Stephen Vittoria (award-winning filmmaker & author), Cat Brooks (actress, director, playwright, screenwriter), and Steve Romagnoli (Fordham University professor & playwright) discuss the absolute necessity for revolutionary works of political fiction. They suggest that powerful and fictional narratives exposing uncomfortable truths and evils (i.e., war, empire, racism, misogyny, et cetera) deserve a dynamic voice alongside nonfiction and historical critiques—voices that deliver unique and intimate stories. Robust personal fiction can be a fearless partner in the drive to replace hate, brutality, and violence... with empathy, justice, and peace.
Chris Carlsson
Chris Carlsson presents the 2025 2nd edition of his unique historical guidebook to San Francisco's overlooked and forgotten histories. He will read from the new preface to the 2nd edition, "In the Wake of the Pandemic," which puts the recent pandemic in the context of a long history of public health politics in the city. He also analyzes the long history of tech booms in the city, and how likely the much-touted "doom loop" will reach a climax. In addition, a new chapter featuring unusual ecological hikes through San Francisco on unknown back trails through neighborhoods well off the tourist path will also be revealed.
Bruce Neuberger
Postcards to Hitler tells the story of a Jewish family in Munich living as close neighbors to the demagogue who becomes the Nazi Führer—Adolf Hitler. In a story passionately told by one of their descendants, the narrative begins as Benno Neuburger, a modest German land investor from Munich, and Anna Einstein, daughter of a cattle dealer, meet at a seder in Laupheim and soon marry. The year is 1907, a relatively prosperous, optimistic time for German Jews, and there is little hint that this good fortune might soon unravel. Of all the Jews in Europe, Germans like the Neuburgers feel most secure.When, on a warm July day in 1914, an assassination strikes an “obscure” Balkan corner of the continent, the news passes through Munich’s beer-gardens like a cold wind. Far from a fleeting chill, what follows is the time of prolonged bloodshed known as World War I, followed by a period of German humiliation, resurgent revolution, and a brief left-led democratic interlude in Munich. What might have been a site of socialist experimentation instead becomes the epicenter of German fascism, and as Benno and Anna and their extended families cling with vain hope to a peaceful resolution, their beloved haven degenerates into a state of racialized madness. A bloody pogrom is chased by a second world war, followed by evictions, “resettlements” and far worse, sounding an inescapable knell despite desperate and defiant acts of resistance.
Laura Scherling, EdD
The Future of Hacking explores the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, ethical hacking, and digital defense, revealing how hackers protect as much as they attack. Drawing on extensive research and expert interviews from around the world, the author will discuss the urgent challenges surrounding cybercrime, internet freedom, and digital policy.
Moazzam Sheikh
My talk will explore the complicity of American fiction using examples from novels written by American authors. My talk will highlight the ways in which American fiction writers have touched on Israel either as if it's a country like any other, victim of aggression or dealing with conflict but never bothering to go deeper or probe the nature of its existence, from settler colonialism to apartheid to occupation.
Dani Burlison and Margaret Elysia Garcia
The editors of “Red Flag Warning: Mutual Aid and Survival in California’s Fire Country” (AK Press, 6/2025), Dani Burlison and Margaret Elysia Garcia will discuss the book and different approaches to mutual aid covered in the book, including protecting undocumented folks, centering traditional ecological knowledge, highlighting work by formerly incarcerated firefighters, class justice, mental health, rural environmental justice, and more! After our brief conversation/presentation, we will open to a participatory dialogue with attendees to share more ideas and collaborations.
Po Poets/authors/talk-storytellers : Tiny, Leroy Moore, Junebug , Dee Allen , Muteado , Alvaro, Tiburcio Tongo, Vick Torea , Elizabeth Jimenez Montelongo & more
Session will include an author talk, workshop, and dialogue about POOR Magazine's newest book, UnTourBook. This new genre “guide Book” is full of truth about genocide as well as poetry, prayer, stories and art on indigenous resistance to settler colonial erasure, poLice terror, homelessness and the many acts of indigenous/Black/Brown-led resistance from Turtle Island to Palestine and all across Mama Earth. The UnTours across Occupied Turtle Island ( which the book is named after ) was launched in 2016 to reveal the truth about so many acts of settler colonial terror, rape, enslavement removal and murder, Terrifying acts like missionaries and settlers like Juniperro Serra was responsible for under his reign in the California Mission system.
Lindsay Weinberg
In this author talk, I'll share some of the main arguments from “Smart University: Student Surveillance in the Digital Age” (2024) as a way of opening up a conversation about how digital technologies are being used in US higher education for surveillance, censorship, and the repression of student and faculty activism. I will also share concrete strategies for how participants can use tactics including open letter writing campaigns, public records requests, and unionization to push back against the repressive digitization of universities. This talk is of relevance not only to those who live, work, or study at universities, but also those who live near universities, given the ways universities directly impact the material conditions of those who live near them, including through the expansion of campus real estate and digitally enhanced campus policing techniques. Furthermore, universities can be sites for either the reproduction or critique of dominant class ideology, which is why all who oppose autocracy should struggle for their independence from far-right regimes. I plan to speak for 30 minutes about the book’s arguments, 20 minutes sharing concrete strategies participants might make use of, and the remainder of the time facilitating conversation about participants’ own experiences navigating authoritarian attacks on higher education.
Simon Knaphus
Simon Knaphus and Jess Gutfreund
Trans+ joy and reproductive choice are powerful forces of autonomy and freedom from authoritarianism. Join us for a conversation and visioning session about trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive family building and reproductive choice. This panel springs from the recent anthology Seahorses: Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender-Expansive Pregnancy, edited by Simon Knaphus with contributors including Jess Gutfreund. Cis allies and co-conspirators are welcome.
Eric Mann
A talk based on his work with CORE, SDS, the United Auto Workers, and the Labor/Community Strategy Center and his books Katrina’s Legacy—U.S. genocidal climate crimes from New Orleans to the Third World and Playbook for Progressives: The 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer.
Mary Anne Trasciatti
Author Mary Anne Trasciatti will talk about her new biography of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, whose life was a rebellion against exploitation and injustice. Flynn led strikes, opposed sexism, resisted fascism, supported anti-imperialist movements, protested deportations, advocated for prison reform, and fought for Black liberation. She knew that working class power is only possible when people are free to organize and challenge the forces arrayed against them, and she defended that freedom at every turn. At a time when authoritarianism is on the rise and the freedom to speak out is in peril, Flynn’s story is an inspiration for how to fight for a better world and win.
Eric Drooker
Renowned artist and graphic novelist Eric Drooker will present a multimedia slide lecture exploring the changing landscape of the modern city—its architecture, its people, and the forces that shape urban life today. Drawing from his decades of work chronicling city streets and social movements, Drooker will reflect on the tension between art and survival, asking: Is it still possible for an artist to survive in the 21st century? Best known for his many New Yorker covers and his collaborations with poet Allen Ginsberg, Drooker combines striking visual imagery with social commentary and personal insight. His latest book, NAKED CITY: A Graphic Novel, offers a powerful meditation on contemporary urban experience, rendered in his signature, expressionistic style.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Legendary movement historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a sneak peek at her new book on White Christian Nationalism.
Laura Scherling, EdD
The Future of Hacking explores the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, ethical hacking, and digital defense, revealing how hackers protect as much as they attack. Drawing on extensive research and expert interviews from around the world, the author will discuss the urgent challenges surrounding cybercrime, internet freedom, and digital policy.
