✨ Poetry at Iffy Books: Alan Felsenthal, Kendra Sullivan, Dobby Gibson, Bridget Talone
2024-11-15 20:30 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Friday night reading! Poets Alan Felsenthal, Dobby Gibson and Kendra Sullivan are coming to IFFY to read from their new books. Joined by Bridget Talone. Hosted by Josef Kaplan. ✨There will be books, there will be bevs✨ No cover, come through!
Doors at 8
Reading at 8:30

🚴 Basic Bike Repair
2024-11-16 14:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Biking is an empowering and sustainable way to get around the city (and beyond!), get some exercise and just have fun. With simple tools and a little know-how, it’s easy to keep your bike running smoothly. This workshop is designed for total beginners who want to learn the essentials of bike maintenance and repair.
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll cover the absolute basics, so no prior experience is needed. You’ll learn:
• How bikes work: a simple introduction to braking, gear shifting, and other core mechanics.
• Basic preventative maintenance: easy routines like checking tire pressure and applying lubrication to keep your bike in good condition.
• Simple fixes for common problems: step-by-step guidance on repairing flat tires, tightening brakes, and more—using basic tools.
This workshop is all about empowering you to feel confident with your bike. Just bring your bike along and we’ll guide you through every step!
Register:

Photo CC-BY Adam Baker

📚 Philly Socialists Reading Group
2024-11-17 16:00 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Beyond the Slogan presents:
Hal Draper’s ‘Anatomy of the Micro Sect’: Reading Group Meetup & Discussion
Open to all!
Iffy Books
Sun Nov 17th
4 PM – 5:30 PM
> This group is open to anyone committed to collective learning and liberation whether they are a member of Philly Socialists or not. We aim to tackle challenging theoretical texts together. Rather than finding ‘the correct reading’ of a text, the goal of group is to collectively find tools from texts for creating a better world.
> Philly Socialists is a political organization committed to creating a just and sustainable future for ourselves and our planet. As socialists, we believe in freedom, democracy, and the right to basic human dignity. Capitalism denies us all these. Only revolutionary change that ends capitalism will win us the future we deserve. And only a massive, organized force can get us there. If you are interested in finding out more, please find us at our reading website or email us admin@phillysocialists.org

✏️ The Writing Room
2024-11-19 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-11-26 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-12-03 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-12-10 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-12-17 17:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
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.

🖇️ Volunteer Zine Folding Session
2024-11-20 14:00 - 16:00, 2024-12-04 14:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We print a *lot* of zines at Iffy Books, which we distribute for free or by donation. That means we’re constantly folding and stapling, which takes patience. And we’re currently having a hard time keeping all 150+ titles in stock.

So we’re running a volunteer zine folding session every other Wednesday afternoon! If you’ve been looking for a way to get involved at the shop, here’s your chance. (We’re limiting the number of sign-ups because we only have three booklet staplers.)
Register:

If you register and you can’t make it, let us know at iffybooks@iffybooks.net. Thanks!

🪐 Speculative Futures Reading Group: 'Who Fears Death' by Nnedi Okorafor
2024-11-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us Wednesday, November 27th at 7 p.m. to discuss the novel Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor.

📚 Capital Reading Group
2024-11-21 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on the first and third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. for a reading group on Capital by Karl Marx.
For our November 21st meeting we’ll be reading up to Chapter 3, Section 3: Money.
We’ll be reading Paul Reitter’s recent translation (Princeton University Press, 2024).

🎤 Audio Recording Basics
2024-11-22 15:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us for a workshop on the basics of recording audio! We’ll discuss mic technique, audio hardware, recording conditions, and software options. Everyone will get a chance to make a recording with Audacity and start editing with Reaper.
Register

📙 Collide Zine 8 Release Party at Tattooed Mom
2024-11-24 12:00 - 17:00 | Tattooed Mom, 530 South St, Philadelphia, PA, 19147, United States
See y’all at Tattooed Mom for the Collide Zine issue #8 release party!

💾🌾 Permacomputing Meetup
2024-11-25 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
The Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup returns on Monday, November 25th from 6:30–8:30 p.m. EST. You can join us in person at Iffy Books (404 S. 20th St., 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)

🎵 Open Cassette Mixtape Session
2024-11-27 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Bring a playlist on your phone/computer and we’ll help you record it to an audio cassette tape. We have plenty of tapes!
Stop by any time 1-5 p.m. No registration needed! This event is free/by donation.

📚 Philly Socialists Reading Group
2024-12-01 16:00 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
This group is open to anyone committed to collective learning and liberation whether they are a member of Philly Socialists or not. We aim to tackle challenging theoretical texts together. Rather than finding ‘the correct reading’ of a text, the goal of group is to collectively find tools from texts for creating a better world.
Philly Socialists is a political organization committed to creating a just and sustainable future for ourselves and our planet. As socialists, we believe in freedom, democracy, and the right to basic human dignity. Capitalism denies us all these. Only revolutionary change that ends capitalism will win us the future we deserve. And only a massive, organized force can get us there. If you are interested in finding out more, please find us at our reading website or email us admin@phillysocialists.org

🎄 Soldering Village Workshop
2024-12-04 17:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join DC215 for a hands-on Soldering Village Workshop at Iffy Books! Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to sharpen your skills, this event is perfect for anyone interested in learning the art of soldering. Kits will be available for purchase, and donations are welcome to support our group. We’ll provide guided instruction to help you master this essential technique. Come ready to create, learn, and have fun in a supportive, engaging environment!
Registration for this event is optional! Stop by any time from 5 to 8 p.m.! We’ll have ~12 soldering irons to share, so we’ll operate on a first come, first served basis.

📚 Capital Reading Group
2024-12-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on the first and third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. for a reading group on Capital by Karl Marx.
We’ll be reading Paul Reitter’s recent translation (Princeton University Press, 2024).

October 17:
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, Chapters 1–5
• Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill, Chapter 1
November 7: Chapter 1, section 1
November 21: Chapter 1, section 2
December 5: 4. Chapter 1, section 3
December 19: Chapter 1, section 4
January 2: Recap and discussion
January 16: Chapter 2
February 6: Chapter 3, section 1
February 20: Chapter 3, section 2
March 6: Chapter 3, section 3
March 20: Chapter 4 ..

💻 B-Sides Philly
2024-12-06 08:00 - 18:00 | Live! Casino, 900 Packer Ave., Philadelphia, 19148, United States
We’ll be tabling at B-Sides Philly on December 6th. Stay tuned for more details!

💻 Philly 2600 Meetup
2024-12-06 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
> The Philly 2600 meeting is a monthly gathering of local hackers, phreaks, nerds, geeks, activists, tinkerers, developers, infosec professionals, and other interesting people.

🛜 Behind the Scenes with Philly Community Wireless
2024-12-07 11:00 - 12:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on Saturday, December 7th at 11 a.m. EST for a presentation by the folks at Philly Community Wireless.
🎥 Video Stream Link
> Philly Community Wireless is a volunteer-led coalition of technologists and organizers working to build community controlled wireless internet networks in Philadelphia. We are committed to growing tech literacy, expanding internet access, and building community autonomy with our neighbors. We believe that internet access is a human right. Questions? Check out our FAQ.

🎶 Intro to Computer Music: Chaos and Shift Registers in Max with Dr. Matt
2024-12-09 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
The modeling of chaotic systems is one of the most exciting and fruitful areas within the discipline of generative music. In this workshop, participants will commune with the same alien logics found within mythical devices such as Buchla synthesizers and Robert Hordijk’s benjolin via the construction of a linear feedback shift register (LFSR). While often described as random number sequence generators, we will witness firsthand how the output of these chaotic systems can generate complex repeating rhythms and melodies from software-based synthesizers and MIDI-enabled hardware. To accomplish this task, we will be using the graphical programming platform Max [cycling74.com/downloads/]. No musical or computer programming experience is necessary, but participants are encouraged to download Max ahead of time and take a look. Please bring your own laptops, if possible. For questions, please contact instructor Matt O’Hare at me@mattohare.com or reach out on instagram at @waterworld_part2.
Register

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' by Shoshana Zuboff
2024-12-11 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Our next book for the Neo-Luddite Reading Group is The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff (2019).
➡️ Virtual Meetup Link
Discord: Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
Full schedule: victorgom.es/neoluddite
If you’re joining for the first time, I’d suggest you read this before anything else for brief context: What the Luddites Really Fought Against by Richard Conniff.The only expectation is that you read the chapter(s) of the book that’s listed for that meeting. You’re still welcome to participate if you haven’t done the readings as long as you are mindful. For each chapter, I’ve also noted some optional readings for context, so I’d suggest checking those out rather than reading ahead in the book. And remember, if you ever find yourself struggling with any of the readings or concepts, reach out! Either directly to me over email or to the entire group over discord.

Meeting 1 (Dec. 11th):📖 Introduction & Part One: The Foundations of Surveillance Capitalism

1. Home or exile in the digital future

Gemini intelligence is coming to Google Home by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy

2. August 9, 2011: Setting the Stage for Surveillance Capitalism

🗞️ Artificial intelligence is going to supercharge surveillance by James Vincent

3. The Discovery of Behavioral Surplus

🗞️ Everyone should decide how their digital data are used – not just tech companies by Jathan Sadowski, Salomé Viljoen, Meredith Whittaker

4. The Moat Around the Castle

Google “We Have No Moat, And Neither Does OpenAI” by Dylan Patel and Afzal Ahmad

5. The Elaboration of Surveillance Capitalism: Kidnap, Corner, Compete

🗞️ Do platforms work? by George Zarkadakis

6. Hijacked: The Division of Learning in Society

🗞️ Writing and Learning to Write in the Age of AI by Jane Rosenzweig

Meeting 2 (Jan. 8th):📖 Part II: The Advance of Surveillance Capitalism

7. The Reality Business

TBA

8. Rendition: From Experience to Data

📜 Will we run out of data? An analysis of the limits of scaling datasets in Machine Learning by Pablo Villalobos, Jaime Sevilla, Lennart Heim, Tamay Besiroglu, Marius Hobbhahn, & Anson Ho

9. Rendition from the Depths.

TBA

10. Make Them Dance

TBA

11. The Right to the Future Tense

🎥 On Bureaucratic Technologies and the Future as Dream-Time by David Graeber

Meeting 3 (Feb. 12th):📖 Part III: Instrumentarian Power for a Third Modernity & Conclusion

12. Two Species of Power

TBA

13. Big Other and the Rise of Instrumentarian Power

TBA

14. A Utopia of Certainty

TBA

15. The Instrumentarian Collective

🎥 The Case Against B.F. Skinner by Noam Chomsky

16. Of Life in the Hive

🎥 Can’t Get You Out of My Head E1 by Adam Curtis

17. The Right to Sanctuary

TBA

18. A Coup from Above”

🎵 Spain by W.H. Auden

Additional resources

Outreach Resources & Guides

📜 Digital Defense Playbook: Community Power Tools for Reclaiming Data by Our Data Bodies
📜 A People’s Guide to AI by Mimi Onuoha and Mother Cyborg (Diana Nucera)
📜 Algorithmic Accountability: A Primer by Data & Society
🗞️ Prior to (or instead of) using ChatGPT with your students by Autumn Caines

Potential Future Reads

📖 Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor by Virginia Eubanks
📖 Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant by John Zerzan & Alice Carnes
📖 Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment by Michael Huesemann & Joyce Huesemann
📖 Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor by Kim Kelly
📖 The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation by Cory Doctorow

Links to more links

📋 Critical Lenses on AI by Iris van Rooij
📋 Resources by Ruha Benjamin

More on Luddites

🗞️ I’m a Luddite. You should be one too by Jathan Sadowski
🗞️ Byron Was One of the Few Prominent Defenders of the Luddites by Kat Eschner

Poems

🎵 A Luddite Lullaby by Don Bogen
🎵 All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace by Richard Brautigan
🎵 I Am the People, the Mob by Carl Sandburg
🎵 They Say This Isn’t a Poem by Kenneth Rexroth
🎵 Under Which Lyre by W.H. Auden
🎵 When I Heard The Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman

🔍 How to Investigate Your Government: Researching Security Institutions & Their Contractors
2024-12-16 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Interested in learning public records techniques for exposing the relationships between corporations and Western security agencies?
Investigative journalist Jack Poulson will provide an overview of U.S. federal procurement analysis methodology which led the Pentagon to confirm deleting $200 million in artificial intelligence-based surveillance contracts from public record. High-level overviews will also be provided for analyzing government contracts across the Five Eyes, EU, and Israel, and how to curate your own mirror to such records for possible integration with Form 990 tax filings, lobbying filings, campaign contributions, and open source research, as the author has done through techinquiry.org.
Bring a laptop if you have one!

🖇️ Volunteer Zine Folding Session
2024-12-18 14:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We print a *lot* of zines at Iffy Books, which we distribute for free or by donation. That means we’re constantly folding and stapling, which takes patience. And we’re currently having a hard time keeping all 150+ titles in stock.

So we’re running a volunteer zine folding session every other Wednesday afternoon! If you’ve been looking for a way to get involved at the shop, here’s your chance. (We’re limiting the number of sign-ups because we only have three booklet staplers.)
Register:
coming soon!

If you register and you can’t make it, let us know at iffybooks@iffybooks.net. Thanks!

📚 Capital Reading Group
2024-12-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on the first and third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. for a reading group on Capital by Karl Marx.
Here’s what we’re reading for December 19th:
• Chapter 1, Section 4
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3, Section 1
We’re reading Paul Reitter’s recent translation (Princeton University Press, 2024).

🧷 Punk Rock Flea Market: Night Market on 12/20
2024-12-20 16:00 - 22:00 | 23rd St. Armory, 22 S. 23rd St., Philadelphia, PA, 19103, United States
On Friday, December 20th we’ll be at the Punk Rock Flea Market at the 23rd Street Armory (22 S. 23rd St.) from 4 to 10 p.m. See y’all there!

🔓 T̶O̶O̶O̶L̶ ̶L̶o̶c̶k̶ ̶P̶i̶c̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶M̶e̶e̶t̶u̶p̶ (Join us next month!)
2024-12-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
This month’s lock picking meetup is canceled. Sorry about that! The next one is on January 17th.
Original description:
The third Friday of every month from 6–8 p.m. we host 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.

📡 Meshtastic 101
2024-12-23 15:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us for an introduction to Meshtastic, an application that lets you send private text messages over the air using pocket-sized LoRa radio transceivers. We’ll show you how to flash the latest Meshtastic firmware to the device, customize the settings, and start chatting with your friends.
Here’s a link to our zine on LoRa + Meshtastic.
Register:
Registration for this event is now closed. We'll offer it again soon!
