ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) —
The local anarchist community gathered in West Asheville on Friday for the first of three days celebrating queer identity, constructive anarchy and global citizenry.
The weekend event is called Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, cheekily acronymed ACAB, and will continue to run from 10:30 a.m. Saturday, June 29, to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 30, at several venues scattered along Haywood Road.
While the organizers behind ACAB choose to remain anonymous, the venues that host its panels, potlucks and parties are proud to be part of the book fair. One of the sites The Odd, a bar at 1045 Haywood Road, will be the host on Saturday of vendor tents and several events, including:
- 10:30 a.m. – Movement of the Body Potential: A Somatic Exploration, a movement class based on somatics, or the awareness of the internal feelings of the body.
- 1 p.m. – An Anarchism of Despair, a discussion by panelists Shuli Branson and Cindy Barukh Milstein about the perseverance of anarchy in the face of despair, particularly oriented around Palestinian solidarity.
- 2:30 p.m. – Trans Appalachian Resistance Strategies, a workshop centered around the Appalachian trans experience as it pertains to gun culture.
Matt Evans, booking manager of The Odd, theorized on why his venue was a good fit for the ACAB mission.
“The Odd is a queer-owned space. We try to be as open as possible,” Evans said. “I guess that aligned with some of the values that the folks behind this book fair have.”
Evans said The Odd is aligned with ACAB from their perspective, too.
“For us, it’s really just whenever they reach out, we’re all about it,” Evans said. “Use our space as you want to. We stand behind it.”
The other Haywood Road venues that will participate in Saturday and Sunday ACAB events are Firestorm Books, located across the street from The Odd at 1022 Haywood Road, West Asheville Library, at 942 Haywood Road, and Sly Grog, at 271 Haywood Street.
Sly Grog will feature the bookfair keynote speaker, anarchist and writer Ashanti Alston, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Alston is a former Black Panther Party member, an advisory board member for political activist group the National Jericho Movement and founding board member of the Center for Grassroots Organizing. His keynote speech is titled “Solidarity, Spirituality and Liberatory Promise on a Turtle’s Back.”
A Friday ACAB event with a lot of traffic was a vegan and gluten-free community potluck. About 200 people gathered at 6 p.m. at the Carrier Park Pavilion, spreading blankets on the grass and plates of food at crowded picnic tables.
Andy Fox, 28, is an environmental justice researcher and private math and science tutor. They were also the potluck “soup wizard,” doling out rice and homemade vegetable soup to a steady stream of hungry anarchists.
“I love cooking for large groups of people,” Fox said. “I grew up with seven younger siblings and I kinda got put in charge of cooking for everybody when I was about 11 years old. So, I got really good for cooking for large groups.”
December 2023 was a watershed moment for Fox when the soup wizard realized that cooking was a way to give back to this community.
“Obviously, that’s the thing that I can contribute,” Fox said. “I’ve done food for their other events before. I have a tendency to [support] whatever group is doing the most good in their community. That is the group that I am going to fall in line with. Right now, I believe that that is the anarchists.”
The full lineup of ACAB events can be found on the bookfair website, www.acabookfair.noblogs.org/
