Squat Or Rot

Squat or rot. The squatters are your neighbors. Housing is a human right. Squat the world. Free the land. If you need a home, take one. Whose right is it to say the land is for sale anyway. No one is free when others are oppressed. And so goes a host of other sayings and philosophies when it comes to that word squatting and living rent and tax free, or something like that. And so I found this email that arrived in my email inbox the other day that I thought to repost on my blog for those squatter, housing and beyond events, because hey, it's less writing sometimes, I think. And what if anything, does this have to do with a No Police State?

Three upcoming events on squatting in NYC‏


Hello all -

I wanted to let you know about three quite different events coming up, all about squatting in NYC. Full details below

1. Panel on squats, social centers, and autonomous spaces at the NYC Anarchist Book Fair, Saturday April 9, 11-12:30

2. I am giving a paper on adverse possession and historical documentation, based on the 13th st case, at a conference at CUNY on Monday, April 11, from 1:30-3:00

3. Matt Metzgar and Peter Spagnuolo are giving a talk about The LES Squatter Homesteader Archives Project at Pete's Candy Store on Monday, April 11, at 7:30


1. Squats, Social Centers and Autonomous Spaces.

Saturday, April 9, 2011 @ the Anarchist Book Fair. 11 am - 12:30 pm

55 Washington Sq. New York, NY 10012

Squatting is a key activist tactic to address the needs for housing and space for political action. Together with occupation, this kind of organized trespass is becoming increasingly important in our repertoire of direct action tactics today. What is the present-day experience of squatting as a political act? In other countries, occupied social centers organize political activity in the cities. Is U.S. squatting hopelessly disorganized and decentralized? What have been the challenges of opening new spaces? What have been the challenges and rewards of passing on knowledge from one generation to the next?

These are some of the questions we will address and this is the people who will respond to them

Alan Moore: Co-founder of both ABC NoRio and Colab. *Live from Paris @ La Generale.

Howard Brandstein: Homesteading organizer and Director of Sixth Street Community Center.

Frank Morales: Episcopal priest, squatter and housing organizer.

Marta Rosario: A long time resident at Umbrella House Squat and an exceptional vocalist.

Ryan Acuff: Housing organizer and member of Take Back the Land.

Moderators:

Amy Starecheski: Oral historian, doctoral student in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, and former squatter.

Sebastian Gutierrez: Teaches in the Film & Media department in CUNY's Hunter College and documents testimonial video events in NYC squats.

2. Mini-conference: "Producing History: Place, Memory, and Documentation"

Monday, April 11, 2011
11:00 am – 4:00 pm
The Graduate Center, CUNY

365 Fifth Avenue, Room 9205

11:00 – 12:30 PANEL: Producing History at Sites of Memory
“Sites & Reflexivity: Narratives at the Manzanar WWII Camp NHS”
— Rachel Daniell
“Exhibiting Atrocity: Memorial Museums & the Production of the Past”
— Amy Sodaro
Commentator—Dr. Vincent Crapanzano

12:30 – 1:30 BROWN BAG LUNCH

1:30 – 3:00 PANEL: Archives, Property, & the Production of Heritage
“Futures Entombed: Properly Historical Subjects, Living Human Treasure, & the Incorporation of History in Salvador, Brazil's World Heritage Center”
— Dr. John Collins
“Squatting History: The Documentary Practices of Adverse Possession”
— Amy Starecheski
“The Affect & Effect of UNESCO World Heritage”
— Andrew Hernann
Commentator—Dr. Katherine Verdery

3:00 – 4:00 NETWORKING & DISCUSSION
Coffee, Cookies, and Conversation

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Ctr Anthropology Dept and the Doctoral Students Council

www.productionofhistory.commons.gc.cuny.edu

3. THE ONCE AND FUTURE SQUATTER:
with Matt Metzgar of the Lower East Side Squatter Homesteader Archive Project and Peter Spagnuolo, co-founder of the Lower East Side Squatter Homesteader Archive Project.

FREE LECTURE!!!
Monday, April 11 7:30pm
Pete’s Candy Store (709 Lorimer St. Brooklyn)

In the 1980's and '90's the squatter-homesteaders of New York City's Lower East Side created an urban movement attempting to answer directly the housing needs of low-income and homeless persons by seizing abandoned tenement buildings and improvising their own homes and culture. The evening will address current efforts by squatters and homesteaders to create a research archive "from the ground up"-collecting, preserving and organizing the evidence of underground, insurgent movement-as well as the significance such a collection may have for scholars and the public. With reference to other American cities, the pro's and con's of strategies of direct methods of housing, the predominance of squatting as a global phenomena, and the specific cases of "Social Center" squatting in Europe, and its lack in the USA--the evening hopes to make palpable an overlooked, yet palpable legacy that boldly proclaims: Homeless/Artist/Activist: House Thyself, Socialize the Community!
Have a great squatting and more day.
And in other blogger thoughts....
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