“Either we submit to the dissociative logic of the web, or we turn to forms of defending embodied life.”
Communion is the second issue of Woodbine’s printed journal The Reservoir, featuring new texts by Kazembe Balagun, Elizabeth Povinelli, Geert Lovink, Kristin Ross, Experimental Jetset, and Marcello Tarì, as well as a previously unpublished interview with Félix Guattari.
From the introduction: “The theme for this issue, Belief and the Communal, was a question to ourselves – not just a documentation of who and what we are, but a critical consideration of who we would like to be. To speak of belief carries with it the sense not just of logic but of faith. History tells us that successful experiments in communal life often have an organizing belief. They have a shared faith. But when our structures of life are oriented around the instrumental and utilitarian, the non-religious and secular, how can we re-enchant the world, the city, each other? How can we mobilize networks of newly binding enchantments for the next epoch of societal re-organization? For us this question touches on the old anarchist framework of free association, of the voluntary assembly of individuals. Needed ever-more in a metropolis like New York, but ever more rare and fleeting. It touches on the question of desire, to gather outside of work, outside of the market, to cultivate a generosity of thought and spirit, of time and attention.”
Communion features archival texts by and reflections on Black Mountain College and the Gate Hill artists cooperative, Murray Bookchin, the Catholic Worker, Co-op City, Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall and Ganienkeh, George Jackson and The Black Panther Party, Llano del Rio, Provo, M.C. Richards, the Shakers, the ZAD, and more. With original art, comics, essays, fiction, illustrations, interviews, letters, photography, poetry, transcripts, and translations from more than 30 contributors, and design by Kevin McCaughey.
Woodbine opened in 2014, and is soon coming up on its 10-year anniversary. Volunteer-run, it describes itself as “an experimental hub in Ridgewood, Queens for developing the practices, skills, and tools needed to build autonomy.”
Full List of Contributors: Virgil Addison, Katie Bachler, Kazembe Balagun, Scott Berzofsky, Murray Bookchin, Dana Burns, Grace Byron, Charlie Enúf, Experimental Jetset, Celia Eydeland, Ella Fassler, Clark Fitzgerald, Victor Florence, A.M. Gittlitz, Félix Guattari, Clair Gunther, Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall, Anton Haugen, Mark He, Samantha Hinds, Institute for the Study of Urtext, Joscelyn Jurich, Geert Lovink, Mayakov+sky Platform, Misha, Max Moorhead, Jean Oury, Oskar Peacock, Andreas Petrossiants, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, M.C. Richards, Kristin Ross, Eero Talo, Marcello Tarì, Assia Turquier-Zauberman, Caterina Verde, Erick Verran, Tom Wilson, Mikal Wix