Upstate Anarchist Book Fair report back

A brief, yet triumphant report back from the first annual Upstate New York Anarchist Book Fair[1].

Upstate?

It was organized by and held at the PM Press space with help from Riot Act Books. PM Press recently moved their warehouse to Binghamton, New York, which is a Leatherstocking city in the southern tier of what has come to be known as New York, along the lines of the Rust Belt, sitting just outside of the Burned Over District, in the lands of the Onondaga, as the rivers of the Susquehanna and Chenango meet in present day downtown Binghamton.

Book Fair website: https://upstateanarchistbookfair.com/

The book fair was called the “Upstate Anarchist Book Fair.” What is Upstate? It’s an open idea, but in my humble opinion – anything pretty much north of New York City is Upstate, New York; maybe even start at the Catskills or just around New Paltz. Back in Binghamton, a computer company, IBM has some history with the city, but like many things Upstate – recently closed up shop and moved mostly elsewhere. There are the neighboring cities of Corning, which is known for Corning Glass (mobile phone screens / fancy drinking and dining stuff / and a pretty awesome museums) and Elmira is former home to one of USA’s most famous humorists in Mark Twain. If you venture a little to the north west you will find yourself in the Finger Lakes or Rochester, New York and a little to the east around Syracuse in central New York.

I’ve only been to Binghamton a few times and mostly just passing through. It feels a lot like a larger town than city at points connected by a some highways. It’s also a fancy university town that was known for protests in the 1960s and 70s. At one time in my life, I remember hearing that some of the steps on the campus where “anti-riot steps” which was one idea to help control student protests, I’ve never verified this, but the steps were definitely a thing at some other universities during the same time period. There is a known anarchist academic at the university there and a bookshop in town called “Riot Act Books” who helped organize the event alongside PM Press.

The Bookfair

The bookfair lineup looked pretty fun and when the event came around one tabler said, “some of the biggest trolls I know are here.” PM Press had organized the tables, so unfortunately we were not next to all of our friends who were also tabling, which I think would have been a lot more fun, but I didn’t ask beforehand or after either, so it was all good. Saturday was a cool Spring day that was pretty windy, but after the Upstate winter it might almost feel like summer. We tabled all Saturday and then I went home because real anarchists have day jobs (LBC motto). On Sunday another librarian tabled, which I heard was quite rainy, so everything was inside, but was perhaps even busier than Saturday(?).

The library tabled 12 different zines with around 15-30 copies of each one printed off as letter imposed PDF, stapled and folded together into a zine. Among these, were a handful of one of prints like Claire Fontaine (the human strike!) and other misc. that got printed, but not in mass. The library also gave away a stack of new books made and printed by Little Black Cart along with one from Detrius Press as gifts to a handful of visitors.

Here is a photo of the table from our social media:
https://a.nti.social/notice/AhZI9sORdqu86tuigq

And the list of 12+ zines is here:

Stories of the Bear and Racoon People by Aragorn!
Interview with Klee Benally by Aragorn!
Science is Capital by Dot Matrix
Hello by Anonymous
At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, its Defenders and its False Critics by Anonymous

The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism by Fredy Perlman
Having Little, Being Much, two chapters, Letters of Insurgents & The Strait by Lorraine Perlman
The Theory and Practice of Anarchism by Ruth Kinna
John Brown's Body by Paul Z. Simons
What I believe by Emma Goldman

Prolle Stroll by Anonymous
Anarchist Meditations, or: Three Wild Interstices of Anarchism and Philosophy by Alejandro de Acosta
A Primitivist Primer by John Moore
¡Punky Mauri Presente! by Anonymous

A very brief how to print a zine from the library

Find a text you like that is less that 60-80 pages total. If it’s bigger than that, the library will default to multiple signatures meaning that you can no longer just staple a text together, like a zine – but will have to bind the signatures together somehow (hand sew it, you won’t!). Pro-tip, if you really want to experiment with larger texts above 60-80 pages as one zine, you can add it to the library “bookbuilder” (an icon at top of texts) and from the customization settings there, you can adjust the signature size, experimenting can be fun, but your mileage may vary. If you’re in USA maybe click on the imposed Letter PDF icon at the top of the text, whereas if you’re in Europe you might like imposed A4 PDF icon, but don’t take my word for it, check your paper size and printer settings.

When you go to print, print on both sides, and there might be a printer setting to check, something like “flip on short edge” for printing on both sides which you will want to be activated. I recommend picking a one or two page text just to experiment with first, before printing something longer. Then, use a long arm stapler to staple the middle of the text and then fold it in half along a hard straight-edge. Using a lighter to crease the middle after originally folding it, gives clean folds. Distroismo the world!

A brief note about paper grain / paper weight. The zines shared by the library at this bookfair consisted of 54lb, 40lb, 32lb, 26lb, and 20lb paper grain. For the smaller zines, like the one pagers we used 54lb paper grain, so it’s nice and thick and for the bigger texts we used smaller paper grains. Find your favorite, I think high 20s to low 30s is my current favorite for normal size texts / zines. We also had some beige-ish color paper, because it’s so easy on the eyes.

If you want to learn how to print actual books, check out this new anarchist project that also has forums you can participate in:

Open Distro: Make Your Own Anarchist Books
https://opendistro.net/

Past bookfairs and future events

A few years back the English project of the library tabled the New York City Anarchist Book Fair and more recently this event in Upstate. There are seemingly a lot of anarchists living around Upstate, New York, but not very many larger gatherings of anarchists across the region to connect. Just in Western NY, you have the Finger Lakes and the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Ithaca which all have some anarchists. Outside of these bigger cities, the general population of the counties making up the region can be pretty conservative and Republican. The idea of more decentralized anarchist gatherings happening across the region in the future would be a welcome sight. In the recent past, larger events have largely been connected to specific groups like NEFAC and BRRN who have claimed Upstate as their home forever, and perhaps not necessarily as welcoming to anarchists who like to have fun in other ways. The idea of more decentralized anarchist gatherings was recently discussed in an Anarchist News Topic of the Week (and related podcast) here:
https://anarchistnews.org/content/totw-decentralized-anarchist-gatherin…

Maybe someday some “Upstate” anarchists can give NYC anarchists a run for their money.

[1] or another attempt by anarchists to settle the debate over the words “book fair” vs “bookfair.” I personally have always been a fan of the one word bookfair