Word Up: Alec Karakatsanis’s COPAGANDA

Wednesday, April 16, 2025 – 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Word Up Community Bookshop / Librería Comunitaria
2113 Amsterdam Ave. & 165th St.
New York, NY 10032

register

Word Up welcomes prizewinning civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis to discuss his new book Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News, a powerful warning about how the media manipulates public perception, fueling fear and inequality, while distracting us from what truly matters.

“Alec Karakatsanis exposes our criminal injustice system for what it is: a bureaucracy of punishment, propped up by a biased media machine that feeds mass incarceration. After Copaganda, you’ll never read the news the same way again.” –Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 30 max attendees. Please register in advance.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees for this event must wear a mask inside.

Word Up Community Bookshop is located at 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (& 165th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 168th St and the A/C train to 163rd or 168th  St.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In this groundbreaking expose, essential for understanding the rising authoritarian mindset, award-winning civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis introduces the concept of “Copaganda.” He defines Copaganda as a special kind of propaganda employed by police, prosecutors, and news media that stokes fear of police-recorded crime and distorts society’s responses to it. Every day, mass media manipulates our perception of what keeps us safe and contributes to a culture fearful of poor people, strangers, immigrants, unhoused people, and people of color. The result is more and more authoritarian state repression, more inequality, and huge profits for the massive public and private punishment bureaucracy.

For readers of Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, Copaganda documents how modern news coverage fuels insecurity against these groups and shifts our focus away from the policies that would help us improve people’s lives–things like affordable housing, adequate healthcare, early childhood education, and climate-friendly city planning.

Recognized by Teen Vogue as “one of the most prominent voices” on the criminal legal system, Karakatsanis brings his sharp legal expertise, trenchant political analysis, and humorous storytelling to drastically alter the way we consume information, while offering a hopeful path forward. One towards a healed humanity–and media system–with a vested interest in public safety and equality.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A former public defender, Alec Karakatsanis is the founder of the Civil Rights Corps, an organization designed to advocate for racial justice and bring systemic civil rights cases on behalf of impoverished people. He was named the 2016 Trial Lawyer of the Year by Public Justice and was awarded the Stephen B. Bright Award for contributions to indigent defense in the South by Gideon’s Promise. The author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System (The New Press), he lives in Washington, DC.

Word Up Recirculation: Storytime with the Symphony

The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra is pleased to present a 3-concert series in partnership with Word Up Community Bookshop, featuring books from the “Uptown Kid Lit” list with thoughtful connections to themes that will be familiar to every child growing up in Washington Heights. All performances will take place at Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop.

Free admission; RSVP required

Sunday April 6th 4pm-5pm

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This concert series is generously supported by the following:

The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, Word Up Community Bookshop, New World Symphony, The Bizzarro Agency, Tinto: Tapas Restaurant, Lord Gurman & Lewis LLC

Word Up Recirculation: LOST PATHS by Juan R. Valdez

Tuesday, March 18, 2025 – 7:00pm to 8:00pm
RECIRCULATION A project of Word Up
876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.)
New York , NY 10032

REGISTER

We invite you to a reading with author Juan R. Valdez for his book Sendas extraviadas: Ensayos para vici en el mundo que nos queda (UAM, 2024), about the position of human beings on a planet Earth on the brink of destruction. We have been dragged to this critical point by unbridled consumerism and capitalism, and by our all-too-human inability to resolve the very sociopolitical ills we create. 

Lost Paths represents an effort to make a meaningful and creative textual contribution to what he calls “the planetary superconsciousness.” This is nothing less than the full contemplation of the problems and wonders of this world that transcends temporal and territorial boundaries and seeks, above all, to do no more harm.

This event has a suggested donation of $5, with a maximum of 30 attendees. Please register in advance.

In accordance with Word Up community safety guidelines, all attendees of this event are required to wear a mask in the store.

Word Up Community Bookshop is located at 2113 Amsterdam Ave. (and 165th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 168th St. and the A/C train to 163rd or 168th St.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Juan R. Valdez is a writer, teacher, and hiker. He was born in Santo Domingo and raised in the Bronx. His work is part of a tradition of maroon intellectuals and socio-naturalists who wander freely between the city and the mountains, between literature and science. He is a graduate of the CUNY Graduate Center.

Hispanic Society: Curator Talk on The Colorful World of Pancho Fierro, Afro-Peruvian Painter by Dr. Marcus Burke  

Curator Talk on The Colorful World of Pancho Fierro, Afro-Peruvian Painter by Dr. Marcus Burke  
Friday, February 7th 2025, 10am

Join us on Friday, February 7th for a curator talk with Senior Curator Emeritus Dr. Marcus Burke, who will discuss Fierro’s vivid depictions of Peruvian society, highlighting the extraordinary upward social mobility that was possible in 19th century Lima, as well as the trans-Pacific networks of exchange that carried Fierro’s watercolors across the globe.
RSVP and learn more here.

Morris-Jumel: Paranormal Historical Investigations (Eliza’s Birthday Paranormal)

Featured on The Holzer Files, Ghost Adventures, Netflix’s Surviving Death, Haunted USA: New York, Good Day, New York, NY1, BuzzFeed, and the Today Show, the Morris-Jumel Mansion is perceived by many as a paranormal site and has attracted academics and investigators such as Hans Holzer, Zak Bagans, the Tennessee Wraith Chasers, and now you!

Looking for an unforgettable ghost adventure for you and your friends? This Spooky Season, book an exclusive paranormal investigation at Manhattan’s oldest surviving house, where you will learn the background of paranormal investigations, including the legendary paranormal activity at Morris-Jumel Mansion, while learning the history of the Mansion, its former residents, and interesting facts about the museum collection. During the program, you will have after-dark access to ghost hunt in the period rooms of the Mansion, normally closed off to the public. Believers and skeptics alike will enjoy the evening, and will have the opportunity to possibly communicate with Morris-Jumel Mansion’s former residents using paranormal investigative equipment.

This set of Paranormal Investigations include the following special editions:

4/2- Eliza’s Birthday Paranormal, celebrating our longest resident and most famous haunt

  • This event is strictly for those 18 and over.
  • Please wear comfortable shoes and clothing.
  • This event is capped at 16 participants.
  • Guests will not be permitted entry to the park/mansion before 6:45pm; the tour will begin promptly at 7pm; the gates will be closed and locked at 7:05pm and no entry will be permitted after that time. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this. Please plan your arrival accordingly. If you find that you are running late, please call the museum before 7pm at 212-923-8008.
  • We reserve the right to deny entry, and/or to remove from the premises anyone who appears intoxicated, or who is not abiding by these guidelines, which have been established to ensure your safety as well as the safety of our staff and other visitors.

Because of the high demand for this event, guests will be limited to one paranormal investigation per season until further notice. Any duplicate orders will be refunded in order to ensure we can allow as many members of our community to experience this unique event as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Reach out the Mansion at 212-923-8008 if you would like to book a private Paranormal Tour.

 

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