[Autonogram] poetry against tyranny, jubilee saints, and other Autonomedia news

[Ben at Autonomedia]

greetings, all --

1. In memorium, Brad Will
2. 2007 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints now available 
(http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=498)
3. Reprints of Avant Gardening, Flesh Machine, Electronic Civil Disobedience

* * * * *
It's been a little over three weeks since the death of our friend 
Brad Will, a NYC-by-way-of-everywhere journalist, activist, squatter, 
poet, sometimes-couchguest, and dear comrade, who spent his final 
weeks on the planet documenting the activities of the popular 
resistance movement in Oaxaca, and on October 27 was fatally shot in 
the chest by paramilitary gunmen. Very much has been written about 
his murder and the remarkable life that preceded it -- see 
http://www.friendsofbradwill.org for a sort of digital clearinghouse 
about Brad -- but for me, there was nothing more powerful than the 
eulogy at his memorial by Anne Waldman, who had guided a younger Brad 
towards the uses of poetry in the service of social justice, 
reminding us of the words of his teacher Alan Ginsberg: "What's the 
work? To ease the pain of living." Brad did an admirable job of 
bringing poetry to activism, and vice versa, in a way that erased any 
distinction between the two. Damn, we're going to miss him.

We recently received a box of poetry chapbooks from Greece, written 
by a founding member of the Moorish Science Monitor, Greg Foster. 
"Renditions" contains 16 poems written in English and translated into 
Arabic, and attempts to speak on the power of poetry against iniquity 
and injustice, and in defense of liberty. A short portion of one of 
these follows:
*
EASY TO KILL
Tyrants kill poets easily enough
with bullets, hunger, madness

Reciting poems, you might say,
puts out no fires

but poems feed the fire
that turns the thrones, the bureaus, into ash

so, poets, fan the flames
of discontent.
*
More about "Renditions" at 
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=497

* * *

AUTONOMEDIA CALENDAR OF JUBILEE SAINTS AVAILABLE NOW

For each of the last 15 years, we've published a calendar featuring 
the great heroes and sheroes of Jubilee, those historical figures 
who, in many different ways, have acted as the guiding personae of 
the Autonomedia project. The 2007 edition is just now back from the 
printer, and will be shipping out this week. Take a look at 
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=498 
, and please note that orders of 5 or more copies will receive bulk 
discounts (20% for 5-9 copies, 40% for 10 or more). If you're a 
student group, infoshop, or other non-profit working towards radical 
change, please get in touch about bigger discounts for fundraising 
campaigns, etc.

* * *

REPRINTS AVAILABLE ONCE AGAIN: Avant Gardening, Flesh Machine, 
Electronic Civil Disobedience

AVANT GARDENING is a collection of essays, articles, and poetry about 
the radical possibilities of green urbanism, edited by Peter Lamborn 
Wilson and Bill Weinberg, and originally published at a time of 
crisis for NYC's community gardens. The essays retain their potency 
in terms of a vision for localized biodiversity within an urban 
setting, and act as a much-needed history of the community gardens 
movement of the late-90s.
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=33 


In FLESH MACHINE: CYBORGS, DESIGNER BABIES, AND THE NEW EUGENICS 
CONSCIOUSNESS, Critical Art Ensemble focuses its sights on the new 
frontier of pan-capital -- the political and economic development of 
flesh products and services. CAE begins mapping this development in 
Flesh Machine by examining the use of reproductive technologies to 
achieve an intensified degree of control over worker and 
consumer-citizen. This book aims to establish a counter-narrative to 
the spectacular promises of the life industries.   
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=65

ELECTONIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, a sequel to Critical Art Ensemble's 
first book, The Electronic Disturbance, suggests further strategies 
of resistance to nomadic power, and investigates tactics of 
nonrationality to get at the core of autonomy. Fusing a 
situationist-influenced concept of contestational art, an 
understanding of the parallel nature of cultural and political action 
borrowed from Gramsci, and a hacker's understanding of how new 
technology functions, ELECTRONIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE refines an 
understanding of the nature of power and resistance in the 
information age.
http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=51

* * * * *

  That's all for now; please also visit the Interactivist Info 
Exchange for regular dispatches from the Autonomedia front 
(http://info.interactivist.net), and thanks for reading.

bests,
Ben / Autonomedia