The Vegan Gallery, a homey space on Division, has a busy calendar filled primarily with exhibitions featuring vegan artists, performances, and environmentally themed workshops. Read More >>>

6:00PM , Monday, November 28, 2011 @ The Co-Prosperity Sphere 3219-21 South Morgan Street, Chicago, IL A severe housing crisis is gripping families and communities across the United States. Since the fall of 2008, the US Government purchased millions of foreclosed properties from banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The concrete result has been the transfer of $1.5 trillion in public wealth into the hands of private institutions and individuals to preserve their fortunes. While taking money from everyday workers and handing it over to huge, too big to fail, financial institutions helped forestall the collapse of the world’s financial markets, it has not prevented the displacement and dispossession of millions of ordinary families. The banks have been saved, but the people have been abandoned. Because billions of dollars in public funds were used to buy these homes, we assert those homes are now public housing and must be used to solve the housing crisis by providing homes to millions of families and individuals. The Take Back the Land Movement has directly challenged those laws which allow banks to reap record profits while millions of families face eviction and homelessness. Challenging unjust laws requires a protracted direct action campaign of civil disobedience designed to prioritize people over profits in a tangible way. As such, the Movement focuses on defending families against eviction and “liberating” vacant government owned and foreclosed homes, moving homeless people into people-less homes. Learn the strategies and tactics that have been successfully utilized in the struggle to reclaim for the 99% the open spaces withheld from them by the 1%. THIS EVENT IS HOSTED BY OCCUPY CHICAGO & COMMUNITIES UNITED AGAINST FORECLOSURE AND EVICTION

Now online at never-the-same.org Never the Same's web project has launched with an initial publication of ten interviews (with Kelan Phil Cohran, Jorge Felix, Emily Forman and Josh MacPhee, Dara Greenwald, Aaron Hughes, Jae and Wadsworth Jarrell, Mary Jane Jacob, Ladyfest Midwest, Patric McCoy, and Christina Obregón and Jose David). The ten conversations, transcribed and edited and presented with short video clips and related images, span generations of Chicago artists and organizers representing many different communities and neighborhoods and a range of media.

"We were pretty focused. Maybe not politically, but in terms of what we were trying to—we were going to do dance routines."  (Dara Greenwald)

"So we weren’t that far apart, except that they came about through violence and I came about through enlightenment. But we were on the same path with the same purpose." (Cohran)

"As diverse a city as Chicago is, there are a lot of divisions in it, and I think we have an acute awareness of that, maybe some of us more than others, at the time, because there were some of us who were very new to the city, but I think our political mindset was to make sure that it was inclusive, culturally and medium-wise, and on all fronts." (Ladyfest)

"The school of thought that is common in the United States is capitalist and individualistic, 'what am I going to get out of it?' Our school of thought is different. We don’t think about those things. We do things because they’re things that are necessary. We feel like this is what I want to do." (Christina Obregón and Jose David)

"It needs space for things to be abstract and for things to not fit" (Aaron Hughes)

"When you saw our black families together it was a community within a room, just like that, and it had a very powerful impact." (Jarrells) Never the Same documents how art can create political, personal, and and social change. This collection of materials, both digital and material, provides tools for reflection, discussion, and research on this topic, specifically in the context of Chicago's rich history of socially and politically engaged art practices. Along with interviews, the project includes a physical archive of related books, graphics, and ephemera that will be viewable by appointment. Donations of archival materials that fall within the topic area will be accepted.

At 9:00pm Level Eater will host live music brought to you by Ed Marszewski in Co-Pros basement by Winston the Wizard & Friends. At midnight spectators are encouraged to participate in a large Dungeons & Dragons adventure hosted by Michael Garcia, Mike Hampton and with’ professional players’. Character info and resources will be provided. On Saturday at 12:00pm we will continue playing Dungeons & Dragons as is the tradition of Level Eater. People are welcome to come play or watch.

Mess Hall is currently organizing a series of events that trace the flows of capital, material resources, networks or relations of power, etc. Events are open to a variety of formats and timeframes:  lectures or mini-presentations, screenings or workshops, performances of all types. They can follow the flow of a resource from origin through consumption to waste; trace out a system or infrastructure, or outline a process.There's room for interpreting 'follow' (trace, chart, track, feel out, search for) and  'shit' (stuff, materials, power, prestige, capital, etc.). So, if you have (or or want to develop) knowledge on how shit works, and are interested in notions of tracing, mapping, networking, flowcharting, pathways, linkages --  please contact me with an idea or proposal. (anything concrete?? whats the shit? how do you follow it?) Please contact Lora (loralode@gmail) with an idea or proposal. There will be a couple rounds for deadlines -- the first is November 15. The second will be late December/January -- will re-post then.

On 11/11/11 in collaboration with Half Acre Brewing Company, we are releasing a commemorative Lumpen 20th Anniversary beer called The Chairman. On 11/11/11 in collaboration with Half Acre Brewing Company, we are releasing a commemorative Lumpen 20th Anniversary beer called The Chairman. The Chairman is a very limited release. It's an Imperial Red Ale created to remember the men and women who worked on Lumpen magazine and became Chairmen of the Boring Theoretical Party (BTP). The Boring Theoretical Party began in the 1990’s. It was Lumpen magazine’s response to the boring, and uh, theoretically inclined armchair lefties. We started a “Worker’s Newspaper” edited by Chairman Thar, our beloved leader. Our symbols were the Armadillo and the  Hoe. We had a theme song, a salute (raised fist while yawning), and we promoted that everyone should be the Chairman of their own Party. You have a chance to bring a Chairman to the Party. Get a bottle (or three) at Half Acre Brewing Company or Maria’s Packaged Goods & Community Bar on November 11, 2011. We will celebrate at Maria's with a Half Acre Tap Takeover including the super delicious The Chairman! (In fact this day will be the official day of Maria's getting Half Acre beers here for forever) The Half Acre tap line up will also include: Lagertown Novemberfest Barrel Aged Small Animal Big Machine Mr. Ouroboros Daisey Cutter Over Ale Bottle Sales begin at 11am, when the store opens.. Join us for Korean Polish BBQ at 5:30pm ! With guest kimchee by Bill Kim of Belly Shack! We will be partying all night long... Thanks for joining us on this historic occasion..!