18augAll Day15octMitch Troutman presenting on The Bootleg Coal RebellionAuthor Events:Mitch Troutman
Event Details
Join these events with Mitch Troutman presenting on The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925–1942. See the full details
Event Details
Join these events with Mitch Troutman presenting on The Bootleg Coal Rebellion: The Pennsylvania Miners Who Seized an Industry, 1925–1942. See the full details here.
Thursday, Aug. 18 in Lewisburg at 6pm @ Himmelbach Library
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Facebook Event
Friday, Aug. 19 in Trevorton at 6pm @ The Foundry
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Facebook Event
Saturday, Aug. 20 in Minersville at 4pm @ The Washington Hotel
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Facebook Event
Sunday, Aug. 21 in Tamaqua at 11am @ Hope & Coffee
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Facebook Event
Sunday, Aug. 21 in Ashland at 4pm @ Pioneer Tunnel
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Facebook Event
Thursday, Sept 8th. Fight—Don’t Starve in conversation with Eleanor Goldfield, a VIRTUAL event at 7pm hosted by Firestorm Books
Register Here
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Tuesday, Sept. 20 in Mahantongo Valley at 7pm @ Trinity Church, Dalmatia
Saturday, Sept. 24 in Eckley Charter Day @ Eckley Miners Village
Saturday, Oct. 15 in Williamsport at 2pm @ Otto Bookstore
Told with great intimacy and compassion, The Bootleg Coal Rebellion uncovers a long-buried history of resistance and resilience among depression-era miners in Pennsylvania, who sank their own mines on company grounds and fought police, bankers, coal companies, and courts to form a union that would not only safeguard their livelihoods but also protect their collective autonomy as citizens and workers for decades. Community and labor organizer Mitch Troutman brings this explosive and accessible American tale to life through the bootleggers’ own words. Activists, scholars, and organizers will celebrate this story of the people who literally seized mountains and stood their ground to create the equalization movement, the miners’ union democracy movement, and the Communist-led Unemployed Councils of the anthracite region. This epic story of work, love, and community stands as a testament to the power of collective action; a story that is sorely needed as communities today rise to confront neoliberal policies ravaging our planet.
Praise
“Troutman is a gifted storyteller. Combining rich imagery and down-to-earth writing with prudent historical research, he shows us what working class people are capable of when companies push them to the brink of starvation. What the bootleggers endured and accomplished is extraordinary. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better tale of democratic rebellion anywhere, particularly one with so many lessons for today. Modern-day coal barons beware: this book will turn readers into renegades.”
—Jamie Longazel, author of Undocumented Fears: Immigration and the Politics of Divide and Conquer in Hazleton, Pennsylvania
“Using local newspapers and oral history interviews, gifted historian Mitch Troutman tells the story of the miners as well as the women, children, storekeepers, truckers, and priests who participated in the bootleg coal rebellion. Great read!”
—Karol Kovalovich Weaver, author of Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region, 1880–2000
“The most detailed account we have of coal bootlegging in the anthracite region of Pennsylvania in the Depression decade. It shows how unemployed miners took over unused mines, asserting and defending a right to mine and market the coal to support their families. Local government, the courts, and whole communities supported their efforts, writing a remarkable chapter in American labor history. We are in debt to Mitch Troutman for telling this remarkable story.”
—Thomas Dublin, distinguished professor emeritus, State University of New York at Binghamton, and author of The Face of Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region in the Twentieth Century
“It is not a new discovery that ‘bootleg’ coal was widely mined in Pennsylvania coal fields during the Depression. However, Troutman’s wide-ranging research enables him to tell the story with great immediacy, at times almost person by person. We learn how dangerous this improvised mining could be when we are told in detail how often inexperienced young men (and a few women) went forth to scrape what was left off old shafts or seek to open up new veins of coal without being able properly to support the roof under which they dug. We watch as every member of the family of unemployed miners has a task capable of performance at their age in the improvised production process.”
—Staughton and Alice Lynd
About the author:
Mitch Troutman is a writer, educator, organizer, and jack-of-all-trades living in Central Pennsylvania. He is a direct descendent of bootleg coal miners and belongs to the group Anthracite Unite.
Time
August 18 (Thursday) - October 15 (Saturday)
Location
VARIOUS LOCATIONS, IN-PERSON AND VIRTUAL.
Event Details
A Writer’s Tale, a virtual event with Booker prize-winning author
Event Details
A Writer’s Tale, a virtual event with Booker prize-winning author James Kelman on his new novel, God’s Teeth and Other Phenomena, being a literary outsider and Art Vs Craft, in conversation writer Anita Nair.
Thursday, August 18th at 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm (India). Register here.
This is a Bangalore International Centre Streams Event, part of the WorldLit series in collaboration with Bangalore Literature Festival. Free to attend.
James Kelman was born in Glasgow, June 1946, and left school in 1961, began work in the printing trade. He then emigrated to USA, returned a year later. He moved around, working in various jobs in various places. Kelman was living in England when he started writing: ramblings, musings, sundry phantasmagoria, stories; whatever, he committed to it and kept at it. In 1969 Kelman met and married Marie Connors from South Wales. They settled in Glasgow. Since then Kelman has existed as a writer, father and grandfather, supported by the same lady. They still live in Glasgow, not far from their kids and grandkids; and he still plugs away at the ramblings, musings, politicking and so on. Sláinte. Follow him on Twitter here.
Anita Nair is the author of the novels The Better Man, Ladies Coupé, Mistress, Lessons in Forgetting, Idris: Keeper of the Light, Alphabet Soup for Lovers and Eating Wasps. She has also authored a crime series featuring Inspector Gowda. Nair’s other books include a collection of poems titled Malabar Mind, a collection of essays titled Goodnight & God Bless and six books for children. She has translated into English T.S.Pillai’s Malayalam cult classic Chemmeen. She has also edited a book of writings on Kerala titled Where the Rain is Born. Nair has also written two plays and the screenplay for the movie adaptation of her novel Lessons in Forgetting which was part of the Indian Panorama at IFFI 2012 and won the National Film Award in 2013. Among other awards, she was also given the Central Sahitya Akademi award and the Crossword Prize. Her books have been translated into over thirty two languages around the world. She is the founder of the creative writing mentorship program Anita’s Attic. She is also a High Profile Supporter of the UNHCR.
Time
(Thursday) 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
Bangalore International Centre Streams Event
Event Details
Join us on 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟴 at 7:00pm for an in-store, in-person event with author William I. Robinson discussing and signing his recent book, 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡
Event Details
Join us on 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟴 at 7:00pm for an in-store, in-person event with author William I. Robinson discussing and signing his recent book, 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙒𝙖𝙧: 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢 𝙋𝙤𝙨𝙩-𝙋𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙘 at Page Against the Machine in Long Beach, CA. Learn more on Facebook and the website.
This sophisticated yet accessible study provides a big-picture account of how the coronavirus pandemic and new digital technologies have drastically transformed capitalism along with the entire global economy and our society as a whole. Analyzing the concentration of power and control in the hands of corporate conglomerates, tech giants, megabanks, and the military-industrial complex, 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙡 𝙒𝙖𝙧 documents the extent of unprecedented global inequalities as the mass of humanity faces violent dispossession and uncertain survival.
William I. Robinson is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a self-described scholar-activist whose work focuses on worldwide movements for social justice, popular empowerment, and participatory democracy. He is the author of a number of books, including 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙨𝙩: 𝙀𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢, and 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙢 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.
This event is free and open to the public, no reservations or tickets required.
Time
(Thursday) 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
Page Against the Machine 2714 E 4th St, Long Beach, CA 90814
The Past, Present, and Future of Food Cooperatives in the Bay Area at The San Francisco Public Library
Event Details
The Past, Present, and Future of Food Cooperatives in the Bay Area Sunday, August 21st from 1:00pm to 2:30pm at The San Francisco Public Library, located at 100 Larkin Street, S.F,
Event Details
The Past, Present, and Future of Food Cooperatives in the Bay Area
Sunday, August 21st from 1:00pm to 2:30pm at The San Francisco Public Library, located at 100 Larkin Street, S.F, CA 94102.
Join us in-person at the library. Learn more here. Or watch live on YouTube here. Click to get a notification to tune in!
Participate in a panel discussion on how food cooperatives have been an integral part of both the food and justice movement, as well as workplace democracy in the San Francisco Bay Area since the Sixties. Featuring Celia LoBuono Gonzales of Other Avenues in San Francisco, Sue Lopez from Arizmendi Bakery in San Francisco, Paula Schnese from Cultivate Community Food Co-op in Benicia, and Jameelah Lane of The DEEP Grocery Coop in Oakland, moderated by Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff, author of Other Avenues are Possible: Legacy of the Peoples Food System of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Other Avenues maintains a thriving business that provides food and supplies for sustainable living. They support organic and local farms, cooperatives and other small businesses and serve as a model of workplace democracy for the community. In 2018, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors inducted Other Avenues as a San Francisco Legacy Business, reserved for historic small businesses that have operated in San Francisco for over 40 years.
Arizmendi Bakery is a worker-owned cooperative specializing in morning pastries, artisan breads and gourmet pizza, located in the Inner Sunset.
Cultivate Community Food Co-op’s mission is to build a thriving, full-service, natural grocery store in the Benicia/Vallejo area that is owned by the people.
The DEEP (Deep East Oakland Empowering the People) is a worker-owned grocery cooperative dedicated to restoring East Oakland’s community with fresh organic produce, community education and cooperative economics, prioritizing the wellbeing of Black and Brown people.
Time
(Sunday) 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Location
The San Francisco Public Library 100 Larkin Street, S.F, CA 94102 -- OR -- Livestreamed on YouTube
Event Details
Join Adrian Shanker, editor of Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic, and contributors Mark Travis Rivera and Emmett Patterson for "Queer
Event Details
Join Adrian Shanker, editor of Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic, and contributors Mark Travis Rivera and Emmett Patterson for “Queer Health Activism,” a free, online event on Tuesday, August 23rd at 7pm ET hosted by Firestorm Books of Asheville, NC. Learn more and register here.
About the book and event:
In a time of great uncertainty, fear, and isolation, queer activists organized for health equity, prison abolition, racial justice, and more. Crisis and Care anthologizes not what happened during COVID-19, or why it happened, but rather how Queer activists responded in real time. It considers the necessity to memorialize resiliency as well as loss, hope as well as pain, to remember the strides forward as well as the steps back and provides a radical lens through which future activists can consider effective strategies to make change, even or perhaps especially, during periods of crisis.
Adrian Shanker is editor of the critically acclaimed anthology Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health (PM Press) and the executive director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, PA. A specialist in LGBT health policy, he has developed leading-edge health promotion campaigns to advance health equity through behavioral, clinical, and policy changes. Adrian serves as Commissioner and health committee co-chair on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs.
Mark Travis Rivera is an award-winning professional storyteller––telling stories is at the core of Mark’s purpose in life. A graduate of William Paterson University, he earned a bachelor’s in women’s & gender studies with a minor in public relations. In 2013, Rivera received the Student Government Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment to the William Paterson community. In the same year, he was honored with the Campus Pride Voice & Action Award for his work with the LGBTQ community. He recently won the Audre Lorde Award for Social Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and the Lavender Legacy Award from William Paterson. Rivera is the youngest person to found an integrated dance company in the United States; marked dance project (2009-2019), a contemporary company for dancers with and without disabilities, made its debut at Rutgers University. After ten years, Rivera dissolved marked dance project and is now an independent disabled choreographer. Rivera’s writings have appeared in The Bergen Record, Herald News, The Star-Ledger, Fox News Latino, and The Huffington Post. As a speaker, he has spoken in front of crowds at various institutions of higher learning, including Harvard, MIT, and NYU. In 2020, Rivera launched his wellness podcast, Marking The Path, available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
Emmett Patterson is a health activist, a writer, and the associate director of Building Healthy Online Communities. As the former global health projects manager of Grindr for Equality, he led the dating app’s COVID-19 response, connecting the app’s global user base with critical updates on the pandemic, safer sex information, and local support services. Over his career, he has worked in partnership with global activists in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and North America on projects related to HIV home testing, migrant health, and trans and nonbinary sexual liberation. His writing on queer and trans health has recently been featured in Out, The Advocate, TheBody, and a book of essays, Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health (PM Press, 2020). He attributes his commitment to sexual health and liberation for himself and others to the wisdom of a lineage of HIV and AIDS, racial justice, and disability justice activists.
Time
(Tuesday) 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Location
Online, virtual event on 7/23 hosted by Firestorm Books
Adrian Shanker virtual presentation on Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic
Event Details
Join Adrian Shanker for an online, virtual discussion on Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic with Vicky Kistler, director of
Event Details
Join Adrian Shanker for an online, virtual discussion on Crisis and Care: Queer Activist Responses to a Global Pandemic with Vicky Kistler, director of the Allentown, PA Health Bureau, on Learn more and register here.
About the book:
Crisis and Care reveals what is possible when activists mobilize for the radical changes our society needs. In a time of great uncertainty, fear, and isolation, queer activists organized for health equity, prison abolition, racial justice, and more. Nobody who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic will soon forget the challenges, sacrifices, and incredible loss felt during such an uncertain time in history. Crisis and Care addresses not what happened during COVID-19, or why it happened, but rather how queer activists responded in real time. It considers the need to memorialize resiliency as well as loss, hope as well as pain, to remember the strides forward as well as the steps back. Activist contributors Zephyr Williams, Mark Travis Rivera, Jamie Gliksberg, Denise Spivak, Emmett Patterson, Omar Gonzales-Pagan, Kenyon Farrow, and more provide a radical lens through which future activists can consider effective strategies to make change, even or perhaps especially, during periods of crisis.
Adrian Shanker is editor of the critically acclaimed anthology Bodies and Barriers: Queer Activists on Health (PM Press) and the executive director of Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, PA. A specialist in LGBT health policy, he has developed leading-edge health promotion campaigns to advance health equity through behavioral, clinical, and policy changes. Adrian serves as Commissioner and health committee co-chair on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs.
Time
(Thursday) 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location
Virtual, online event on 8/25