Iffy Books | 404 S. 20th St., PHL

⚡️ Intermediate Soldering Session
2024-04-25 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
We host an intermediate soldering class on the fourth Thursday of every month. 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 for April

Register for May
(coming soon)

🪐 Speculative Futures Reading Group: 'The Hard Tomorrow' by Eleanor Davis
2024-04-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Stay tuned for more details!

📄 Open Zine Printing Session
2024-04-24 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We’re hosting an open zine printing session on Wednesday, April 24th from 1–5 p.m.! We’ll help you turn your zine design into a print-imposed PDF and print ~200 sheets for free.
(Registration coming soon!)

🌻 Everyday Futures Fest Block Party
2024-04-21 12:00 - 17:00 | 7th and Catharine St., PHL
We’ll be tabling at the DVAA Everyday Futures Fest block party!

📻 Software-Defined Radio Demo Day
2024-04-20 13:00 - 18:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Saturday, April 20th we’ll spend all day scanning through the RF spectrum with a software-defined radio device and a large discone antenna. We don’t have a plan, aside from exploring and listening all day. Stop by any time!
Here’s our zine on software-defined radio.
Image source

✏️ The Writing Room
2024-04-18 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-04-04 17:00 - 19:30, 2024-03-21 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.

🩹 Bleeding Control Basics
2024-04-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Face masks required!
Presented by Untitled Medical Collective in association with Philly SRA, Bleeding Control Basics will go over first aid as it applies to severe bleeding. We will cover scene safety, injury assessment, basic bleeding control, and tourniquet application. This class doesn’t provide any kind of certification, and is just meant to provide essential information to as many people as possible.
If you have any questions about class content, reach out to untitledmedical@proton.me.
Register:

🏄 IP Addressing Basics
2024-04-14 15:30 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Sunday, April 14th at 3:30 p.m. | A talk by Gaia
Ever been curious as to how your home WiFi works? Maybe you’ve heard of an IP address, but don’t really know where to start. Maybe you want to know why your IP address can tell a website where you live? If any of these apply, this event is for you! This is a beginner-focused event which will go introduce attendees to what an IP Address is, IP address types, the components of an IP address, how IP addresses are distributed, and how these apply to the way you use the internet or any other IP-based network. This session’s focus is IPv4 addressing and protocols that leverage it, but there is some IPv6 content as well.

🎤 Collide Zine Open Mic
2024-04-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on Saturday, April 13th at 6 p.m. for an open mic reading from the folks at Collide Zine. Stay tuned for more details.
In the meantime, stop by the shop and get issue 6 for $10!

😻 Are you anarcho-curious?
2024-04-13 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Are you anarcho-curious? Bring your thoughts and questions to an open discussion!
This is a joint event with Wooden Shoe Books.

🌺 Let’s Make Wildflower Seed Balls!
2024-04-12 14:00 - 18:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Stop by Iffy Books on Friday, April 12th from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and make your own seed balls with native wildflower seeds. We’ll have plenty of supplies to share!

⚡️ Beginner Soldering Workshop
2024-04-11 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Thursday, April 11th 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:

🚂 Model Internet Club
2024-04-10 17:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
(Rescheduled from the 17th. Sorry about that!)
The Model Internet Club meets again on Wednesday, April 10th, 5:00–7:30 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. And we now have a wi-fi access point!
We’re looking for websites to run on our local network. If you have an idea, email iffybooks@iffybooks.net or join us for our next meeting. If you’ve never created a website with HTML before, here’s a guide to get you started.

📚 Philly Socialists Reading Group: ‘Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict’ by Phil A. Neel (through chapter 4)
2024-04-07 16:00 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
(Rescheduled from March 31st)
We’ll finish discussing the book Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict by Phil A. Neel. Email us at admin@phillysocialists.org for more details.
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 website https://phillysocialists.org

🌞 Closed Sunday, April 7th
2024-04-07 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We’re closed Sunday, April 7th because we’re traveling to see the eclipse. We apologize for the inconvenience!
Photo credit

📼 Free VHS Swap
2024-04-06 13:00 - 16:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
April 6th 1-4pm
404 S. 20th Street
Bring some VHS tapes to trade & bring some new ones home 🙂
VHS players & camcorders are welcome too!
masks recommended
organized by @iffybooks @bee__daddy @freshlittlesalad

💻 Philly 2600 Meetup
2024-04-05 18:00 - 20:30 | 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.

👾 DC215 Meetup: Blue Team Village talk with Chris Maenner
2024-04-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us Wednesday, April 3rd at 6 p.m. for a DC215 talk with Chris Maenner!
Seamless Security: Automating Cross-Cloud Defenses with Kubernetes Operators
In the rapidly evolving cloud landscape, startups face unique security challenges that demand innovative and scalable solutions. This presentation explores the pivotal role of Kubernetes Operators in automating security practices within startups’ platforms across different cloud environments. We’ll dive into how Kubernetes Operators can be leveraged to seamlessly integrate security measures, ensuring that startups not only accelerate their time to market but also maintain rigorous security standards. Through practical examples and insights drawn from real-world implementations, attendees will learn about the strategies, benefits, and considerations involved in adopting Kubernetes Operators for security automation.

💥 Laser Stamp & Stencil Session with Hive76
2024-03-30 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Join us on Saturday, March 30th from 1–3 p.m. and create your own custom stencil or rubber stamp, up to 4″x4″! We’ll be using a tabletop laser cutter provided by the folks at Hive76. It’s free! You’ll need to bring a vector graphic or a high-res black-and-white image file to create your stencil/stamp.
Space is limited, so email iffybooks@iffybooks.net if you sign up but can’t make it.
Register for 1 p.m.

Register for 2 p.m.

⚡️ Intermediate Soldering Session
2024-03-28 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Thursday, March 28th at 6 p.m. we’re hosting an intermediate soldering class. 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:

🪐 Speculative Futures Reading Group: 'Native Tongue' by Suzette Haden Elgin
2024-03-27 19:00 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Wednesday, March 27th at 7:00 p.m. we’ll meet to discuss the novel Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin. Hope to see you there!

💾🌾 Iffy Books Permacomputing Meetup
2024-03-24 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Our next permacomputing meetup is on Sunday, March 24th at 1:00 PM EDT. 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)

🌺 Let’s Make Wildflower Seed Balls!
2024-03-23 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Stop by Iffy Books on Saturday, March 23rd from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and make your own seed balls with native wildflower seeds. We’ll have plenty of supplies to share!

🩹 Bleeding Control Basics
2024-03-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Wednesday, March 20th, 2024 at 6 p.m.
Face masks required!
Presented by Untitled Medical Collective in association with Philly SRA, Bleeding Control Basics will go over first aid as it applies to severe bleeding. We will cover scene safety, injury assessment, basic bleeding control, and tourniquet application. This class doesn’t provide any kind of certification, and is just meant to provide essential information to as many people as possible.
If you have any questions about class content, reach out to untitledmedical@proton.me.
Register:

⚙️ Neo-Luddite Reading Group: ‘Race After Technology’ by Ruha Benjamin
2024-03-19 18:30 - 20:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Our current book for the Neo-Luddite Reading Group is Race After Technology (2019) by Ruha Benjamin. We’ll meet Tuesday, February 20th at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the introduction through chapter 2.
Meetup link
➡️ Official schedule
“Remember to imagine and craft the worlds you cannot live without, just as you dismantle the ones you cannot live within.” -R. Benjamin

Contact:
neoluddite@victorgom.es
Twitter
Bluesky
Substack
3rd Tuesday each month 6:30-8:30 @ Iffy Books
Discord: Email neoluddite@victorgom.es for an invite!
The issues and harms surrounding emerging technologies are especially concerning given the lack of regulation in the tech industry generally, and the tendency of productivity-increasing technology to further concentrate power in the hands of the few. This reading group will explore these risks and engage with how they work in the hopes of better organizing to protect the rights of workers and individuals. The goal is to have a better understanding of the costs (data, carbon, human labor) and risks (misinformation, unpredictability, bias) of making these machines, as well as limitations in what they can learn about the world primarily through text.We’re currently reading Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin and will decide what to read next at our first session of the year.So far, we’ve read “Resisting AI: An Anti-fascist Approach to Artificial Intelligence” by Dan McQuillian and The Human Use of Human Beings by Norbert Wiener. The following archived pages include more Information on those sessions: Resist AI and The Human Use of Human Beings. If you’d like to learn more about me, you can visit victorgom.es for a bio.
Schedule
If you’re joining for the first time, I’d suggest you read this before anything else for some historical 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.
The author kindly provides a free reading guide on her website, so I’d reccomend checking it out for the relevant chapters prior to each meeting to get you thinking. 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 (Jan. 16th):📖 Race After Technology

Preface & Introduction

🎥 Are We Automating Racism? by Vox
🎙️ Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000: Let’s Do the Time Warp! by Emily Bender & Alex Hanna

1. Engineered Inequity

🗞️ In Retrospect: The unseen Black faces of AI algorithms by Abeba Birhane
📜 The Whiteness of AI by Stephen Cave & Kanta Dihal

2. Default Discrimination

📜 The Surveillance AI Pipeline by Pratyusha Ria Kalluri
🎙️ Timnit Gebru Looks at Corporate AI and Sees a Lot of Bad Science by Reimagining the Internet

Meeting 2 (February. 20th):📖 Race After Technology

3. Coded Exposure

📜 Large language models propagate race-based medicine by Jesutofunmi A. Omiye, Jenna C. Lester, Simon Spichak, Veronica Rotemberg & Roxana Daneshjou
🎥 Signing Black in America by The TALKING BLACK in AMERICA Project

4. Technological Benevolence

📜 Power to the People? Opportunities and Challenges for Participatory AI by Birhane, A., Isaac, W., Prabhakaran, V., DC-az, M., Elish, M., Gabriel, I., Mohamed, S.
🗞️ How Inclusive New AI Model Latimer Can Fight Bias by Kalina Bryant

5. Retooling Solidarity, Reimagining Justice

📜 Reclaiming AI as a theoretical tool for cognitive science by Iris van Rooij, Olivia Guest, Federico G Adolfi, Ronald de Haan, Antonina Kolokolova, and Patricia Rich
🎙️ Confronting Our Reality: Racial Representation and Systemic Transformation with Dr. Timnit Gebru by The Radical AI Podcast

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

Potential Future Reads

📖 Blood in the Machine: The Origins of Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant
📖 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 Doctorw

Links to more links

Critical Lenses on AI by Iris van Rooij
A Luddite Library by LibrarianShipwreck
Resources by Ruha Benjamin

More on Luddites

I’m a Luddite. You should be one too by Jathan Sadowski
Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite? by Thomas Pynchon
Byron Was One of the Few Prominent Defenders of the Luddites by Kat Eschner
Ned Ludd & Queen Mab: machine-breaking, romanticism, and the several commons of 1811-12 by Peter Linebaugh

Poems

Song for The Luddites by Lord Byron
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

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📚 Philly Socialists Reading Group: ‘Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict’ by Phil A. Neel (through chapter 3)
2024-03-17 16:00 - 17:30 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
We’ll continue discussing the book Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict by Phil A. Neel. Email us at admin@phillysocialists.org for more details.
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 website https://phillysocialists.org

🪡 Hands-On Darning Workshop
2024-03-17 13:00 - 15:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
On Sunday, March 17th from 1 to 3 p.m. we’re hosting a darning workshop and mending session. Total beginners welcome!
Here’s our darning how-to zine.
Register:

🌺 Let’s Make Wildflower Seed Balls!
2024-03-16 13:00 - 17:00 | Iffy Books, 404 S. 20th St., Philadelphia, 19146, United States
Stop by Iffy Books on Saturday, March 16th from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and make your own seed balls with native wildflower seeds. We’ll have plenty of supplies to share!
