Anarchist counter-culture festival Black Pispala will be held this year during the second weekend of July, 8.-11.7.2010. Events will take place around Pispala, Tampere (Finland), including Hirvitalo, Kurpitsatalo, Vastavirta-klubi, and Pub Kujakolli.

The festival program will focus in particular on the analysis of anarchist organization and planning as well as sharing practical skills through workshops relating to local plant use, first aid and other things.

The discussions concerning organization are intended to provide an overview of past and current anarchist projects and initiate plans for future activities and cooperative endeavors. Some workshops will present different projects and discuss ways in which organization can occur in different situations. We invite people involved in past and current projects to share their experiences.

In addition to the workshops there will be food, celebrating and gigs, of which some are free and have no age limit. The program also accounts for children and their parents. We will also try our best to provide child care during workshops. A book-fair will be held during the festival, and we welcome all distros and other vendors of literature to join.

Accommodation will be available at various locations. Please let us know if you need a place to stay. In addition, please mention any special requests or important information: whether you have animals or children with you, allergies, etc.

There is also still room for workshops and other events. If you would like to organize something, or otherwise be involved in planning the festival, please contact us as soon as possible at: mustapispala (at) takku (dot) net.

---Info about workshops - please note that changes and further information will be added weekly before the festival!---

Anarchy in Karelia! Introduction of a community housing project.
A group of local activists have bought an old elementary school building in the village of Rumo in Valtimo, North Karelia. The idea is to have the school inhabited and organize activities there. None of the people who own the building are not going to move in to the building, so they are looking for people who are interested in moving there. The purpose of this workshop is to inform people about this project.

The building is built 1940 and is in a fairly good condition. The school has a large classroom, a sports hall, a food storage in basement and 3 small bedrooms and 2 kitchens. Around the school there is a lot of 3 hectares. The school is located by the road number E3 in sparsely inhabited countryside. The place provides opportunities for anything from permaculture to organizing festivals, according to the interests of the people involved.

Bike kitchen
In the bike kitchen we're learning together the basic bike-fixing skills by repairing old bikes. Bring your own bike or fix yourself a new one from the bike parts in our storage. You'll find plenty of bikes, spare parts and the basic tools at the bike kitchen. Consider reserving enough time for fixing your bike if you're not familiar with bike repairing. It might take a while to get your bike done!
During the first session there is a short introduction about fixing and maintaining a bicycle, rest of the time is for freestyle bike repairing. The workshop is free of charge.

In the garden of Hirvitalo (Hirvikatu 10) 9.-11.7. 14h-18h

Anarchism and fiction
A brief and arguably entertaining evening with Margaret Killjoy, editor of Mythmakers & Lawbreakers. Discuss the role of storytelling in the anarchist movement! Learn about novelist assassins, post-colonial african squatters, writers who fought in revolutions and went on to write childrens’ stories! Find out what Tolkien, Camus, Orwell, and Kafka have to say about anarchism!

Movies of Yerevanian artist activist group ART-LABORATORY and a presentation about the political situation in Armenia
The members of Art Laboratory are artists graduated from Yerevan Art Academy in Armenia. Before the screening there is a brief introduction to the political situation in Armenia from the beginning of the 20th century until today. There are five movies and the length of the screening is approximately 33 minutes.

The events that led to making of these films were demonstrations on the 1st of March 2008 on the Liberty Square in Yerevan. The people were demonstrating against the government, and the most active demonstrators stayed at the square in their tents for 10 days. During the daytime other folks gathered at the square. FInally the army and the police demolished the demonstration and several people were wounded and killed during the conflict.

The video works deal with the demonstration, its preparations and its results both politically and symbolically from the viewpoint of their artistic profession.

The video works and their durations are:
- Teos 1, Untitled, Ara Petrosyan, 04:04
- Teos 2, Jihad, Arthur Petrosyan, 00:57
- Teos 3, Masterclass no. 1, Edgar Amroyan, 10:36
- Teos 4, Untitled, Narine Zolyan, 13:12
- Teos 5, Politicizing the walk, Hovannes Margaryan, 02:34

The members of Art Laboratory are ARTHUR PETROSYAN, ARA PETROSYAN, EDGAR AMROYAN, NARINE ZOLYAN and HOVHANNES MARGARYAN

Anarchism in The USA
Over 2.3 million people are in jail in the United States, and non-violent sabateurs and anarchist activists are being charged--and sentenced--as terrorists. Yet the anarchist movement and culture is still vibrant and diverse, fighting against neo-imperialism and ecological destruction from within its very heart. Come learn a bit about the scene and movement in the US.

Children's herb planting workshop

A children's workshop of planting herbs into small pots. The pot and a little sign with the name of the plant will be decorated with recycled materials. You can take your seedlings with you or donate them to Hirvitalo's garden.

Workshop will be at Kurpitsatalo on saturday from 12 to 14.