David F. Ashton / The Bee

I just discovered that I was featured in a Portland area newspaper last year.   Sellwood newspaper The Bee visited the town’s library while I was teaching a free class on podcasting for the Independent Publishing Resource Center.

The article focuses on the IPRC and the services they provide, as well as the link between zines and podcasting.

Check it out here!

January

• New device uses laser beams to project your own lane from the back of your bicycle,
• Shooting of Oscar Grant in Oakland, California, sparks months of protests and clashes with police,
• Canada is no longer a safe place for U.S. war resisters
• Faythe Levine releases her documentary “Handmade Nation” alongside her book “Craft’s New Wave”,
• FCC Free Radio begins broadcasting
• Make Magazine begins airing a new national TV series
• Bolivia approves of a new constitution that creates a ministry in support of indigenous autonomy

February

• Artist Shepard Fairey is arrested on graffiti charges
• Victory for workers at Republic Windows in Chicago,
• Chicago activists prevent the closure of schools,
• Immigrants awaiting deportation at at privately-run jail in Texas riot,
• Students take over NYU,
• A general strike cripples the French Caribbean islands
• Chicago hosts Art & Code hack conference

March

• Craigslist accused of facilitating prostitution
• FCC raids Street Heat pirate radio station in Orange County,
• Rhizome Collective dies a slow death
• Twin Cities Activists fight foreclosures
• Workers at the Stella D’oro Cookie Factory in the Bronx strike,
• City From Below conference in Baltimore
• Copyright Criminals, film on remixing, makes its debut
• ZAPP hosts the Zine Librarian Conference in Seattle, Washington

April

• Jury Rules in Favor of Ward Churchill,
• “Tea Party” protests on Tax Day give potential to a new “grassroots” conservatism
• Protestors battle police outside of the meeting of the International Monetary Fund
• Feminists from around the globe meet in Seoul to from the Network of “GloCal” Activism

May

• The Department of Justice drops its case against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada
• In response to the Board of Educations layoff vote, Los Angeles teachers subjected themselves to arrest
• California Supreme Court’s rules in favor of Proposition 8 banning future same-sex marriages – prompting protests nationwide
• Free Skool Santa Cruz hosts the first North American Free Skool Conference
• Fanzinotheque hosts the 1st International Meeting of Zine Libraries in Poitiers, France

June

• Los Angeles Teaches Enter Hunger Strike
• Shell Forced to Pay $15.5M for Complicity in Execution of Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa
• City of Grand Junction, Colorado prevented from passing ordinances outlawing “soliciting,”
• Honduran military oust the government of Honduras, provoking months of grassroots resistance from the community
• DIY activist Samantha Dorsett – founder of DIY punk label Plan-it-X Records and the infoshop Secret Sailor Books – dies

July

• Los Angeles activists form People’s Assembly for Popular Education & Liberation to start their own summer school

August

• Occupation at Rosemary Williams’ home at 3138 Clinton in Minneapolis, in protest of foreclosures
• Radical Faeries lay movement founders’ Burnside and Hay to rest

September

• Activists converge on Pittsburgh to protest the G20 summit
• Community Shuts Down Nazi Rally in Riverside, CA
• A massive walk-out spans California’s universities and campus buildings begin to be taken over by students

October

• Elinor Ostrom wins the Nobel Prize in Economics for her work proving the success of The Commons
• Floating structures converge on the Sacramento River Delta for the first Ephemerisle Festival

November

• Spokane, Washington residents succeeded in bringing an innovative “Community Bill of Rights” to the ballot
• Indymedia.us successfully fights back a bogus subpoena request issued by the FBI
• Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign creates a successful blockade at the home of Lenise Forrest
• Philly Protesters Seize Street to Demand Housing Rights
• University of California approves layoffs, furloughs, and massive hikes in student fees – spurring protests and occupations

December

• Klamath Justice Coalition Halts Logging on Karuk Sacred Sites

During my time, we’ve covered everything from twitter protesting to moon bombing, the NSA to DIY wifi, and greenhouse gasses to ewaste.

Now, as I move out of state, I have to say goodbye to this program.  Luckily, it sounds like others will be taking my place and I look forward to hear what they’ll come up with.