Thank you to everyone who joined our first few study group sessions of the year, and we are forever grateful to @_vamonos__ for hosting us. We are taking a break in April and will be back in May with a discussion on art and the working class. Add your email to our list to get all the updates: noxlibrary.org/studygroup (link in bio)
p.s. in the meantime, you should check out all the amazing programming at Vámonos this month, including clases de bailar 🔥💃🏻
Happy May Day! We are honored to present our conversation with Wes Taylor, someone who embodies so many of the values we carry at Nox Library, from art and culture to collectivism and labor. Read it at noxlibrary.org, link in bio.
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Today is May Day, otherwise known as International Workers’ Day, a worldwide commemoration of the working class, laborers, and labor movements around the world. As a fellow worker, union member, and artist, I don’t think there is a more fitting conversation to have on the interconnections between art and labor than this one with Wes Taylor.
I have known about Wes and his work for many years and now I’m lucky enough to work with him at WSU. I recently described him as a visionary, but unlike those visionaries that keep their head in the clouds, Wes has and continues to have his work grounded in community. Wes co-owns Talking Dolls, an art and community space in Detroit. In our conversation, he shares how it started, how it continues to develop, and some of the partnerships with Talking Dolls and artists or other organizations. In the second half of our conversation, Wes talks about the development of the newly formed Union Hall Arts Residency, a four-week program that enables rank-and-file union members to participate in an artist residency with pay. On this May Day, we look to artists and organizers like Wes who uphold the continuing legacy of workers and unions in Detroit and the role of the arts in that history.
-Heather
Your art is need to preserve the people’s movement. Print available next weekend at @paperpaperartbookfair alongside a curated selection of books and free copies of our artist conversations. See you there ✨
May 2–3 (Sat 11–5, Sun 12–5)
📍 @clustermuseum
307 North Main Street, Ann Arbor MI
Small risograph print available at @paperpaperartbookfair over May Day weekend alongside a curated selection of books and free copies of our artist conversations.
Unite! with a quote from the Autobiography of Angela Davis:
“Of course, the most powerful impact the Manifesto had on me—what moved me most—was the vision of a new society, without exploiters and exploited, a society without classes, a society where no one would be permitted to own so much that he could use his possessions to exploit other human beings. After the communist revolution ‘we shall have an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.’
The final words of the Manifesto moved me to an overwhelming desire to throw myself into the communist movement:
‘The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!’”
Noelle Belanger is a labor and political organizer based in Detroit. Take 30 seconds to read her write-up on Clyde Bellecourt’s book, THE THUNDER BEFORE THE STORM, and what fills her with revolutionary morale through the link in our bio.
noxlibrary.org/30seconds
Your art is needed to ___ the people’s movement. Risograph print available at @paperpaperartbookfair over May Day weekend alongside a curated selection of books and free copies of our artist conversations.
Emma Greschak’s contribution to our 30-second series is now live! Check out her short write up on how she embeds an anti-capitalist, decolonial mindset into her art practice. Link in bio❣️
“At the beginning of the Russian Revolution, Lenin famously emphasized the power of film for propaganda, proclaiming, ‘Of all the arts, cinema is the most important for us’—and in my writing about cinema in a span of over 40 years, I’ve come across innumerable examples of films that proved Lenin’s point and helped change the word!”
Read the film recommendations of musician and activist Bill Meyer through the link in our bio!
Our conversation with Indira Edwards (@littl.fly ) is now live, link in bio!
One of my early memories of my friendship with Indira involves hearing stories from when they would repair instruments they rescued from abandoned schools in Detroit. Since then, we’ve always shared thoughts revolving around art, community, and how to make the world a better place. What you’ll pick up from my conversation with them is they are steadfast in what they set their mind to, and out of it comes a beautiful conglomeration of art that presents itself in various forms across numerous spaces. From a project that involves wind-up toys and an ensemble of non-musicians, to performing benefit shows for the People’s Assembly and playing viola in local bands, Indira’s music knows no bounds, and it sounds like that’s the goal. While we talk about collectivity in music, our conversation is furthermore a showcase of how Indira singlehandedly makes their art form accessible. By the end, I felt my own spirits rise—it’s artists like Indira who give me a lot of hope for the future. The artists are alright!
-Danielle
First photo by Doug Coombe, courtesy of Indira
