🔓 TOOOL Lock Picking Meetup
2023-09-08 18:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York) | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Friday, September 8th at 6 p.m. we’re hosting a meetup run by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers.
> Come join us for our monthly Open Pick Night at Iffy Books! Whether you’re a novice who just stumbled upon LockpickingLawyer, a seasoned safecracker, or somewhere in between, come join us for a evening of fun as we pop some locks.

🔊 Echo Broadcast Opening Reception at Practice Gallery
2023-09-08 18:00 - 21:00 | Practice Gallery, 319 N. 11th St. 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, 19107, United States
Echo Broadcast is an exhibition at Practice Gallery that explores fear and reverence to our complex relationship to ubiquitous technologies. The show highlights artists whose works are grounded in material reality, debunking the effortlessness of the cloud, examining techno-spiritualism, tech-capitalism, and the idea of the techno-utopian future.
Artists and organizations involved in the exhibition include: Suzanne Kite, Jenny Vogel, Meredith Haines, Joshua Marquez, Charlotte Greene, Quarantine Public Library, Iffy Books, Sound Museum Collective, and Lino Kino. The exhibition is curated by Quinton Maldonado and Jazmyn Crosby.
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Opening Reception: Sept 8th, 6pm-9pm at Practice Gallery‍
Panel Discussion, screening and performances at the Vox Populi Black Box: Sept 9th, 6pm-10pm‍
(Practice Gallery is down the hall from Iffy Books.)

🔊 Make a Phone-Sized Faraday Shield
2023-09-09 16:00 - 18:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Stop by Iffy Books any time from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, September 9th and make a DIY Faraday shield for your phone! It’s a quick project using aluminum foil and construction paper. When your phone is inside, you can be fairly sure it’s isolated from radio communication via wi-fi, Bluetooth, and the cell network. We’ll have Bluetooth speakers on hand to test your Faraday shield, as well as a software-defined radio to visualize the RF spectrum.
This workshop is suitable for all ages and experience levels. And it’s free! Bring a cell phone if you have one, or borrow a loaner from the shop.
After the workshop, join us at Vox Populi’s Black Box from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. for a panel discussion, screening, and performances organized by the folks at Practice Gallery.
This event is part of Echo Broadcast, an exhibition running from 9/8 to 9/30 at Practice Gallery (down the hall from Iffy Books).

Echo Broadcast is an exhibition at Practice Gallery that explores fear and reverence to our complex relationship to ubiquitous technologies. The show highlights artists whose works are grounded in material reality, debunking the effortlessness of the cloud, examining techno-spiritualism, tech-capitalism, and the idea of the techno-utopian future.
Artists and organizations involved in the exhibition include: Suzanne Kite, Jenny Vogel, Meredith Haines, Joshua Marquez, Charlotte Greene, Quarantine Public Library, Iffy Books, Sound Museum Collective, and Lino Kino. The exhibition is curated by Quinton Maldonado and Jazmyn Crosby.
Panel Discussion, screening and performances at the Vox Populi Black Box: Sept 9th, 6pm–10pm‍

📕 Author Event: 'Sordidez' by E.G. Condé
2023-09-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Saturday, September 9th at 7 p.m. we’re hosting a reading and Q&A with E.G. Condé, author of the novel Sordidez. Hope to see you there!
E.G. Condé is an anthropologist of technology and an emerging speculative fiction writer of the Puerto Rican diaspora. His short fiction appears in If There’s Anyone Left, Reckoning, EASST Review, Tree and Stone, Sword & Sorcery, and Solarpunk Magazine. Stay connected to his writing at his website or follow him on social media via @CloudAnthro.
About Sordidez:
Vero has always felt at odds with his community. As a trans man in near-future Puerto Rico, he struggles to gain acceptance for his identity and his vision of an inclusive society. After a hurricane decimates the island and Puerto Rico is abandoned by the United States, Vero leaves his home to petition the centralized government for aid and seek the truth about new colonists arriving on the island. But in the Yucatan, Vero finds a landscape ravaged by an ecological disaster of humanity’s own making-the Hydrophage, a climate technology warped into a weapon of war and released onto the land by the dictator Caudillo. Amidst the destruction, Vero finds both desperation and hope for regrowth as he documents the lives of the survivors. Details about the colonists’ intentions emerge when Vero meets the Loba Roja, an anti-Caudillo revolutionary who imagines the renewed power of the Maya. Intrigued by her vision of the future and her unapologetic violence, Vero is faced with life-changing questions: can an Indigenous resurgence protect his beloved island? And what must he sacrifice to support it?
Interview with E.G. Condé
Sordidez reviewed in Publishers Weekly

Photo credit: Jon Sachs

📡 Meshtastic 101
2023-09-10 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, September 10th at 1:00 p.m. we’re hosting an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radios.
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.
If you have a LoRa radio (or reserve one below), we’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device and customize the settings. If you don’t have a LoRa radio, you’re still welcome to attend!
Register:

💾🌾 Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup
2023-09-10 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Our next permacomputing meetup is on Sunday, September 10th at 3:30 PM EDT. You can join us in person at Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St. #2I, PHL) or via Jitsi Meet.
➡️ Meetup Link
From Permacomputing.net: Permacomputing is a more sustainable approach to computer and network technology inspired by permaculture. Permacomputing is both a concept and a community of practice oriented around issues of resilience and regenerativity in digital technology. In a time where computing epitomizes industrial waste, permacomputing encourages a more sustainable approach, maximizing hardware lifespans, minimizing energy use and focussing on the use of already available computational resources. We do this because humans are part of nature and technology is an extension of humans, and we acknowledge that technology has been used to harm nature. We want to find out how we can practice good relations with the Earth by learning from ecological systems to leverage and re-center existing technologies and practices. We are also interested in investigating what a permacomputing way of life could be, and what sort of transformative computational culture and aesthetics it could bring forward. If you want to know more, please start reading about what is permacomputing in essence, and then dive into its principles.
Permacomputing Aesthetics: Potential and Limits of Design Constraints in Computational Culture by Mansoux, Howell, Barok, and Heikkilä (2023)

✏️ The Writing Room
2023-09-13 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-09-20 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-09-27 17:00 - 19:00, 2023-10-04 17:00 - 20:00, 2023-10-11 17:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Wednesdays 5–8 p.m.
(5–7 p.m. the last Wednesday of the month)
Come co-work with other writers in three 40-minute units of silent writing. Writers and projects of any type welcome. 10-minute breaks and accountability check-ins between units. BYO coffee, water, computer chargers, notepads, etc.

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2023-09-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, September 14th at 6:00 p.m. we’re running a soldering workshop for beginners! Anyone can attend for free, but you’ll need to buy a circuit board with components for $6 to complete the project. Here’s what’s included in the kit:

1 x Weevil-shaped PCB
2 x LEDs
1 x 47k Ohm resistor
1 x miniature photocell
1 x 2N3904 transistor
2 x 220 Ohm resistors
1 x CR2032 coin cell battery
1 x 20mm coin cell battery holder

Register:

📡 Virtual Meshtastic Meetup
2023-09-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Jitsi Meet (iffybooks.club), 19107
We’re hosting a virtual meetup on Thursday, September 14th at 7 p.m. to help Meshtastic users get connected. Our goal is to make a wireless chat network across the PHL area using low-power LoRa radios.
To join the network, you’ll need a LoRa radio such as a Heltec LoRa32, LILYGO LoRa32, or LILYGO T-Beam. Here’s a full list of compatible devices.
➡️ Meetup link
Here’s a link to our updated zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.

🎵 Velocities 2 in West Philly
2023-09-16 12:00 - 18:00 | Leader Theater, 4102 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, United States
We’ll be tabling and running a workshop at VELOCITIES 2 on Saturday, September 16th, presented by Meantime. The event will be at the Leader Theater in West Philly (4102 Lancaster Avenue). It’s free! We’ll be there 12–6 p.m., with performances continuing until 9.
➡️ Get a free ticket for the festival
From noon to 2 p.m. we’re running a free workshop called Store data on a cassette tape & play it back!

In this workshop you’ll convert text data into audio using the program minimodem, then record the audio to a cassette tape. Then you’ll use minimodem to play back your text onscreen in real time. We’ll provide computers and tape decks, and everyone who participates will get a couple free cassette tapes.
We’ll also teach you to experiment with different bit rates and encoding formats. We’ve been using Bell 202-style ASCII encoding at 100 baud (bits per second) because it works reliably and plays back at a comfortable reading speed. Using these encoding settings, a 60-minute cassette tape can store ~34 KB of data.
If you want to record a specific text file to a cassette tape, we recommend bringing it on a USB drive. We can’t guarantee we’ll have internet access on the day of the event.
Register for our workshop at noon:

Download the
MP4
video.

🏃 Running Down The Walls
2023-09-17 10:00 - 12:00 | FDR Park
We’ll be tabling at Philly ABC’s sixth annual Running Down The Walls (RDTW) on Sunday, September 17th, starting at 10 a.m. The 5K starts at 11 a.m. See y’all there!
➡️ Register by September 3rd
Philadelphia Anarchist Black Cross and MXGM Philly invite you to our sixth annual Running Down The Walls (RDTW)! Join us for another revolutionary 5K run/walk/roll and day of solidarity amplifying the voices of our comrades behind bars, lifting them up in their struggles, and maintaining material support. We will ship official shirts nationwide to people who register to participate remotely, pay online and leave their shipping address in the comment box! If you’re joining us in person and would like to participate in light yoga and warm-up stretches before, please arrive by 10am and bring a mat if you can.
Running is not required! You can also walk, roll, or cheer. 5K is two loops around the park and at a walking pace will take about 45-60 minutes. Light refreshments and socializing will take place in the park afterward.
This year’s event will benefit the ABCF Warchest and Weelaunee forest defenders facing repression from the ongoing efforts to #StopCopCity. Join us as we once again raise energy and funds for the freedom of political prisoners and the struggles they are caged for.

Cop City Will Never Be Built!
Vive vive Tortuguita!
#StopCopCity #DefendWeelaunee #JusticeForTort

If you cannot make it to the event or would like to make an additional contribution, please sponsor a participant either outside prison, inside prison, or one of each. Contact us for more information on sponsoring!
The ABCF Warchest program sends monthly stipends to political prisoners and prisoners of war who have insufficient, little, or no financial support. Since inception, the program has gathered almost $235,000, and this year’s event is sure to bump that over $250,000! Due to the abominable conditions that political prisoners and freedom fighters are subjected to, and the prevalence of health issues from medical neglect, they need our support now more than ever. Join us as we celebrate our successes this last year and build momentum for the struggles ahead! We will both celebrate Dr. Mutulu Shakur’s release from prison since our last event and recommit ourselves to the ideals he dedicated his life to <3.

🚂 Model Internet Club
2023-09-17 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Model Internet Club meets again on Sunday, September 17th, 1–5 p.m. Newcomers are welcome.
The network is up and running! We now have a DHCP server, a DNS server with custom domain names, and handful of websites running as virtual hosts in Apache. There’s a local bulletin board in the works, and we’re considering our options for connecting wi-fi access points.
We’re looking for websites to run on our local network! If you have an idea, email iffybooks@iffybooks.net or join us on September 17th.
We’re also looking for Cisco network switches to help expand the network. If you have one lying around, please get in touch!
Here’s a photo of the model internet in action:

And here’s a diagram of our plans for the network (so far):

💻 Philly JS Club Hack Night
2023-09-22 17:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Bring your laptops and hang out with fellow community members of Philly JS Club for an evening of hacking on personal projects.
➡️ Register on Eventbrite
The Philadelphia JavaScript Club, founded in 2022, is a place for developers of all skill and experience levels to connect, show off their work, and learn new things.
We are devoted to being good citizens: we’re here to help support individual and organizational development, to connect developers with the events going on in Philadelphia, and to provide a safe space for people to try new things. We want to empower everyone who joins us to build the best things they can build; we want to help make instant friends amongst the developers who call Philadelphia home.
We’re happy for you to join us.

🖼 Steganography for Everyone
2023-09-23 16:00 - 18:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Saturday, September 23rd at 4 p.m. we’re running a beginner-friendly workshop on steganography. You’ll use the command-line program steghide to hide encrypted messages in JPEG files in a way that’s theoretically undetectable.
We’ll have computers to share, but bring a laptop if you have one! If you’re using macOS or Windows, we recommend installing Docker before the event. This workshop is presented in collaboration with Practice Gallery.
Steganography is the practice of representing information within another message or physical object, in such a manner that the presence of the information is not evident to human inspection. In computing/electronic contexts, a computer file, message, image, or video is concealed within another file, message, image, or video. The word steganography comes from Greek steganographia, which combines the words steganós (στεγανός), meaning “covered or concealed”, and -graphia (γραφή) meaning “writing”. (Wikipedia)
Flyer art by Pixel
Register:

Echo Broadcast is an exhibition at Practice Gallery that explores fear and reverence to our complex relationship to ubiquitous technologies. The show highlights artists whose works are grounded in material reality, debunking the effortlessness of the cloud, examining techno-spiritualism, tech-capitalism, and the idea of the techno-utopian future.
Artists and organizations involved in the exhibition include: Suzanne Kite, Jenny Vogel, Meredith Haines, Joshua Marquez, Charlotte Greene, Quarantine Public Library, Iffy Books, Sound Museum Collective, and Lino Kino. The exhibition is curated by Quinton Maldonado and Jazmyn Crosby.

📊 Python Data Visualization for Beginners
2023-09-24 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, September 24th at 1:00 p.m. we’re hosting a workshop on creating charts and graphs with the Python programming language. We’ll use the modules matplotlib to create a range of common plots: histogram, pie chart, bar graph, line graph, and scatter plot. We’ll use Jupyter Notebook to keep our code organized.
This workshop is designed with beginners in mind, including people who don’t have programming experience. More experienced programmers are welcome too!
We’ll have a computer available for everyone who signs up.
Registration:

This is a free event, but donations are appreciated.

Narcan Training with Unity Recovery
2023-09-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, September 24th at 6 p.m. we’re hosting a free training session from Unity Recovery on when and how to administer naloxone (a.k.a. Narcan) to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. They’ll also demonstrate how to use Fentanyl test strips.
Unity Recovery is a recovery community organization (RCO) serving the Philadelphia (PA), Pittsburgh (PA), and Weatherford (TX) communities. We believe recovery is an individualized and dynamic process, and support those with mental health or substance use disorders, no matter the pathway you use.
In each of our communities, we offer non-clinical peer-based recovery support services at our community centers, via telerecovery (video, phone, and chat), and in person out in the community.
Register (optional):

🪐 Speculative Futures Reading Group: 'A Half-Built Garden' by Ruthanna Emrys
2023-09-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On September 27th at 7:00 p.m. we’ll meet to discuss the novel A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys. Hope to see you there!
Get the audiobook on Libro.fm.

⚡️ Intermediate Soldering Session
2023-09-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Thursday, September 28th from 6–8 p.m. we’re hosting an intermediate soldering session. We’ll have soldering irons and solder to share for free, as well as DIY electronics kits for sale. Or bring your own project!
Register:

👾 Hackers' Assembly Meetup
2023-09-29 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Join us Friday, September 29th for an event hosted by Hackers’ Assembly. Stay tuned for details!

🌳 Stop Cop City: An Autonomously Planned Event
2023-09-30 12:00 - 19:00 | Grays Ferry Crescent Skatepark, 3600 Grays Ferry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA, 19146, United States
September 30th, 2023 | 12 p.m.–dark
Gray’s Ferry Crescent Skatepark
Learn about the movement and how to help.
Connect through skillshares, music, and people.
Celebrate the joy of living strong together.

🎤 The Future is Ahead: Five Poets & Open Mic
2023-09-30 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
~ // THE FUTURE IS AHEAD // ~ will feature 5 poets, then an open mic (in which perhaps YOU may close us out?). Doors at 6:00, first reader at 6:15, open mic from 7:25 until 8:00.

Readings by:
Roach
Lydia Host
Evangeline Brooks
Rishi Devi
Dillon Thomas Jones
The Future IS in fact ahead. For this reading’s themes, consider:
Grocery shopping with a full stomach, eraser tops, looking for an omen, a billboard painted like the sky, believing you’ll get what you need, dance class, your favorite trinket, pennies.
We’ll also have time to browse and purchase the incredible books, zines & more here at Iffy Books.
If you’d like to read at the open mic, we ask that you fill out this form first, so we know to expect you!

☀️🌱 Anthotypes Workshop
2023-10-01 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Anthotypes Workshop
Sunday, October 1, 2023, 1–3pm
with Jazmyn Crosby, Kelsey Skaroff, and Elizabeth Shores
In this hands-on workshop, participants create photographs with plants using a non-toxic technique called anthotyping. Participants will first walk outside together to learn how to identify local plants and infrastructural elements as symptoms of politico-economic processes while responsibly foraging for anthotype materials. Next, participants will return to Iffy Books to create anthotypes together using materials gathered during the walk. This public workshop is free for all ages. No prior experience is necessary.
Register:

🪡 Hands-On Darning Workshop
2023-10-01 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
On Sunday, October 1st at 3:30 p.m. we’re hosting a darning workshop and mending session. Total beginners welcome!
Register:

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: 'The Human Use of Human Beings' by Norbert Wiener
2023-10-03 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
Our next book for the Neo-Luddite Reading Group will be The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener (1950, revised 1954). Let’s split this one in three, since mostly everyone seemed to like the idea of splitting the book into parts. That means for our meeting on October 3rd, we’ll discuss up to Chapter 3 (until p 48). We’ll finish it at the start of December.
Meetup link
After that we’ll read Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin (could maybe pair it with chapters from Artificial Whiteness, unless we just feel like reading it in its entirety in the future.

🔐 Philly 2600 Meetup + TOOOL Meetup
2023-10-06 18:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Philly 2600 meetup will be at Iffy Books on Friday, October 6th, starting at 6:00 p.m. See you there!
> The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.
We’re also hosting a meetup for the Philadelphia Chapter of the Open Organization of Lockpickers:
> Come join us for our monthly First Friday Open Pick Night at Iffy Books! Whether you’re a novice who just stumbled upon LockpickingLawyer, a seasoned safecracker, or somewhere in between, come join us for a evening of fun as we pop some locks.

🚂 Model Internet Club
2023-10-07 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books (319 N. 11th St.), 319 N. 11th St. #2I, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, United States
The Model Internet Club meets again on Saturday, October 7th, 1–5 p.m. Newcomers are welcome.
The network is up and running! We now have a DHCP server, a DNS server with custom domain names, and handful of websites running as virtual hosts in Apache. There’s a local bulletin board in the works, and we’re considering our options for connecting wi-fi access points.
We’re looking for websites to run on our local network! If you have an idea, email iffybooks@iffybooks.net or join us on October 7th.
Here’s a photo of the model internet in action:

And here’s a diagram of our plans for the network (so far):
