Spooktember at W139

Spooktember – organized by activist publishing house Spookstad – explores the art and politics of radical publishing: come for visual art, video art, and weekly workshops, performances, book launches, film screenings and more!

“To create is to resist”, the more so when we do it together. During Spooktember, we invite you to explore with us the art and politics of radical publishing. Mobilizing various forms of creativity in the service of solidarity, Spooktember is a place for reimagining life in the city, the ways publishing interacts with protest and resistance, and coming together to create alternatives. For four weeks, Spooktember will be home to a radical library and reading corner, the visual art of direct action, and weekly events ranging from workshops (there will be a button-making machine!) to performances and film screenings. The art works and events are based around our publications’ topics, including squatting and the housing struggle, the pro-Palestine student uprising, and the sex workers’ struggle against the Erotic Center, and we wrap up with the very first Amsterdam Conference of Autonomous Bookmakers. Join us for a month of knowledge-sharing, collective discussion, mutual learning, and getting involved.

Spookstad is a publishing collective that emerged from the squatting movement in Amsterdam. We make books in close collaboration with various activist collectives. 

Work by: Layla Gijsen, Amal Al-Nakhala, Yannesh Meijman, Aylin Kuryel, Fırat Yücel & Deniz Buga & others

Events

Take Back Mokum: squatting, printing, and the right to the city

Against the forces of capital and the housing crisis, squatting is one of our best remaining tactics of resistance. It is also an inherently creative act, transforming buildings, public space, and potentially the whole city. Spooktember opens with the launch of our new zine about the Klokkenhof squat and invites you to explore together how to reclaim the right to the city. 

13 September: 
18:00: Expo opening! Launch of zine Permanence through print (made by Layla Gijsen & Boris, published by Spookstad), music by Big Toilet Radio, drinks, art, zines, books.

14 September: 
13:00: Linocut workshop by Layla Gijsen. Free, but register by sending an email to: laylagijsen@gmail.com 
16:00: Film screening new video work by Yannesh Meijman, with a q&a after.

Between Palestine and us: publishing in the service of solidarity    

The student encampments of 2024 marked a first global wave of mass mobilizations in support of Palestine and against Western complicity. On the basis of the Spookstad-published book about the student uprising in Amsterdam, we explore how art, writing and documentaries contribute to the Palestine solidarity movement, and how we can take it further. 

20 September:
14:30: Film screening “Class outside”: a collective video diary capturing everyday moments of resistance, solidarity, and conflict, following the student encampments in Amsterdam during May 2024 and the various subsequent actions. By Aylin Kuryel, Fırat Yücel & Deniz Buga.
15:30: How can art contribute to solidarity with Palestine? A collective conversation with several activist artists and film makers (TBA).
17:00: Performance of “Dear, Comrade”, by Lila Swindles and Olga Tsyganova. A play about the student occupations, resistance, collectivity, and the attempt to not lose hope. 

Program also part of Amsterdam Bangs festival

Sex work in the city

After years of liberal municipal oversight, legislation, and regulation we are at a tipping point in the history of sex work in the city. And we won’t be silent as our workplaces, brothels, darkrooms, and queer bars are taken away from us! As the Amsterdam Gemeente continues their efforts to move the city’s central Red Light District to a prison-like mega-brothel in Amsterdam Zuid, come together with sex worker organizers, performers, writers and artists to amplify the autonomy of whores in de Wallen, Amsterdam and beyond. Hosted by Mercy St. J, and teasing a forthcoming book on the subject published by Spookstad.

27 September:
12:00-14:00: Whoreganizing brunch (SW ony!)
14:30-16:00: Panel Talk: Whoring Utopia
16:30-18:00: Poetry, Porn & Perfomances

Amsterdam Conference of Autonomous Book-Makers

“To create is to resist”, the more so when we do it together. On the last day of Spooktember, come in to make your own buttons or screenprint your clothes, while we’re joined by other autonomous and anarchist book and zine crafters to provide a mini book and zine fair!

4 October:
13:00–18:00: Mini book and zine fair + make your own buttons + make your own anti-merch: on the spot screen printing on your garments of choice.