Visions and Interventions

If you’re in the SF Bay Area Thursday July 23, come by the SF Art Book Fair, where, from 6pm-7pm, Miriam Klein Stahl and I will be signing limited edition copies of the Bearded Lady Truckstop Cafe zine that is a little sneak peak of the book that’s coming out on AK Press in 2027.

And speaking of AK Press, I just got the beautiful and inspiring book Visions and Interventions: Thirty Years of Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. and am literally brought to tears just digging into it. I feel really grateful that I grew up in an anarchist tradition that talked about strategy and saw the anarchist struggle as including things like developing bio-regional agriculture, doing community organizing, even running for local offices like city council and mayor as part of a direct-democracy strategy, rather than the anarchist tradition that is more focused on just reacting to whatever is right in front of you (although responding to what is in front of you is also powerful and often strategically important).

I am reading the first essay by Joel Olsen, about hitting global capitalism’s weak spots first, and the specifics around why the group he was part of chose the particular strategy of fighting to repeal all anti-immigration laws, and fighting for open borders “for all people to live, love, and work wherever they please.”

And then I’m skipping ahead to an essay on political theater about climate change built around personal, community level narratives.

I wish I could go back and do my life differently. I don’t understand people who say they don’t have regrets because they are glad for where they are. I have so many regrets, and I’m glad for where I am. But I would go back and do everything differently. I would listen more carefully to the elders who were pragmatic about revolutionary social change rather than the grandiose ones. I would get more involved in community art and theater, and learn to develop relationships around shared, hands on projects. I would be braver. I would rest more. I would practice talking to strangers. I would try to fit in less. I would stop settling so much. I would love myself better. I would learn to ask bigger questions.