Tag Archives: Word Up Recirculation

Word Up Recirculation: Uptown Record Fair 2024

Saturday, March 9, 2024 – 12:00pm to 5:00pm
RECIRCULATION A project of Word Up
876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.)
New York, NY 10032

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In loving memory of Tom Burgess

Celebrating the vinyl LP at the first-ever Uptown Record Fair! Featuring specialty sale items from the Recirculation archives, plus record vendors, vinyl DJs, and more. 

Fans of Recirculation already know that when the project first opened, it was stocked to the rafters with not only the thousands of books collected by our late friend and volunteer Tom Burgess–but also by his records. His collection was so vast that even after distributing large donations to music non-profits, per Tom’s wishes, we still had enough left over to maintain a whole music section in the store. Along the way, volunteers have set aside scores of specialty items, which will make up the core of the Recirculation booth at the Uptown Record Fair.

But it won’t just be us! We will have several other vendors join us, setting up tables to offer goods across the musical spectrum–jazz, rock, hip-hop, blues, experimental, you name it.

Providing the soundtrack to the day will be vinyl-centric DJs from uptown and beyond, including a special set culled from Tom Burgess’ collection.

Uptown Vinyl Supreme
Delaceiba
Amanda Nazario (WFMU)
Dister
Amiri Mikel (WKCR)
$bILL

Entry is free, though a $5-10 suggested donation is encouraged.

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all times.

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, on Amsterdam Ave and 165th Street, is a multilingual, collectively operated bookshop and arts space, committed to co-creating a place where residents support each other to live informed and expressive lives. Recirculation is a project operated by Word Up. It was founded when former longtime Word Up volunteer Tom Burgess passed away from COVID-19 in June 2020, and is rooted in his collection of books and records gathered over the years. Most of the items are available for shoppers on a pay-what-you-can basis, and the space is often used for Word Up programming and other community events.

Word Up Recirculation – SITO: Laurence Ralph with Aimee Meredith Cox

Sunday, February 25, 2024 – 4:00pm to 5:30pm
RECIRCULATION A project of Word Up
876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.)
New York, NY 10032

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Join us for a reading and discussion with award-winning author Laurence Ralph for the new book SITO: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him (out 2/20/24), a riveting and heart-wrenching story of violence, grief, and the American justice system, exploring the systemic issues that perpetuate gang participation in one of the wealthiest cities in the country, through the story of one teenager. In conversation with Ralph will be anthropologist and movement artist Aimee Meredith Cox.

“Laurence Ralph ruminates on gang violence and our decadent criminal legal system through the life and tragic murder of his 19-year-old loved one, Sito. The blend of intimacy and authority, of self-and-structural reflection, of despair and expectation make for a profoundly affecting and edifying book. Sito is a triumph.” —Ibram X. Kendi, National Book award-winner and New York Times bestselling author

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 50 max attendees. Please register in advance. 

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all time.

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

ABOUT THE BOOK

In September of 2019, Luis Alberto Quiñonez—known as Sito— was shot to death as he sat in his car in the Mission District of San Francisco. He was nineteen. His killer, Julius Williams, was seventeen. It was the second time the teens had encountered one another. The first, five years before, also ended in tragedy, when Julius watched as his brother was stabbed to death by an acquaintance of Sito’s. The two murders merited a few local news stories, and then the rest of the world moved on.

But for the families of the slain teenagers, it was impossible to move on. And for Laurence Ralph, the stepfather of Sito’s half-brother who had dedicated much of his academic career to studying gang-affiliated youth, Sito’s murder forced him to revisit a subject of scholarly inquiry in a profoundly different, deeply personal way.

Written from Ralph’s perspective as both a person enmeshed in Sito’s family and as an Ivy League professor and expert on the entanglement of class and violence, SITO is an intimate story with an message about the lived experience of urban danger, and about anger, fear, grief, vengeance, and ultimately grace.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laurence Ralph is a professor, writer and filmmaker. His first book,Renegade Dreams: Living through Injury in Gangland Chicago, received the C. Wright Mills Award and the J.I. Staley Prize. His second book,The Torture Letters: Reckoning with Police Violence, explores a decades-long scandal in which hundreds of Black men were tortured in police custody. The Torture Letters is also the name of his award-winning, animated short film, which is featured in The New York Times Op-Doc series. Laurence’s work has been featured in The Paris Review, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The Chicago Review of Books, Boston Review and Literary Hub. Ralph is currently a professor of anthropology at Princeton University. He has been awarded many fellowships for his work, including the Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellowships. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his family.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Aimee Meredith Cox is an Anthropologist, writer, movement artist, and critical ethnographer. She is currently an Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department at New York University following her appointment as an Associate Professor in the African American Studies and Anthropology departments at Yale. She is the author of the multiple award-winning ethnography, Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship (Duke 2015) and the editor of the volume, Gender: Space (MacMillan, 2018). Aimee performed and toured internationally with Ailey II and the Dance Theatre of Harlem and has choreographed performances as interventions in public and private space in Newark, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. Aimee is also a yogi of many decades. Yoga is integral to her praxis and her overall research and pedagogical commitments. She leads yoga teacher trainings as well as advanced study and continuing education workshops and retreats around the globe. Aimee is currently completing a hybrid memoir and anthropological study for her next book under contract with Viking Press/Penguin Random House.

Word Up: NYC Book Launch for The Incarcerated Modern: Golnar Nikpour with Naveed Mansoori

Saturday, February 24, 2024 – 2:00pm to 3:30pm
RECIRCULATION A project of Word Up
876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.)
New York, NY 10032

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Join us for a reading with Professor Golnar Nikpour for her new book The Incarcerated Modern: Prisons and Public Life in Iran, an examination of the Iranian prison system and its function in modern culture. In conversation with Nikpour will be Naveed Mansoori, political theorist at Princeton University.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 50 max attendees. Please register in advance. 

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all time.

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Iran’s prison system is a foundational institution of Iranian political modernity. The Incarcerated Modern traces the transformation of Iran from a decentralized empire with few imprisoned persons at the turn of the twentieth century into a modern nation-state with over a quarter million prisoners today. In policing the line between “bad criminal” and “good citizen,” the carceral system has shaped and reshaped Iranian understandings of citizenship, freedom, and political belonging.

Golnar Nikpour explores the interplay between the concrete space of the Iranian prison and the role of prisons in producing new public cultures and political languages in Iran. From prison writings of 1920s leftist prisoners and communiqu’s of 1950s militant Islamists, to paintings of 1970s revolutionary guerrillas and mapping projects organized by contemporary dissident prisoners, carceral confinement has shaped modern Iranian political movements. Today, mass incarceration is a global phenomenon. The Incarcerated Modern connects Iranian history to transnational carceral histories to illuminate the shared architectures, economies, and techniques of modern punishment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Golnar Nikpour is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Dartmouth College, where she teaches on the political and intellectual history of modern Iran and the Middle East. Her research and writing is particularly focused on histories of law, incarceration, revolution, and rights.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Naveed Mansoori is a political theorist interested in histories and theories of media and mediation, anti- and de-colonial history and theory, and critical theory. He is currently Associate Research Scholar at the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University.

Word Up Recirculation: Stress-Less with Dr. Lem (Inwood Community Services)

Thursday, February 15, 2024 – 6:30pm to 8:30pm
RECIRCULATION A project of Word Up
876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.)
New York, NY 10032

 

Dr. Lemny Perez and Orleida Matos, from the Prevention and Wellness Program of Inwood Community Services, will lead a youth group, of ages 13-17, to discuss stress management, mindful breathing techniques, and empowerment tips.

Word Up Recirculation: EXCELSIOR by bonafide rojas Book Party

Friday, February 9, 2024 – 7:00pm to 8:30pm
RECIRCULATION A project of Word Up
876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.)
New York, NY 10032

register

Excelsior is the fifth collection of poetry from Bonafide Rojas. The poetry collection is a culminating moment celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Rojas’ first book Pelo Bueno, and the tenth anniversary of his third book Renovatio. Rojas will be reading from the new collection.

Excelsior & Notes On The Return To The Island will be for sale at the event.

This event is a $5 suggested donation ticket with 50 max attendees. Please register in advance. 

In compliance with Word Up Community Safety guidelines, all attendees are encouraged to stay masked at all time.

Recirculation, a project of Word Up Community Bookshop, is located at 876 Riverside Drive (near 160th St.) in Washington Heights, NYC. You can take the 1 train to 157th St., A/C train to 163rd St., and the M4 and M5 to Broadway and 159/160th.

ABOUT THE POET

Bonafide Rojas is the author of Notes On The Return To The Island, Renovatio, When The City Sleeps & Pelo Bueno. He’s an Inaugural Fellow of Letras Boricuas & a BRIO award winner. An established Nuyorican Poet, he appeared on the fourth season of Def Poetry Jam & has been published in: Centro Journal Vol. XII, Winter 2000, Hostos Review #2, Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Role Call: A Generational Anthology of Black Literature & Art, The Calabash Journal, The Acentos Review, Learn Then Burn Vol. I & II, The Palabras Journal, Me No Habla Con Acento!, Manteca! & Hafen Lesung 18, Chorus: The Literary Mixtape, The Lost Orphan Project, & was featured in the documentary Spitting Ink.

He’s the founder & co-songwriter of the band The Mona Passage, & has performed domestically & internationally at Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Museum Of Art, Brooklyn Museum, El Museo Del Barrio, Bowery Ballroom, Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, Reginald Lewis Museum, Rotterdam Arts Center, Spoken Word Paris, Konvent Zero Barcelona, Hafen Lesung Hamburg, Latinale Berlin, Festival Kerouac Vigo España & Festival De La Palabra. He’s an avid collector of pop culture & still only wears red socks.