Do activists deserve danger pay?
Maybe on our spicy podcast? Plus: MA opportunities, Brazil and South America, etc.
What Do We Want?
Please help us make a podcast about changing hearts and minds in bonkers-stage capitalism
A big thanks to everyone who has donated to the crowdfunding campaign Sarah Stein Lubrano and I are running for WHAT DO WE WANT? a podcast about how to change hearts and minds in a totally bonkers phase of capitalism.
We are on track to reach our goal by the time the campaign ends on Saturday!
BUT! We’re still looking for extra help over our goal to be able to offer honouraria to the activists, educators and organizers we are going to interview, because we’ll be asking them to dig deep and dredge up the nasty, gnarly, weird and wonderful stuff that makes movements tick, but that we don’t usually want to talk about?
Revenge fantasies? Ill-advised love affairs? Chronic disappointment? Turning conspiracist? Fetishizing Stalin? Shaming rituals? You bet we’re going to talk about it!
Please throw a few coins our way!
You can learn more about the podcast and donate here.
Coming in early 2024…
A few things coming up in the coming months
Recruiting students for MA in Social Justice Studies or English and Cultural Studies
I gain a huge amount from supervising and teaching MA students in Lakehead University’s English and Cultural Studies program and in our Social Justice Studies program.
This coming year for example, I’m teaching cross-listed courses on “Revolutionary Games” and “Art and Culture Against Racial Capitalism”
Applications for both programs are due February 1, however I have it on good authority they will be reviewed favourably even after that date.
Both two-year programs offer three streams for students: (1) an academic research project; (b) a creative project (very flexible); (c) coursework.
You can find more information at the links above. There is the possibility of doing some of the course remotely. Canadian citizens and permanent residents are guaranteed graduate assistantships.
In the coming years, I’ll be working on projects including:
Developing, testing, writing about and creating a platform for radical tabletop games (board games, card games).
Continuing to offer science fiction writing workshops for Amazon workers and, in a broader scope, investigating the political-economic and cultural importance of science fiction and Amazon.
Expanding the VAGABONDS publishing platform beyond our base in radical pamphlet-style books and, more generally, exploring the fate of radical writing in an our hyper-capitalist age of ubiquitous digital media.
Ongoing collaborations with social movements on questions of the radical imagination.
Further explorations of financialization and the cultural field, including its intersections with games/gamification and the rising spectre of fascism.
If you are interested, let’s have a conversation?
“The Exploits of Play” podcast with Weird Economies
I’m very excited to leak the information that in December and January I’ve been working intensively with Halle Frost from the wonderful Weird Economies project to prepare The Exploits of Play: a podcast about the strange and unexpected role of games and play in a moment of capitalism that just keeps getting weirder.
We’re in post-production now, and in March you can expect to hear interviews with:
S. M. Amadae on how game theory took over the world
Gargi Bhattacharyya on the racial politics of the cheat
Tom Boland on what The Hunger Games and Squid Game teach us about neoliberalism
Alphie Brown on the gamification of romance
Hugh Davies on QAnon as an alternate reality game
Thiago Falcão on video games, labour and the far-right uses of games in Brazil and beyond
Mary Flanagan on games and imperialism and on radical play
Isa Fremeaux and Jay Jordan on playful insurgency against climate terror
Sophie Lewis on romance game/”reality” TV
Christian Nagler on the terrifying games of our Silicon Valley overlords
Stay tuned for the release, and a launch party in Berlin!
Billionaires and Guillotines print-and-play
Some of you know that, for the past year, I’ve been working on a card game, Billionaires and Guillotines, which is as satisfying as it sounds! You play 2-5 rival billionaires seeking to suck up the world’s wealth in the form of luxuries (and win against your opponents) before your actions trigger a revolution (and all players lose). It takes under an hour to play and is easy to learn.
In mid-2024, we’ll be running a crowd-funding campaign to manufacture and market this spicy little number! Meanwhile, in the coming weeks stay tuned to this newsletter to get a special print-at-home version you can play with your family, friends, and (class) enemies.
By the way, we also have an online community on Discord, The Society for the Promotion of Radical Analogue Games, for those interested in having conversations about the role board and card games can play in our revolutionary hopes and dreams. Email me if you’d like to join. It’s pretty quiet recently, but this Spring we’ll be hosting a set of online events on the topic “What is an anti-fascist game?”
Also by the way, all this is tied into my current book project: The Player and the Played: Financialization, Gamification, and (anti-)Fascism
Visiting Brazil and South America - late March
And on that note, I am happy to announce that I’ll be in Brazil in the second half of March for the Power Play conference on games and also some workshops in João Pessoa.
As part of that trip, I will also be travelling in the wider region.
If you or someone you know is in that region and might like me to give a talk or a workshop, please be in touch. These days I am most excited to offer talks and workshops on:
My current book project: The Player and the Played: Financialization, Gamification, and (anti-)Fascism
The radical imagination and social movements
Revenge politics and capitalism
Amazon and science fiction (either or both)
Palm oil
Game-making workshops for non-game makers (especially grassroots activists, but also educators, artists and other malcontents)
The future of radical writing in a digital age
May Day Movement Academy, Berlin - April 29-May 3
Sarah Stein Lubrano and I have started a platform for our collaborations: the Sense & Solidarity Initiative!
From April 29-May 3 we are running a very inexpensive set of workshops in Berlin for activists, organizers and educators. Together, we’ll learn how to:
Be strategic and selective about whose hearts and minds we want to change (it can’t be everyone)
Recognize and work with common fears, anxieties, hesitations and antagonism we might meet in our campaigns
Think through if, how and when activism can provide a warm, empowering, welcoming community (and when not to!)
Be tactical about disrupting and dividing our opponents, and learn to recognize when they’re doing the same
And much more…
Stay tuned here for the official announcement, but drop a line if you want us to hold you a space.