Steven Vittoria, award-winning filmmaker and author, discusses the transition from nonfiction historical & political books and documentary film to fiction that exposes uncomfortable truths, helping to suggest empathy and peace in a world that now more than ever desperately needs help from artists.
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.
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
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.
Tiny Gray-Garcia, Muteado Silencio, Aunti Frances Moore
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 WeinbergIn 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 would 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 would plan to speak for 15 minutes about the book’s arguments, 15 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
Seahorses is a groundbreaking anthology that shares the experiences of trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people who have navigated pregnancy.What can trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive people expect from pregnancy? What roles do supportive friends, family members, and care providers play? What are some of the fabulous family structures folks are creating? This collection brings together a wide spectrum of voices to share unique stories about navigating family building, pregnancy, fertility treatments, conception, loss, healthcare, abortion, childbirth, the early days of parenting, and the intersections of legal, political, and cultural contexts. Alongside individual stories, this book features collaborative round-table discussions where contributors address shared questions about personal journeys, community, advice and information, and pregnancy care.
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
In this session I propose to explore the connection between civil liberties and collective action, as presented in my recently published book, Elizabeth Gurley Fynn: The Rebel Girl, Democracy, and Revolution (Rutgers UP). As a socialist, then a Wobbly/syndicalist, and then a Communist, Flynn organized workers into unions, led strikes, championed women’s rights, supported anti-imperialist movements around the globe, protested deportations, advocated for prison reform, and fought for Black liberation. Through all these campaigns, she was an ardent and active defender of the right to hold and express one’s political views and to associate with like-minded people in pursuit of economic, social, and political change. Rather than a matter of individual rights, Flynn’s understanding of civil liberties was inseparable from her socialism, a position that caused her to be expelled from the ACLU, an organization that she helped found. She believed that freedom of speech, press, assembly, and the right to a fair trial by jury are necessary for democracy in a capitalist state where material resources are unevenly distributed. The only way to remedy the imbalance between “haves” and “have nots” is collective action by the latter, and collective action is impossible without civil liberties. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn belongs at the heart of labor and civil liberties history: her life is a wellspring of inspiration for contemporary activists who wish to fight supremacy in all its nefarious forms.
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
