Constellation

Constellation 2025 Presents…

Posted on 2025/01/16 - 2025/01/17 by constellation

Constellation will be back in 2025, but things are going to look a bit different this year! Instead of one weekend, the festival will span an entire week, from May 15th to the 21st. Like last year, we encourage everyone to submit events to the online calendar (to be relaunched soon). We’ll also be organizing two large events on Saturday and Sunday. Keep reading for more info!

As you probably guessed, the Anarchist Bookfair will be happening again–same place, same time, same general idea. Tablers will be able to set up inside and outside CÉDA (no CCGV) with books, zines, art, and other materials relevant to anarchy. We’ll also have access to a handful of rooms in CÉDA and spots in Parc Vinet for book talks, workshops, discussions, reading circles, and more! We’re hoping that the content of events on this day can be a bit more conceptual or theoretical. Think reading circle of your favourite anarchist essay, discussion on an ongoing social struggle, workshop sharing new perspectives on security culture, and all that kind of fun stuff.

As for Sunday, we are excited to host the Montreal Anarchist Skill Faire (10 points if you spotted the bilingual pun). Remember school science fairs? We want to do something similar, but with more anarchy (trifold displays welcome). We call for a tabling event that brings a chaotic and dazzling range of anarchist-relevant skills together with the purpose of sharing it freely. Maybe you want to give tips on protest first aid, provide a hands-on introduction to lockpicking, or teach people how to set up a mesh network. Anything goes, as long as it centres the diffusion of hands-on knowledge and practical skills. There will also be rooms for more intensive, workshop-length skillshares!

Anarchists have had an enduring understanding that theory and practice can’t (and probably shouldn’t) be separated. Ideas incite action, practice inspires theory, and politics influence the types of skills we seek to develop. Theoretical and conceptual conversations will touch on practice and have implications for action. Discussions related to hands-on knowledge and practical skills will be shaped by ideas and be of relevance to theory. We’re organizing Saturday and Sunday along these two themes as an experiment, and we recognize that both are equally important and intrinsically linked to one another.

Kids Zone

We want Constellation 2025 to be engaging and accessible to people of all ages! Once again, childcare and kid-friendly activities will be provided at the Kids Zone in CÉDA. We also encourage festival-goers to organize workshops and skillshares geared toward young people on either Saturday or Sunday.

Get Involved

The table reservation and workshop application forms will be available soon. Check our website or social media pages later this month to learn more. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to reach us at constellationmtl@riseup.net.

Announcing the Return of Constellation: An Anarchist Festival in Montreal

Posted on 2024/12/06 - 2024/12/06 by constellation

This year felt like an immense success to us. In a little under 2 months, many groups and individuals came together with creative discussions, parties, workshops, film screenings, and more. These events were held at the many anarchist spaces around the city, bringing people together and creating the connections that make our movements so vibrant.

In 2025, we’ll expand CONSTELLATION to 7 days, from Thursday May 15th to Wednesday May 21st. We’ve reserved CEDA for Saturday and Sunday to host a bookfair, workshops, and more. We’re also bringing back the online submission calendar so you can organize your own events as part of the festival.

What would you like to do next year? Whether you live in Montréal or elsewhere, we invite you to dream up what CONSTELLATION 2025 could look like. We can’t wait to see what we come up with together next year!

Constellation is almost here!

Posted on 2024/05/22 - 2024/05/22 by constellation

Constellation is just two days away! We’re looking forward to seeing you.

You’ll find the packed schedule for the bookfair and festival, including locations, over here. Paper schedules will be available at the welcome table in CÉDA beginning at 10am.

For a list of projects and distros that have reserved tables at the bookfair, go here.

If you’re pulling together a last-minute event for this weekend, you can still post it to the calendar by using this form.

We have planned the bookfair around a model of self-organization that reduces the special role allotted to organizers and acknowledges the agency and responsibility of all participants towards the space. To this end, we draw your attention to the forum for unscheduled events that will take place across several locations on Saturday. Poetry reading? Skillshare? The incendiary conversation you’re desperate to start with anarchists beyond your immediate circles? All bookfair-goers are welcome to make use of this format as they see fit.

On the logistical side of things, we will be asking participants to sign up for one task (like a short shift at the welcome table or in the kitchen) to help things run smoothly without a formal “volunteer” corps.

On the topic of experimenting with the ways in which we gather, if you don’t need your phone, we encourage you to leave it at home. Yes, because it is a listening device and we would prefer fewer of those; also because we believe that we deepen the quality of our face-to-face presence with one another when not constantly distracted by Signal groupchats or scrolling Instagram out of habit. We would like to resist the normalization of the ubiquity of smartphones among anarchists.

Lastly, thank you to CKUT for airing our ad. Listen to 90.3 FM between now and Sunday to hear it!

See you soon! 🏴

Call for Event Proposals!

Posted on 2024/04/12 - 2024/04/12 by constellation

CONSTELLATION is seeking event proposals. On Saturday, May 25th, during the tabling event at CÉDA and CCGV, there will be space for both pre-planned and spontaneous activities – order and chaos in equal measure. We aspire not to curate a singular experience but rather to create a space for anarchists to gather, conspire, and share in a multitude of experiences. We’ll provide the space but we need you to fill it!

We want to step outside the classic bookfair mould and move away from a workshop-centric event. This doesn’t mean you can’t propose a workshop, but we want to be clear that this is only one possibility among many, and we want to see you get creative. Propose a skill-share, a film screening, a performance, an installation, a training, a game, a reading circle, or anything else you can imagine.

If you’re interested is proposing an event/activity, please complete the event application form by Tuesday, April 30th.

Proposing a scheduled activity is not the only way to participate! If you’re interested in something a bit more informal, no proposal is needed. Just show up and take advantage of the spaces provided for impromptu discussions and activities (stay tuned for details).

Due to the limited amount of rooms we’ll have available, we won’t be able to accommodate everyone’s proposals. If we can’t offer you a space, we encourage you to host your event elsewhere on Friday or Sunday. Montréal has so many amazing anarchist and anarchist-adjacent spaces – let’s get people out to them! If you’re interested in autonomously organizing an event somewhere other than CÉDA and CCGV, submit the details to our online calendar.

Online Calendar Launch

Posted on 2024/04/07 - 2024/04/13 by constellation

We’re happy to announce the launch of our online calendar platform, where anyone can publish events as part of Constellation. Simply go to the events page and follow the link to add an event.

One of our goals for this festival is to decentralize the organizing process. We want all anarchists in the region to feel empowered to make the last weekend of May their own. We strongly believe that more people doing more things will create a more interesting and rebellious weekend.

We’ll be reading over submissions to make sure they’re suitable, but our moderation will be relatively relaxed. Events don’t have to be explicitly “anarchist.” You can organize a softball game or martial arts training in the park, a film screening at your favourite social space, a musical performance in an abandoned church, or anything else you want to make happen!

We’ll try to promote submitted events but cannot guarantee it. We’ll be distributing a zine with a list of all events happening during the weekend with a map to guide folks from place to place. We encourage you to post about your event online, put up posters in your neighbourhood, and spread the word within your community.

Call for Tablers

Posted on 2024/03/30 - 2024/03/31 by constellation

CONSTELLATION will feature a bookfair on Saturday, May 25th, at the CÉDA and CCGV buildings in Parc Vinet (métro Lionel-Groulx).

We invite booksellers, zine distros, artists, and makers of other material of interest to anarchists and the anarcho-curious to table at the event. Check out our Tables page for all the details, including the reservation form.

Announcing Constellation

Posted on 2024/03/22 - 2024/03/22 by constellation

The last weekend of May is important to many anarchists who live in this city. For years, this has been when the Montréal Anarchist Bookfair takes place. These few short days give us an opportunity to see old friends, learn new things, share ideas, plan for the year ahead, and generally get up to no good.

Unfortunately, this year’s bookfair has been cancelled. The collective cited the pandemic, the housing crisis, the rising tide of fascism, and the genocide in Gaza as reasons for their decision. While we acknowledge how much time and energy it takes to pull off such a massive event, we believe that these factors are exactly why it’s more important than ever for anarchists to come together.

So, we propose an experiment, and perhaps the start of a new tradition. We call on the wider anarchist community to help create something that doesn’t rely on just one institution. CONSTELLATION will be a decentralized series of events that will include tabling at the usual bookfair location (CÉDA & CCGV in Little Burgundy) as well as workshops, games, an anti-conference, a dance party, and other new, weird, fun shit you’ll have to come check out for yourself.

The success of this weekend is up to all of us! Talk to your friends and start scheming. Make your own anarchy. Organize a film screening, a martial arts training, a graffiti workshop, a punk show, or anything your heart desires. There are so many amazing anarchist spaces in the city; let’s get people out to them! We’ll help compile and promote a calendar of all the different things happening.

More info for tablers, workshoppers, and other interested folks coming soon! To get in touch, e-mail us at constellationmtl@riseup.net.