Lancaster Avenue Autonomous Space

Ongoing at LAVA

Thursdays
4PM Grocery Giveaway with Food Not Bombs.

Keep LAVA in the black!!!

for one time donations:

LAVA, the Lancaster AVenue Autonomous space is a center for radical media and organizing located at 4134 Lancaster Avenue in the Belmont neighborhood of West Philadelphia. The LAVA collective's mission is to create an empowering and welcoming physical space where diverse communities converge to build connections and break down barriers, blending media-making, artistic expression and hardy nuts-and-bolts organizing in order to advance movements for justice. | Read more

Slutwalk 2011

women

A Canadian police officer started it all

On January 24th, 2011, a representative of the Toronto Police gave shocking insight into the Force’s view of sexual assault by stating: “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized”.

Women, quite understandably, were annoyed at this as this is a view that should have died a long, long time ago. The view that a woman dressing in a provocative manner would provide a man with an excuse to rape the woman should have died when Susan Brownmiller came out with "Against Our Will " back in 1975.

Protest in solidarity with Pelican Bay hunger strike

group

Philadelphia Weekly did a piece on our protest.

FREE BRIAN! Help Us Bail Him out!

Update!! Yesterday, thanks to all of you who responded with the most generous solidarity, we posted bail and got him. A huge word of thanks to all who put down the money to help get Brian out on the street again! We all appreciate it a ton!

In April, Brian was arrested during the police response to a robbery of a corner store in West Philadelphia. Neither armed nor having taken part in the robbery, Brian has been locked up since the incident, and while confident he will beat the charges, he’s not been able to make bail.

In the meantime Brian has been separated from his partner who is now several months pregnant and taking care of their children. Brian is also an important fixture at LAVA, a community space on Lancaster Ave., often helping out at the Library and at our Thursday food giveaway. He’s needed and missed out on the street!

We need to raise $3000 for Brian to get back out and back holding things down at LAVA and providing important support for his children and his partner.

We are asking for donations for his bail as well as loans which can be paid back when his trial wraps up (possibly up to a year from now). Donations using paypal should be sent to freebrian@lavazone.org.

Free Computer Stuff

TODAY AND TOMORROW!!
By Thursday afternoon everything must go!!!

We upgraded our computers (and loving it - thanks Youth Build!! Yall the BOMB!!). Now we need to sort out all the old school gear we don't need to hang on to anymore. Come and get it yall !!

7 Monitors tested and working
5 PC towers -- all with some issue and not working right. but still have cards, hard drives, ports etc.
a ton of keyboards
printers - some working but need ink. others need help

Old school techie stuff: mysterious gadgets, wires, gender changers, stereo gear, scanners, etc.

Come get it now!!

New Magazine Rack at LAVA huge hit !!

Last Wednesday, we set up a beautiful new magazine rack. Bluntly put, it's straight up amazing! Currently it contains past issues of Hip Mama, Clamor, El Libertario, Bitch, some comics and a compelling report on solitary confinement units. It had been floating around LAVA with little sense of purpose for months, but it found it's place: a perfect little nook just between Black Studies and Self Help.

Word has spread and people have been coming in to check it out. Come in yourself and have your picture taken with it to impress your friends!

Even Mumia is smiling.

Really Really Free Market at LAVA March 26

Pics from today's mass stuff giveaway at LAVA, really!!

Autonomous Spaces, from Philly to Santiago

This is the first installment of a blog, written by a member of the defenestrator collective, about autonomous politics in Chile.

Earlier this week I went to La Legua, a neighborhood in the Santiago, the capital of Chile. La Legua is a población, which is a term used to refer to working class neighborhoods that were often formed in huge land occupations in the middle of the 20^th century. It was explained to me that La Legua was one of the few neighborhoods were there was open, popular resistance to the US-backed coup of General Augosto Pinochet on September 11^th, 1973.

Open House!

We had an open house July 11 2010. Tons of people turned out, most of our orgs showed and plenty of literature and hot dogs were consumed. Check out the pics after the break!

We Need Computers!

We're looking for new computers. Our current desktops are slowing to a crawl and we need reliable computers to start providing walk in access to services as well as continue computer classes and general computer access for the neighborhood. If you recently upgraded or have access to a free source of PCs, please consider sending one or some our way. If you 've offered in the past or have thought about, now would be an amazing time to swing by.

Some things we're looking for in particular:

5 desktop PCs with a minimum of:
1.5Ghz processor speed and 1GB RAM

LAVA News:

Decarcerate PA: STATEMENT: FJD takes important step on bail, but complicates detainer issue	Decarcerate PA: All out to protest Governor Wolf’s dehumanizing prison policies	Decarcerate PA: ACLU of Pennsylvania Research Shows Philadelphia Courts Have Different Rules for Rich and Poor	Decarcerate PA: Letters from the ashes
Decarcerate PA: Day of Action to End Death By Incarceration	Human Rights Coalition: Action Alert: SCI Smithfield delivering solitary confinement instead of medical care	Human Rights Coalition: Action Alert- Elderly man thrown in solitary and denied medication for helping another prisoner	Human Rights Coalition: Movement #26: Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the MOVE house by the City of Philadelphia
Human Rights Coalition: Movement #25: Prisoners Won't Be Silenced! HRC fights the Silencing Law in court and prisoners speak out	Human Rights Coalition: Movement #25 is out!