Fan the Flames of Red May 2020: Capitalism or Life
Donation protected
Red May is a month long arts festival and teach-in. In times of Health, we gather at bookstores, movie theaters, bars, coffee shops, restaurants, and auditoriums to share in discussion and plot ways forward toward a world in common- a world beyond capitalism. To rupture the boundaries of what can be said in public- and of the public itself- we bring to Seattle the most exciting and imaginative thinkers on the left, both from within and beyond academia, organizations, and social movements.
Some examples: Asad Haider; Jasper Bernes; Jodi Dean; Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon; Sophie Lewis; Aaron Benanav, John Clegg, Michelle O'Brien; Magally Miranda Alcazar; Jodi Dean; Mike Davis; Kathi Weeks and Michael Hardt; Nikkita Oliver; Alyssa Battistoni; Olivia Katbi-Smith; Andrew Anastasi; Sarah Mason and many, many more.
While our original schedule included socialist discos and antifascist club nights, group poetry readings and collective conductions, red films and red docs, we are bound to Stay-In's & Sheltering-in-Home just as much as everyone else. So we changed our original 2020 schedule to confront the convergent crises of Capitalism's planetary pandemic. Our original schedule had over 60 events featuring 71 contemporary socialists and communists. But that was made for a different world. We got together with our guests- and opened it up to friends and comrades around the globe- to reformat a whole new vision focusing on currents of contemporary communism and socialism developing new strategies and new tactics toward confronting our present world shot through with global crises after global crises.
go to www.redmayseattle.org to find our new 2020 program
But what makes Red May so unique? Think of it as a vacation from Capitalism. From the buzzwords America is particularly susceptible to. High Tech. Entrepreneur. The Gig Economy. If everything around us chants “There is no alternative to Capitalism,” if all we’re told is that History is over and it ends with us, don’t you think simple mental hygiene demands that we try to think outside of that box for (at the very least) one month a year? There are only two rules. First, riff on red. And second, assume for a month that the market is not the solution to the problems that the market creates.
How much does it cost to do the festival? It should probably cost $50,000 dollars. But last year we did it for just under $7,000. The money we raised paid for plane tickets, printing, space rental, and artists materials. Everything else was donated: website, graphics, lodging for speakers who waive fees. Most of all, free time. Like Blanche DuBois, Red May is dependent on the kindness of strangers.
This year we set our sights a little higher: our goal of $12,000 dollars is in part to recoup all our damn money from the damn airlines who are trying to stiff us. We also have some new surprises in store for 2020 and we need your support:
- we will soon be announcing several new arms of Red May including podcasting, rolling online event forums, reporting from around the world, and much more;
- the development of a monthly digest and newsletter;
- enabling accessibility for all of our programming through captioning, audio and video archiving, and event transcription for translation (as well as for the real text nerds);
- and more
Please give us whatever you can afford so we can keep Red May going and growing beyond the crisis and beyond Capitalism.
Some examples: Asad Haider; Jasper Bernes; Jodi Dean; Nick Estes and Jaskiran Dhillon; Sophie Lewis; Aaron Benanav, John Clegg, Michelle O'Brien; Magally Miranda Alcazar; Jodi Dean; Mike Davis; Kathi Weeks and Michael Hardt; Nikkita Oliver; Alyssa Battistoni; Olivia Katbi-Smith; Andrew Anastasi; Sarah Mason and many, many more.
While our original schedule included socialist discos and antifascist club nights, group poetry readings and collective conductions, red films and red docs, we are bound to Stay-In's & Sheltering-in-Home just as much as everyone else. So we changed our original 2020 schedule to confront the convergent crises of Capitalism's planetary pandemic. Our original schedule had over 60 events featuring 71 contemporary socialists and communists. But that was made for a different world. We got together with our guests- and opened it up to friends and comrades around the globe- to reformat a whole new vision focusing on currents of contemporary communism and socialism developing new strategies and new tactics toward confronting our present world shot through with global crises after global crises.
go to www.redmayseattle.org to find our new 2020 program
But what makes Red May so unique? Think of it as a vacation from Capitalism. From the buzzwords America is particularly susceptible to. High Tech. Entrepreneur. The Gig Economy. If everything around us chants “There is no alternative to Capitalism,” if all we’re told is that History is over and it ends with us, don’t you think simple mental hygiene demands that we try to think outside of that box for (at the very least) one month a year? There are only two rules. First, riff on red. And second, assume for a month that the market is not the solution to the problems that the market creates.
How much does it cost to do the festival? It should probably cost $50,000 dollars. But last year we did it for just under $7,000. The money we raised paid for plane tickets, printing, space rental, and artists materials. Everything else was donated: website, graphics, lodging for speakers who waive fees. Most of all, free time. Like Blanche DuBois, Red May is dependent on the kindness of strangers.
This year we set our sights a little higher: our goal of $12,000 dollars is in part to recoup all our damn money from the damn airlines who are trying to stiff us. We also have some new surprises in store for 2020 and we need your support:
- we will soon be announcing several new arms of Red May including podcasting, rolling online event forums, reporting from around the world, and much more;
- the development of a monthly digest and newsletter;
- enabling accessibility for all of our programming through captioning, audio and video archiving, and event transcription for translation (as well as for the real text nerds);
- and more
Please give us whatever you can afford so we can keep Red May going and growing beyond the crisis and beyond Capitalism.
Organizer and beneficiary
Red May
Organizer
Seattle, WA
Philip Wohlstetter
Beneficiary
