Aid and Abet

Our Publicity Work: The Battle of the Story of the Battle in Seattle February 8, 2010

Along with all the work we do booking speakers and workshops around the US and Canada, Aid & Abet does quite a lot of straight publicity. This means we help our clients, primarily authors and filmmakers, get the word out about their projects by helping them get reviews, interviews, and articles in media outlets from GRITtv to Alternet to one of our favorite radio programs, Against the Grain.

One of the books we publicized recently was The Battle of the Story of the Battle of Seattle, published in November 2009 by AK Press. The book, edited by brother and sister David Solnit and Rebecca Solnit, was timed to come out around the 10th anniversary of the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. It discusses how the story of what has happened there has been hijacked by groups such as the New York Times, and the importance of activists telling our own stories.

Well, the book was quite well received! Here are just a few of the reviews and interviews from the first month after it was published:

• Rebecca Solnit on FAIR’s radio program, Counter Spin with Peter Hart
• David Solnit on Democracy Now!
• David Solnit on GRITtv with Laura Flanders
• A review in the Indypendent
• David Solnit on the Rabble podcast
• A review in the Progressive

Max Rameau & Take Back the Land join Aid & Abet

We’re very excited to begin working with Max Rameau of Take Back the Land. The campaign has gained significant national and international attention, including a role in the new Michael Moore movie, Capitalism: A Love Story. They have also been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Mother Jones Magazine, CNN, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, Fox News and PBS’ NOW program, among others. Read more about Max here, and contact Walidah to bring him to your school or organization!

Twitter! February 6, 2010

We’re now on Twitter! Yes, we’re late adopters, but we finally made it. Follow us here, and there’s been tons of stuff to tweet about lately. Follow us for updates on our amazing clients as well as publicity tips & tricks!

February Newsletter February 5, 2010

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

New release from AK Press explores the urban future February 1, 2010

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. Matt’s been hosting coffeehouse forums around Vancouver to talk with other urban thinkers about these topic. Early reviews of the book have been positive, including this one by David Swanson that’s making the rounds on blogs and websites. You might also want to check out Matt’s recent ZNet piece about the Olympics invasion of his city — the torch arrives in Vancouver on February 12th!

More Reviews for Cook Food January 9, 2010

Lisa Jervis’ book, Cook Food: A Manifesto for Easy, Local, Healthy Eating is a hit! The book is able to “teach people how to cook simple, tasty, nourishing, whole foods quickly, cheaply, and above all, intelligently. If you know someone who cares about the environment, their body, animals, and taste, yet nobody has ever taught them to cook, give them this book…the book’s main message is that cooking for oneself shouldn’t be challenging, expensive, or time-consuming” proclaims Cookbook Review. Pandagon says of this informative vegan cookbook, “it teaches you, in the space of about 15 minutes worth of reading, how to cook vegetables…to make all that much easier on you, she also has a chapter on what to stock in your kitchen, both in tools and food to just have on hand. The tools section is really helpful for people who don’t know where to start, and Jervis makes sure to explain what you can feel relatively at ease buying for nothing at thrift stores, and what you probably need to spend money on…” Check out some of these delicious recipes from a woman who sees the importance of easy, local, healthy eating!

Upcoming Events with Shira Tarrant January 4, 2010

Shira Tarrant recently facilitated a discussion panel at Bluestocking Books entitled “Men and Feminism,” sharing the same name as her book. Tarrant described the panel as addressing “feminist sex, or how to be sex positive and anti-sexist.” The Indypendent article described Shira Tarrant as offering “the most substantive comments of the evening, on the importance of men to the feminist movement and masculinity’s place as part of the feminist dialogue. She outlined the ways that hyper masculinity limits men; the constraints on male behavior by the perpetuation of ‘the nice guys finish last’ motif.” Her upcoming events will be in late February and early March at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ohio University, and Madame X in New York City. For more information on these events, click here!

Drawn to Action: Peter Kuper in the News Again December 30, 2009

“Diario de Oaxaca is one of the strongest travelogues this medium has produced in recent memory,” exclaims The Daily Cross Hatch in its recent review of Peter Kuper’s book.

Comic Book Resources calls Kuper “one of the most productive illustrators and cartoonists of the last several decades, in addition to being one of the most politically active.” Adding, “He’s made a mark in many outlets in a wide variety of ways, ranging from his visual style, which even casual fans can easily recognize, to the thoughtful political substance that permeates much of his works. Read the rest of the CBR review HERE.

Check out more rave reviews of Diario de Oaxaca on Newsrama.com and The Columbus Dispatch, along with this video of a recent talk that Kuper gave entitled: Drawn to Action.

Cook Food Gets Rave Reviews November 21, 2009

Lisa Jervis’s veggie how-to cookbook -  Cook Food: a Manualfest for Easy, Local, Healthy Eating and co-founder of Bitch Magazine, as been hitting it big on the blogosphere!

The local blog Vegansaurus loves her! In their review of Cook Food they say: “Let’s appease the critics by noting that as Lisa Jervis is a founder of Bitch magazine, we are predisposed to love her… It’s plainspoken without being obvious, and pragmatic without condescending. It’d make a wonderful first cookbook for new vegans—much better than those “Vegan Recipes for College Students” that teach you how to boil pasta or whatever—but once your skills have improved beyond “beginner” you’ll still find it useful.” Read the complete review here.

Vegansaurus is also featuring guest posts from Lisa on cooking a Vegan Thanksgiving – here are links to Part 1 and Part 2, which include her receipes for Sage Stuffing and Squash, Lentils, and Greens in Phyllo. Yum!

And in this review on Organic Nation, where Mark says, “I found Cook Food to be a good refresher on some useful techniques (deglazing pans, pressing tofu), and it also has some great recipes…The book is most useful when Jervis addresses some of the more pragmatic issues facing home cooks, like how to eat organic, ethically-produced food on a tight budget.”

Aid & Abet Seeks an Intern! November 11, 2009

Aid & Abet, a cooperative media strategy, publicity, and tour management
agency that works with radical activists and artists, is in search of an
intern.

Primary duties for the internship will include researching contacts for
upcoming tours, compiling media lists for publicity campaigns, and
updating the Aid & Abet website. The intern will be expected to work an
average of 5 hours per week. Interns should make a minimum four month
commitment. This is an unpaid internship. If you are a student, academic
credit may be available through your school.

Interns will work directly with exciting activist authors on the newest
books and films available, and will learn the ins and outs of the
publicity business. This is a good position for someone who is interested
in learning about outreach and is involved in the movement for social
justice. No experience is required, however basic computer skills such as
email and internet research are helpful. Must be able to respond to email
and phone calls in a timely manner.

Applicants should send a letter of introduction to Jen Angel:
jen@aidandabet.org

Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. (more…)