Reading Group: ‘Our Enemies in Blue’
Starting next month, we're launching a new book group studying Our Enemies in Blue by local author Kristian Williams!
From the publisher's website: "... just what is the role of police in a democracy: to serve the public or to protect the powerful? Tracing the evolution of the modern police force back to the slave patrols, this controversial study observes the police as the armed defender of a violentstatus quo.
Written for both the lay reader and for scholars, Our Enemies in Blue demonstrates that police misconduct isn’t just a matter of “bad apples,” but a function of the very nature of policing in the US. Williams examines the populations most often subjected to police abuse and the forms that abuse takes, delving into the role of police brutality in repressing political dissent and in preserving existing structures of inequality."
The reading group's first meeting is Wednesday, August 11, 7pm at Northstar Infoshop. We'll be scheduling future readings and meetings at this first meeting. We haven't set a page goal for the first meeting yet -- check back here for an update very soon. Our Enemies in Blue is available at Northstar for $18 - $22 sliding scale!
If you'd like to attend, please RSVP here!
Update: We decided to reschedule the first meeting from June 21 to August 11. We've barely gotten any feedback or RSVPs, and this book is really important to us, so we wanted to hold out for a more robust group.
We survived our first month!
We've been open for a month (plus five days) now, and it's been AMAZING. We've sold a ton of books, made a ton of new friends, and exceeded our basic expenses by over a 100% (which is being saved up for future growth!).
We intentionally took June pretty slow (no dance parties yet), but now that the dust has settled and we're into the rhythm of things, we're going to be upping the ante. More events, hundreds of new books on the shelves, a new computer available for public use, an ever-growing selection of tea (for free!), and more awesomeness. Stay tuned!
Thanks everyone for all your support! <3
Reading Group: ‘Resistance Behind Bars’
Northstar, along with the brand new PDX Feminist Reading Collective, is hosting a reading group for Resistance Behind Bars!
From the book summary: "Resistance documents both collective organizing and individual resistance among women incarcerated in the U.S. Emphasizing women's agency in resisting the conditions of their confinement through forming peer education groups, clandestinely arranging ways for children to visit mothers in distant prisons and raising public awareness about their lives, Resistance seeks to spark further discussion and research into the lives of incarcerated women and galvanize much-needed outside support for their struggles."
The reading group's first meeting is Tuesday, June 15th, 7pm at Northstar Infoshop. We'll schedule the future meet-ups at that meeting (we'll have two or three more). We're reading to page 72 before the first meeting, so come in and get your copy ASAP!
Portland Books to Prisoners
Each month at Northstar Infoshop we're going to be featuring a new 'Project of the Month' -- a rad project, collective, or organization that we think deserves some extra recognition and love. We'll be putting up a pretty display at the store, having a donation jar to help raise funds, and organize some events related to the project's mission.
Our first ever project of the month: Portland Books to Prisoners!
From their website: "Portland Books To Prisoners is an all-volunteer collective working to distribute books free of charge to prisoners. We are dedicated to offering people behind bars the opportunities for self-empowerment, education, and entertainment that reading provides."
One Northstar collective member recently spent 13 days in jail, and aside from the general oppressive nature of being jailed, the worst part of the experience was the overwhelming boredom. Having access to quality books made a huge difference, and allowed for some much needed escapism.
Come visit Northstar to donate books or money to Portland Books to Prisoners. You can also donate to BTP on their website: www.pdxbookstoprisoners.org.
Northstar Infoshop is a teeny tiny radical bookstore and community center in Portland, Oregon.
We're volunteer run, collectively managed, and not-for-profit. We're here to make revolution -- not to make money.
Our Mission is to promote independent, self-sustainable communities, and to help cultivate radical, grassroots solutions to local and global problems.
We just opened up in June 2010 in a shared space with Copyleft Books, located at 833 SE Main St. #108. Come say hi and drink some tea. <3