The Reservoir: Communion

Woodbine, an experimental cultural and community center in Ridgewood, Queens, is releasing “Communion,” the second issue of its printed journal The Reservoir, published in partnership with Autonomedia. “Communion” features new texts by Kazembe Balagun, Elizabeth Povinelli, Geert Lovink, Kristin Ross, Experimental Jetset, and Marcello Tarì, as well as a previously unpublished interview with Félix Guattari. It is available now from Autonomedia.

“The theme for this issue, Belief and the Communal, was a question to ourselves—not just a documentation of who and what we are, but a critical consideration of who we would like to be. To speak of belief carries with it the sense not just of logic but of faith. History tells us that successful experiments in communal life often have an organizing belief. They have a shared faith. But when our structures of life are oriented around the instrumental and utilitarian, the non-religious and secular, how can we re-enchant the world, the city, each other? How can we mobilize networks of newly binding enchantments for the next epoch of societal re-organization? For us this question touches on the old anarchist framework of free association, of the voluntary assembly of individuals. Needed ever-more in a metropolis like New York, but ever more rare and fleeting. It touches on the question of desire, to gather outside of work, outside of the market, to cultivate a generosity of thought and spirit, of time and attention.”

The issue features archival texts by and reflections on Black Mountain College and the Gate Hill artists cooperative, Murray Bookchin, the Catholic Worker, Co-op City, Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall and Ganienkeh, George Jackson and The Black Panther Party, Llano del Rio, Provo, M.C. Richards, the Shakers, the ZAD, and more. It includes original art, comics, essays, fiction, illustrations, interviews, letters, photography, poetry, transcripts, and translations from more than 30 contributors in a design by Kevin McCaughey.

A launch party for The Reservoir will be held on Wednesday October 4 at Trans-Pecos (915 Wyckoff Avenue) at 7pm, featuring performances by Eros Tunnel, Kwami Winfield & C. Spencer Yeh, and Sub Rosa, with DJ sets by Lychee and Slimey.

Woodbine opened in 2014 and is located in a 5,000 square foot storefront in Ridgewood. Volunteer-run, it describes itself as “an experimental hub for developing the practices, skills, and tools needed to build autonomy.” The previous issue of The Reservoir featured texts by Silvia Federici, Fred Moten, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Ben Morea, and P.M.

Autonomedia is a collectively-run Brooklyn-based publisher celebrating its 40th anniversary, “an autonomous zone for arts radicals in both old and new media. We publish books on radical media, politics and the arts that seek to transcend party lines, bottom lines and straight lines.”

Contributors: Virgil Addison, Katie Bachler, Kazembe Balagun, Scott Berzofsky, Murray Bookchin, Dana Burns, Grace Byron, Charlie Enúf, Experimental Jetset, Celia Eydeland, Ella Fassler, Clark Fitzgerald, Victor Florence, A.M. Gittlitz, Félix Guattari, Clair Gunther, Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall, Anton Haugen, Mark He, Samantha Hinds, Institute for the Study of Urtext, Joscelyn Jurich, Geert Lovink, Mayakov+sky Platform, Misha, Max Moorhead, Jean Oury, Oskar Peacock, Andreas Petrossiants, Elizabeth A. Povinelli, M.C. Richards, Kristin Ross, Eero Talo, Marcello Tarì, Assia Turquier-Zauberman, Caterina Verde, Erick Verran, Tom Wilson, Mikal Wix.