Press
Recently Aid & Abet has been offering media support to select titles released by AK Press. The latest of these is a terrific, timely new book by Matt Hern called Common Ground in a Liquid City: Essays in Defense of an Urban Future. In it, Matt — a longtime environmentalist and self-described “radical urbanist” — uses his home city of Vancouver (BC) as a petri dish to explore ten central themes of city life, including diversity, crime, population density, gentrification, and globalization. Matt insists that another city is possible – but it must be created in its streets, by its inhabitants, not by planners and architects. Check out his recent ZNet piece
about the Olympics invasion of his city — the torch arrives in Vancouver on February 12th!
We also helped promote the recent AK release The Battle of the Story of the “Battle of Seattle” edited by David Solnit and Rebecca Solnit. Coinciding with the 10 year anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle, the book clarifies what actually went down and why it was important. The book was covered by an array of media including Democracy Now! who interviewed David on their program reflecting on the significance of “Seattle” a decade later.
Aid & Abet will continue to do media campaigns for upcoming AK titles, including Sparking A Worldwide Energy Revolution: Social Struggles in the Transition to a Post-petrol World, edited by Kolya Abramsky. Stay tuned for more!
Our Roster and Upcoming Events
We have a number of amazing new people that we have begun to work with and next month we will tell you all about them. Get ready! Until then, we’ll just let you know about what’s happening now with our current roster, who’s going where and when…
Robert Hillary King will be in blustery Maine next week, speaking in Portland on behalf of local activists’ campaign to end the practice of solitary confinement in Maine prisons. He’ll also be giving a talk at University of Maine-Farmington. For more information, see the Aid & Abet Events page.
Anne Elizabeth Moore just returned from her second trip to Cambodia teaching self-publishing to young women there. Anne will be embarking on a short tour of the Northeast in March.
Peter Kuper and Derrick Jensen both have upcoming events, and tours are in the works for the Beehive Collective, Shira Tarrant, Cristy Road, and smartMeme. Please check back soon for more details!
New Logo
Finally, we are excited to announce that Aid & Abet has a new logo! It was designed by artist John Yates of Stealworks and you will soon see it on our new website. More info on that next month…
Until then,
Aid & Abet
Matt, Justine, Jen, Walidah, Katie