Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry

an experiment in access-centered political education for collective autonomy and governance beyond the state

the book cover of 'discourse on colonialism' by Aime Cesaire. a portrait of Aime Cesaire as a single color black print appears on an orange cover. Aime carries books, wears a black coat overtop a button up shirt with a tie and looks serious as he stairs off to the right. the title of the book, 'discourse on colonialism' is written in white letters overtop of the black print.

Discourse on ColonialismCLPP mini: "Grammars of Determination"

by Aime Cesaire

cooperative anarchy decolonization

1950

The Alphabet of DispossessionCLPP mini: "Grammars of Determination"

by Ella Shohat, published in the Jerusalem Quarterly

decolonization stories exile

Summer 2007

SPK: Turn Illness into a Weapon

CLPP highlight

by the Socialist Patients' Collective, translated by Huber (SPK/PF)

disability justice abolition access

1987

Theory as Liberatory Practice

by bell hooks

black feminism movement theory

1991

Now

by the Invisible Committee

anarchy cooperative rage

2017

BLOG: "Pebbles" t-shirt fundraiser for Kearra Amaya Gopee's autonomous artist residency

blog

October 15, 2024

A high contrast black and white photo of a lit hand holding a protest sign that reads “Never again for anyone” with a watermelon and accompanying butterflies is printed on muted pink paper. This sign is held in front of a tree trunk in the midst of a protest march.

PROJECT: Graphics for Palestinian Liberation

decolonization rage movement

Fall 2023

ANNOUNCEMENT: 25 New Summer Open Call Resources

blog

October, 2024

A fuschia drawing of the warp and weft of a disintegrating weave curls with flowered vines. “Center for liberatory practices” “weaving our values and practices” is draped and tangled with the same flowered vines and reads above and below the centered weaving.

PUBLICATION: Weaving our Values & Practices

PDF

Online

co-published with March Journal

publication cooperative movement queer

2022

Adults dance and play together in pairs in a workshop. The image centers one person twirling another in a room lit by a strings of lights.

WORKSHOP: scaffolding / becoming / autonomies / ungovernable

with X-TRA, Active Cultures and Printed Matter

publication abolition anarchy experiments

2023

Bulbous cutouts of a photo of ceremony objects including “bless our breath” cards, tangerines, glasses of water, herbs, an open book and a mortar and pestle sit on a black background. Rounded cuttings of the title Archive Liberia, Center for Liberatory Practice & Poetry are overlaid on the photos and black background. A large white title reads “Used of Memory Saturday, October 28 4:00-5:30 PM EST Virtual with small vertically oriented along a sliver of the ritual object photo reads “Teaching at the End of Times.”

WORKSHOP: Uses of Memory

with Archive Liberia

project cooperative decolonization memory poetry

2023

a hand drawn illustration of seeds scattered. soft dotted grey shading appears inside each seed, some are clumped together toward the center, while others stray a bit farther around the edges.

BLOG: Contribute to the Resource Library!

blog

June, 2024

Several people’s hands travel to write and draw across quietly lit chart paper. A pile of transparent pink notes slip under one of the participant’s wrists while an opaque pink note grazes the tip of another participant's hand bracing as they mark the chart paper.

GATHERING: Weekend for Collective Being and Making

a semi-annual gathering of Weavers and friends of the Center

gathering cooperative experiments governance

2023

A playful internet browser screen tab gradienting between bright orange, purple and yellow pops between the titles “creative projects,” “introduction” and “about.” It features contributors names across the bottom punctuated by repeating graphic purple flowers.

PUBLICATION: Straining Letters into Noise

with Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Graphic Design

project cooperative speech stories

2021-2022

this is the book cover of 'black scare / red scare'. in the top half of the image is a graphic image in black, red, and yellow forms that show a person staring downwards and frowning. on an off white background below, the book title is written in all capital letters in black and red.

Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States

by Charisse Burden-Stelly

cooperative anarchy abolition

2023

the book cover of 'Return to My Native Land' featured a woodblock portrait of a person looking to the right of the page. The portrait is printed in yellow ink on a black background.

Return to my Native Land

by Amie Cesaire

decolonization poetry diasporic

1956

the book cover of 'Necro-Politics' by Achille Mbembe features the title of the book in bold all capital letters on a grey, textured page. The title is written in bold white letters and underneath it, the author's name is written in dark red letters.

Necro–Politics

by Achille Mbembe

decolonization theory

2016

Organization Means Commitment

by Grace Lee Boggs

cooperative movement governance

1972

Under bright pink light, a masked and lace-veiled bartender shakes a metal cocktail shaker over their shoulder as a masked person dressed in black reviews the drink menu.

PROJECT: if we choose to reclaim ourselves from the ashes

by Kimi Hanauer

anarchy grief queer experiments

2022

A dark exhibition space has a freestanding blurry projected video angled in the right corner. The space opens to a more lit rectilinear sculpture containing an upright branch.

An Excision Spell

by Kearra Amaya Gopee

gathering anarchy poetry weaver

2020

the title and author of the publication are in black text on top of a pastel gradient background. in between the text are smaller icons of a crescent moon between two stars.

be well (after tasha)

by denise shanté brown be well (after tasha) is Denise Shanté's poetic response to "take care" by songwriter and musician, tasha. It was written during the summer nights of 2020 after emerging out of a six-week period of not leaving her home and feeling compelled, out of necessity, to write a letter of care to the people she loves.

publication breath grief weaver

2020

Bold black letters reading “Learning from Lexington” adorned with pink shadows and outlines lay on top of an abstracted bright green halftone image. The word ‘from’ is reoriented inside of a pink square and a pink banner reading “voices + visions Lexington Market: 1800s - 2017 grounds the bottom of the poster.

Learning from Lexington: Voices + Visions

by Markele Cullins

publication care diasporic stories

2017

Bold black letters reading “Learning from Lexington” adorned with pink shadows and outlines lay on top of an abstracted tan and black halftone image. The word ‘from’ is reoriented inside of a pink square and a pink banner reading “Lexington Market: 1800s - 2017” grounds the bottom of the poster.

Learning From Lexington: 1800's - 2017

by Markele Cullins

publication care diasporic stories

2017

Atop a black background reads “When & how the American dream died for you?” in bold white capital letters.

Obituaries of the American Dream

by Lizania Cruz

publication abolition diasporic weaver

2020

The title “Undoing borders, A queer manifesto” sits above a black and white image of people pressed against gesturing and videoing a fenced border. The image is framed in white space.

Undoing Borders: A Queer Manifesto

publication diasporic queer speech

2011

A black grounded website reads “bilphena’s library, ‘the words loved me and i loved them in return,’ -sonia sanchez” above a repeating colorful collage of black feminine people outlined in orange. The collage is duplicated across a peach color block and a rust color block.

bilphena’s library

by bilphena decontee yahwon

abolition black feminism care poetry

2020

The yellow cover of bell hooks’ book reads in orange “Teaching to Transgress, Education as the Practice of Freedom.” A small rectangular drawing of a yellow ladder leaning from a bright red floor to a green wall sits above the title. bell hooks name is typed in back under a stylized R at the bottom of the cover.

Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

by bell hooks

abolition black feminism care

1994

A white etched drawing of a looping rope disintegrates into leaves or bark against a black background.

to those before me, to those with me, & to those after me: a speech from a diasporic ashanti queer.

by ángel

publication diasporic queer speech

A white baseball cap is centered on a mottled sandy rock surface. A stylized black line drawing of a crying emoji-type face sits above the brim.

cripple: resources

Cripple is organized by Emily Sara

disability justice access intimacy

2022

“Toolkit for Cooperative, Collective, & Collaborative Cultural work, Press Press & Institute for expanded research” is typed and underlined in bright red on top of an orange background.

Toolkit for Cooperative, Collective, & Collaborative Cultural Work

by Press Press and Institute for Expanded Research

abolition anarchy cooperative disability justice

2020

Two posters printed on pink and orange paper advertising Emary Parisi’s workshop “Parsing our exits as care” sit askew atop one another on top of a hand woven blue fabric.

PUBLICATION: Chrysalis Sessions – Parsing our Exits as Care: Queer Funerals and Post-Life Practicalities

Gathering

PDF

with Emary Parisi

gathering publication breath grief movement

2022

Four people energetically dance in the pink lit space of Kimi Hanauer’s installation “If we choose to reclaim ourselves from the ashes.”

WORKSHOP: Chrysalis Sessions – Dance Jam

with Dancing Through Prison Walls

gathering grief movement

2022

A bright yellow painted corner of a concrete exhibition space is covered with text based artworks in orange, red, and black and white newsprint. The large legible black and white newsprint repeats “I want to believe in shared breath.” Several video monitors are interspersed on the wall and there are 3 built wooden tables with two red rectangular cushions.

PROJECT: Temporary Center Headquarters

with Southern Exposure

project cooperative

2021

a scan of a rectangular broadsheet that features multi color flyers that overlap at various angels. the flyers are yellow, lavender, and orange, and have large fluidly shaped lines of text overtop of them. notable lines of text include, "how is speech a desire a hope a promise" and "sometimes I just want us to sit" and "nourished by our whispers".

how is speech a desire a hope a promise

by Kimi Hanauer

gathering anarchy speech

2021

A card with rounded edges gradienting from magenta to red with white underlined text that reads “Bless our breath” sits askew on a large cropped newsprint poster reading “Breath” in bold black capital underlined print.

bless our breath

alea adigweme, Gordon Hall, Kimi Hanauer, Jovonna Jones, Malcolm Peacock, Alice Yuan Zhang with Gas Gallery

breath cooperative ghosts

2020

A large red rectangle framed in orange contains bold capital text reading “To those for whom the horizon leans forward.” The last 4 words are underlined in orange.

Calling all Denizens

by Kimi Hanauer with Women's Studio Workshop

anarchy exile

2019

An interrupted static radar ripple is drawn etched in white across a black background.

Shipwreck

by Amanda Gómez

grief speech poetry

A curved diagonal branch of bamboo-like leaves is etched in white onto a black background.

pan francés

by Amanda Gómez

poetry speech intimacy

An abstract composition of stretched and unstretched stacked semi circles in forrest green, pink, and shades of orange sit above the title “Notes on Feminisms Saidiya Hartman.” This title is in stacked black font atop an off white rectangle. In smaller black text in the top left corner “Feminist Art Coalition” is typed.

The Plot of Her Undoing

by Saidiya Hartman

abolition exile black feminism

A photo of a copy of Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ “Maintenance Art— proposal for an Exhibition” is hand annotated with the words “Manifesto! “Care.”

Manifesto for Maintenance Art

by Mierle Laderman Ukeles

rage cooperation care

1969

A white drawing of five seed pods attached to two nodes at various states of opening is etched on a black background.

Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference

by Audre Lorde

abolition theory black feminism

1980

A white drawing of a complex knotted rope loops and weaves to create interlocking woven circles surrounding a long U form. Delicate strings loosely twirl around three portions of the knot on this black background.

The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy

by Andie Nordgren

anarchy cooperative

2006

Abstracted splashes of light lavender, deep red, and yellow radiate across a purple gradient from the right lower side. The splash composition is thinly framed with colors slowly transitioning between yellow and red.

Access Intimacy: The Missing Link

published on Leaving Evidence by Mia Mingus

access intimacy theory disability justice

2011

An abstracted ribbon of bright green and orange folds to make an L shape across a white background. In opposite corners reads “Dispersion” and “Seth Price.”

Dispersion

by Seth Price

theory movement access

2016

A black and white dense spherical stone sits in its shadow at the top left of a poster advertising Simone Leigh’s “The Waiting Room.” An upward arc connects “June 22” to “Sept 18th” along the bottom of the white poster.

The Waiting Room

by Simone Leigh

care speech disability justice

2018

Overlapping ripples of marbleized green and deep red repeat and invert to a vertical column of pooling bright red and magenta. The black italicized words “a tender talk” run diagonally up the left side of the marbleized pattern.

A Tender Talk: Manifesto for Tender Collaborative Work

by Shan Wallace, Iris Lee, and Jenna Porter in conversation with Kimi Hanauer, published by Press Press

governance cooperative intimacy

2017

“While standing in line for death, CAConrad” is typed and stacked to the left on an eggshell colored background.

While Standing in Line for Death

by CAConrad

anarchy poetry queer

2017

A white drawing of five seed pods attached to two nodes at various states of opening is etched on a black background.

Ch’ixinakax utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization

by Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui

anarchy decolonization theory

2017