Introduction
Background
There is a need for space where people could gather, to fight isolation and separation, to find affinities, to dream, and to build other forms of life. Counter to the version of existence sold to us spinning around commodity, productivity, and value, where individuals and groups are pitted against each other, where even creativity, health, and care have been pulled into that same orbit, there must be more.
We reject the pressure to turn all time into and over to products and experiences for consumption, with the tacit and false assumption that everything is and has to naturally be in competition. But how does such rejection materialise as negation? Through activity, we want to create a basis for interdependent friendship and communal joy, also such that the possibility for and proximity to shared life grows. We envision this space as an open and entangled one, challenging itself and inhabitants to break stratification and exclusions imposed by power, supporting actions in care, solidarity, and struggle, resisting the learned impulses to police behaviours or ignore conflict, while maintaining commitments towards accountable community.
We have taken cues from the many autonomous social hubs and cooperative spaces we've gotten to know and admire from all around the world, the multivalent projects of Irregular Rhythm Asylum, Black Window, Woodbine, Infoshop Cafe Byulkkol, Firestorm Books, Halfway Coffee, Incendium Radical Library, Filler, Tamarack Oakland, Soeng Joeng Toi… what more is possible, particularly here, where social norms seem so tied down and unbreakable?
Encounters we've had across 2018 and 2019 included: quiet reading nights accompanied by live ambient music (Against the Disquiet), a queer zine-making holiday hang out (with Queer Zine Fest Singapore), transnational knowledge sharing and participatory woodcut printing (with Denpasar Kolektif), reading groups, as well as private social and organisational meetings.
With a new space in 2022, parameters have changed, but we would still love to host more action-oriented self-organised community workshops around autonomous skills, making, and hacking, incorporating knowledge around food, farming, medicine, mental health, abolition, disability, construction, play, strength, tactics of antagonism, navigating legal mazes, aesthetics, refusal, destituent power, counterlogistics, fugitive narratives, queer histories, unsurveilled networks, and much more.
Booking the space
If you are in a group looking for a cosy, comfortable, and private place to gather for an intentional meeting, to study, to organise, to plan, to co-create, or even just to hang out over a meal or drinks, all in the company of some great books and zines for reference browsing, our space is available for booking!
To suggest an activity and book the space for use, just fill up this google form – the same one used for arranging library visits. We do recommend that you plan a visit to view the space first and decide if it fits what you've got in mind, and we'd also be happy to bounce ideas and help figure things out.
Propose a date and we will do our best to meet it based on our availability. Let us know what kind of activity you're gathering for, how many people you expect, what level of privacy you'd like (it can be concurrent with other visitors, or completely closed), and what arrangement of the space, furniture, support, or equipment you may need.
We ask that you consider making a donation to the space to help keep things running, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
More information
Our new space is about 23sqm and can accommodate up to 12 people seated on the couch and chairs (or more if folks don't mind floor seating). If you're looking to include desk space, the max capacity is likely closer to 8. We have three different tables with removable legs (150x75cm, 120x75cm, 120x60cm), and other furniture can be moved about to make space depending on the situation. It's all still fresh and much is unknown, so help us test out what's possible!
The room is air-conditioned with windows that can be opened. In terms of equipment, we also have a standing fan, additional lighting (the room is lit by warm yellow lighting, we have fluorescent tubes and a desk lamp available for white light) and power cord options, tenant-shared wifi, audio speakers, projector (depending on availability), access to hot and cold drinking water, a refrigerator with freezer, and an electric kettle.
Basic work tools and stationery are available, including an A4 guillotine paper cutter and A4 inkjet printer and scanner.
The floor has common washrooms, and as tenants we have key access to private washrooms that we treat as gender neutral.