Join us on Thursday, October 11:
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Free Education! The Free University of New York, Alternate U., and Learning Liberation
October 11, 2018 – January 27, 2019
Opening reception: October 11, 2018, 6-9pm
Curated by Jakob Jakobsen and Interference Archive
Rooted in an examination of the history of the Free University of New York (FUNY), a 1960s experiment in radical education, this exhibition combines original archival documents from FUNY as well as from related projects, including Alternate U. and the Freedom Schools movement, to explore what it means to have a space for community at the intersection of learning, art and politics.
In our current moment, when the price of education amounts to crippling student debt and underemployment is a reality for even the most qualified post-secondary graduates, Free Education! aims to generate conversation about what it looks like to reimagine possibilities for education.
This exhibition includes an audio component featuring dialogue based on the transcripts of interviews with former participants of the Free University of New York and Alternate U recorded in 2017 and 2018. Interviewees include Susan Sherman, David McReynolds, Stanley Aronowitz, AB Spellman, Keith Brooks, Norman Fruchter, Robert Machover, Miriam Frank, Sue Simensky and Joe Berke. We are grateful to them for their generosity in sharing of their life stories. Additional material in the exhibition is made available through Susan Sherman, Keith Brooks, Perry Brass, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, and PETT archive. The exhibit curators hope that this exhibition will recognize and honor the legacy of David McReynolds, war resister and Free University lecturer, 1930 – 2018.
Read more information on our website.
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...and, just in time for our exhibition opening:
the Free Education publication
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Our latest publication combines reproductions of material produced by Free University of New York and Alternate U alongside transcripts of interviews with former participants in these organizations.
Copies will be on sale at our October 11th exhibition opening; stay tuned for details on online purchases.
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Indigenous People’s Justice
Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon
Sunday, October 14, 2-5pm
In honor of Indigenous People’s Day and Anti-Thanksgiving, we are holding a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on the theme of Indigenous peoples’ movement histories. Across settler-colonial geographies, Indigenous peoples’ histories have largely been misrepresented. This misrepresentation has enabled and concealed acts of violence against Indigenous peoples in many forms – from environmental contamination to forced relocation.
In an effort to learn from and support the myriad movements that have arisen in response to this violence, we will glean relevant information from the collection at Interference Archive to share through Wikipedia. Our objective is to make information and documentation related to Indigenous peoples’ movement histories more accessible for current and future movement makers, educators, and learners.
Snacks will be provided. Childcare is available if requested in by October 9, 2018. More information is available on our website. Please RSVP or request childcare through this form.
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Talk and Screening with Norman Fruchter and Robert Machover
Wednesday, October 17, 7-9pm
Filmmaking played an active role at the Free University of New York in 1965-66, as evidenced by the work of Norman Fruchter and Robert Machover. Interference Archive is thrilled to host these two filmmakers for the world premiere of Dog Burning at Noon (5 min), a short film produced collectively at FUNY as commentary on the Vietnam War, alongside a screening of excerpts of Troublemakers, a direct cinema-style documentary about living conditions in Newark and the young SDS organizers working with people in Newark. Read more info on our website.
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Poetry and women’s theater at Free University of New York and Alternate U
Sunday, October 21, 3pm
An afternoon with Susan Sherman, Sue Perlgut and Miriam Frank, featuring the poetry and theater of women in FUNY and Alternate U.
When the Free University of New York (FUNY) opened at 14th street in July of 1965, a group of poets and writers were part of faculty. Ed Sanders offered a course in Revolutionary Egyptology, Tuli Kupferberg ran a poetry workshop, and Susan Sherman taught a course focused on ‘a revolution in language’, titled Contemporary Philosophy and the Language of Art. Interference Archive is thrilled to host Susan Sherman, who will read a selection of her poetry, followed by a Q&A.
Alternate U (AU) followed FUNY in 1969 and played host to many of the political currents that had emerged at the end of the 1960s. Women’s liberation played a significant role at AU, with consciousness raising groups and therapeutic Encounter Groups. AU became an important political space for feminist empowerment. Burning City Theater, a NYC street theatre troupe performed their political pieces, which included two all women works, at AU many times. Theater workshops at AU were often based on improvisation and role play.
We will screen a video recorded at AU by an all women crew from the Videofreex, which shows the women of Burning City Theater performing to a room full of women. Sue Perlgut and Miriam Frank both took part in this performance, and will share about their experiences. When Sue Perlgut left Burning City Theatre in the fall of 1970, she along with Lynn Laredo who led theatre workshops at AU, formed It’s All Right To Be Woman Theatre. Initial workshops and play rehearsals were held at AU.
Find more information on our website
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Social Justice Book Club: How Not to Be a Boy
Tuesday, October 16th, 6:45pm
Looking back over his life, from schoolboy crushes (on girls and boys) to discovering the power of making people laugh, and from losing his beloved mother to becoming a husband and father, Robert Webb considers the absurd expectations boys and men have thrust upon them at every stage of life. RSVP on facebook or by email.
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New from Audio Interference:
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Audio Interference 55:
Steal This Radio and WBAD
“We knew it was illegal, and we knew the FCC would probably come after us at some point, and they did.”
This episode focuses on two New York pirate radio stations–Steal This Radio and WBAD–both of which were active in the 1990s. We interview Arrow Chrome, one of the founders of Steal This Radio, a pirate station that grew out of a Lower East Side community of squatters and activists. The episode also includes some audio from an event at Interference Archive featuring David Goren, creator of the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map, and DJ Cintronics, the founder of the unlicensed hip hop station WBAD, which became known for playing music you couldn’t hear on mainstream hip hop radio.
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