14th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair

I’ve been attending the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair (and creating graphics for it) for at least five years now, and the thing I love about it is the sheer size and cacophony of the event. You step inside and find booth after booth full of books, pamphlets, and zines on every conceivable fringe-y subject — plus comics, music, t-shirts, an art show, and speakers on subjects ranging from how to compost to how to survive the industrial collapse.

Here’s a list of items I’ve bought at past Anarchist Bookfairs:

• very rare Emma Goldman classic, “My Disillusionment in Russia”
• a bike zine on how to build your own cargo bike which I have never used but will some day
• actual (pre-Kool Aid) Jonestown pamphlet from 1977, all about the beautiful utopia being built in Guyana
• “Resistance is Fertile” t-shirt with cool woodcut graphics
• hard-to-find copy of “Mr. Block” cartoons from old IWW papers
• Ken Knabb’s excellent memoir, Public Secrets, describing 30+ years of political agitation in the Bay Area

You don’t have to agree with everyone there — in fact, that would be impossible, given the wide range of totally contradictory ideas on offer. You’ve heard about the marketplace of ideas? This is what it looks like.

This year’s speakers this year includes my friend Chris Carlsson, talking about his new book Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today.

Here are the details for the event:

Bound Together Books Presents:
The 4th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair
Saturday, March 14, 2009 (10am-6pm)
Sunday, March 15, 2009 (11am-5pm)

SF County Fair Building
Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Valet bike parking and Kid/Family space provided
Free