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Writers Will Confront ICE with Poetry and Short Fiction at the Detention Facility on McAdam
Portland, Oregon – On June 6th, at 2pm, a group of writers will protest at the ICE facility on McAdam in a novel way. Instead of a traditional launch party in a bookstore, the authors of the Antifa Lit Journal, a literary journal of anti-fascist poetry and short fiction, will read their work at the guards in the detention facility through a megaphone. Authors from around the world will join via Zoom and have their readings broadcast toward the facility as well.
Not a Pipe Publishing, a small, activist press located in Portland, has already published two volumes of the Antifa Lit Journal. To launch the third, subtitled Diversity of Tactics, co-editors Benjamin Gorman and Chrys Gorman wanted to do something a bit different. “I love the way a book can be a place of solace in a chaotic world,” Benjamin says, “but every kind of art can be employed to speak out against injustice. Since these incredibly talented poets and writers have already committed to using their voices to protest fascism, we wanted to bring them as directly as possible to the institution where that oppression is being carried out against our neighbors.”
In addition to the launch event, Not a Pipe Publishing is hosting an online writing event, the Anti-Fascist Write-athon, on the 4th of July. “It brings together a community of writers seeking like-minded writers, and it also serves as a fundraiser to provide the honorariums for the poets and writers included in future volumes of the journal.” Registration for the July 4th event is available on the company’s website at NotAPipePublishing.com . “The date was chosen by participants in our first write-athon in January,” Chrys says. “A lot of people aren’t feeling like waving flags right now, and this gives us all a way to turn those frustrations into something productive and beautiful.”
Protesters at the ICE Facility have already employed a number of different strategies ranging from the now world famous frog costumes to yoga and dance lessons, to choirs, to more traditional sign waving, to acts of civil disobedience resulting in arrests. “We want to honor all the different ways people feel called to protest and augment those with our own,” Benjamin says. “We believe no one strategy is the correct way to respond to a government’s violence against its people, and no single strategy is sufficient on its own. That’s why we titled the third volume ‘Diversity of Tactics.’ The authors have different perspectives about how to fight back, and we want to encourage people to consider them all.”