The May Day Orchestra CD/Vinyl 2010 The second ‘folk opera’ by The May Day Orchestra tells the story of Ota Benga, a pygmy man who was taken from Congo and put on display at the 1904 World’s Fair in Saint Louis. A simultaneous narrative about Roger Casement weaves into the songs as does … Continue reading Ota Benga
Or, Songs for Lucy Parsons The May Day Orchestra Vinyl 2009 “The ‘Folk Opera’ concerning the labor question” according to its liner notes, this is the debut release from The May Day Orchestra, a group started by Tim Rakel in 2008 to write historically-rooted albums with various musical accompaniment. Words for the songs … Continue reading May Day
Margaret Atwood 2001 521p 6 x 9 The Blind Assassin opens with these simple, resonant words: ‘Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge.’ They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister’s death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental. … Continue reading The Blind Assassin
Dennis Danvers 2002 368p 5 x 8 In 1921 Russia, a mysterious visitor from the far future comes to Peter Kropotkin’s deathbed and offers the world-renowned anarchist philosopher a new life. Kropotkin — the one-time prince who renounced wealth and privilege to embrace the cause of anarchy, the dying … Continue reading The Watch
The Dance of Death Luther Blissett 1999 768p 6 x 9 1517 Martin Luther nails his ninety-five theses to the door of Wittenburg Cathedral, and a dance of death begins between a radical Anabaptist with many names and a loyal papal spy, known mysteriously as ‘Q.’ In this brilliantly … Continue reading Q
Umberto Eco 1980 536p 5 x 8 The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns to the logic of Aristotle, the … Continue reading The Name of the Rose
Emma Goldman 1934 508p 5 x 8 Unabridged second half of Emma Goldman’s almost 1000 page autobiography. Based on years of journal entries, the names, events and descriptions are incredibly vivid even after years since they first happened. See an endless list of friends, comrades, lovers, enemies, co-conspirators and … Continue reading Living My Life Vol. II
Suzzane Collins 2008 384p 5 x 8 In retribution for a crushed uprising years before, each region of the future, dystopian United States must send its children to fight each other to the death. What will people do to survive? What will people watch to be entertained (and forget … Continue reading The Hunger Games
Paul Avrich 1984 556p 6 x 9 Similar to most of Avrich’s work, this is the definitive take on the Haymarket bombing: the years and social tensions leading up to it, the 8 defendants including their similarities and differences, their executions and the anarchist seed that was planted by … Continue reading The Haymarket Tragedy
Sakae Ōsugi 1921 192p 6 x 9 In the Japanese labor movement of the early twentieth century, no one captured the public imagination as vividly as Osugi Sakae (1885-1923): rebel, anarchist, and martyr. Flamboyant in life, dramatic in death, Osugi came to be seen as a romantic hero fighting … Continue reading The Autobiography of Ōsugi Sakae