Free School University (FSU)
FREE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY at Occupy Boston
The Free School University (FSU) is a learning community of Occupy Boston. Topics vary from fun-and-games to politics and revolution. Our goal is to form an autonomous zone to entertain educate and enliven Occupiers and the general public, and to share skills needed to maintain it. The FSU has provided support and created the space for skill sharing, self-organization, teaching, and more than 150 learning opportunities so far.
FSU Working Group Meetings take place every Friday from 5:30 - 7:30pm and are currently held at the Harvest Food Coop Community Room, 581 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge (Central Sq. T stop). Note: We do not meet in the cafe. Go all the way to the rear of the store, behind the display case and up the stairs. The conference room will be on your left. It is not handicap accessible. Please let us know if this is a problem for you. For general inquiries, to volunteer as site-assistants, or to join the FSU-Working Group, please email: fsu@occupyboston.org.
To schedule a teach-in, please submit the following information to fsu@occupyboston.org. If you know the exact date and time and have all of the information below ready, please include POST: (date / time) in the Subject of your email. After everything is confirmed, you can use the Occupy Boston Event Submission Form to expedite posting to the occupyboston.org event calendar.
- Date / Time:
- Location:
- Title:
- Brief Description:
- Short Biography:
RESOURCES ON THE WEB
Free School University
- Website, students and teachers can build a free page here
- Announcements, sign up to receive announcements for FSU events and learning opportunities
- Facebook, group page
- YouTube
- Audre Lorde to Howard Zinn (A-Z) Library, Occupy Boston's Free Library
- Occupy Boston Radio, FSU broadcasts live every Wednesday from 7-8pm
- Occupy Boston TV, FSU will host its first segment on February 18, programming TBA
- Occupy University, OWS Education for the Revolution's FSU Page
Working Group Information
Use the back button on your browser return to this wiki page from the working group website.
- Working Group, register and login to participate. You do not have to login to view the FSU files on our working groups page.
- List Serve, sign up for our working group's email list
- Information for Volunteers
- Information for Teachers
- Information for Site-Assistants
- Living Agenda for upcoming FSU Working Group meetings
Meeting Notes
- February 3, 2012 (Agenda)
- January 27, 2012
- January 20, 2012
- January 13, 2012
- January 6, 2012
- December 26, 2011
- December 23, 2011
- December 16, 2011
- December 7, 2011
- December 2, 2011
- October - November 2011
The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series
- Website, WordPress
- Updates, keep up with the lecture series at OccupyBoston.org
- Facebook, group page
- Video Archive, playlist of past lectures on YouTube
- Past Lectures
- Occupied Peoples and People's Occupations, ongoing film series
CURRENT TEACH-INS
FSU-RADIO
FSU-RADIO is an educational series by Occupy Boston’s Free School University. Our goal is to form an autonomous zone and share skills needed to maintain that, to entertain educate and enliven Occupiers and the general public. Our purpose is to provide support and space for skill sharing and sharing basic info regarding Occupy Boston and to encourage self-organization, teaching, and learning opportunities.Call 617-506-9726 with questions or comments, or join the IRC chat at occupyboston.org/radio.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 (streaming live on OB Radio)
Grace Ross is a lifetime activist in democratic people’s movements and a two-time candidate for Governor of Massachusetts. She is presently the coordinator of the Mass Alliance Against Predatory Lending, the statewide coalition working to reverse the foreclosure-crisis in our Commonwealth. She has written a book on the current economic crisis entitled “Main Street $marts – Who got us into this economic mess and how we get through it?” The book is a comprehensive survey of the damage done to the 99% by an economy managed for the benefit of the few, and provides common sense prescriptions for solving the problems, ranging from banking, foreclosures and homelessness, to health care, to jobs – all the while empowering people and building a more democratic society. We will be discussing some of these issues in a conversation that includes, “How did we get here?” “What do we do about it?” and “What is the role of the Occupy movement in solving these problems?”
Military Forum
BLACK SOLDIERS IN THE WAR OF THE SLAVEOWNERS’ REBELLION: A Presentation Based on the Memoirs of Civil War Veteran Norman P. Hallowell
Monday, February 13, 2012 (3:30 - 5:00pm, doors at 3:15pm)
The book Black Soldiers in the War of the Slaveowners’ Rebellion, edited by Quentin Davis, is composed of selected letters and papers of Norwood Penrose Hallowell, one of the "Fighting Quakers" and a very active Abolitionist. Hallowell was for a time commander of the Massachusetts 55th Regiment, the second all-black regiment. Hallowell admired his men greatly and most of the book is about them. A presentation based on Hallowell's memoirs will be presented by Quentin Davis and members of the Peter Brace Brigade (Civil War re‑enactors of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment) will take place at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston Street (Copley Square, between Arlington / Copley Square T stops). Click here for more information.
OccupyFilm
Occupied Peoples & People's Occupations: A tentative film series by the organizers of The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series. Different films will be shown at the Community Church of Boston every Thursday night from 7:15 - 10:00pm through May 10, 2012.
- Thursday, February 16, 2012: Left on Pearl
- Thursday, February 22, 2012: 3,000 Years and Life (a film based on the book When the Prisoners Ran Walpole)
Check back soon for more details! Some other films being considered for this series include:
- Wounded Knee: Episode 5 of the PBS American Experience film, We Shall Remain, about the occupation of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
- Freedom Riders, a PBS American Experience film
FSU-TV
Saturday, February 18, 2012: FSU has been invited by Occupy Boston TV (OBTV) to do a 30-minute show from 3:00 - 5:00pm with three guest panelists and a moderator. Programming is to be determined. The studio is in Brookline. If you are interested in planning something or participating as a guest panelist, contact us at fsu@occupyboston.org, or come to our Working Group meeting on Friday at 5:30pm.
PAST TEACH-INS & VIDEO ARCHIVE
Since our first teach-in on October 7, 2011, the Occupy Boston Free School University has created the space for more than 150 teach-ins! For a complete list of past teach-ins, click here. To access our video archive, including nearly 40 videos of our past teach-ins, click here. If you have video you would like us to add to this list, please email us at fsu@occupyboston.org.
FSU in the News
- From Occupy to Workers Control: Professors Elaine Bernard & Immanuel Ness by Doug Enaa Green (Boston Occupier, 2.2.2012)
- Paul LeBlanc: The Ancestors of Occupy by Editor (Boston Occupier, 1.27.2012)
- Citizens United Summit by FSU (Boston Occupier, 1.20.2012)
- The Fetishism of Debt by Michael Denning (Boston Occupier, 1.13.2012)
- Gar Alperovitz: Democratizing the Economy by Dan (Boston Occupier, 12.21.2012)
- Criticizing the Critique of Representation: Bruno Bosteels at Occupy Boston, by J.E. Hamilton (Boston Occupier, 12.6.2011)
- Zinn Lecture Series Brings Academia to Occupy Boston by Doug Enaa Greene (Boston Occupier, 12.6.2011)
- Their Crisis and Our Response by Victor Wallis (Boston Occupier, 12.6.2011)
- Reflections on Occupying by Dennis Fox (draft for publication in the Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology, 11.20.2011)
- The Right to Protest for Right: Peniel E. Joseph on Economic Justice & Martin Luther King Jr. by Julie Orlemanski (Boston Occupier, 11.19.2011)
- Papercut Zine Library & Lucy Parsons Center Re-Open by Liz Pelly (The Boston Phoenex, 11.9.2011)
- So That All Voices May Be Heard: Concensus and C.T. Lawrence Butler by Dan (Boston Occupier, 11.3.2011)
- Vijay Prashad Speaks at Occupy Boston by Dan (Boston Occupier, 10.25.2011)
- Blyth Asks: Should the Poor Insure the Rich? (Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, 10.14.2011)
- Occupy Wall Street: Getting the Target Right by Kevin Gallagher and Mark Blythe (Real-World Economics Review, 10.14.2011)
- Occupy Wall Street: All the Power to Them, But Get the Targets Right by Mark Blythe and Kevin Gallagher (Triple Crisis, 10.13.2011)
- Ivy League Professors Speak to Anti-Wall Street Protestors by Lauren Keiper (Reuters, 10.7.2011)