All Over Albany

Sanctuary for Independent Media 2018 fall

Ladama is playing a concert there in October. / photo: Kevin Bay

The upcoming fall season of events at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy starts up this month. And, as in past seasons, it includes concerts, talks, screenings, and workshops on topics ranging from Afro-Carribean jazz to biology to the environment to food to politics.

Here's a quick-scan look...

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Sanctuary for Independent Media 2018 spring

The upcoming spring season of events at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy is out. As usual, it includes workshops, talks, screenings, and performances on topics ranging from the environment to social justice to art (and sometimes all those things at once).

Here's a quick-scan look...

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Azmat Khan at Sanctuary for Independent Media

Award-winning journalist Azmat Khan will be at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy this Friday, December 1 for a talk.

Khan has reported for a bunch of different outlines, including Frontline, and she's Future of War fellow at the New America Foundation. She co-authored a cover story for the NYT Magazine this month -- "The Uncounted" -- that concludes the number of civilian casualties from coalition air strikes against ISIS in Iraq have been dramatically undercounted. The piece is heart-wrenching, and a remarkable example of on-the-ground reporting as Khan and Anand Gopal visited, mapped, and reported from air strike sites. A clip:

Some time later, he snapped awake. His shirt was drenched, and there was a strange taste -- blood? -- on his tongue. The air was thick and acrid. He looked up. He was in the bedroom, but the roof was nearly gone. He could see the night sky, the stars over Mosul. Basim reached out and found his legs pressed just inches from his face by what remained of his bed. He began to panic. He turned to his left, and there was a heap of rubble. "Mayada!" he screamed. "Mayada!" It was then that he noticed the silence. "Mayada!" he shouted. "Tuqa!" The bedroom walls were missing, leaving only the bare supports. He could see the dark outlines of treetops. He began to hear the faraway, unmistakable sound of a woman's voice. He cried out, and the voice shouted back, "Where are you?" It was Azza, his sister-in-law, somewhere outside.

"Mayada's gone!" he shouted.

"No, no, I'll find her!"

"No, no, no, she's gone," he cried back. "They're all gone!"

Khan's talk at the Sanctuary for Independent Media is at 7 pm Friday. Tickets are are $10 / $5 for students and low income.

photo via Azmat Khan Facebook

Sanctuary for Independent Media 2017 fall

Among the people making appearances this season (left to right): journalist Chris Hedges, journalist Azmat Khan, and filmmaker Parvez Sharma.

The upcoming fall season of events at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy is out. As in seasons past, it includes music, talks, films, and community events.

Here's a quick-scan look...

(there's more)

Sanctuary for Independent Media 2017 spring

Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi will be there in May.

The upcoming spring season for the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy is out. As in seasons past, it includes music, talks, films, and community events.

Here's a quick-scan look...

(there's more)

Sanctuary for Independent Media 2016 fall

Trio Da Kali will be playing concert there in November.

The upcoming fall season of events at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy includes art openings, community festivals, talks, film, and concerts.

Here's a look at the schedule...

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Upcoming Sanctuary for Independent Media events include Julian Assange, Amy Goodman

Julian Assange / photo: Cancillería del Ecuador on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 cropped)

The next month of events at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy includes some notable names, including Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, and filmmaker Penny Lane presenting her documentary NUTS!, which premiered at Sundance this year. A condensed schedule is after the jump.

Here's some blurbage for the "Super Secret brunch with Julian Assange" on May 15 (link added):

On Sunday May 15th, a portal will open between The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy and the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. The inimitable Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, will be piped in from his place of exile to tell participants about the latest and most twisted stories from bleeding edge of journalism: the exciting business of information liberation in the public interest.

His appearance will be introduced by Mike Bonanno from the Yes Men, who will also show an exclusive, never-before-seen film from the time The Yes Men learned from Assange that they were being spied on by a private spy firm called Stratfor - and they were invited inside the wikileaks machine to help with the release five million emails that had been liberated from the firm by Anonymous hackers.

We hear the portal in this case is a Skype video connection. The event is at 1 pm and tickets are $15. Earlier in the morning there will be a brunch made with locally-gathered foods, "theatrically served" by The Yes Men and Tito Ybarra. Tickets for that are $75.

OK, on to that schedule...

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Sanctuary for Independent Media fall 2013

Vieux Farka Touré -- "the Hendrix of the Sahara" -- will be there in October.

The fall 2013 slate of events for the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy is out. And, as in previous seasons, its lineup includes some events that are unusual and, at times, challenging.

A quick-scan look at the slate is after the jump.

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Philadelphia mosaic muralist leading workshop in Troy

From Isaiah Zagar's "Magic Gardens" in Philadelphia.

This could be interesting: Mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar will be at the Sanctuary for Independent Media this weekend for a mosaic mural workshop. Zagar is the creator of the "Magic Gardens" mosaic space in Philadelphia. Event blurbage:

In this two day workshop, we will come together as a community to learn about mosaic construction with recycled materials. Participants will work on a mosaic from conception to completion.

Zagar will teach the arts of breaking tile, cutting mirror, gluing tile, and grouting. While learning the Zagar mosaic-making technique, students participate in the beautification of the local North Troy neighborhood through the completion of a permanent, public mosaic mural at Freedom Square.

The workshop runs 9 am-5 pm both Saturday and Sunday. The org is taking registrations for people who'd like to participate in the full two days. The registration fee is a sliding scale: $1-$350 "depending on what you can contribute." There are also drop-in sessions each day from 1-5 pm ($10 suggested donations / $5 students).

The workshop is part of a year-long "Found Art in North Troy" project and construction of Freedom Square.

photo: Flickr user sashafatcat (cc)

The Sanctuary for Independent Media

Sanctuary for Independent Media founders Branda Miller and Steve Pierce sit on the stoop of the sanctuary with their family.

You probably remember the 2008 brouhaha over Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal and the "Virtual Jihadi" video game that was booted from RPI. And you also may remember that Bilal's exhibit ended up at a little space in Troy called the Sanctuary for Independent Media -- which then got temporarily shutdown for code violations.

In the years since, the Sanctuary has continued to soldier on, providing a meeting space for seasoned and novice activists to train, listen, plan and party. Now, as protest culture blooms both here in the United States and around the world, the Sanctuary's fall season is focused on "cultures of resistance."

I talked with Sanctuary executive director Steve Pierce and art and education coordinator Branda Miller recently about emboldened protesters, media reform, the necessity of being for something, and allegedly humorless militants.

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