Free University Week - September 18 Information Packet
Item
Special events
Daily Opening Gathering
1:30 pm Tues-Fri & 9:30 am Sat @ Care Station
We will start each day with a short, facilitated, dynamic community
agreement visioning session to continue to develop and reflect upon the
Free University community agreement.
Daily Evening Assembly
6:00 pm Tues-Fri @ N. Statue
Each day will end with a debrief and General Assembly wherein we dis-
cuss, synthesize, and process the lessons and conversations of the day.
We will have variously themed break-out groups on movement building,
next steps, and the future of Free University project.
Saturday Assembly :
2:00 pm Sat @ N. Statue ©
A time to reflect on the day and the week and think about how to move ¢
forward, safely and respectfully...
All day events
U Care Station
The CARE (Comfort/Art/Rest/Energy) Station is a dedicated area in the rs
park where people can go to chill out, eat food, meditate, make art and ‘ q Ve
music, design signs and banners, tell and write stories, do yoga, dance, = j D
take a break or a nap, play, or do whatever else their bodies and minds 3
need throughout the week. It's also a space to find peace and quiet. AY 10 Feng
Conversations and concerns about racial and gender justice and dis- Aino,
cussions of oppression, experience, allyship, and feminist and anti-racist
movement-building will be put front and center.
Next steps
Our next meeting is on:
Sunday, September 30th, 3:30-5:00pm :
Location: Teresa Lang Center (The New School) ~ A ORKSHOp
55 West 13th St. NYC y : OUR CLasc. cp
What is the Free University?
The Principles of the Free University
The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education
and an attempt to create education as it ought to be. First conceived as
a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day, 2012, the Free
University has subsequently organized numerous days of free and open
education in parks and public spaces in New York City. Our project is
born out of a recognition that the current system of higher education is
as unequal as it is unsustainable. With increasing tuition at public and
private institutions, the increasing use of precarious adjunct labor, and the
larger and larger amounts of debt that students are expected to take on, a
university education is systematically becoming a rarefied commodity only
available to the few. It is in this context that the Free University operates as
a radical and critical pedagogical space. We collaborate on the following
goals and principles:
to be a cooperative enterprise working for a new form of education
that re-defines what it means to be educators and students.
to prefigure a more democratic, horizontal, and radical educational
structure.
to empower ourselves, each other, and our communities to become
decision-makers in our own processes of self-education.
to expose the inequities of the existing university system.
to intentionally and conscientiously create educational spaces that
are anti-oppressive, anti-racist, and anti-authoritarian.
to fight against the casualization and precaritization of academic
labor.
to join others who see education as a form of direct action by
withdrawing from the failing capitalist education system, and
collaborating in the realization of a more accessible education for
all.
In realizing these shared principles,
we will reinvigorate the Commons by utilizing public
spaces throughout the city.
Free education is a right!!!
Important Contact Numbers
The Free University: FreeUniversityNYC@gmail.com
Press Inquireies/General Info: (347) 670-FREU (3738)
Twitter: @FreeUnivNYC #FreeU
National Lawyers Guild: (212) 679-6018
Free University text alert system: http://bit.ly/freeualert
Participate
Join us in the park !
http://freeuniversitynyc.org/
FreeUniversityNY C@gmail.com
Follow @FreeenivNYC #FreeU
Facebook: FreeUniversity - NYC
Post photos of your Free U experience to the Free U website
Email Photo to: freeuphotos@lavabit.com
with the title in the subject line & caption in the header!
FREE
UNIVERSITY
OF NEW YORK CITY
Free University Schedule
September 18
What is Money - What is Debt
led with Sue Waters
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Pool
Urban Studies Seminar
(closed session)
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: A
The Carceral State (seminar
class) with Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: B
Longing for the American
Dream
a lecture by Drucilla Cornell
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 3:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Statue
Screen Printing
with Occupy Wall Street Screen
Print Coop
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 7:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Lawn
Reading Group: Claude McK-
ay’s BANJO, Holcomb, Ed-
wards
led by Anne Donlon
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 3:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: M
Learning run on a Barter
led by Trade School NY
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: N
Anarchism 101
led by Tristan Husby
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: K
A Discussion of “The Tyranny
of Structurelessness”
by Jo Freeman
led by L.A. Murphy
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: M
Open Source Currency
led by Chris Alen Sula
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Pool
Note : This reflects the schedule as of noon Sept 17. ‘
Check in with our Info Board schedule as we encourage people to add workshops
and events throughout the day and other contingency plans may have arisen.
Rhizomatic Communication
and Distributed Direct Action
led by Joan Donovan of Occupy
LA/InterOccupy
Starts: 4:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 5:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: N
Radical Potentiality: Recreat-
ing Academic Practices in the
Humanities
led by Kristin Moriah
Starts: 4:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: L
Nietzsche vs Socrates: Can
Leaves be Truthful?
led by Aaron Finbloom
Starts: 4:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 5:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: M
Thinking Movements in Time
a discussion led by Susan Buck
Morss, Marina Sitrin, and Gary
Wilder
Starts: 4:30 pm
Ends: Friday, September 21 - 5:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: POOL
Facilitation Training
Starts: 4:30 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 5:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Flag-
pole
The NY Comics & Picture-story
Symposium
led by Ben Katchor
Starts: 4:30 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Pool
Yoga
led by Nate Hohauser
Starts: 5:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Lawn
STRIKE DEBT: The History of
Debt Resistance
led by George Caffentzis
Starts: 5:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Statue
Virginia Woolf and the Free
University
led by Ashley Foster
Starts: 5:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: K
C.A.R.E. Evening debrief
Starts: 5:30 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Lawn
Evening Debrief & Assembly
Starts: 6:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 7:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Statue
‘Statement of Intention Map
on Entering the Madison Square Park _
Free University en
i
We enter the space of the
Free University with a commitment to: oO
Mutual Respect and Support
Anti-oppression
Nonviolence towards each other
Direct Democracy
We:
1, Support the empowerment of each person to challenge the histories
and structures of oppression that marginalized some, and divide us
all. These may include ableism, ageism, classism, heterosexism,
racism, religious discrimination, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and
among others.
. Commit to learning, about these different forms of oppression. :
. Understand individual freedoms are not above our collective safety, ial
well-being, and ability to function cooperatively; individual freedom |
without responsibility to the community is not the Free University way. |
. See open and compassionate classrooms. |
. Encourage open and non-oppresive discussion.
. Strive for accessible interchanges of languages, knowledge, and
discussions.
. Understand there are differences among us.
. Respect, appreciate, and are aware of these differences.
. Expect to listen and be listened to.
0.Are confident we can learn without policing or being policed.
25TH ST
MADISON AVENUE
Wn
24TH ST
FLAGPOLE
Oar
+ OON
Deliberate disruptions, accusations, violence, ee Se 23TH STREET 3
or other violations of this code are not within Though it appears in ink here, this can be a dynamic document and we invite you
to join our discussions about the community we are creating in our opening and
the spirit nor the hopes of the Free Unive rsity. closing assemblies or to make any suggestions or comments at the CARE station.
Daily Opening Gathering
1:30 pm Tues-Fri & 9:30 am Sat @ Care Station
We will start each day with a short, facilitated, dynamic community
agreement visioning session to continue to develop and reflect upon the
Free University community agreement.
Daily Evening Assembly
6:00 pm Tues-Fri @ N. Statue
Each day will end with a debrief and General Assembly wherein we dis-
cuss, synthesize, and process the lessons and conversations of the day.
We will have variously themed break-out groups on movement building,
next steps, and the future of Free University project.
Saturday Assembly :
2:00 pm Sat @ N. Statue ©
A time to reflect on the day and the week and think about how to move ¢
forward, safely and respectfully...
All day events
U Care Station
The CARE (Comfort/Art/Rest/Energy) Station is a dedicated area in the rs
park where people can go to chill out, eat food, meditate, make art and ‘ q Ve
music, design signs and banners, tell and write stories, do yoga, dance, = j D
take a break or a nap, play, or do whatever else their bodies and minds 3
need throughout the week. It's also a space to find peace and quiet. AY 10 Feng
Conversations and concerns about racial and gender justice and dis- Aino,
cussions of oppression, experience, allyship, and feminist and anti-racist
movement-building will be put front and center.
Next steps
Our next meeting is on:
Sunday, September 30th, 3:30-5:00pm :
Location: Teresa Lang Center (The New School) ~ A ORKSHOp
55 West 13th St. NYC y : OUR CLasc. cp
What is the Free University?
The Principles of the Free University
The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education
and an attempt to create education as it ought to be. First conceived as
a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day, 2012, the Free
University has subsequently organized numerous days of free and open
education in parks and public spaces in New York City. Our project is
born out of a recognition that the current system of higher education is
as unequal as it is unsustainable. With increasing tuition at public and
private institutions, the increasing use of precarious adjunct labor, and the
larger and larger amounts of debt that students are expected to take on, a
university education is systematically becoming a rarefied commodity only
available to the few. It is in this context that the Free University operates as
a radical and critical pedagogical space. We collaborate on the following
goals and principles:
to be a cooperative enterprise working for a new form of education
that re-defines what it means to be educators and students.
to prefigure a more democratic, horizontal, and radical educational
structure.
to empower ourselves, each other, and our communities to become
decision-makers in our own processes of self-education.
to expose the inequities of the existing university system.
to intentionally and conscientiously create educational spaces that
are anti-oppressive, anti-racist, and anti-authoritarian.
to fight against the casualization and precaritization of academic
labor.
to join others who see education as a form of direct action by
withdrawing from the failing capitalist education system, and
collaborating in the realization of a more accessible education for
all.
In realizing these shared principles,
we will reinvigorate the Commons by utilizing public
spaces throughout the city.
Free education is a right!!!
Important Contact Numbers
The Free University: FreeUniversityNYC@gmail.com
Press Inquireies/General Info: (347) 670-FREU (3738)
Twitter: @FreeUnivNYC #FreeU
National Lawyers Guild: (212) 679-6018
Free University text alert system: http://bit.ly/freeualert
Participate
Join us in the park !
http://freeuniversitynyc.org/
FreeUniversityNY C@gmail.com
Follow @FreeenivNYC #FreeU
Facebook: FreeUniversity - NYC
Post photos of your Free U experience to the Free U website
Email Photo to: freeuphotos@lavabit.com
with the title in the subject line & caption in the header!
FREE
UNIVERSITY
OF NEW YORK CITY
Free University Schedule
September 18
What is Money - What is Debt
led with Sue Waters
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Pool
Urban Studies Seminar
(closed session)
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: A
The Carceral State (seminar
class) with Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: B
Longing for the American
Dream
a lecture by Drucilla Cornell
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 3:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Statue
Screen Printing
with Occupy Wall Street Screen
Print Coop
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 7:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Lawn
Reading Group: Claude McK-
ay’s BANJO, Holcomb, Ed-
wards
led by Anne Donlon
Starts: 2:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 3:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: M
Learning run on a Barter
led by Trade School NY
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: N
Anarchism 101
led by Tristan Husby
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: K
A Discussion of “The Tyranny
of Structurelessness”
by Jo Freeman
led by L.A. Murphy
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: M
Open Source Currency
led by Chris Alen Sula
Starts: 3:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 4:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Pool
Note : This reflects the schedule as of noon Sept 17. ‘
Check in with our Info Board schedule as we encourage people to add workshops
and events throughout the day and other contingency plans may have arisen.
Rhizomatic Communication
and Distributed Direct Action
led by Joan Donovan of Occupy
LA/InterOccupy
Starts: 4:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 5:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: N
Radical Potentiality: Recreat-
ing Academic Practices in the
Humanities
led by Kristin Moriah
Starts: 4:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: L
Nietzsche vs Socrates: Can
Leaves be Truthful?
led by Aaron Finbloom
Starts: 4:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 5:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: M
Thinking Movements in Time
a discussion led by Susan Buck
Morss, Marina Sitrin, and Gary
Wilder
Starts: 4:30 pm
Ends: Friday, September 21 - 5:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: POOL
Facilitation Training
Starts: 4:30 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 5:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Flag-
pole
The NY Comics & Picture-story
Symposium
led by Ben Katchor
Starts: 4:30 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Pool
Yoga
led by Nate Hohauser
Starts: 5:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Lawn
STRIKE DEBT: The History of
Debt Resistance
led by George Caffentzis
Starts: 5:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Statue
Virginia Woolf and the Free
University
led by Ashley Foster
Starts: 5:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: K
C.A.R.E. Evening debrief
Starts: 5:30 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 6:00 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Lawn
Evening Debrief & Assembly
Starts: 6:00 pm
Ends: Tuesday, September 18 - 7:30 pm
Location: Madison Square Park: Statue
‘Statement of Intention Map
on Entering the Madison Square Park _
Free University en
i
We enter the space of the
Free University with a commitment to: oO
Mutual Respect and Support
Anti-oppression
Nonviolence towards each other
Direct Democracy
We:
1, Support the empowerment of each person to challenge the histories
and structures of oppression that marginalized some, and divide us
all. These may include ableism, ageism, classism, heterosexism,
racism, religious discrimination, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and
among others.
. Commit to learning, about these different forms of oppression. :
. Understand individual freedoms are not above our collective safety, ial
well-being, and ability to function cooperatively; individual freedom |
without responsibility to the community is not the Free University way. |
. See open and compassionate classrooms. |
. Encourage open and non-oppresive discussion.
. Strive for accessible interchanges of languages, knowledge, and
discussions.
. Understand there are differences among us.
. Respect, appreciate, and are aware of these differences.
. Expect to listen and be listened to.
0.Are confident we can learn without policing or being policed.
25TH ST
MADISON AVENUE
Wn
24TH ST
FLAGPOLE
Oar
+ OON
Deliberate disruptions, accusations, violence, ee Se 23TH STREET 3
or other violations of this code are not within Though it appears in ink here, this can be a dynamic document and we invite you
to join our discussions about the community we are creating in our opening and
the spirit nor the hopes of the Free Unive rsity. closing assemblies or to make any suggestions or comments at the CARE station.
Title
Free University Week - September 18 Information Packet
Description
"Free Education is a Right"
This workshops pamphlet for "Free University Week," September 18-22, 2012, in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, NY announced a variety of topics ranging from Radical Potentiality: Recreating Academic Practices in the Humanities to a workshop on Yoga.
The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education building on the historic tradition of movement freedom schools. The project was born out of the conviction that the current system of higher education is as unequal as it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and undervalued. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day 2012, the Free University has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in community centers, museums, parks, public spaces, and subway stations in New York City.
This workshops pamphlet for "Free University Week," September 18-22, 2012, in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, NY announced a variety of topics ranging from Radical Potentiality: Recreating Academic Practices in the Humanities to a workshop on Yoga.
The Free University of New York City is an experiment in radical education building on the historic tradition of movement freedom schools. The project was born out of the conviction that the current system of higher education is as unequal as it is unsustainable, while vast sources of knowledge across communities are all-too-hidden and undervalued. First conceived as a form of educational strike in the run up to May Day 2012, the Free University has since organized numerous days of free crowd-sourced education in community centers, museums, parks, public spaces, and subway stations in New York City.
Contributor
Reed, Conor Tomás
Creator
Free University of New York City
Date
September 2012 (Circa)
Language
English
Publisher
Free University of New York City
Rights
Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShareAlike
Source
Reed, Conor Tomas
Original Format
Pamphlet / Petition
Free University of New York City. Letter. “Free University Week - September 18 Information Packet.”, CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, accessed March 10, 2026, https://stephenz.tailc22a4b.ts.net/s/cdha/item/998