Free University Week - 1st Annual May Day Course Descriptions
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Upcoming Events:
* May 2 Brooklyn College Manifestation
© OccupyUniversities
° Transforming Assembly at the CUNY
Graduate Center's James Gallery
e “Another City is Possible, Another
World is Possible” Week of action detail below:
Thursday, May 10: Opening Assembly
Evening - Mass Assembly to launch the campaign
Potentially a combination of break-outs for discussion
and education around the issues the week will
confront, but also media, and getting everyone
pumped for the actions.
Friday, May 11: Homes, Jobs,
and Services
Actions throughout the day dealing with housing and social
services as basic human needs under attack, and labor
and supporters fighting for jobs, the right to unionize,
transportation as a means to work, etc.
Saturday, May 12: Food,
Environment, and Health & Solidarity
with Global Call to Action
Day - Actions and education around food justice,
climate justice, and healthcare as a human right
Evening - Potential march
Sunday, May 13: War, Police Brutality,
and Immigration & Mother's Day
Mother's Day actions throughout the day againstwar
abroad, police brutality at home, and for immigrant rights
Monday, May 14: Education
Actions throughout the day against cuts for k-12,
tuition hikes at CUNY, and student debt
Tuesday, May 15: The Banks - Mass
Convergence & Solidarity with Global Call
Day - Potential direct actions on banks and other
financial institutions
6 PM - Mass Convergence in Times
Square Occupation
There are discussions about various forms of
occupation that could take place throughout the week,
or launch on the 12th, or begin on the 15th.
Next steps for the
Free University:
* Email maydayfreeu@gmail.com
to get involved!
© Our next meeting is on:
Sunday, May 6th, 6-8pm,
Location: Theresa Lang Center, Second floor
18th St and 6th Av.
The Free
University of Nyc
La Universidad Libre
de Nueva York
The Free University is a collective educational experiment that is being held today on
May 1, 2012, from 10am-3pm. In solidarity with the general strike, the Free University
offers a public space for the 99% to disengage from an unequal system and imagine a
model for alternative education. Those gathered in Madison Square Park, and those
meeting in other spaces in solidarity, are creating a university that is open to all, without
debt or tuition for students, without pre-requisites, age limits or any other disqualifying
requirements. Learning can only happen through interaction, exchange, and dialogue.
To create a living future together, all must be included and welcome.
The Free University is an open invitation to educators, students, and community mem-
bers around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day, lectures,
workshops, skill-shares, and discussions are being held — all open to the public.
No single day, park, or effort can contain our vision; instead, we propose and will struggle
to make all our universities places of free education, inquiry, and access to knowledge
for all. We demand that our society put forward the necessary resources to provide such
an education for all.
La Universidad Libre es un experimento colectivo educativo que se celebra hoy, el 1
de mayo de 2012, de las 10am-3pm. Realizado como una actividad solidaria con la
huelga general, la Universidad Libre ofrece un espacio publico para que el 99% pueda
desengancharse de un sistema injusto e imaginar un modelo de educacién alternativa.
La comunidad educativa reunida en Madison Square Park, y los que se encuentran re-
unidos en otros sitios en solidaridad con este esfuerzo, estan creando una universidad
que esta abierta a todos, sin deudas estudiantiles, pagos de matricula, pre-requisitos,
limites de edad o cualquier otro requisito que limite calificacién. El aprendizaje sdlo
puede suceder a través de la interaccién, el intercambio y el dialogo. Para crear nuestro
futuro juntos, todos deberlan de ser incluidos y bienvenidos.
La Universidad Libre representa una invitacién abierta a los educadores de toda Nueva
York para que participen en el Primero de Mayo de 2012. Durante el dia, se realizaran
conterencias, talleres, capacitaciones, y debates - todos abiertos al publico.
No se puede encajar nuestra visién dentro de un solo dia, parque, o esfuerzo, sino
que se plantea luchar para convertir todos nuestros centros universitarios en sitios de
educacion gratuita, investigacion y acceso a conocimientos para todos. Exigimos que
la sociedad proporcione los recursos necesarios para brindar esa educaci6n a todos.
Statement of Intention
on Entering the
Free University
We enter the space of the
Free University with a commitment to:
¢ Mutual respect and support
e 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 marginalize some, and divide us all. These
may include ableism, ageism, classism, heterosexism, racism, religious
discrimination, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and among others.
2. commit to learning about these different forms of oppression.
3. understand individual freedoms are not above our collective safety,
well-being, and ability to function cooperatively; individual freedom without
responsibility to the community is not the Free University way.
4, seek open and compassionate classrooms.
5. encourage open and non-oppressive discussion.
6. strive for accessible interchanges of languages, knowledge, and dis-
cussions.
7. understand there are differences among us.
8. respect, appreciate, and are aware of these differences.
9. expect to listen and be listened to.
10.are confident we can learn without policing or being policed.
Deliberate disruptions, accusations,
violence, or other violations of this code
are not within the spirit nor the hopes
of the Free University.
Map
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Schedule
TIME CLASS TEACHER SPACE
10:00 - 12:00 | Open Access Academic Publis- Maura Smale South Fountain
hing: What It Is, Why It's Impor-
tant, and How to Use It
10:00 - 12:00 | Permaculture and Sustainable Winnie North Fountain
solutions
10:00 - 11:00 Free yoga Radical Recess
Area
10:00 - 12:00 Music Working Group Daphne UN
10:00 - 12:00 What your doctor doesn’t know Susan Rubin G
about food
10;00- 11:00 | Basic English Aron Blue ‘South Fountain
10:00 - 11:00 Workers’ Rights and Civil Rights Charley Ganley H
10:00 - 11:00 People Power and Politics Dominique Nisperos le}
———}
10;00- 11:30 | The Arab Revolts Benoit Challand A
10:00 - 11:30 Revolution and Social Change in | Johanna Goossens B
the Middle East
10:00 - 11:00 Reclaiming the City for Anti-Capi- | David Harvey Statue
talist Struggle
10:30 - 11:30 Fundamental Ideals of Public Naomi Adiv N
Space
17:00- 12:30 | Debate Skills to Defeat Conser- Sebastian Michail x
vatism and Defend the Occupy
Movement
11;00 - 12:00 How does the Occupy movement | Rob Territo |
relate to inner city kids and how
can they get their communities
more involved
11:00 - 1:30 (Meta-)Physical Education Russell Chou, Mark Radical Recess
Porter Webb Area
11:00 - 11:45 Critical Thinking for Critical Rachel McKinney !
Theorists
11:00 - 1:00 Reading Marx on the Relation Michael Gottsegen West Pool
between Political and Human
Emancipation
a
11:00 - 12:00 Trauma and the Sociological Thomas DeGloma E
Imagination
11:00- 12:00 | How Poverty is Hurting America Anthony Zenkus M
11:00 - 12:30 Student Debt Teach In Andrew Ross Statue
11:00 - 1:00 JQuery and Javascript David Arnow J
11:00- 12:30 Latina Women Melissa Maldonado- ‘South Fountain
Salcedo
11:00 - 12:30 Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence | Geoff Holtzman D
11:00 - 1:00 Anthropological Perspectives on Jay Blair Cc
Sexual Behavior
TIME CLASS TEACHER SPACE
11:00- 12:00 | Free yoga Radical Recess
Area
11:30 - 1:00 Take Back the Land Robert Robinson Flagpole
11:30 - 2:00 Horizontal pedagogy David Backer K
11:80 - 1:00 Connecting the dots with OWS. Julianne Warren $s
and climate change
11:80 - 1:00 Solidarity with Haiti Anthony O’Brien R
11:30 - 1:00 The Great Cost Shift Viany Orozco N
11:30 - 1:00 Intersectionality and Oppression Mariana Assis T
Carnival and the Caribbean Kristy McMorris South Pool
Immigration, Education and the Christian Bracho ie
American Dream
11:30 - 1:00 Software Application Development Il | David Arnow J
11:30 - 12:30 Protest Songwriting Workshop Gregory Nissen WwW
12:00 - 3:00 “Protest Songwriting Workshop,” Frank Southworth WwW
12:00 - 2:00 Non-Violent Communication skills | Eliane Geren UN
12:00 - 1:00 Poetry reading Ammiel Alcalay and M
David Henderson
12:00 - 1:00 Responsible Financial Alternatives | Elizabeth Friedrich of R
and Financial Regulation. AltBanking
12:30 - 1:00 Constituting Revolutionary Go- Drucilla Cornell Statue
vernment
12:00 - 1:00 Indigenous Wisdom Glenn Leisching H
12:00- 1:30 | Political Ethnography Timothy Pachirat F
12:00 - 2:30 Literature course on “the African Jonathan Gray B
American Experience”
12:00 - 1:30 Nkrumah’s Consciencism and Ahmed Sharif & Mark E
Senghor's Negritude Drury
12:00 - 1:30 Ancient philosophy Scott Shushan A
12:00 - 1:30 Fiction of Men and Women Ann Snitow c
12:00 - 2:00 TBA David Graeber Statue
12:00 - 2:00 Advanced theatre research David Savran North Fountain
12:00 - 1:00 Workshop New York Asian South Benches
Women’s Center
12:46 - 2:00 The Meaning of Solidarity: Facilita- | Marina Sitrin, Anthony South Pool
ted questions and discussions Alessandrini, Gary
Wilder, Jeremy Raynor,
Sujatha Fernandes, Pe-
ter Ranis, Mike Menser
and others
12:30- 2:00 | Occupy Drama South Fountain
*~
|
3
Science & Capitalism
Occupied Algebra
Communication Skill Share
European Son: American Cultural
Theory in the 1960s
12:30 - 2:30
TEACHER
Michael Friedman
Sean Murphy
Multispecies Praxis Coco Rico Ww
Civic Media and Tactical Design in | Nitin Sawhney °
Contested Spaces
Open source hardware and soft- Rory Solomon Q
ware
Death of the Liberal Class Chris Hedges Flagpole
Theatre of the Great Depression: | Edward Kalin v
Common Struggles, Common
Expression. A Read-through of
Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets
1:00 - 2:00 Occuprint Jesse Goldstein Area/South
Benches
Classical Political Philosophy
Natural History of Our Planet Deborah Tiilinger R
Crime #1 Sue Waters Q
Socially Conscious Theatre Sara Simmons J
1:00 - 2:00 Seff-altering Democratizing Space | Allen Feldman Er
1:00 - 2:00 Decolonizing the current environ- | Native Resistance West Poo!
mental movement Network
1:00 - 1:30 Outdoor Radical Figure Drawing Manissa McCleave North Fountain
Maharawal and Amanda
Matles
1:00 - 2:00 Time Assigned Bilal Anmed South Pool
1:00 - 2:00 Free yoga Radical Recess
Area
1:00 - 2:00 TBA Frances Fox Piven Statue
Matt Congdon
ment
1:00 - 2:30 The Politics of Equality: Jacobi- Nick Nesbitt F
nism and Black Jacobinism
1:00 - 2:30 The Future of Social Change Michelle Ronda M
1:00 - 2:30 The Future of Social Change Michelle Ronda M
1:30 - 3:00 Mass incarceration in the U.S. Laura Whitehorn/Priso- | Statue
ner Solidarity Group
1:80 - 2:30 Soll in Cities Salvatore Engel-Di South Pool
Mauro (saed)
1:80 - 2:30 The future is radically open Neil Smith South Fountain
1:80 - 3:00 Critical Perspectives on Develop- | Jim Biles !
1:30 - 3:00 Caribbean Travel Narratives
Kristy MeMorris G
TIME CLASS TEACHER SPACE
2:00 - 2:30 Reading from Dario Fo's play Student Debt Campaign | Fisgpole
“Can't Pay! Won't Pay!” a 1970s
anarchisv/activist play about debt
2:00 - 3:00 Poetry and Political Feeling Joe North/Occupy J
University
The Next New York Eric Darton ne
2:00 - 3:00 Teach-in on Palestine Kareem Rabie &Sophia_ | South Poo!
Stamatopoulou-Robbins
2:00 - 3:00 Gender, Race, and Reproduction | Lauren Suchman H
CUNY's Radical Past and Present | Jocelyn Wills
Weapons of Math Destruction Cathy of AltBanking UN
2:00-4:00 | The Practice of Everyday Life Wayne Koestenbaum A
2:00-4:00 | Challenging Global Order Alexandra Délano E il
2:00 - 4:00 human rights and humanitaria- Miriam Ticktin
nism: beyond the human
2:00 - 3:00 Gender, Crime and Justice Jeanne Flavin E
2:30-3:00 | Comics and picture-story sympo- | Ben Katchor L
sium
2:30 - 3:00 Kroll/Goldstein Wedding theatrics North Fountain’
South Fountain
3:00 NYC-wide student convergence Radical Recess
Area
All day Events
e Immigration Relief for Survivors of Domes-
tic Violence and Human Trafficking; New York
Asian Women's Center (*Ail Day at tables near the
South Benches // back-up space is West Pool.)
e Maidez? Mayday! Write your life!; Eli Nadeau
e Horizontal Pedagogy Workshop by
Occupy University
Program
Description
Special Events
DAVID HARVEY
"Reclaiming the City for Anti-Capitalist Struggle”
Time: 10:00-11:Am
Location: Statue
NEW YORK ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTER
Info Table: immigration relief for survivors of domestic
Violence and human trafficking
Time/Location: All Day tabling @ South End of the park.
Description: Led by its staff attorney and legal
team, the New York Asian Women’s Center will
also host a one-hour workshop from 1:00-2pm co-
vering immigration relief for survivors of domestic
violence and human trafficking. This workshop will
cover the very basics of VAWA, U and T visas, and
SiJS, while engaging participants in a broader dis-
cussion on how U.S. immigration laws both protect
and create barriers for these populations.
LAURA WHITEHORN/PRISONER
SOLIDARITY GROUP
Mass incarceration in the U.S,
Time: 1:30-3:00
Location: Statue
DRUCILLA CORNELL
Constituting Revolutionary Government
Time:12:30-1pm
Location: Statue
DAVID GRAEBER
TBA
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Statue
CHRIS HEDGES
Death of the Liberal Class
Time:1:00-2pm
Location: Flagpole
ROBERT ROBINSON/TAKE BACK THE LAND.
Taking Action for Housing Rights: A Teach-In by Take
Back the Land and Organizing for Occupation
Time: 11:30am-1pm
Location: Flagpole
Description: Join representatives from Take Back
the Land and Organizing for Occupation for a tea-
ch-in and conversation about the current housing
crisis and the growing movement of communities
taking positive action (direct action) to collectively
‘secure the human right to housing.
NEIL SMITH
“The Future is Radically Open"
Time: 1:30-2:30
Location: South Fountain
Description: The future is radically open in a way
that we could only imagine less than 5 years. Upri-
sings from the Middle East, Europe's indignatos
and anti-austerity revolts, and Ocupy, plus many
more are the final nail in a whole episode of capi-
talism. To take advantage of this, to make a new
world, a quite new left will need to be organized
across borders, social and geographical, both to
build a critical mass and to defend itself from al-
ready evident repression.
COMMITTEE ON GLOBALIZATION AND
SOCIAL CHANGE(CUNY GRADUATE CENTER)
“The Meaning of Solidarity: Facilitated questions and
discussions" with Marina Sitrin, Anthony Alessandrini,
Gary Wilder, Jeremy Raynor, Sujatha Femandes, Peter
Ranis, Mike Menser and others
Time 12:45 - 2pm
Location: South Pool
Description: This will be a facilitated discussion on
the various meanings of solidarity. We will share
our ideas of the possible meanings of solidarity,
and then raise a question for discussion for the
group. Together, we will think about these me-
anings and come up with even more questions.
OCCUPYDRAMA
Time:12:30-1:30pm
Location: South Fountain
Description: Occupy Drama will discuss the politi-
cal aspects of theater and perform several scenes
from various plays.
OCCUPRINT
“Visual Resistance and Social movement Culture”
Time: 1pm-2pm
Location: Radical Recess Area/South Benches
Description: This is a class reflecting on visual
resistance and social movement culture.
OCCUPY ALTERNATIVE BANKING
(With Sue Waters)
“CRIME #1 - How Private Banks Create
our Money from Debt’
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: Q
Description: CRIME #1 - How private banks crea-
te our money from debt - and control us. What is
money? Where does it come from? This class
explains that money is created whenever the US
government borrows from the NY Federal Reser-
ve Bank, or whenever someone borrows from a
commercial bank. This debt-money system is the
root cause of suffering in this world, and can be
changed!
STUDENT DEBT CAMPAIGN
Performance
Location: flagpole
Time: 2-2:20
Description: Reading from Dario Fo’s play “Can't
Pay! Won't Pay!” a 1970s anarchisv/activist play
about debt
CUNY CHANCELLOR GOLDSTEIN AND THE
KROLL SECURITY GROUP MOCK-WEDDING
Wedding theatrics
Time: 2:30
Location: North Fountain/South Fountain
RADICAL RECESS
All Day "(Meta-)Physical Education” activities on the
South Side of the Park
Description: Radical Recess will be going all day.
Join in for pick-up games of Four Square, Capture
the Flag, Yoga classes, Freeze Tag, pick-up soccer
and more...
Free University
Class List
(Alphabetical order by Last Name)
NAOMI ADIV
“Fundamental Ideals of Public Space"
Time; 10:30-11:30am
Location: N
Description: This is a lecture on some of the fun-
damental defining ideals of public space, and what
we mean when we talk about “privatization.”
BILAL AHMED
“The Shifting Image of Martyrdom in the Arab Spring”
Time: 1:15-2:00pm
Location: South Poo!
Description: This workshop discusses the evolving
role of martyrdom in the Middle Eastern political
movements. It analyzes the process by which vio-
lent ideas of martyrdom gave way to nonviolent
ideals during the Arab Spring, with emphasis on
how the concept will continue to involve in the path
forward.
AMMIEL ALCALAY AND DAVID HENDERSON
"Poetry Reading”
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: North Fountain
DAVID ARNOW
“Software Application Development II"
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: J
Description: The jQuery library is one of a number
of important tools that greatly facilitate webapp
client development. Prof Arnow will discuss the
notion of unobtrusive Javascript, and introduce
JQuery, along with key related elements from Ja-
vascript, including function literals, functions as
first class objects, and closures.
MARIANA ASSIS
“Intersectionality and Oppression”
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: T
Description: This will be a short course on inter-
sectionality, stressing its usefulness for uncovering
multiple and overlapping forms of oppression. It will
be a seminar-type of class, with great participation
of everyone involved and some practical activities/
exercises capable of illustrating the concepts the
group will explore.
JIM BILES
“Critical Perspectives on Development”
Time: 1:30-3pm
Location: |
Description: This May Day class will be devoted to
debt and finance. This semester long course has
explored alternative theories of the development
process and critical analysis of the discourse of
development. During the Free University the class
will discuss, “Chronicle of a debt foretold: Mexico's
FOBAPROA debacle and lessons for the US
financial crisis” among other readings.
JAY BLAIR
“Anthropological Perspectives on Sexual Be-
havior"
‘Time: 11:00-1:00pm
Location: C
ARON BLUE
“ESL: Basic English"
‘Time: 10:00am-11:00am
Location: South Fountain
Description: English Language Learners: Practice
your conversational and pronunciation skills in a
fun, comfortable environment. There will be plenty
of time for your questions, and you'll get practical
advice for what you can do to learn English faster
‘on your own.
CHRISTIAN BRACHO
"Immigration, Education and the American Dream”
Time: 11:30am -12:30pm
Location: F
Description: Since the founding of the United Sta-
tes, schools have played a central role in sociali-
zing diverse children into American identities. Edu-
cation has been used strategically with the goal of
achieving the national motto, “e pluribus unum"—
out of many, one. Yet this American Dream Is rife
with contradictions, and the disconnect that many
immigrants find between these promised oppor-
tunities and their daily realities has led to signifi-
cant disillusionment and disenfranchisement. This
course will explore the ways in which the American
school system decides who “belongs” in the United
States, who is “American,” and what opportunities
they deserve. The group will also investigate cultu-
ral conflicts that continue to rage in schools, such
as conflicts over religious expression, multicultural
curriculum, and bilingual education.
CATHY FROM ALTBANKING
"Weapons of Math Destruction”
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: UV
BENOIT CHALLAND
"The Arab Revoits*
Time: 10:00-11:30am
Location: A
MATT CONGDON
“Classical Political Philosophy”
Time: 1-3pm
Location: M
Description: We will critically discuss book 7 of
Aristotle's Politics, concentrating on the relation
between politics and human flourishing. We will
also devote some time to discussing this theme
in relation to the idea of a general strike, reading
two short texts by Rosa Luxemburg and Mariarosa
Dalla Costa,
BRONI CZARNOCHA
“Occupied Aigebra*
Time: 12:30pm-2:30pm
Location: |
Description; A weekly course that aims that to
transform fear of mathematics into mathematical
creativity. Mathematics for the 99%
ERIC DARTON
“The Next New York"
‘Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: T
Description: The workshop will begin with a short
verbal! presentation on the path that has led the city
to its present moment of crisis. Following this, parti-
cipants will discuss strategies toward transforming
New York into a more equitable, self-sustaining
and economically diversified place.
DAPHNE
*Music Working Group"
‘Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: UV
Description: Daphne is a feminist educator who
will teach a short class on the songs of women's
liberation and gay liberation, the rise of fascism in
Europe and the history of the anti-fascist action
network, the importance of public social space for
dancing and joy, and the history of police, policy,
and economic suppression of these rights because
of anti-woman and homophobic sentiment.
THOMAS DEGLOMA
“Trauma and the Sociological Imagination"
Time: 11:00-12:00pm
Location: E
Description: In this class/discussion, we will exami-
ne the ways that various social movements have
made public claims about trauma and post-trauma-
tic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis as they work
to define moral and political problems in the world.
Using the tools of sociology, we will critically examl-
ne pyschiatric conceptions of mental iliness in or-
der to understand the unique implication of PTSD.
as It pertains to efforts to advance social change.
ALEXANDRA DELANO
“Challenging Global Order”
Time: 2:00 - 4:40pm
Location: E
SALVATORE ENGEL-DIMAURO (SAED)
"Soil in Cities”
Time: 1:30-2:30pm
Location: South Poo!
Description: This will be a discussion about and
an introduction to soils generally and in cities, es-
pecially with respect to urban gardening/arming.
Some topics to cover, depending on interest: what
soils are, why we should care about them, how one
can study them, and how soils are linked to politics.
ALLEN FELDMAN
*Self-altering Democratizing Space”
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: T
Description: In Tahrir and Syntagma Square, mass
protesters gathering in and assembling political
spaces gave themselves something they did not
have--self-founding democracy. This class will dis-
cuss the spatial-performative making of democra-
tic publics as recursive communities--collectives
that define themselves through space-related
media--material symbolic and virtual,
MICHELLE FINE & CINDI KATZ
“Environmental and Social Psychology Critical
Research Methods”
Time: 9:30-11:30am_
Location: South Pool
Description: Short presentations and small group
discussions about marginalized critical research
methods in social and environmental psychology
and geography. Specific methods and issues the
class will discuss include: participatory surveys,
pedagogical reciprocity and political solidarity in
visual research scenarios, and the positivist blind-
spots by scientists and environmentalists in the
climate change discourse.
JEANNE FLAVIN
“Gender, Crime and Justice"
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: E
Description: Prof Flavin teaches a class on Gen-
der, Crime and Justice at Fordham University, and
is also chair the board of directors of National Ad-
vocates for Pregnant Women.
ELIZABETH FRIEDRICH OF ALTBANKING
"Responsible Financial Altematives and
Financial Regulation”
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm_
Location: R
Description: The teach-in is about the alternative
financial institutions such as credit unions and
community development banks. AltBanking wants
to share different alternatives for consumers to ac-
cess responsible financial institutions. The other
half of the teach-in |s on current financial regulation
environment dodd-frank in particular the Volcker
tule. This is 101 on our financial system and how
the financial crisis unfolded through deregulation
and political corruption.
MICHAEL FRIEDMAN
“Science & Capitalism"
Time: 12;30-1:30pm
Location: X
Description: Science, is a social activity, embedded
within the social relations and world view of our so-
ciety. As a field, it arose within capitalist society.
What are some of the ways in which it is shaped
by capitalism? How we might conceive of a non-
capitalist science?
CHARLEY GANLEY
"Workers’ Rights and Civil Rights”
Time: 10:00-11:00am
Location: H
Description: A discussion of Workers’ Rights and
Civil Rights.
ELIANE GEREN
“Non-Violent Communication skills"
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Location: UV
Description: The class will teach tools for diffusing
conflict, The process is based on Nonviolent Com-
munication, which Is used effectively worldwide.
Super Glitch
SWARM ORGANIZING
Time: Afternoon
Location: Radical Recess Area
JOHANNA GOOSSENS
"Revolution and Social Change in the Middle East”
Time: 10am - 11am
Location: B
Description: Goossens will host her class on Revo-
lution and Social Change in the Middle East.
MICHAEL GOTTSEGEN
“Reading Marx on the Relation Between Political and
Human Emancipation"
Time: 11:00-12:30pm
Location: West Poo!
Description: Marx's early essay “On the Jewish
Question” has little to say about Judaism but a lot
to say about the relation between political eman-
cipation and human emancipation, and about the
path from the former to the latter. A perfect text to
reflect upon on May Day: the group will study it and
discuss its continuing relevance.
JONATHAN GRAY
“The “African American Experience” in Literature’
Time: 12:00-2:30pm
Location: B
GEOFF HOLTZMAN
"Philosophy of Artificial intelligence”
Time: 11:00am-12:15pm
Location: D
Description: Philosophers and neuroscientists
have recently begun to recognize that emotion
plays an important role in reasoning. The group will
discuss the somatic marker hypothesis, the view
that emotion assigns value to concepts in order to
facilitate intelligent functioning, In order to unders-
tand the role emotion-like processes might serve in
developing artificial intelligence.
EDWARD KALIN
“Theatre of the Great Depression: Common Struggles,
Common Expression: A Read-through of Waiting for
Lefty by Clifford Odets*
Time: 1pm - 3pm
Location: V
Description: We are to be doing a read-through
play from the Great Depression, from a time that
mimics our own. This play, Waiting for Lefty, will
help us to gain a better understanding of the mo-
vement we are in and those who have struggled
through times before ours.
BEN KATCHOR
"Comics and picture-story symposium”
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: L
Description: An introductory meeting for artistwri-
ters working in various text-image forms: comics,
picture-stories, animation, etc, at which to present
and critique work and examine new ideas for the
distribution of print and electronic picture-stories.
WAYNE KOESTENBAUM
“The Practice of Everyday Life”
Time: 2:00 - 3:00pm
Location: A
Description: The class will perform a group reading
of Nyung Mi Kim's poetry collection Dura.
GLENN LEISCHING
“indigenous Wisdom: Altemative, Ancient insights, and
Practices"
Time: 12;00-1:00pm
Location: H
MELISSA MALDONADO-SALCEDO
“What Latina and all Women Need Now!"
Time: 11:10-12:25
Location: South Fountain
Description: The Latina Women course at Hunter
College, taught by Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo
(CUNY Graduate Center) will be hosting a TEA-
CH IN in order to discuss and strategize around
the question: “What Latina and all Women Need
Now!”
MANISSA MCCLEAVE MAHARAWAL,
AND AMANDA MATLES
“Outdoor Radical Figure Drawing”
Time: 1:00-1:30pm
Location: North Fountain
RENEE MCGARRY
“POPS Art Project”
Time: 10:00-3:00pm
Location: Info Desk
Description: Madison Square Park has a bunch of
sculptures/statues/memorial/monuments to Dead
White Men. McGarry will lead a group tour of them,
talk about their histories and the practice of monu-
ment building, and then ask participants the ques-
tion, What's public about this public art? And how
can we build new art projects that are participatory
and serve the public as it stands now? How can
we change these monuments to make them new?
Hopefully this will lead to a discussion about the
public and “public art" practices.
RACHEL MCKINNEY
“Critical Thinking for Critical Theorists"
Time: 11:00-11:45am
Location: |
Description: We'll explore some basics of philoso-
phy: What is an argument? What are some tools
for distinguishing bad arguments from good ones?
How can we apply these tools to questions in
ethics and politics?
KRISTY MCMORRIS.
“Camival and the Caribbean”
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: South Pool
Description: The class will continue a conversation
questioning the idea of the freedom given by law.
The conversation will be based In readings of Earl
Lovelace’s novel, The Dragon Can't Dance.
KRISTY MCMORRIS.
“Caribbean Travel Narratives”
Time: 1:30pm-3:00pm
Location: G
Description: The class will explore Zora Neale
Hurston’s anthropological accounts of practices of
vodoun in Haiti in her book, Tell My Horse: Voodoo
and Life in Haiti and Jamaica.
SEBASTIAN MICHAIL
“Debate Skilis to Defeat Conservatism and Defend
the Occupy Movement"
Time: 1100am-1:00pm
Location: X
Description: There is no better way to defend your
beliefs than learning the skills used in forensics de-
bate. Join high school debater Sebastian Michail
to learn about the basics of debate to arm yourself
with words.
SEAN MURPHY
“European Son: American Cultural
Theory in the 1960s"
‘Time: 12:30pm-3pm
Location: O
Description: This talk will re-contextualize the wide
body of cybernetics-infused social thought that
fell out of vogue in academia with the ascent of
poststructuralism in the 1970s-namely McLuhan's
Understanding Media, Cage's Silence, Bateson’s
Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Brown’s Love's Body,
Burroughs & Gysin’s The Third Mind, and Susan
Sontag’s Against Interpretation--for the Occupy
era. Murphy will also discuss the provocative reso-
nances of the “ontological turn” in cultural thought
presaged by Deleuze and Guattari and how this,
coupled with the successful re-integration of our
native intellectual heritage, may very well bring an
end to the intellectual stalemate perpetuated the
specters of Foucault and de Man.
EU NADEAU
“M'aidez? Mayday! Write your life!”
Time: 10:00am-3:00pm
Location: L
Description: Nadeau will host a series of “rapid-fire”
writing workshops intended to engage passers-by
and the public. The idea, in light of the epheme-
ral nature of the day’s activities and the tenacious
nature of the problems we want to address, is to
structure the workshops for maximum participa-
tion/spontaneity. Nadeau will hold several 30-minu-
te workshops. Participants will have opportunities
to engage with each others work, and if desired,
that work will later be assembled and published
online for the public, This will be a safe space for
writing/thinking/creating together.
NEW YORK ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTER
“Workshop*
Time: 1:00-2pm_
Location: South Benches
NICK NESBITT
"The Politics of Equality: Jacobinism and
Black Jacobinism”
Time: 1-2:30
Location: F
Description: The class will examine historical and
theoretical dimensions of French Jacobinism and
the Black Jacobinism of the Haitian Revolution.
The driving hypothesis will be that these twin
events have been wrongly stigmatized over the
last two centuries as moments of barbaric violen-
ce; instead, the group will investigate the proposi-
tion that these two movements are more properly
understood as key moments in the transnational
struggle for an egalitarian social order that would
replace the aristocratic oligarchies of privilege and
injustice.
NATIVE RESISTANCE NETWORK
"Decolonizing the Current Environmental Movement”
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm
Location: West Pool
Description: Native Resistance Network will host
a teach-in about environmental issues, which will
discuss Dineh water rights, the tar sands pipeline,
and decolonizing the current environmental mo-
vement. The group will also discuss the history of
Mannahatta and the Indigenous peoples of New
York City.
NEW YORK ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTER
Info Table: immigration relief for survivors of domestic
violence and human trafficking
Time/Location; All Day @ South End of the park: tabling
near the South Benches. Workshop: 12:00-1pm
Description: Led by our staff attorney and legal
team, the New York Asian Women’s Center will
host a one-hour workshop covering immigration
relief for survivors of domestic violence and human
trafficking. This workshop will cover the very basics
of VAWA, U and T visas, and SIJS, while engaging
participants in a broader discussion on how U.S.
immigration laws both protect and create barriers
for these populations.
DOMINIQUE NISPEROS
“People Power and Politics"
Time: 10:00am-11:00am
Location: ©
Description: Class discussion on Protest in the mo-
vement for the “Gay Rights Movement” and sexual
civil rights.
GREGORY NISSEN
“Protest Songwriting Workshop"
Time: 11:30-12:30pm
Location: W
ANTHONY O'BRIEN
“Solidarity with Haiti"
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: R
Description: This lecture/discussion will be on
O'Brien's three years of solidarity work in Haiti with
left-wing students, teachers’ unions, and other tra-
de unionists.
VIANY OROZCO
“The Great Cost Shift”
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: N
Description: Viany Orozco recently completed a re-
port that reviews state funding for higher education
trends from the 1990s onwards. this discussion will
present on the findings of the report, which essen-
tially shows that the deep state cuts in funding for
higher education are narrowing the pathway to the
middle class for most Americans or saddling them
with debt. http:/Avww.demos.org/publication/great-
cost-shift-how-higher-education-cuts-undermine-
future-middle-class
TIMOTHY PACHIRAT
“Political Ethnography”
Time: 12:00-1:30pm
Location: F
Description: Political Ethnography is the study of
power through immersive, participant-observation
methods. In this particular session, students will be
sharing and receiving feedback on semester-long
fieldwork projects.
FRANCES FOX PIVEN
TBA
Location: Statue
Time: 1pm
NEIL SMITH
"The future is radically open"
‘Time: 1:30-2:30
Location: South Fountain
Descrpition: Neil Smith will facilitate a discussion
about building a radical political strategy in under
the contemporary conditions of heightened securi-
ty and militarized urban space.
KAREEM RABIE &
SOPHIA STAMATOPOULOU-ROBBINS
"Teach-in on Palestine"
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: South Pool
Description: A discussion and conversation about
the contemporary situation in Palestine, led by two
researchers working in the West Bank on issues of
infrastructure and the state, settler colonialism and
the law, and privatization and the statist project.
COCO RICO
“Multispecies Praxis”
Time: 12:30-2:00
Location: S
ROBERT ROBINSON
“Take Back the Land"
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: Flagpole
MICHELLE RONDA
“The Future of Social Change”
Time: 1:00pm-2:20pm
Location: M
Description: Prof Ronda teaches “Social and Cul-
tural Change” this semester and on May Day the
class will discuss the future of social change in the
US and globally.
ANDREW ROSS
"Student Debt Teach In*
Time: 11:00-12:30pm
Location: Statue
SUSAN RUBIN
“What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Food”
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: G
Description: Susan Rubin is a Clinical Assistant
Professor at New York Medical College. She tea-
ches the food portion of a Complementary/Alterna-
tive medicine class that is an elective for 4th year
med students. The discussion will be on “What your
Dr. doesn't know about food.”
DAVID SAVRAN
“Advanced Theatre Research"
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Location: North Fountain
Description: Class conversation about Jacques
Ranciere’s “Ignorant Schoolmaster”
NITIN SAWHNEY
“Civic Media and Tactical Design in
Contested Spaces"
Time: 12:30-3pm
Location: 0
Description: This New School seminar is exami-
ning the ways in which art, design, and technology
can be leveraged to develop creative and tactical
responses to critical ecological and sociopolitical
issues In the public sphere. We are studying the
role of artistic interventions, social media, and tac-
tical tools to support civic agency and participatory
action as well as transform, disrupt, or subvert
changing urban, political, and social conditions in
critical ways. All are invited to join as participants
and reviewers. (http://civicmediatacticaldesign.
wordpress.com).
AHMED SHARIF & MARK DRURY
*Nkrumah's Consciencism and Senghor's Negritude:
social thought and utopian concepts around
decolonization’
Time: 12:30-2:00pm
Location: &
Description: Africa’s decolonization was a transfor-
mative moment that produced new horizons of poli-
tical possibility. Looking at the work of two thinkers
from that time, Leopold Senghor and Kwame Nkru-
mah, the class will consider the relevance of uto-
pian thinking, then and now.
SARA SIMMONS
“Socially Conscious Theatre”
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: J
Description: Interested in creating socially cons-
cious theatre? Come learn some fun prompts you
can use to start creating material--no experience
needed!
MAURA SMALE
“Open Access Academic Publishing: What It Is, Why
It's Important, and How to Use It"
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: South Fountain
Description: Join CUNY library faculty and open ac-
cess advocates to discuss questions about defining,
finding, evaluating, and producing academic re-
search in open access ways that benefit everyone.
ANN SNITOW,
“Fiction of Men and Women”
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: C
Description: Prof Snitow is bringing her class (13
students) to Free University. Snitow is also one
of the convenors of a group called Take Back the
Future, which is planning a course for Occupy Uni-
versity in the fall.
RORY SOLOMON
“Open Source Hardware and Software”
Time: 12:30-2:30pm
Location: Q
Description: Prof Solomon teaches an introductory
programming/technology class at Parsons. The
topic of the class is currently a system called Ar-
duino, part of a movement known as open source
hardware. Students are learning how to build their
own hardware devices.
FRANK SOUTHWORTH
“Protest Songwriting Workshop”
Time: 12-3 pm
Location: W
Description: Songwriters/performers are invited to a
workshop/discussion about translating/ transcrea-
ting protest songs from one genre to another, in or-
der to reach wider audiences. Bring instruments If
possible; contact frank.southworth@gmail.com for
further info and to tell me about yourself.
LAUREN SUCHMAN
"Gender, Race, and Reproduction”
Time: 1400-1500
Location: H
Description: During this lecture and discussion, we
will think about the media’s use of language around
gender and race following the birth of octuplets to
Nadya Suleman (the “Octomom”) in January, 2009.
In what ways are certain people empowered to re-
produce and make reproductive decisions while
others are disempowered?
ROB TERRITO
“Occupy and the Inner City”
Time: 11am-12pm
Location: |
Description: How does the Occupy movement re-
late to inner city kids and how can they get their
communities more involved?
MIRIAM TICKTIN
“Human rights and Humanitarianism:
Beyond the Human”
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: C
Description: This group will discuss theories that
challenge humanism's exclusions, and expand
the concept of humanity to include animals and
human-machine hybrids. Participants will inquire
about what this means for discourses and practi-
ces of human rights and humanitarianism, which
work to protect a particular kind of human.
DEBORAH TILLINGER
“Natural History of Our Planet”
‘Time: 1300-1400
Location: R
Description” Natural History of Our Planet: A tour
through time with Dr. Mermaid (aka Dr. Debra Ti-
llinger). Learn the history of earth and the life that
inhabits it in this interactive workshop.
SUE WATERS (OCCUPY
ALTERNATIVE BANKING)
“CRIME #1 - How Private Banks
Create our Money from Debt"
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: Q
Description: CRIME #1 - How private banks crea-
te our money from debt - and control us. What is
money? Where does it come from? This class
explains that money is created whenever the US
government borrows from the NY Federal Reser-
ve Bank, or whenever someone borrows from a
commercial bank. This debt-money system is the
root cause of suffering in this world, and can be
changed!
JOCELYN WILLS
*CUNY's Radical Past and Present"
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: West Pool
Description: A discussion on the radical past and
present of the City University of New York.
WINNIE
"Permaculture and Sustainable Solutions”
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: North Fountain
Description: Informal teach-in discussion on Per-
maculture and Sustainable solutions for Urban
living. Winnie will facilitate a short discussion on
Climate Change and how we can collectively im-
plement sustainable design solutions to mitigate
the effects of it.
ANTHONY ZENKUS
“How Poverty Is Hurting America”
Time: 11:00-12:00pm
Location: M
Description: “Watch the Gap: How poverty and
income Inequality is hurting America’s kids”. | will
present interesting research that shows how the
cycle of poverty is keeping kids poor, making aca-
demic failure and social problems more likely, and
that the 1% have been doing extremely well while
children are suffering the most because of income
inequality. | would like to engage participants in a
discussion of how we can address this problem
and make kids the focus of why we need to reverse
income inequality.
Occupy University
events
JOE NORTH/OCCUPY UNIVERSITY
“Poetry and Political Feeling”
Time: 2pm-3pm
Location: J
Deserpition: Can experiencing poetry teach us
to have more sophisticated feelings about poll-
tics? This is the first class in an ongoing course of
the same name, hosted by the Occupy University
(university.nyega.net).
OCCUPY ALGEBRA
with Broni Czamocha
Time: 12:30-2:30
Location: |
Description: A weekly course that aims that to
transform fear of mathematics into mathematical
creativity. Mathematics for the 99%
HORIZONTAL PEDAGOGY
with David Backer
Time: All day
Location: K
Description: Horizontal Pedagogy workshops re-
imagine the experience of education and experi-
ment with alternative power dynamics, sources of
motivation, and the movements of knowledge.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: WHAT IS THE FREE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK CITY?
A: The Free University is a collective educational experiment that is being held at
Madison Square Park on May 1, 2012, from 10am-3pm. In solidarity with the gene-
ral strike, the Free University offers a public space for the 99% to disengage from
an unequal system and imagine a model for alternative education. Those gathered
here in Madison Square Park, and those meeting in other spaces in solidarity, are
creating a university that is open to all, without debt or tuition for students, without
pre-requisites, age limits or any other disqualifying requirements. Learning can
only happen through interaction, exchange, and dialogue. To create a living future
together, all must be included and welcome.
Q: WHO'S INVOLVED? WHO'S AFFILIATED?
A: The Free University is a coalition of students and faculty from Baruch College,
Brooklyn College, Columbia University, the CUNY Graduate Center, Eugene Lang
College, Hunter College, New School for Social Research, New York University,
the Occupy University, and Princeton University.
Q: WHY ARE Y'ALL HERE?
A: We must create the Free University because our universities are becoming less
and less free. Higher education is made less accessible by withdrawal of public
support, the rising cost of tuition, and an admission system that makes university
campuses replicate inequalities in wealth and societal power rather than reverse
them. Higher education is devalued through austerity measures, corporate strea-
mlining, productivity metrics, and budget cuts. We refuse to allow the universi-
ty to become a place of ever-increasing surveillance, policing, and repression of
dissent. We oppose the modeling of the university on corporate structures from
unjustified executive compensation to the unnecessary standardization of the cu-
rriculum to the exploitation of contracted and adjunct labor. We strike against being
doomed to lifelong debt, constant training and re-skilling, and against a system
that saddles us with the cost of producing exploitable workers for the market. We
refuse an educational system governed by the dictates of competition, individua-
lism, and profit.
Q: WHY AT MADISON SQUARE PARK?
A: The site chosen for this Free University is symbolic. Madison Square Park is the
public space closest to the site of the Free Academy of the City of New York, the
school which was to become the City University of New York. We honor the historic
commitment of educators to build free, public universities for all.
Q: HOW DO | PARTICIPATE?
A: The Free University is an open invitation to educators, students, and community
members around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day,
lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions are being held — all open to the
public, Look through the schedule, program descriptions, and map to help guide
your way through the park. If you have any questions, come to the main info table
near the southwest corner of the park (23rd st. and Broadway).
Q:|'M AN INDMDUAL/WITH AN ORGANIZATION THAT WOULD LIKE TO
CONTINUE FREE UNIVERSITY EFFORTS AFTER MAY DAY.
HOW CAN WE DO THAT?
A: Get in touch by e-mail maydayfreeu@gmail.com. If you want to be actively
involved, attend our weekly meetings every Sunday. Our next meeting will be held
on Sunday, May 6th, 6-8pm, Location: Theresa Lang Center, Second floor 13th St
and 6th Av.
Q: WHERE CAN | FIND MY CLASS? CAN | JOIN IN ANY CLASS?
A: You can find your class location and schedule information listed in this info-
pack. You can also join in any class in the park.
@: IS IT SAFE TO BE HERE? / IF | COME/BRING MY CLASS TO THE FREE UNIVER-
SITY, WHAT KIND OF RISK WILL WE BE AT? / WHAT STEPS ARE BEING TAKEN TO
KEEP THE FREE UNIVERSITY AS ACCESSIBLE AND SAFE AS POSSIBLE FOR ALL
PARTICIPANTS?
A: Madison Square Park is a public park which daily hosts gatherings of all kinds,
formal and informal. It and the pedestrianized spaces along Broadway are free and
open to the public everyday. The activities of the Free University do not involve
breaking Park rules or preventing others from enjoying this space.
However, no public activity is without risk. We know that New York City police have
deployed against a variety of gatherings in public spaces in recent months and
years. While we do not expect our experiment in public education to be a focus of
their attention on May 1, we are preparing for the possibility. We will make sure you
are not alone, will advocate for your and our right to the space, and will send out
public updates about the safety of the space via Twitter and other means.
While the activities of the Free University are legal, we know that a variety of legal,
medical, and personal conditions can make even the possibility of arrest or police
violence a greater threat to some people than others. For a summary of legal, phy-
sical safety, and immigration status issues, you may want to read the documents
hosted at http://occupycunynews.org/category/resources/
Q:| HAVE AN ACCESSIBILITY ISSUE, CAN | STILL PARTICIPATE?
A: Yes, please let us know via email (maydayfreeu@gmail.com), call our number
347-670-FREU (3738) or come to our info table near the southwest corner of the
park (23rd st. and Broadway) where one of our volunteers will work with those with
an accessibility issue to make the university as inclusive as possible.
Q: WHAT IF | HAVE CHILDREN WITH ME?
A: Bring them along! We will have volunteers to offer childcare while you are in
class as well as some age-inclusive classes and activities.
Q: WHAT IF IT RAINS?
A: We will send out information via our Twitter feed @freeunivNYC, our text alert
system, and you can call us at 347-670-FREU (3738) if you have any further que-
ries. Please be sure, though, to come prepared with an umbrella.
Q: WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING ON MAY DAY?
A: Many events are occurring on May Day throughout New York City. To view the
full calendar listing, visit the following website: http://maydaynyc.org/
Important numbers
Contact the Free University: maydayfreeu@gmail.com
Press Inquiries/General Info: (47) 670-FREU (8738)
Twitter: Follow @FreeUnivNYC #FreeU
National Lawyers Guild: 212.679.6018
Free University text alert system: http://bit.ly/freeualert
Education/Activism links:
Education Initiatives:
Occupy Student Debt Campaign http:/;www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/
Radical Pedagogy http://gcradicalpedagogy.wordpress.com/
Occupy University http://university.nycga.net/
Worker and Community Organizations
The Adjunct Project http://adjunctproject.com/organizing/
New York Asian Women's Center http:/Avww.nyawc.org/
Take Back the Land http:/Atakebacktheland.org/
Professional Staff Congress http://psc-cuny.org/
Student Coalitions:
CUNY May Day http://cunymayday.wordpress.com/
New York City Student Assembly http://nycstudentassembly.org/about
New York Students Rising http://nystudentsrising.org/
Occupy Colleges http://occupycolleges.org/
Occupy CUNY http://occupycunynews.org/
Students United for a Free CUNY http://studentsunitedforafreecuny.wordpress.com/
Campus Organizations:
CUNY Graduate Center General Assembly https:/Awww.facebook.com/
groups/172760879477129/
New York University for Occupy Wall Street http://nyu4ows.tumblr.com/
Occupy Columbia http://occupycolumbiauniversity.tumbir.com/
Occupy Hunter http://occupyhunter.com/
Occupy Queens College
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Queens-College-Page/301543919875385,
Reclaim Brooklyn College http:/Aakebackbrooklyn.wordpress.com/
Transforming Assembly
In collaboration with the Center for the Humanities and OpenCUNY.
the General Assembly of the CUNY Graduate Center
invites you and all your friends to participate in the weeklong transformation of
the James Gallery, 365 5t® avenue, May 8th_41th,
ee |
Scheduled Events Include:
5/7, 12-7 pm: Process is Transformative: An Installation Work Party
5/8, 5-8 pm: Launch Celebration with the Interference Archive
5/9, 11-7 pm: Grade-In & Live-In for Adjunct Visibility
5/10, 4-6 pm: “Free CUNY” zine launch with Students United for a Free CUNY
5/10, 6-8 pm: The Imaginarium: A Space to Envision
5/11, 5-7 pm: Signs of a New Revolution: An Occupy Pop Art Show by Students of Co-Op
Tech
All Day, Every Day: The gencral assembly of students and workers in a highly
visible space within an institution of public education that increasingly excludes
the people whom it should serve.
Join us as we
document and advance our struggle
for public space and public education.
occupy-james- gallery@googlegroups.com
10
Occupy University - http://university.nycga.net
A Questioning Exercise with which to Occupy Education
May Day, 2012
Students
Which best characterizes your courses:A lot of time for depth and creativity, or time only for
rushed and superficial work?
How much should your education focus on social change? How much should it focus on
social reproduction?
Does your education reproduce inequalities (monetary, ethnic, gender-related, perspectival,
etc.)?
Do your courses encourage or discourage a questioning of the powers that be?
Do you feel that your presence affects the educational experience? Do educators care about
how engaged you are in the course?
Does it feel like much thought has been put into what it’s really like for you to sit through
courses, to speak to administrators, to read your bills, or to ask about how financial aid
works? If it has, do you think the people who imagined your experience had your interests in
mind?
Educators
Would students want to spend time with you without you playing the teacher role? Could
you relate to each other?
Have you ever tried sharing the role of “teacher” with your students? Do you believe only
you have something to teach, and do you seek out opportunities to learn from your students?
Do you have time and resources to plan and conduct excellent education?
Are monetary, legal, administrative, or political pressures pushing you in helpful or harmful
directions?
Administrators
How much of your time is spent considering the experience of learners, or conceptual issues
in education? How much is spent with numbers, forms, and memos?
Do you feel that you answer to: Students? Communities? Corporations? Politicians? Trustees?
And whose interests do they have in mind?
How are students ultimately regarded: As numbers? As customers? As the future of humanity?
Everyone
If you raised these questions in educational settings, would they be taken seriously? Would
they be taboo? Would they provoke change?
11
#May2 at Noon
Brooklyn College Quad
2/8 Train to Flatbush Ave, walk 1 block west
B/Q Train to Ave H, walk 4 blocks east
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 2 NYC-wide Student Manifestation at Brooklyn College Quad
Press Inquiries:
Julieta Salgado, Cell: (585) 698-3653, Email: Joolictasaigado@amail. com
Sara Beth Curtis, Cell phone: (646) 377-2590, Email: Bwsara@amail. com
Biola Jeje, Cell: (347) 681-5923, Email: Biolaieile@amail.com
The Brooklyn College Student Union, Brooklyn College New York Public Interest Research Group
Students United for a Free CUNY, New York Students Rising, the CUNY Graduate Center General
Assembly, and the Brooklyn College Professional Staff Congress welcome you to a New York City
Student Manifestation on the Brooklyn College Quad at 12pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Join us in
taking back our education from the Board of Trustees, Wall Street, and our college administrators with a
springtime union of privilege and security, free lunch, teach ins, and a collective bursting of student loan
debt balloons. Wear red to show that you believe in the right to education for all.
This CUNY-Wide Day of Action will build further momentum for social equality, show the collective power
of CUNY faculty, students, and staff, and demonstrate our ability to transform the City University of New
York (CUNY) into a university that is accessible, accountable, democratic, and free for all. We invite all
CUNY students, faculty and staff, and all New Yorkers, to join in this public endeavor to make
education accessible to all and relevant to the struggles and challenges faced by New York's 99%.
As all those who have struggled to make CUNY a truly public university have shown us, we must take
deliberate steps to build the university that we want and need.
From Quebec to Greece to Puerto Rico to Chile to the UK, students have been protesting against the
increasing commercialization and privatization of public education, and fighting for free and emancipatory
education. On May 2, New York City students will gather in a public display of feeling to counter the
paradigm of a corporate CUNY. Measuring the value of our educational experience in dollars and cents,
in the pay rate of the jobs our diplomas get us, undermines the true power of public higher education to
Prepare young people for life and teach them to be citizens. Next week, we join together to reclaim the
public university as a public sphere, a place for society to reflect on our past and make tangible another
possible future. in conceiving of higher education as a public good, we make claims on the University and
the State to create access to this good for all.
The increasing cost of tuition at CUNY narrows access and adds to burden of indebtedness among
students. As Brooklyn College junior Biola Jeje states, this is “not just an issue for students but for
working families who often take on debt to return to school in the hopes of finding higher paying jobs
to support their families as the cost of living, especially in New York City, increases. If we want to help
working families in a concrete way we need higher education to be free and for student debt to be
forgiven.” The organizations endorsing the event are demanding a more inclusive implementation of
policies that promote access to higher education in the United States. They assert that creating access
to higher ed must include: a millionaires tax that would subsidize college tuition for CUNY and SUNY
students, the abolition of Board of Trustees and the creation of a more democratic governing body,
getting rid of restrictions on financial aid and scholarship restrictions for undocumented youth seeking to
obtain college degrees, collective student loan debt refusal, university divestment from Wall Street and
radical reforms that serve low income students of color in K-12 public schools.
AaRHRHRR HRA
For interviews regarding the student loan debt crisis contact: Julieta Salgado
For interviews about the May 1 and May 2 Free University contact: Sara Beth Curtis
For interviews regarding accessil to higher education contact: Biola Jeje
st Bey
THE FREE
UNIVERSITY OF
NEW YORK CITY
This is to certify that
has co-created a day of revolutionary optimism and humanitarian embrace.
On this May Day, you have helped launch The Free University of New York City
and contributed to a visionary experiment of mutual aid and free public education.
You have practiced shared and open systems of knowledge and curiosity to build
societies that rely on cooperation and wonder rather than domination.
MAY 1, 2012
SOION
10 AM
Upcoming Events:
* May 2 Brooklyn College Manifestation
© OccupyUniversities
° Transforming Assembly at the CUNY
Graduate Center's James Gallery
e “Another City is Possible, Another
World is Possible” Week of action detail below:
Thursday, May 10: Opening Assembly
Evening - Mass Assembly to launch the campaign
Potentially a combination of break-outs for discussion
and education around the issues the week will
confront, but also media, and getting everyone
pumped for the actions.
Friday, May 11: Homes, Jobs,
and Services
Actions throughout the day dealing with housing and social
services as basic human needs under attack, and labor
and supporters fighting for jobs, the right to unionize,
transportation as a means to work, etc.
Saturday, May 12: Food,
Environment, and Health & Solidarity
with Global Call to Action
Day - Actions and education around food justice,
climate justice, and healthcare as a human right
Evening - Potential march
Sunday, May 13: War, Police Brutality,
and Immigration & Mother's Day
Mother's Day actions throughout the day againstwar
abroad, police brutality at home, and for immigrant rights
Monday, May 14: Education
Actions throughout the day against cuts for k-12,
tuition hikes at CUNY, and student debt
Tuesday, May 15: The Banks - Mass
Convergence & Solidarity with Global Call
Day - Potential direct actions on banks and other
financial institutions
6 PM - Mass Convergence in Times
Square Occupation
There are discussions about various forms of
occupation that could take place throughout the week,
or launch on the 12th, or begin on the 15th.
Next steps for the
Free University:
* Email maydayfreeu@gmail.com
to get involved!
© Our next meeting is on:
Sunday, May 6th, 6-8pm,
Location: Theresa Lang Center, Second floor
18th St and 6th Av.
The Free
University of Nyc
La Universidad Libre
de Nueva York
The Free University is a collective educational experiment that is being held today on
May 1, 2012, from 10am-3pm. In solidarity with the general strike, the Free University
offers a public space for the 99% to disengage from an unequal system and imagine a
model for alternative education. Those gathered in Madison Square Park, and those
meeting in other spaces in solidarity, are creating a university that is open to all, without
debt or tuition for students, without pre-requisites, age limits or any other disqualifying
requirements. Learning can only happen through interaction, exchange, and dialogue.
To create a living future together, all must be included and welcome.
The Free University is an open invitation to educators, students, and community mem-
bers around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day, lectures,
workshops, skill-shares, and discussions are being held — all open to the public.
No single day, park, or effort can contain our vision; instead, we propose and will struggle
to make all our universities places of free education, inquiry, and access to knowledge
for all. We demand that our society put forward the necessary resources to provide such
an education for all.
La Universidad Libre es un experimento colectivo educativo que se celebra hoy, el 1
de mayo de 2012, de las 10am-3pm. Realizado como una actividad solidaria con la
huelga general, la Universidad Libre ofrece un espacio publico para que el 99% pueda
desengancharse de un sistema injusto e imaginar un modelo de educacién alternativa.
La comunidad educativa reunida en Madison Square Park, y los que se encuentran re-
unidos en otros sitios en solidaridad con este esfuerzo, estan creando una universidad
que esta abierta a todos, sin deudas estudiantiles, pagos de matricula, pre-requisitos,
limites de edad o cualquier otro requisito que limite calificacién. El aprendizaje sdlo
puede suceder a través de la interaccién, el intercambio y el dialogo. Para crear nuestro
futuro juntos, todos deberlan de ser incluidos y bienvenidos.
La Universidad Libre representa una invitacién abierta a los educadores de toda Nueva
York para que participen en el Primero de Mayo de 2012. Durante el dia, se realizaran
conterencias, talleres, capacitaciones, y debates - todos abiertos al publico.
No se puede encajar nuestra visién dentro de un solo dia, parque, o esfuerzo, sino
que se plantea luchar para convertir todos nuestros centros universitarios en sitios de
educacion gratuita, investigacion y acceso a conocimientos para todos. Exigimos que
la sociedad proporcione los recursos necesarios para brindar esa educaci6n a todos.
Statement of Intention
on Entering the
Free University
We enter the space of the
Free University with a commitment to:
¢ Mutual respect and support
e 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 marginalize some, and divide us all. These
may include ableism, ageism, classism, heterosexism, racism, religious
discrimination, sexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and among others.
2. commit to learning about these different forms of oppression.
3. understand individual freedoms are not above our collective safety,
well-being, and ability to function cooperatively; individual freedom without
responsibility to the community is not the Free University way.
4, seek open and compassionate classrooms.
5. encourage open and non-oppressive discussion.
6. strive for accessible interchanges of languages, knowledge, and dis-
cussions.
7. understand there are differences among us.
8. respect, appreciate, and are aware of these differences.
9. expect to listen and be listened to.
10.are confident we can learn without policing or being policed.
Deliberate disruptions, accusations,
violence, or other violations of this code
are not within the spirit nor the hopes
of the Free University.
Map
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Schedule
TIME CLASS TEACHER SPACE
10:00 - 12:00 | Open Access Academic Publis- Maura Smale South Fountain
hing: What It Is, Why It's Impor-
tant, and How to Use It
10:00 - 12:00 | Permaculture and Sustainable Winnie North Fountain
solutions
10:00 - 11:00 Free yoga Radical Recess
Area
10:00 - 12:00 Music Working Group Daphne UN
10:00 - 12:00 What your doctor doesn’t know Susan Rubin G
about food
10;00- 11:00 | Basic English Aron Blue ‘South Fountain
10:00 - 11:00 Workers’ Rights and Civil Rights Charley Ganley H
10:00 - 11:00 People Power and Politics Dominique Nisperos le}
———}
10;00- 11:30 | The Arab Revolts Benoit Challand A
10:00 - 11:30 Revolution and Social Change in | Johanna Goossens B
the Middle East
10:00 - 11:00 Reclaiming the City for Anti-Capi- | David Harvey Statue
talist Struggle
10:30 - 11:30 Fundamental Ideals of Public Naomi Adiv N
Space
17:00- 12:30 | Debate Skills to Defeat Conser- Sebastian Michail x
vatism and Defend the Occupy
Movement
11;00 - 12:00 How does the Occupy movement | Rob Territo |
relate to inner city kids and how
can they get their communities
more involved
11:00 - 1:30 (Meta-)Physical Education Russell Chou, Mark Radical Recess
Porter Webb Area
11:00 - 11:45 Critical Thinking for Critical Rachel McKinney !
Theorists
11:00 - 1:00 Reading Marx on the Relation Michael Gottsegen West Pool
between Political and Human
Emancipation
a
11:00 - 12:00 Trauma and the Sociological Thomas DeGloma E
Imagination
11:00- 12:00 | How Poverty is Hurting America Anthony Zenkus M
11:00 - 12:30 Student Debt Teach In Andrew Ross Statue
11:00 - 1:00 JQuery and Javascript David Arnow J
11:00- 12:30 Latina Women Melissa Maldonado- ‘South Fountain
Salcedo
11:00 - 12:30 Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence | Geoff Holtzman D
11:00 - 1:00 Anthropological Perspectives on Jay Blair Cc
Sexual Behavior
TIME CLASS TEACHER SPACE
11:00- 12:00 | Free yoga Radical Recess
Area
11:30 - 1:00 Take Back the Land Robert Robinson Flagpole
11:30 - 2:00 Horizontal pedagogy David Backer K
11:80 - 1:00 Connecting the dots with OWS. Julianne Warren $s
and climate change
11:80 - 1:00 Solidarity with Haiti Anthony O’Brien R
11:30 - 1:00 The Great Cost Shift Viany Orozco N
11:30 - 1:00 Intersectionality and Oppression Mariana Assis T
Carnival and the Caribbean Kristy McMorris South Pool
Immigration, Education and the Christian Bracho ie
American Dream
11:30 - 1:00 Software Application Development Il | David Arnow J
11:30 - 12:30 Protest Songwriting Workshop Gregory Nissen WwW
12:00 - 3:00 “Protest Songwriting Workshop,” Frank Southworth WwW
12:00 - 2:00 Non-Violent Communication skills | Eliane Geren UN
12:00 - 1:00 Poetry reading Ammiel Alcalay and M
David Henderson
12:00 - 1:00 Responsible Financial Alternatives | Elizabeth Friedrich of R
and Financial Regulation. AltBanking
12:30 - 1:00 Constituting Revolutionary Go- Drucilla Cornell Statue
vernment
12:00 - 1:00 Indigenous Wisdom Glenn Leisching H
12:00- 1:30 | Political Ethnography Timothy Pachirat F
12:00 - 2:30 Literature course on “the African Jonathan Gray B
American Experience”
12:00 - 1:30 Nkrumah’s Consciencism and Ahmed Sharif & Mark E
Senghor's Negritude Drury
12:00 - 1:30 Ancient philosophy Scott Shushan A
12:00 - 1:30 Fiction of Men and Women Ann Snitow c
12:00 - 2:00 TBA David Graeber Statue
12:00 - 2:00 Advanced theatre research David Savran North Fountain
12:00 - 1:00 Workshop New York Asian South Benches
Women’s Center
12:46 - 2:00 The Meaning of Solidarity: Facilita- | Marina Sitrin, Anthony South Pool
ted questions and discussions Alessandrini, Gary
Wilder, Jeremy Raynor,
Sujatha Fernandes, Pe-
ter Ranis, Mike Menser
and others
12:30- 2:00 | Occupy Drama South Fountain
*~
|
3
Science & Capitalism
Occupied Algebra
Communication Skill Share
European Son: American Cultural
Theory in the 1960s
12:30 - 2:30
TEACHER
Michael Friedman
Sean Murphy
Multispecies Praxis Coco Rico Ww
Civic Media and Tactical Design in | Nitin Sawhney °
Contested Spaces
Open source hardware and soft- Rory Solomon Q
ware
Death of the Liberal Class Chris Hedges Flagpole
Theatre of the Great Depression: | Edward Kalin v
Common Struggles, Common
Expression. A Read-through of
Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets
1:00 - 2:00 Occuprint Jesse Goldstein Area/South
Benches
Classical Political Philosophy
Natural History of Our Planet Deborah Tiilinger R
Crime #1 Sue Waters Q
Socially Conscious Theatre Sara Simmons J
1:00 - 2:00 Seff-altering Democratizing Space | Allen Feldman Er
1:00 - 2:00 Decolonizing the current environ- | Native Resistance West Poo!
mental movement Network
1:00 - 1:30 Outdoor Radical Figure Drawing Manissa McCleave North Fountain
Maharawal and Amanda
Matles
1:00 - 2:00 Time Assigned Bilal Anmed South Pool
1:00 - 2:00 Free yoga Radical Recess
Area
1:00 - 2:00 TBA Frances Fox Piven Statue
Matt Congdon
ment
1:00 - 2:30 The Politics of Equality: Jacobi- Nick Nesbitt F
nism and Black Jacobinism
1:00 - 2:30 The Future of Social Change Michelle Ronda M
1:00 - 2:30 The Future of Social Change Michelle Ronda M
1:30 - 3:00 Mass incarceration in the U.S. Laura Whitehorn/Priso- | Statue
ner Solidarity Group
1:80 - 2:30 Soll in Cities Salvatore Engel-Di South Pool
Mauro (saed)
1:80 - 2:30 The future is radically open Neil Smith South Fountain
1:80 - 3:00 Critical Perspectives on Develop- | Jim Biles !
1:30 - 3:00 Caribbean Travel Narratives
Kristy MeMorris G
TIME CLASS TEACHER SPACE
2:00 - 2:30 Reading from Dario Fo's play Student Debt Campaign | Fisgpole
“Can't Pay! Won't Pay!” a 1970s
anarchisv/activist play about debt
2:00 - 3:00 Poetry and Political Feeling Joe North/Occupy J
University
The Next New York Eric Darton ne
2:00 - 3:00 Teach-in on Palestine Kareem Rabie &Sophia_ | South Poo!
Stamatopoulou-Robbins
2:00 - 3:00 Gender, Race, and Reproduction | Lauren Suchman H
CUNY's Radical Past and Present | Jocelyn Wills
Weapons of Math Destruction Cathy of AltBanking UN
2:00-4:00 | The Practice of Everyday Life Wayne Koestenbaum A
2:00-4:00 | Challenging Global Order Alexandra Délano E il
2:00 - 4:00 human rights and humanitaria- Miriam Ticktin
nism: beyond the human
2:00 - 3:00 Gender, Crime and Justice Jeanne Flavin E
2:30-3:00 | Comics and picture-story sympo- | Ben Katchor L
sium
2:30 - 3:00 Kroll/Goldstein Wedding theatrics North Fountain’
South Fountain
3:00 NYC-wide student convergence Radical Recess
Area
All day Events
e Immigration Relief for Survivors of Domes-
tic Violence and Human Trafficking; New York
Asian Women's Center (*Ail Day at tables near the
South Benches // back-up space is West Pool.)
e Maidez? Mayday! Write your life!; Eli Nadeau
e Horizontal Pedagogy Workshop by
Occupy University
Program
Description
Special Events
DAVID HARVEY
"Reclaiming the City for Anti-Capitalist Struggle”
Time: 10:00-11:Am
Location: Statue
NEW YORK ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTER
Info Table: immigration relief for survivors of domestic
Violence and human trafficking
Time/Location: All Day tabling @ South End of the park.
Description: Led by its staff attorney and legal
team, the New York Asian Women’s Center will
also host a one-hour workshop from 1:00-2pm co-
vering immigration relief for survivors of domestic
violence and human trafficking. This workshop will
cover the very basics of VAWA, U and T visas, and
SiJS, while engaging participants in a broader dis-
cussion on how U.S. immigration laws both protect
and create barriers for these populations.
LAURA WHITEHORN/PRISONER
SOLIDARITY GROUP
Mass incarceration in the U.S,
Time: 1:30-3:00
Location: Statue
DRUCILLA CORNELL
Constituting Revolutionary Government
Time:12:30-1pm
Location: Statue
DAVID GRAEBER
TBA
Time: 12:00pm
Location: Statue
CHRIS HEDGES
Death of the Liberal Class
Time:1:00-2pm
Location: Flagpole
ROBERT ROBINSON/TAKE BACK THE LAND.
Taking Action for Housing Rights: A Teach-In by Take
Back the Land and Organizing for Occupation
Time: 11:30am-1pm
Location: Flagpole
Description: Join representatives from Take Back
the Land and Organizing for Occupation for a tea-
ch-in and conversation about the current housing
crisis and the growing movement of communities
taking positive action (direct action) to collectively
‘secure the human right to housing.
NEIL SMITH
“The Future is Radically Open"
Time: 1:30-2:30
Location: South Fountain
Description: The future is radically open in a way
that we could only imagine less than 5 years. Upri-
sings from the Middle East, Europe's indignatos
and anti-austerity revolts, and Ocupy, plus many
more are the final nail in a whole episode of capi-
talism. To take advantage of this, to make a new
world, a quite new left will need to be organized
across borders, social and geographical, both to
build a critical mass and to defend itself from al-
ready evident repression.
COMMITTEE ON GLOBALIZATION AND
SOCIAL CHANGE(CUNY GRADUATE CENTER)
“The Meaning of Solidarity: Facilitated questions and
discussions" with Marina Sitrin, Anthony Alessandrini,
Gary Wilder, Jeremy Raynor, Sujatha Femandes, Peter
Ranis, Mike Menser and others
Time 12:45 - 2pm
Location: South Pool
Description: This will be a facilitated discussion on
the various meanings of solidarity. We will share
our ideas of the possible meanings of solidarity,
and then raise a question for discussion for the
group. Together, we will think about these me-
anings and come up with even more questions.
OCCUPYDRAMA
Time:12:30-1:30pm
Location: South Fountain
Description: Occupy Drama will discuss the politi-
cal aspects of theater and perform several scenes
from various plays.
OCCUPRINT
“Visual Resistance and Social movement Culture”
Time: 1pm-2pm
Location: Radical Recess Area/South Benches
Description: This is a class reflecting on visual
resistance and social movement culture.
OCCUPY ALTERNATIVE BANKING
(With Sue Waters)
“CRIME #1 - How Private Banks Create
our Money from Debt’
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: Q
Description: CRIME #1 - How private banks crea-
te our money from debt - and control us. What is
money? Where does it come from? This class
explains that money is created whenever the US
government borrows from the NY Federal Reser-
ve Bank, or whenever someone borrows from a
commercial bank. This debt-money system is the
root cause of suffering in this world, and can be
changed!
STUDENT DEBT CAMPAIGN
Performance
Location: flagpole
Time: 2-2:20
Description: Reading from Dario Fo’s play “Can't
Pay! Won't Pay!” a 1970s anarchisv/activist play
about debt
CUNY CHANCELLOR GOLDSTEIN AND THE
KROLL SECURITY GROUP MOCK-WEDDING
Wedding theatrics
Time: 2:30
Location: North Fountain/South Fountain
RADICAL RECESS
All Day "(Meta-)Physical Education” activities on the
South Side of the Park
Description: Radical Recess will be going all day.
Join in for pick-up games of Four Square, Capture
the Flag, Yoga classes, Freeze Tag, pick-up soccer
and more...
Free University
Class List
(Alphabetical order by Last Name)
NAOMI ADIV
“Fundamental Ideals of Public Space"
Time; 10:30-11:30am
Location: N
Description: This is a lecture on some of the fun-
damental defining ideals of public space, and what
we mean when we talk about “privatization.”
BILAL AHMED
“The Shifting Image of Martyrdom in the Arab Spring”
Time: 1:15-2:00pm
Location: South Poo!
Description: This workshop discusses the evolving
role of martyrdom in the Middle Eastern political
movements. It analyzes the process by which vio-
lent ideas of martyrdom gave way to nonviolent
ideals during the Arab Spring, with emphasis on
how the concept will continue to involve in the path
forward.
AMMIEL ALCALAY AND DAVID HENDERSON
"Poetry Reading”
Time: 12:00-1:00pm
Location: North Fountain
DAVID ARNOW
“Software Application Development II"
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: J
Description: The jQuery library is one of a number
of important tools that greatly facilitate webapp
client development. Prof Arnow will discuss the
notion of unobtrusive Javascript, and introduce
JQuery, along with key related elements from Ja-
vascript, including function literals, functions as
first class objects, and closures.
MARIANA ASSIS
“Intersectionality and Oppression”
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: T
Description: This will be a short course on inter-
sectionality, stressing its usefulness for uncovering
multiple and overlapping forms of oppression. It will
be a seminar-type of class, with great participation
of everyone involved and some practical activities/
exercises capable of illustrating the concepts the
group will explore.
JIM BILES
“Critical Perspectives on Development”
Time: 1:30-3pm
Location: |
Description: This May Day class will be devoted to
debt and finance. This semester long course has
explored alternative theories of the development
process and critical analysis of the discourse of
development. During the Free University the class
will discuss, “Chronicle of a debt foretold: Mexico's
FOBAPROA debacle and lessons for the US
financial crisis” among other readings.
JAY BLAIR
“Anthropological Perspectives on Sexual Be-
havior"
‘Time: 11:00-1:00pm
Location: C
ARON BLUE
“ESL: Basic English"
‘Time: 10:00am-11:00am
Location: South Fountain
Description: English Language Learners: Practice
your conversational and pronunciation skills in a
fun, comfortable environment. There will be plenty
of time for your questions, and you'll get practical
advice for what you can do to learn English faster
‘on your own.
CHRISTIAN BRACHO
"Immigration, Education and the American Dream”
Time: 11:30am -12:30pm
Location: F
Description: Since the founding of the United Sta-
tes, schools have played a central role in sociali-
zing diverse children into American identities. Edu-
cation has been used strategically with the goal of
achieving the national motto, “e pluribus unum"—
out of many, one. Yet this American Dream Is rife
with contradictions, and the disconnect that many
immigrants find between these promised oppor-
tunities and their daily realities has led to signifi-
cant disillusionment and disenfranchisement. This
course will explore the ways in which the American
school system decides who “belongs” in the United
States, who is “American,” and what opportunities
they deserve. The group will also investigate cultu-
ral conflicts that continue to rage in schools, such
as conflicts over religious expression, multicultural
curriculum, and bilingual education.
CATHY FROM ALTBANKING
"Weapons of Math Destruction”
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: UV
BENOIT CHALLAND
"The Arab Revoits*
Time: 10:00-11:30am
Location: A
MATT CONGDON
“Classical Political Philosophy”
Time: 1-3pm
Location: M
Description: We will critically discuss book 7 of
Aristotle's Politics, concentrating on the relation
between politics and human flourishing. We will
also devote some time to discussing this theme
in relation to the idea of a general strike, reading
two short texts by Rosa Luxemburg and Mariarosa
Dalla Costa,
BRONI CZARNOCHA
“Occupied Aigebra*
Time: 12:30pm-2:30pm
Location: |
Description; A weekly course that aims that to
transform fear of mathematics into mathematical
creativity. Mathematics for the 99%
ERIC DARTON
“The Next New York"
‘Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: T
Description: The workshop will begin with a short
verbal! presentation on the path that has led the city
to its present moment of crisis. Following this, parti-
cipants will discuss strategies toward transforming
New York into a more equitable, self-sustaining
and economically diversified place.
DAPHNE
*Music Working Group"
‘Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: UV
Description: Daphne is a feminist educator who
will teach a short class on the songs of women's
liberation and gay liberation, the rise of fascism in
Europe and the history of the anti-fascist action
network, the importance of public social space for
dancing and joy, and the history of police, policy,
and economic suppression of these rights because
of anti-woman and homophobic sentiment.
THOMAS DEGLOMA
“Trauma and the Sociological Imagination"
Time: 11:00-12:00pm
Location: E
Description: In this class/discussion, we will exami-
ne the ways that various social movements have
made public claims about trauma and post-trauma-
tic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis as they work
to define moral and political problems in the world.
Using the tools of sociology, we will critically examl-
ne pyschiatric conceptions of mental iliness in or-
der to understand the unique implication of PTSD.
as It pertains to efforts to advance social change.
ALEXANDRA DELANO
“Challenging Global Order”
Time: 2:00 - 4:40pm
Location: E
SALVATORE ENGEL-DIMAURO (SAED)
"Soil in Cities”
Time: 1:30-2:30pm
Location: South Poo!
Description: This will be a discussion about and
an introduction to soils generally and in cities, es-
pecially with respect to urban gardening/arming.
Some topics to cover, depending on interest: what
soils are, why we should care about them, how one
can study them, and how soils are linked to politics.
ALLEN FELDMAN
*Self-altering Democratizing Space”
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: T
Description: In Tahrir and Syntagma Square, mass
protesters gathering in and assembling political
spaces gave themselves something they did not
have--self-founding democracy. This class will dis-
cuss the spatial-performative making of democra-
tic publics as recursive communities--collectives
that define themselves through space-related
media--material symbolic and virtual,
MICHELLE FINE & CINDI KATZ
“Environmental and Social Psychology Critical
Research Methods”
Time: 9:30-11:30am_
Location: South Pool
Description: Short presentations and small group
discussions about marginalized critical research
methods in social and environmental psychology
and geography. Specific methods and issues the
class will discuss include: participatory surveys,
pedagogical reciprocity and political solidarity in
visual research scenarios, and the positivist blind-
spots by scientists and environmentalists in the
climate change discourse.
JEANNE FLAVIN
“Gender, Crime and Justice"
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: E
Description: Prof Flavin teaches a class on Gen-
der, Crime and Justice at Fordham University, and
is also chair the board of directors of National Ad-
vocates for Pregnant Women.
ELIZABETH FRIEDRICH OF ALTBANKING
"Responsible Financial Altematives and
Financial Regulation”
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm_
Location: R
Description: The teach-in is about the alternative
financial institutions such as credit unions and
community development banks. AltBanking wants
to share different alternatives for consumers to ac-
cess responsible financial institutions. The other
half of the teach-in |s on current financial regulation
environment dodd-frank in particular the Volcker
tule. This is 101 on our financial system and how
the financial crisis unfolded through deregulation
and political corruption.
MICHAEL FRIEDMAN
“Science & Capitalism"
Time: 12;30-1:30pm
Location: X
Description: Science, is a social activity, embedded
within the social relations and world view of our so-
ciety. As a field, it arose within capitalist society.
What are some of the ways in which it is shaped
by capitalism? How we might conceive of a non-
capitalist science?
CHARLEY GANLEY
"Workers’ Rights and Civil Rights”
Time: 10:00-11:00am
Location: H
Description: A discussion of Workers’ Rights and
Civil Rights.
ELIANE GEREN
“Non-Violent Communication skills"
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Location: UV
Description: The class will teach tools for diffusing
conflict, The process is based on Nonviolent Com-
munication, which Is used effectively worldwide.
Super Glitch
SWARM ORGANIZING
Time: Afternoon
Location: Radical Recess Area
JOHANNA GOOSSENS
"Revolution and Social Change in the Middle East”
Time: 10am - 11am
Location: B
Description: Goossens will host her class on Revo-
lution and Social Change in the Middle East.
MICHAEL GOTTSEGEN
“Reading Marx on the Relation Between Political and
Human Emancipation"
Time: 11:00-12:30pm
Location: West Poo!
Description: Marx's early essay “On the Jewish
Question” has little to say about Judaism but a lot
to say about the relation between political eman-
cipation and human emancipation, and about the
path from the former to the latter. A perfect text to
reflect upon on May Day: the group will study it and
discuss its continuing relevance.
JONATHAN GRAY
“The “African American Experience” in Literature’
Time: 12:00-2:30pm
Location: B
GEOFF HOLTZMAN
"Philosophy of Artificial intelligence”
Time: 11:00am-12:15pm
Location: D
Description: Philosophers and neuroscientists
have recently begun to recognize that emotion
plays an important role in reasoning. The group will
discuss the somatic marker hypothesis, the view
that emotion assigns value to concepts in order to
facilitate intelligent functioning, In order to unders-
tand the role emotion-like processes might serve in
developing artificial intelligence.
EDWARD KALIN
“Theatre of the Great Depression: Common Struggles,
Common Expression: A Read-through of Waiting for
Lefty by Clifford Odets*
Time: 1pm - 3pm
Location: V
Description: We are to be doing a read-through
play from the Great Depression, from a time that
mimics our own. This play, Waiting for Lefty, will
help us to gain a better understanding of the mo-
vement we are in and those who have struggled
through times before ours.
BEN KATCHOR
"Comics and picture-story symposium”
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: L
Description: An introductory meeting for artistwri-
ters working in various text-image forms: comics,
picture-stories, animation, etc, at which to present
and critique work and examine new ideas for the
distribution of print and electronic picture-stories.
WAYNE KOESTENBAUM
“The Practice of Everyday Life”
Time: 2:00 - 3:00pm
Location: A
Description: The class will perform a group reading
of Nyung Mi Kim's poetry collection Dura.
GLENN LEISCHING
“indigenous Wisdom: Altemative, Ancient insights, and
Practices"
Time: 12;00-1:00pm
Location: H
MELISSA MALDONADO-SALCEDO
“What Latina and all Women Need Now!"
Time: 11:10-12:25
Location: South Fountain
Description: The Latina Women course at Hunter
College, taught by Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo
(CUNY Graduate Center) will be hosting a TEA-
CH IN in order to discuss and strategize around
the question: “What Latina and all Women Need
Now!”
MANISSA MCCLEAVE MAHARAWAL,
AND AMANDA MATLES
“Outdoor Radical Figure Drawing”
Time: 1:00-1:30pm
Location: North Fountain
RENEE MCGARRY
“POPS Art Project”
Time: 10:00-3:00pm
Location: Info Desk
Description: Madison Square Park has a bunch of
sculptures/statues/memorial/monuments to Dead
White Men. McGarry will lead a group tour of them,
talk about their histories and the practice of monu-
ment building, and then ask participants the ques-
tion, What's public about this public art? And how
can we build new art projects that are participatory
and serve the public as it stands now? How can
we change these monuments to make them new?
Hopefully this will lead to a discussion about the
public and “public art" practices.
RACHEL MCKINNEY
“Critical Thinking for Critical Theorists"
Time: 11:00-11:45am
Location: |
Description: We'll explore some basics of philoso-
phy: What is an argument? What are some tools
for distinguishing bad arguments from good ones?
How can we apply these tools to questions in
ethics and politics?
KRISTY MCMORRIS.
“Camival and the Caribbean”
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: South Pool
Description: The class will continue a conversation
questioning the idea of the freedom given by law.
The conversation will be based In readings of Earl
Lovelace’s novel, The Dragon Can't Dance.
KRISTY MCMORRIS.
“Caribbean Travel Narratives”
Time: 1:30pm-3:00pm
Location: G
Description: The class will explore Zora Neale
Hurston’s anthropological accounts of practices of
vodoun in Haiti in her book, Tell My Horse: Voodoo
and Life in Haiti and Jamaica.
SEBASTIAN MICHAIL
“Debate Skilis to Defeat Conservatism and Defend
the Occupy Movement"
Time: 1100am-1:00pm
Location: X
Description: There is no better way to defend your
beliefs than learning the skills used in forensics de-
bate. Join high school debater Sebastian Michail
to learn about the basics of debate to arm yourself
with words.
SEAN MURPHY
“European Son: American Cultural
Theory in the 1960s"
‘Time: 12:30pm-3pm
Location: O
Description: This talk will re-contextualize the wide
body of cybernetics-infused social thought that
fell out of vogue in academia with the ascent of
poststructuralism in the 1970s-namely McLuhan's
Understanding Media, Cage's Silence, Bateson’s
Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Brown’s Love's Body,
Burroughs & Gysin’s The Third Mind, and Susan
Sontag’s Against Interpretation--for the Occupy
era. Murphy will also discuss the provocative reso-
nances of the “ontological turn” in cultural thought
presaged by Deleuze and Guattari and how this,
coupled with the successful re-integration of our
native intellectual heritage, may very well bring an
end to the intellectual stalemate perpetuated the
specters of Foucault and de Man.
EU NADEAU
“M'aidez? Mayday! Write your life!”
Time: 10:00am-3:00pm
Location: L
Description: Nadeau will host a series of “rapid-fire”
writing workshops intended to engage passers-by
and the public. The idea, in light of the epheme-
ral nature of the day’s activities and the tenacious
nature of the problems we want to address, is to
structure the workshops for maximum participa-
tion/spontaneity. Nadeau will hold several 30-minu-
te workshops. Participants will have opportunities
to engage with each others work, and if desired,
that work will later be assembled and published
online for the public, This will be a safe space for
writing/thinking/creating together.
NEW YORK ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTER
“Workshop*
Time: 1:00-2pm_
Location: South Benches
NICK NESBITT
"The Politics of Equality: Jacobinism and
Black Jacobinism”
Time: 1-2:30
Location: F
Description: The class will examine historical and
theoretical dimensions of French Jacobinism and
the Black Jacobinism of the Haitian Revolution.
The driving hypothesis will be that these twin
events have been wrongly stigmatized over the
last two centuries as moments of barbaric violen-
ce; instead, the group will investigate the proposi-
tion that these two movements are more properly
understood as key moments in the transnational
struggle for an egalitarian social order that would
replace the aristocratic oligarchies of privilege and
injustice.
NATIVE RESISTANCE NETWORK
"Decolonizing the Current Environmental Movement”
Time: 1:00pm-2:00pm
Location: West Pool
Description: Native Resistance Network will host
a teach-in about environmental issues, which will
discuss Dineh water rights, the tar sands pipeline,
and decolonizing the current environmental mo-
vement. The group will also discuss the history of
Mannahatta and the Indigenous peoples of New
York City.
NEW YORK ASIAN WOMEN'S CENTER
Info Table: immigration relief for survivors of domestic
violence and human trafficking
Time/Location; All Day @ South End of the park: tabling
near the South Benches. Workshop: 12:00-1pm
Description: Led by our staff attorney and legal
team, the New York Asian Women’s Center will
host a one-hour workshop covering immigration
relief for survivors of domestic violence and human
trafficking. This workshop will cover the very basics
of VAWA, U and T visas, and SIJS, while engaging
participants in a broader discussion on how U.S.
immigration laws both protect and create barriers
for these populations.
DOMINIQUE NISPEROS
“People Power and Politics"
Time: 10:00am-11:00am
Location: ©
Description: Class discussion on Protest in the mo-
vement for the “Gay Rights Movement” and sexual
civil rights.
GREGORY NISSEN
“Protest Songwriting Workshop"
Time: 11:30-12:30pm
Location: W
ANTHONY O'BRIEN
“Solidarity with Haiti"
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: R
Description: This lecture/discussion will be on
O'Brien's three years of solidarity work in Haiti with
left-wing students, teachers’ unions, and other tra-
de unionists.
VIANY OROZCO
“The Great Cost Shift”
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: N
Description: Viany Orozco recently completed a re-
port that reviews state funding for higher education
trends from the 1990s onwards. this discussion will
present on the findings of the report, which essen-
tially shows that the deep state cuts in funding for
higher education are narrowing the pathway to the
middle class for most Americans or saddling them
with debt. http:/Avww.demos.org/publication/great-
cost-shift-how-higher-education-cuts-undermine-
future-middle-class
TIMOTHY PACHIRAT
“Political Ethnography”
Time: 12:00-1:30pm
Location: F
Description: Political Ethnography is the study of
power through immersive, participant-observation
methods. In this particular session, students will be
sharing and receiving feedback on semester-long
fieldwork projects.
FRANCES FOX PIVEN
TBA
Location: Statue
Time: 1pm
NEIL SMITH
"The future is radically open"
‘Time: 1:30-2:30
Location: South Fountain
Descrpition: Neil Smith will facilitate a discussion
about building a radical political strategy in under
the contemporary conditions of heightened securi-
ty and militarized urban space.
KAREEM RABIE &
SOPHIA STAMATOPOULOU-ROBBINS
"Teach-in on Palestine"
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: South Pool
Description: A discussion and conversation about
the contemporary situation in Palestine, led by two
researchers working in the West Bank on issues of
infrastructure and the state, settler colonialism and
the law, and privatization and the statist project.
COCO RICO
“Multispecies Praxis”
Time: 12:30-2:00
Location: S
ROBERT ROBINSON
“Take Back the Land"
Time: 11:30-1:00pm
Location: Flagpole
MICHELLE RONDA
“The Future of Social Change”
Time: 1:00pm-2:20pm
Location: M
Description: Prof Ronda teaches “Social and Cul-
tural Change” this semester and on May Day the
class will discuss the future of social change in the
US and globally.
ANDREW ROSS
"Student Debt Teach In*
Time: 11:00-12:30pm
Location: Statue
SUSAN RUBIN
“What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Food”
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: G
Description: Susan Rubin is a Clinical Assistant
Professor at New York Medical College. She tea-
ches the food portion of a Complementary/Alterna-
tive medicine class that is an elective for 4th year
med students. The discussion will be on “What your
Dr. doesn't know about food.”
DAVID SAVRAN
“Advanced Theatre Research"
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
Location: North Fountain
Description: Class conversation about Jacques
Ranciere’s “Ignorant Schoolmaster”
NITIN SAWHNEY
“Civic Media and Tactical Design in
Contested Spaces"
Time: 12:30-3pm
Location: 0
Description: This New School seminar is exami-
ning the ways in which art, design, and technology
can be leveraged to develop creative and tactical
responses to critical ecological and sociopolitical
issues In the public sphere. We are studying the
role of artistic interventions, social media, and tac-
tical tools to support civic agency and participatory
action as well as transform, disrupt, or subvert
changing urban, political, and social conditions in
critical ways. All are invited to join as participants
and reviewers. (http://civicmediatacticaldesign.
wordpress.com).
AHMED SHARIF & MARK DRURY
*Nkrumah's Consciencism and Senghor's Negritude:
social thought and utopian concepts around
decolonization’
Time: 12:30-2:00pm
Location: &
Description: Africa’s decolonization was a transfor-
mative moment that produced new horizons of poli-
tical possibility. Looking at the work of two thinkers
from that time, Leopold Senghor and Kwame Nkru-
mah, the class will consider the relevance of uto-
pian thinking, then and now.
SARA SIMMONS
“Socially Conscious Theatre”
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: J
Description: Interested in creating socially cons-
cious theatre? Come learn some fun prompts you
can use to start creating material--no experience
needed!
MAURA SMALE
“Open Access Academic Publishing: What It Is, Why
It's Important, and How to Use It"
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: South Fountain
Description: Join CUNY library faculty and open ac-
cess advocates to discuss questions about defining,
finding, evaluating, and producing academic re-
search in open access ways that benefit everyone.
ANN SNITOW,
“Fiction of Men and Women”
Time: 12:00pm-1:30pm
Location: C
Description: Prof Snitow is bringing her class (13
students) to Free University. Snitow is also one
of the convenors of a group called Take Back the
Future, which is planning a course for Occupy Uni-
versity in the fall.
RORY SOLOMON
“Open Source Hardware and Software”
Time: 12:30-2:30pm
Location: Q
Description: Prof Solomon teaches an introductory
programming/technology class at Parsons. The
topic of the class is currently a system called Ar-
duino, part of a movement known as open source
hardware. Students are learning how to build their
own hardware devices.
FRANK SOUTHWORTH
“Protest Songwriting Workshop”
Time: 12-3 pm
Location: W
Description: Songwriters/performers are invited to a
workshop/discussion about translating/ transcrea-
ting protest songs from one genre to another, in or-
der to reach wider audiences. Bring instruments If
possible; contact frank.southworth@gmail.com for
further info and to tell me about yourself.
LAUREN SUCHMAN
"Gender, Race, and Reproduction”
Time: 1400-1500
Location: H
Description: During this lecture and discussion, we
will think about the media’s use of language around
gender and race following the birth of octuplets to
Nadya Suleman (the “Octomom”) in January, 2009.
In what ways are certain people empowered to re-
produce and make reproductive decisions while
others are disempowered?
ROB TERRITO
“Occupy and the Inner City”
Time: 11am-12pm
Location: |
Description: How does the Occupy movement re-
late to inner city kids and how can they get their
communities more involved?
MIRIAM TICKTIN
“Human rights and Humanitarianism:
Beyond the Human”
Time: 2:00pm-3:00pm
Location: C
Description: This group will discuss theories that
challenge humanism's exclusions, and expand
the concept of humanity to include animals and
human-machine hybrids. Participants will inquire
about what this means for discourses and practi-
ces of human rights and humanitarianism, which
work to protect a particular kind of human.
DEBORAH TILLINGER
“Natural History of Our Planet”
‘Time: 1300-1400
Location: R
Description” Natural History of Our Planet: A tour
through time with Dr. Mermaid (aka Dr. Debra Ti-
llinger). Learn the history of earth and the life that
inhabits it in this interactive workshop.
SUE WATERS (OCCUPY
ALTERNATIVE BANKING)
“CRIME #1 - How Private Banks
Create our Money from Debt"
Time: 1:00-2:00pm
Location: Q
Description: CRIME #1 - How private banks crea-
te our money from debt - and control us. What is
money? Where does it come from? This class
explains that money is created whenever the US
government borrows from the NY Federal Reser-
ve Bank, or whenever someone borrows from a
commercial bank. This debt-money system is the
root cause of suffering in this world, and can be
changed!
JOCELYN WILLS
*CUNY's Radical Past and Present"
Time: 2:00-3:00pm
Location: West Pool
Description: A discussion on the radical past and
present of the City University of New York.
WINNIE
"Permaculture and Sustainable Solutions”
Time: 10:00-12:00pm
Location: North Fountain
Description: Informal teach-in discussion on Per-
maculture and Sustainable solutions for Urban
living. Winnie will facilitate a short discussion on
Climate Change and how we can collectively im-
plement sustainable design solutions to mitigate
the effects of it.
ANTHONY ZENKUS
“How Poverty Is Hurting America”
Time: 11:00-12:00pm
Location: M
Description: “Watch the Gap: How poverty and
income Inequality is hurting America’s kids”. | will
present interesting research that shows how the
cycle of poverty is keeping kids poor, making aca-
demic failure and social problems more likely, and
that the 1% have been doing extremely well while
children are suffering the most because of income
inequality. | would like to engage participants in a
discussion of how we can address this problem
and make kids the focus of why we need to reverse
income inequality.
Occupy University
events
JOE NORTH/OCCUPY UNIVERSITY
“Poetry and Political Feeling”
Time: 2pm-3pm
Location: J
Deserpition: Can experiencing poetry teach us
to have more sophisticated feelings about poll-
tics? This is the first class in an ongoing course of
the same name, hosted by the Occupy University
(university.nyega.net).
OCCUPY ALGEBRA
with Broni Czamocha
Time: 12:30-2:30
Location: |
Description: A weekly course that aims that to
transform fear of mathematics into mathematical
creativity. Mathematics for the 99%
HORIZONTAL PEDAGOGY
with David Backer
Time: All day
Location: K
Description: Horizontal Pedagogy workshops re-
imagine the experience of education and experi-
ment with alternative power dynamics, sources of
motivation, and the movements of knowledge.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: WHAT IS THE FREE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK CITY?
A: The Free University is a collective educational experiment that is being held at
Madison Square Park on May 1, 2012, from 10am-3pm. In solidarity with the gene-
ral strike, the Free University offers a public space for the 99% to disengage from
an unequal system and imagine a model for alternative education. Those gathered
here in Madison Square Park, and those meeting in other spaces in solidarity, are
creating a university that is open to all, without debt or tuition for students, without
pre-requisites, age limits or any other disqualifying requirements. Learning can
only happen through interaction, exchange, and dialogue. To create a living future
together, all must be included and welcome.
Q: WHO'S INVOLVED? WHO'S AFFILIATED?
A: The Free University is a coalition of students and faculty from Baruch College,
Brooklyn College, Columbia University, the CUNY Graduate Center, Eugene Lang
College, Hunter College, New School for Social Research, New York University,
the Occupy University, and Princeton University.
Q: WHY ARE Y'ALL HERE?
A: We must create the Free University because our universities are becoming less
and less free. Higher education is made less accessible by withdrawal of public
support, the rising cost of tuition, and an admission system that makes university
campuses replicate inequalities in wealth and societal power rather than reverse
them. Higher education is devalued through austerity measures, corporate strea-
mlining, productivity metrics, and budget cuts. We refuse to allow the universi-
ty to become a place of ever-increasing surveillance, policing, and repression of
dissent. We oppose the modeling of the university on corporate structures from
unjustified executive compensation to the unnecessary standardization of the cu-
rriculum to the exploitation of contracted and adjunct labor. We strike against being
doomed to lifelong debt, constant training and re-skilling, and against a system
that saddles us with the cost of producing exploitable workers for the market. We
refuse an educational system governed by the dictates of competition, individua-
lism, and profit.
Q: WHY AT MADISON SQUARE PARK?
A: The site chosen for this Free University is symbolic. Madison Square Park is the
public space closest to the site of the Free Academy of the City of New York, the
school which was to become the City University of New York. We honor the historic
commitment of educators to build free, public universities for all.
Q: HOW DO | PARTICIPATE?
A: The Free University is an open invitation to educators, students, and community
members around New York City to participate in May Day 2012. During the day,
lectures, workshops, skill-shares, and discussions are being held — all open to the
public, Look through the schedule, program descriptions, and map to help guide
your way through the park. If you have any questions, come to the main info table
near the southwest corner of the park (23rd st. and Broadway).
Q:|'M AN INDMDUAL/WITH AN ORGANIZATION THAT WOULD LIKE TO
CONTINUE FREE UNIVERSITY EFFORTS AFTER MAY DAY.
HOW CAN WE DO THAT?
A: Get in touch by e-mail maydayfreeu@gmail.com. If you want to be actively
involved, attend our weekly meetings every Sunday. Our next meeting will be held
on Sunday, May 6th, 6-8pm, Location: Theresa Lang Center, Second floor 13th St
and 6th Av.
Q: WHERE CAN | FIND MY CLASS? CAN | JOIN IN ANY CLASS?
A: You can find your class location and schedule information listed in this info-
pack. You can also join in any class in the park.
@: IS IT SAFE TO BE HERE? / IF | COME/BRING MY CLASS TO THE FREE UNIVER-
SITY, WHAT KIND OF RISK WILL WE BE AT? / WHAT STEPS ARE BEING TAKEN TO
KEEP THE FREE UNIVERSITY AS ACCESSIBLE AND SAFE AS POSSIBLE FOR ALL
PARTICIPANTS?
A: Madison Square Park is a public park which daily hosts gatherings of all kinds,
formal and informal. It and the pedestrianized spaces along Broadway are free and
open to the public everyday. The activities of the Free University do not involve
breaking Park rules or preventing others from enjoying this space.
However, no public activity is without risk. We know that New York City police have
deployed against a variety of gatherings in public spaces in recent months and
years. While we do not expect our experiment in public education to be a focus of
their attention on May 1, we are preparing for the possibility. We will make sure you
are not alone, will advocate for your and our right to the space, and will send out
public updates about the safety of the space via Twitter and other means.
While the activities of the Free University are legal, we know that a variety of legal,
medical, and personal conditions can make even the possibility of arrest or police
violence a greater threat to some people than others. For a summary of legal, phy-
sical safety, and immigration status issues, you may want to read the documents
hosted at http://occupycunynews.org/category/resources/
Q:| HAVE AN ACCESSIBILITY ISSUE, CAN | STILL PARTICIPATE?
A: Yes, please let us know via email (maydayfreeu@gmail.com), call our number
347-670-FREU (3738) or come to our info table near the southwest corner of the
park (23rd st. and Broadway) where one of our volunteers will work with those with
an accessibility issue to make the university as inclusive as possible.
Q: WHAT IF | HAVE CHILDREN WITH ME?
A: Bring them along! We will have volunteers to offer childcare while you are in
class as well as some age-inclusive classes and activities.
Q: WHAT IF IT RAINS?
A: We will send out information via our Twitter feed @freeunivNYC, our text alert
system, and you can call us at 347-670-FREU (3738) if you have any further que-
ries. Please be sure, though, to come prepared with an umbrella.
Q: WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING ON MAY DAY?
A: Many events are occurring on May Day throughout New York City. To view the
full calendar listing, visit the following website: http://maydaynyc.org/
Important numbers
Contact the Free University: maydayfreeu@gmail.com
Press Inquiries/General Info: (47) 670-FREU (8738)
Twitter: Follow @FreeUnivNYC #FreeU
National Lawyers Guild: 212.679.6018
Free University text alert system: http://bit.ly/freeualert
Education/Activism links:
Education Initiatives:
Occupy Student Debt Campaign http:/;www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/
Radical Pedagogy http://gcradicalpedagogy.wordpress.com/
Occupy University http://university.nycga.net/
Worker and Community Organizations
The Adjunct Project http://adjunctproject.com/organizing/
New York Asian Women's Center http:/Avww.nyawc.org/
Take Back the Land http:/Atakebacktheland.org/
Professional Staff Congress http://psc-cuny.org/
Student Coalitions:
CUNY May Day http://cunymayday.wordpress.com/
New York City Student Assembly http://nycstudentassembly.org/about
New York Students Rising http://nystudentsrising.org/
Occupy Colleges http://occupycolleges.org/
Occupy CUNY http://occupycunynews.org/
Students United for a Free CUNY http://studentsunitedforafreecuny.wordpress.com/
Campus Organizations:
CUNY Graduate Center General Assembly https:/Awww.facebook.com/
groups/172760879477129/
New York University for Occupy Wall Street http://nyu4ows.tumblr.com/
Occupy Columbia http://occupycolumbiauniversity.tumbir.com/
Occupy Hunter http://occupyhunter.com/
Occupy Queens College
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Queens-College-Page/301543919875385,
Reclaim Brooklyn College http:/Aakebackbrooklyn.wordpress.com/
Transforming Assembly
In collaboration with the Center for the Humanities and OpenCUNY.
the General Assembly of the CUNY Graduate Center
invites you and all your friends to participate in the weeklong transformation of
the James Gallery, 365 5t® avenue, May 8th_41th,
ee |
Scheduled Events Include:
5/7, 12-7 pm: Process is Transformative: An Installation Work Party
5/8, 5-8 pm: Launch Celebration with the Interference Archive
5/9, 11-7 pm: Grade-In & Live-In for Adjunct Visibility
5/10, 4-6 pm: “Free CUNY” zine launch with Students United for a Free CUNY
5/10, 6-8 pm: The Imaginarium: A Space to Envision
5/11, 5-7 pm: Signs of a New Revolution: An Occupy Pop Art Show by Students of Co-Op
Tech
All Day, Every Day: The gencral assembly of students and workers in a highly
visible space within an institution of public education that increasingly excludes
the people whom it should serve.
Join us as we
document and advance our struggle
for public space and public education.
occupy-james- gallery@googlegroups.com
10
Occupy University - http://university.nycga.net
A Questioning Exercise with which to Occupy Education
May Day, 2012
Students
Which best characterizes your courses:A lot of time for depth and creativity, or time only for
rushed and superficial work?
How much should your education focus on social change? How much should it focus on
social reproduction?
Does your education reproduce inequalities (monetary, ethnic, gender-related, perspectival,
etc.)?
Do your courses encourage or discourage a questioning of the powers that be?
Do you feel that your presence affects the educational experience? Do educators care about
how engaged you are in the course?
Does it feel like much thought has been put into what it’s really like for you to sit through
courses, to speak to administrators, to read your bills, or to ask about how financial aid
works? If it has, do you think the people who imagined your experience had your interests in
mind?
Educators
Would students want to spend time with you without you playing the teacher role? Could
you relate to each other?
Have you ever tried sharing the role of “teacher” with your students? Do you believe only
you have something to teach, and do you seek out opportunities to learn from your students?
Do you have time and resources to plan and conduct excellent education?
Are monetary, legal, administrative, or political pressures pushing you in helpful or harmful
directions?
Administrators
How much of your time is spent considering the experience of learners, or conceptual issues
in education? How much is spent with numbers, forms, and memos?
Do you feel that you answer to: Students? Communities? Corporations? Politicians? Trustees?
And whose interests do they have in mind?
How are students ultimately regarded: As numbers? As customers? As the future of humanity?
Everyone
If you raised these questions in educational settings, would they be taken seriously? Would
they be taboo? Would they provoke change?
11
#May2 at Noon
Brooklyn College Quad
2/8 Train to Flatbush Ave, walk 1 block west
B/Q Train to Ave H, walk 4 blocks east
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 2 NYC-wide Student Manifestation at Brooklyn College Quad
Press Inquiries:
Julieta Salgado, Cell: (585) 698-3653, Email: Joolictasaigado@amail. com
Sara Beth Curtis, Cell phone: (646) 377-2590, Email: Bwsara@amail. com
Biola Jeje, Cell: (347) 681-5923, Email: Biolaieile@amail.com
The Brooklyn College Student Union, Brooklyn College New York Public Interest Research Group
Students United for a Free CUNY, New York Students Rising, the CUNY Graduate Center General
Assembly, and the Brooklyn College Professional Staff Congress welcome you to a New York City
Student Manifestation on the Brooklyn College Quad at 12pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012. Join us in
taking back our education from the Board of Trustees, Wall Street, and our college administrators with a
springtime union of privilege and security, free lunch, teach ins, and a collective bursting of student loan
debt balloons. Wear red to show that you believe in the right to education for all.
This CUNY-Wide Day of Action will build further momentum for social equality, show the collective power
of CUNY faculty, students, and staff, and demonstrate our ability to transform the City University of New
York (CUNY) into a university that is accessible, accountable, democratic, and free for all. We invite all
CUNY students, faculty and staff, and all New Yorkers, to join in this public endeavor to make
education accessible to all and relevant to the struggles and challenges faced by New York's 99%.
As all those who have struggled to make CUNY a truly public university have shown us, we must take
deliberate steps to build the university that we want and need.
From Quebec to Greece to Puerto Rico to Chile to the UK, students have been protesting against the
increasing commercialization and privatization of public education, and fighting for free and emancipatory
education. On May 2, New York City students will gather in a public display of feeling to counter the
paradigm of a corporate CUNY. Measuring the value of our educational experience in dollars and cents,
in the pay rate of the jobs our diplomas get us, undermines the true power of public higher education to
Prepare young people for life and teach them to be citizens. Next week, we join together to reclaim the
public university as a public sphere, a place for society to reflect on our past and make tangible another
possible future. in conceiving of higher education as a public good, we make claims on the University and
the State to create access to this good for all.
The increasing cost of tuition at CUNY narrows access and adds to burden of indebtedness among
students. As Brooklyn College junior Biola Jeje states, this is “not just an issue for students but for
working families who often take on debt to return to school in the hopes of finding higher paying jobs
to support their families as the cost of living, especially in New York City, increases. If we want to help
working families in a concrete way we need higher education to be free and for student debt to be
forgiven.” The organizations endorsing the event are demanding a more inclusive implementation of
policies that promote access to higher education in the United States. They assert that creating access
to higher ed must include: a millionaires tax that would subsidize college tuition for CUNY and SUNY
students, the abolition of Board of Trustees and the creation of a more democratic governing body,
getting rid of restrictions on financial aid and scholarship restrictions for undocumented youth seeking to
obtain college degrees, collective student loan debt refusal, university divestment from Wall Street and
radical reforms that serve low income students of color in K-12 public schools.
AaRHRHRR HRA
For interviews regarding the student loan debt crisis contact: Julieta Salgado
For interviews about the May 1 and May 2 Free University contact: Sara Beth Curtis
For interviews regarding accessil to higher education contact: Biola Jeje
st Bey
THE FREE
UNIVERSITY OF
NEW YORK CITY
This is to certify that
has co-created a day of revolutionary optimism and humanitarian embrace.
On this May Day, you have helped launch The Free University of New York City
and contributed to a visionary experiment of mutual aid and free public education.
You have practiced shared and open systems of knowledge and curiosity to build
societies that rely on cooperation and wonder rather than domination.
MAY 1, 2012
SOION
Title
Free University Week - 1st Annual May Day Course Descriptions
Description
This pamphlet features workshops, teach-ins and events planned for the 1st annual Free University of New York City on May 1, 2012, in Madison Square Park, Manhattan, NY. In addition to talks by David Harvey, David Graeber, Francis Fox Piven, Chris Hedges, a wide array of classes ranging from Occupydrama to OccupyAlgebra were offered. Alternative banking, intersectionality of oppressions, and open source hardware and software were some of the diverse themes, explored by participants. In addition to time slots the schedule offers brief descriptions of each class.
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.
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
May 1, 2012
Language
English
Spanish
Publisher
Free University of New York City
Rights
Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercialShareAlike
Source
Reed, Conor Tomas
Original Format
Curricular Material
Free University of New York City. Letter. “Free University Week - 1st Annual May Day Course Descriptions.”, CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, accessed March 10, 2026, https://stephenz.tailc22a4b.ts.net/s/cdha/item/999