Keeping it Cool! Join us for our fall fundraiser
September 29, 2018, 4:00-9:00pm

Tickets are on sale now! You’re invited to Interference Archive’s (almost) annual benefit! It’ll be a fun night filled with friends, refreshments, and social movement history, celebrating one year in our new home on 7th Street. There will even be special programming for kids in the first half of the evening, from 4-6pm.

Advance tickets are $20 for adults, $5 for kids between 6 and 16, and free for kids under 6. Tickets will be available for $25 at the door.

All funds raised go directly towards one of the most critical supporters of our 30,000+ collection of social movement ephemera–the AC Unit! We owe the final bulk payment on our central AC and we’re raising funds just for that. Our goal is $5,000. It’s really important for our collection to be in a cool, stable environment so that it can live on and be accessed by generations to come.

So join us, bring your cool vibes, and keep Interference Archive chill. There will even be a raffle–get your wallets ready! Read more info on our website.

Social Justice Book Club: Teaching to Transgress
Thursday, August 23rd, 7 – 9 pm

At our August book club meeting we will be discussing Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks. In this book, the author shares her philosophy of the classroom, offering ideas about teaching that fundamentally rethink democratic participation. She writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Come join us! RSVP by email.

Poster Launch Party: Stand With Global Indigenous Resistance #CODEDIvive!
Friday, August 31, 6-8pm

The organization and struggle of the indigenous pueblos has been an example and inspiration for all of us, a resource to better understand how we can defend life and struggle with dignity walking the path of autonomy. Join us for this event in solidarity with CODEDI and the dozens of Oaxacan pueblos that organize, resist and fight together to build autonomy and defend their land. Read more info on our website.

Agitate! Educate! Organize!
Agit Prop in the 21st Century
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, June 12, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: June 12 -- September 30, 2018

Our daily lives are saturated with information; we consume supposedly “neutral” media that implicitly supports existing power structures, yet we simultaneously fear “fake news” without critically analyzing the truths and biases that coexist in every message we see or hear. The reality is that all media has an agenda: for hundreds of years, people have used art, culture, graphics, performance, and design as central elements of social and political organizing across all realms of the political spectrum, to spread information and reimagine reality. This exhibition reflects historic and current uses of agitprop, or agitational propaganda, at the intersection of design and political organizing.

“Propaganda,” from the same root as “propagate,” refers to information that is shared in support of a cause. In modern times, the word propaganda has been weighted with negative connotations; we aim to reclaim the word and highlight the radical potential of propaganda to instigate change. With the Arab Spring, Occupy, Gezi Park, Black Lives Matter, #NoDAPL, and now the resistance to Donald Trump, we’ve seen a new explosion of agitprop. People of all stripes have come out into the streets, placards and banners in hand, wearing T-shirts and buttons, passing out flyers and stickers to protest social injustice. This boost of political ephemera hasn’t been created in a vacuum—since the advent of the printing press and movable type, political slogans and graphics have been part of our daily existence. Politicized communication is the constant accompaniment to people organizing to improve the lives of their families, communities, and co-workers.

Because so much attention is focused on organizing and activism, now is the perfect time to unearth and unpack the history of agitprop. Where does it come from? Who have been its major practitioners? How have the aesthetics and content evolved over time? And, how can we use it to change the world?