Ladies' Night

Ladies' Night at the Iron Rail will be reading the Coming Insurrection as a group to be discussed at our 2/25 meeting. As usual, anyone who feels like a lady is strongly encouraged to join us. You in no way need to be apart of our regular meetings to get in on the book discussion.

A pdf of the document can be found here: http://tarnac9.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/thecominsur_booklet.pdf

Ladies' Night is a "NO BOYS ALLOWED" space for radical ladies. We meet every Thursday at 7:30 at the Iron Rail, 511 Marigny. Here's what we're doing in the next several weeks:

1/14 Film Screening: Cannibal Woman of the Avocado Jungle of Death (BYOB)
1/21 Skillshare: Mardi Gras Masks with Jen (Materials provided)
1/28 Skillshare: Artisan Bartending with Ali ($5 for booze)
2/4 Zine Workshop: Work on your own or contribute to the group’s!
2/11 ***EARLY MEETUP*** 4 PM Ladies’ Afternoon: Muses Pre-Party and Carnival Mass 2/18 Mardi Gras Hangover Detoxxx: Share with us your favorite way to take care of yourself and relax!

To get in on our google group, please email us at ladiesnite@googlegroups.com, or call Gina P. at 954.294.7377

Anarchist Authors, Plays, and Movies Coming Soon!

TUESDAY, DEC 29th
Movie, 8 pm... The Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation.
Free! Free All Prisoners! http://3blackpanthers.wordpress.com/

SUNDAY, JANUARY 3rd
Anarchism and Fiction!!! 7pm! Free!
quoting the (gorgeous) flyer: "A Brief and Arguably En­tertaining Evening With
Marga­ret Killjoy, editor of Mythmak­ers & Lawbreakers. Discuss the role of
storytelling in the an­archist movement. Learn about novelist assassins,
post-colonial african squatters, writers who fought in revolutions and went on
to write childrens’ stories. Find out what Tolkien, Camus, Orwell, and Kafka
have to say about anarchism!"

TUESDAY, JAN 5th
Movie, 7:30 pm... El Topo/The Mole
Free! Info aqui!

TUESDAY, JAN 12th
Movie, 8 pm... "Cannibal the Musical" :x Free.

TUESDAY, JAN 19th
Movie, 7:30 pm... Ay Carmela!
If I could reliably do upside-down exclamation points, you'd probably have
already unsubscribed, because these newsletters would be frickin' littered with
'em. There'd definitely be at least 8 or nine before the title of this film.

SATURDAY, JAN 23rd
Play, Music, Didacticism... "ULYSSES' CREWMEN"
Insurgent Theater memorably kicked off 2009 with "Paint the Town" at Zeitgeist.
Now, they're coming back to Gnu Gnarlins for 2010 with another exciting,
thought-provoking original play. This new work is centered on insurrection, for
anyone who's ever contemplated the subject.

There will also be LIVE MUSIC from LOCAL MUSICIANS. If you are one and can play
without being eviction-inducingly overloud, holler back via electronical mail
and let's maybe put you on the bill.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8th
Movie and more, 8 pm... "RIOT ACTS: Flaunting Gender Variance in Music
Performance."
A transfabulous rockumentary! Smash the gender binary over a speaker cabinet.
With filmmaker and fearless fighter-of-the-good-fight Simon Strikeback on hand!

FURTHER RUMBLINGS..........
Beehive Collective presentation? Security culture teach-in? Social Night?
Functioning Iron Rail telephone? You'll be the first to know, compadres... stay
tuned.

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
Each Wednesday at 8pm's the Rail's open collective meeting... come by and see us,
come by and be us. Now's a great time to get involved. We're maybe not
foundering quite as precipitously as previously, so bandwagon it like the
Saints! More is better always and in every regard.

Each Thursday at 7:30's LADIES' NITE! Ladies loud, boys disallowed. Skill
shares, movies, conversation and maybe a wee spot o' drinkin'. For those who
gender-identify as women. Join http://groups.google.com/group/ladiesnite for
latest info and updates, or find 'em on the Facebook.

Revolution Now? Revolution Now! <3

BIG GAY REBEL MOVIE NITE: Friday, Dec 18

Friday the 18 at ye olde Ironne Raille, get a big flaming megadose of unapologetic unvanilla queerness courtesy of late brit icon of same, Quentin Crisp. Adapted from Crisps's memoirs, John Hurt (note: not Mississippi John Hurt) demolishes taboos and titillates the modern audience in this uproarious 1975 award-winning flick... an ultra-rarity too hott to miss.

7:30 pm... free to everyone, except dudes who smell overwhelmingly like poo. Sorry. New policies.

Climate Ground Zero to speak at the Rail

Monday, December 14! 7:30 PM! Film, presentation, all type of thing. 
 Free & open to the publick...  Click image for larger flyer
One of the presenters writes:

****

Climate Ground Zero doea non-violent direct action in west virginia against mountaintop removal in appalachia. climate ground zero uses a variety of tactics, from rallies and marches and sit-ins to lockdowns to mining equipment and tree-sits. we work to raise awareness and bring publicity to the issue of mountaintop removal and coal and its direct effect on carbon emissions and the growing climate crisis. mountaintop removal devastates both the environment and people of appalachia; it poisons the groundwater and headsprings for the rivers which supply drinking water for the entire northeast region, wipes out indigenous species, demolishes some of the oldest and most biodiverse mountains in the world, and brings countless health problems to the people who live near mountaintop removal and coal processing sites.

Much of climate ground zero's focus is presently on coal river mountain, the last untouched peak in the coal river valley. massey energy very recently began blasting on coal river mountain; we're working hard on actions to stop work and bring attention to sustainable wind energy as alternatives to coal. the coal river wind project aims to put wind turbines on coal river mountain instead of blowing up the mountain for coal; this would provide permanent, green jobs in contrast to the few short-term mining jobs that would be available in destroying the mountain for coal.

ClimateGroundZero.org
MountainJustice.org

Buy Stuff, Wrap It Up, Give It Away. Ask to borrow it the next week.

It's almost chrissmas, or whatever it was you celebrated as a kid. You so gotta buy your people their presents from the Iron Rail, and support this place's existence! Don't make us have to rise from the dead, too!

Everyone loves a good book, a nice pin, a zine, a 2010 Slingshot Organizer, or their very own Palestinian Kuffiyeh.

Don't mess this up or Jesus will hunt you down and burn you alive with his lazer-beam eyeballs. Write it down now so you don't forget, and you're friends never talk to you again.

Free Tuesday Movie Night waxes strong: Your Tuesdays belong to the Rail

Dec 8th Desperate living
Dec 15th Disney in espanol (7:30 pm)
Dec 22th TBA(random Christmas something)
Dec 29th The angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation
Jan 5th El Topo/The Mole (7:30 pm)
Jan 12th Cannibal the musical (must be seen to be believed)
Jan 19th Ay carmela (7:30 pm)

All movies are FREE! and those not otherwise marked start at 8pm. See you there!

For more details on the Spanish-language movies, check this post right here

A Coming-Winter-Storms Letter............

Winter sky is dirty laundry, planet desaturated; Starlings leave the trees en masse. Out past the roof's angle, birds pepper cloudbank. Swirling shreds of spilled tobacco, their bodies become an amoebic jumble, twisting like smoke into... is that... a pattern? A shape? Impossible! The vast flock tightens, coalescing, forming the unmistakeable sillhouette of an....

IRON RAIL NEWSLETTER

This is the bad time, the frozen hibernal heart of death's own season. It's frickin' miserable, & when the going gets tough, the prose gets purple. What to do? how to survive? Suggestions follow:

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6 <-- a big daaaay RECORD SWAP! Lobby of the Rail 1PM-5PM. FREE. Remember the 80s? I don't; I'm too young. Tell me, were there cars back then? Could women vote? I'm curious about such days of yore. Were there humungous novelty frisbees that only stored like 10 songs? Is this true? LOLz! People really had those? Let us verify or disprove this cultural apocrypha by attending the massive and eagerly anticipated RECORD SWAP! at the IRON RAIL. There will be an abundance of obsolete media storage formats, ranging from the 8-track & cassette tapes of our great-grampas' days to those shinier things that are like wack, low-capacity DVDs... Compact Disks, I think my auntie calls them. Yes, all sorts of folks are pumped up about this, and for good reason. If you want FEWER RECORDS than you have, MORE RECORDS than you have, or DIFFERENT RECORDS than you have, for sure come by on Sunday to buy, sell, and trade records/tapes/etc... or be extra awesome and just give the damn stuff away! Bring a table! Browse a wide selection... so many genres, so many decades, so many different people to be.

On same daaaay....
MASSAGE! The Rail, also 3-7 pm. Pay what you can! Want to see a roomful of jaded, sullen burnouts begin giggling and squirming like they were adolescents in sex ed class? Just tell them "Asher's going to be giving massages." His hands are legendary, his training is professional, and his touch will change your life. He will be present with his massage chair giving pay-what-you-can massages. No price would be too high, for realz; Asher's wicked good at what he does. He will be on hand from Three to Seven in the PM.

And....
BOOKS 2 PRISONERS WORKNIGHT Nowe Miasto, 4-7PM This isn't at the Rail per se, but it's 100% Rail-endorsed. Books 2 Prisoners has experienced a glorious renaissance; NOW is the time to parasitically attach yourself and ride their cresting wave of mega-success!

- TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15.
Iron Rail Movie Night RETURNS!... en Espanol.
Película de Disney / Some Disney Movie
8PM. FREE. Iron Rail Book Collective
Disney hace lo mejor doblado (hay que entrar a las cabezas de los jóvenes de
todas las lenguas). Entonces vengan y vuelvan a vivir una memoria sórdida de
su niñez y cantamos. Hay varios, entonces vamos a hacer el voto.
Subtitled!

- MORE/MISC:
*There was a fun party on Monday; see the details at http://nolarts.wordpress.com

*Our pals over at Hot Iron Press were kind enuf to plug the Rail & the 'Zine
Library in "ReadyMade" magazine's December issue. Kyle & Jenny are hardworking
artists who do a lot, and we appreciate the juice. To see the article for
yourself, shoplift a copy of the magazine from the Borders on St. Charles.

*People wanna start doing Iron Rail Social Nites, because... that's... a very
appealing idea. We're looking to coordinate with some other local folks, maybe
Ashe, maybe that Gay & Lesbian center over by Frenchmen. There will be food,
folks and fun. Interested in helping? Come by a meeting!

*On January 3, the Iron Rail presents Margaret Killjoy in an evening of ANARCHY AND FICTION, including readings from "Mythmakers and Lawbreakers," edited by
Killjoy hirself & newly published by AK Press. This book looks good. "Learn
about novelist assassins, post-colo­nial african squatters, writers who fought
in revolutions and went on to write childrens’ stories!" More details about
this event, before it happens... Print Out The Pretty Flyer.

*Also coming up soon (though dates still TBD) the Rail will host a roadshow from
Climate Ground Zero. They do non-violent direct action in West Virginia to help
stop mountaintop removal coal mining. What is "non-violent direct action"? Is
that like, levitating the pentagon? Can't wait to find out!

*Hopefully we will also soon be having a teach-in about security culture and how
best to deal with those pesky snoopy indictin'-ass federales. Details TK...

*Every Wednesday at 8pm the collective drags its constituent carcasses into the
Rail for our open-to-everyone Collective Meetings. These are a blast. New
volunteers are welcome; everyone's welcome.

*Every Thursday at 7:30pm is Iron Rail Ladies' Nite, a time and place for
females and female-identified persons only. For this week's plans or other
info, write ladiesnight.ironrail@gmail.com

Hang in there. Winter's a motherfucker all 'round.
Sunsets come at 3 pm,
wind whips off the river,
lips too chapped for kissing,
bicyclists a-shiver,
"warm" clothes smell like mold and dog pee,
heat bills eat up all your money.

When everyone you like's in jail... come volunteer, down at the Rail!

Protest tonight @ Tony Moran's

ROC-NOLA writes:

Restaurant Workers Continue Protests in front of Tony Moran’s Restaurant

This week we will be holding another protest in front of Tony Moran’s Restaurant to increase public pressure and awareness of workers’ demands. Please come stand with us this Friday night to demand that this restaurant finally respond to demands for payment of wages withheld, and to allegations of a discriminatory and segregated workplace!

The Restaurant Opportunities Center of New Orleans (ROC-NOLA) is a members-based organization dedicated to fighting for better working conditions for area restaurant workers. Members of ROC-NOLA launched a workplace justice campaign in October, and management still refuses to respond. Help us to increase our presence at these weekly actions so that they will have no choice but to answer to the demands of their workers!

We will be holding weekly actions in front of the restaurant until our demands are met, and those who still work at this restaurant get the working conditions they deserve! Dignity, respect and pay for our work is not an option!
Information about this week's action follows:
DATE: Friday, December 4th
TIME: 8:00PM (please meet beforehand at location listed below)**
WHERE: Tony Moran’s Restaurant (out front, Bourbon St. side) 240 Bourbon St

**We will be meeting starting at 7:30pm at the 100 block of Carondelet Street, near the intersection of Canal, to then walk over to Tony Moran’s Restaurant together by 8:00PM.

For more information, please contact (504) 344-9495, or rocnola@gmail.com . For additional information and footage from this campaign, please go to www.youtube.com and type in key words ROC NOLA and workplace justice.

Reclaim The Streetz! Monday, Nov. 30, 8pm

On the 10th anniversary of the WTO protests in Seattle, and with hometown heroes Lil Wayne and Lil Boosie headed to prison, you are invited to a Reclaim The Streets that demands nothing from power. Instead, we seek to create a space in our city where the police and prison system that has failed to protect us from the policies of the WTO and neo-liberal globalization, while disproportionately targeting the most vulnerable members of our community, are not allowed to operate. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world, yet we are no safer. We will create our own world, where safety is a function of justice, equality, and freedom, and not the illusion created in our current prison-society. We begin here. Occupy everything!

To be held on Canal Street downtown. More info: http://nolaRTS.wordpress.com

Get Your Massage! Pay What You Can! Love The World Again!

ASHER is back at the Iron Rail, giving massages!

This Saturday, November 21, from 2-6 p.m.

Asher is a certified, professional masseuse who is generously donating his skills to help raise funds for our ambitious but impoverished little infoshop/spa. He's got a chair and everything. He went to school for this, but more importantly, he's just great at it. Those who he's touched rave about him, and this is YOUR CHANCE to find out why!

His hands are the hands of a great sculptor, or perhaps a symphony conductor who splits his own cordwood: the hands of a do-er, a master craftsperson, a kinaesthetic shaper of better destinies.

And folks, it is THOSE EXTRAORDINARY HANDS, those same heaven-infused, sinewed extremities which Asher will deploy to sculpt YOUR VERY FLESH, working out stresses that might date back months, even years... tension you've been carrying for a decade, unawares! This is your chance. He's got the goods; let him heal you.
Pay what you can (no amount would be too much), but do not miss out on this...

Suggested donation is $5 for 5 minutes. No one turned away!

The incredible ASHER will melt your troubles away with a more regular bi-weekly schedule of pay-what-you-can chair massages some day in the not too distant future, so stay tuned for that!

Come find out what this skilled artisan has to offer!

Donate To The Free Store!

Dozens of poor and homeless people people come into the Free Store Lobby of our bookstore/library every day to get clothes, shoes, food, books, personal items, etc...

Winter is arriving, and people have been asking for warm clothes and blankets. We are appealing to all those who would donate items to Goodwill to bring them to our space instead to provide items that the poorest are desperate for.

We say: Give freely of what you don't want, take freely of what you need.

Come look though the free store and bring some items to donate. Please help! The recession is making life even harder for those of us with the least!
The free store is open 7 days a week.
Hours: 1-7pm.
At 511 Marigny St.

Please forward this to people who may be able to donate.

Thanks!
-The Iron Rail
http://www.ironrail.org
504-944-0366

PROTEST! SHIRTS! FUNDRAISER! TOTALITOILETARIANISM!

I've got... I've got an idea, I mean, something pretty far-out we could get into. I'm thinking: You, and me, and an


IRON RAIL NEWSLETTER

*****
The 2009 New Orleans BookFair was a roaring success, and the Rail is re-equipped with books-as-commodity plus sufficient smackeroos to get our telephone turned back on. The health meter's recharged, some dents are out of the armor, and we're ready to re-enter battle against the status quo. Our shelves bristle with a sharp new titles from Kersplebedeb, Microcosm, AK and PM Presses. Our 'zine table glitters, heaped high with local prose gemstonez. Come check out the new stock; you'll plotz.


GET A BRAIN, MORANS
Have you guys heard about this? The Tony Moran protests? Yeah? No? Real briefly, among the French Quarter's many dens of foodservice worker-abuse a particularly egregious restaurant (Tony Moran's) and its scumbag boss (Jobert Salem) have been mistreating and robbing employees, requiring them to do prep off the clock, stealing their credit card tips, and in some cases just plain not paying people for banquet & catering jobs. Jobert & co. did this to a couple members of a firebreathing worker's center, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, and now ROC and its allies, including the Iron Rail Bookstore and New Orleans anarchists at large, are going to war.

There's a lot to this story-- a lawsuit against Tony Moran's is in progress, among other things-- but on the streets where some of us like to get things done, there have been a surprisingly successful and fun series of pickets & leafletting sessions in front of Tony Moran's the past few weeks. Believe me, crooked bosses are taking notice. The workers of the French Quarter's hospitality industry are making their voices heard, and it's a thrill to be a part of it. The pigs busted us up the first week, but we adjusted our tactics and haven't had any trouble since.

We need you. We need to send a strong message, and numbers is how we send that message. It's not just about one fake-eyetalian tourist-trap eatery... it's about the way restaurant workers are treated in New Orleans. Wage theft has to end, and it's going to end now. !Ya Basta!

This Friday the 13th will be the biggest protest yet. There oughta be media coverage, which will focus additional pressure. Tony Moran's is losing business. We need to crack them. In the words of one of the ROC-NOLA organizers, isn't it about time New Orleans had a social justice victory?

It's early evening, and will be over by nine. Please turn out FRIDAY at 7:30 PM sharp-ish outside TIRAMISU 55, a little bar at 123 CARONDELET (just off Canal St.). There we will work out our plans and march to Tony Moran's on Bourbon St. Bring as many people as you can, tell as many people as you can. Get a piece of real street-level struggle... You'll feel good.


THE SHIRT OFF YOUR BACK
Got T-shirts? Want to donate T-shirts? Please? Alternatively, anything else that could benefit from a bad-ass Iron Rail logo silkscreened onto it? Confirmed actual super-being and longtime collective member Phant is down to do a big, big batch of shirts. She silkscreens 'em, they look superb, we hawk 'em, people wear 'em, government collapses. All that's required to set this happy Rube Goldberg process in motion is for you to swing by the Rail's front desk with as many T-shirts as you can muster, perhaps even some shirts in sizes, styles and conditions attractive to those outside the "peed themselves today" demographic. Bring us shirts! Please! A batch from a thrift store, from your closet, from Michael's, from wherever! Steal them if you want; we won't tell.


RAISE LETTUCE
That's what we used to call money back in the day. Lettuce. A collective member was carjacked Saturday, and among the losses were hundreds of dollars of new Iron Rail books. New Orleans is a tough town to run an anarchist library/bookstore in; the pinch never quits. Have YOU got an idea for an IRON RAIL Fundraiser? Something simple, or something innovative? Got the wherewithal to make it happen or at least help organize it? Please get in touch! It is you, your enthusiasm, your time, your creativity and your participation that allow the Iron Rail to continue existing. Drop us an e-mail, or far better yet, show up in cheerful person some Wednesday at 8 pm, and let's get the ball rollllllling.


LET'S ALL SUPPORT LOUISIANA BOOKS 2 PRISONERS
Finally, here's a wonderful way you can help an important radical organization without even getting out from in front of your computer. Ah, the convenience of the digital age! No more tedious leaving home and going places; we so-called activists can just sit eating Chee-Weez in our underwear and doing crap on the internet. I foresee a wave of outsourcing actions: people need money, and I'm just so busy with my marriage, my kids, my band, my schoolwork, my career. Why not pay a poor person forty bucks to do it instead? Now, with MyDirectAction.com you can browse available 3rd-world freelancers who will march, sit-in, or throw a rock FOR you! ...But okay none of that has anything to do with Books2Prisoners, a New Orleans nonprofit that sends free books to the incarcerated. B2P is a former ARC roomie in line for a big payday through some do-gooder feel-good something-or-other. You can vote for b2p and they'll hopefully get money they really need. Worknights are booming, postage costs are stratospheric and Books2Prisoners is steady sending packages. Click HERE --> http://bit.ly/3STiFd to vote for them! For more information on Books to Prisoners, including how you can volunteer, check 'em out at
http://lab2p.wordpress.com


IN ADDITION
Spanish-language movie nights roll on, Ladies' Nite rolls on, and open-to-everybody collective meetings are every Wednesday at 8 pm. Find details on the gradually improving Iron Rail website. Come get involved... we need ya!

FURTHERMORE
Y'all ever had "Peanut Butter Jelly Grits" ? jesus, so delicious. Vegan, too!

Topple the teetering tautologies of totalitoiletarianism!

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