Agency, an Anarchist PR Project, Partners with Institute for Anarchist Studies for Second Year to Make Anarchist Ideas Accessible Through Media-Focused Grants
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Agency, the anarchist public relations organization, announced the recipients of its 2024 Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant today. Launched in 2023, in collaboration with the Institute for Anarchist Studies, the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant supports media projects that seek to advance awareness and understanding of anarchist principles and practices and make them accessible to a broad audience.
The four recipients of the 2024 Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant include: 1) Oral history interviews with prominent Black anarchists; 2) Web-based resources for anarchist content creators and activists; 3) An audio documentary on the life and work of British anarchist Colin Ward; and 4) A Romanian blackboard animation video production exploring veganism and anarchism.
The Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant was created to honor Jen Angel, the social justice activist, baker, writer, and co-founder of Agency who died on February 9, 2023 as a result of a robbery-assault in Oakland, California. In its second year, the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant awards $2,500 in grants to select anarchist media projects in the United States and abroad.
“Agency created the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant program to help fuel the types of projects that Jen created throughout her life. Our 2024 grants will support projects that reflect the spirit of grassroots and do-it-yourself action that Jen worked so hard to sustain,” said Ryan Only, who co-founded Agency with Jen Angel in 2013. “The core tenets of anarchism that underscored Jen’s life and work—autonomy, mutual aid, voluntary association, direct action—are all amplified by the independent media projects funded by this grant program.”
Agency promotes contemporary anarchist perspectives and practices through commentary on current events, media relations, and educational campaigns. In addition to her work with Agency, Angel was known widely for her prolific activism, her long-standing contributions to independent media, and her role in establishing community institutions throughout her life. Jen Angel was called a “visionary” by Utne Reader and a “pioneering media activist” by Bitch magazine. Her writing appeared in publications such as Bitch, Yes!, Punk Planet, Upping the Anti, and In These Times.
As a teenager, Angel created the zine Fucktooth. Later, she was an editor of Maximum Rocknroll, and was co-founder and publisher of Clamor magazine, an award-winning quarterly magazine covering radical culture and politics. She founded Aid & Abet, a publicity agency established to support progressive authors, filmmakers, activists, organizations, and social movements. Angel also helped organize the Underground Publishing Conference, which later became the Allied Media Conference. At the time of her death, she was a core organizer of the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair and the proprietor of the Oakland, CA bakery Angel Cakes. To learn more about Jen Angel, go to: https://linktr.ee/LovedOnesOfJenAngel.
Alongside Agency, the grant program in Angel’s honor is co-hosted by the Institute for Anarchist Studies. Applications for the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant are accepted through the institute’s long-running grant program, which has supported hundreds of anarchist writing projects. In 2024, the Institute for Anarchist Studies awarded grants to five anarchist literature projects in addition to the media grants. The institute also publishes the Anarchist Interventions book series in collaboration with AK Press and Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, the print and online journal Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, the Lexicon pamphlet series, and an Anarchist Imaginations series of books in collaboration with AK Press.
“The Institute for Anarchist Studies has been helping to promote anarchist perspectives, visions, and alternatives for nearly thirty years through our micro-grants to writers and artists. We’re thrilled to be expanding this work to specifically support media projects through our collaboration with Agency on the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant program,” said Hillary Lazar, Institute for Anarchist Studies Board Member.
The 2024 recipients of the Second Annual Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant awarded by Agency and the Institute for Anarchist Studies, are as follows:
2024 JAAMG Recipients
Black Anarchism Oral Histories
As part of his dissertation work at Harvard University, multi-disciplinary historian Huey Hewitt is curating oral histories on Black anarchism. In narrating the intersection of the life stories, historical context, and theoretical contributions of a cluster of key figures in the Black anarchist tradition, Huey draws on oral history interviews with black anti-state radicals as well as other movement activists who have been inspired by their ideas. Clips from some of the interviews will be shared via YouTube and other social media as a public history component of the project.
Colin Ward Audio Documentary
Colin Ward was far from the stereotype of the black-masked, bomb-throwing anarchist, and yet until his death in 2010 he was the foremost British writer – and one of the greatest thinkers – of what remains a misunderstood philosophy, but one that has a profound relevance today. His greatest belief was in people, and that freedom is a social activity, but most importantly that it is always rooted in the local and the everyday. This audio documentary, produced by Norwich, UK-based audio producer Patrick Bernard, celebrates Colin’s life and work, and marks the centenary of his birth in 2024.
Total Liberation Animated Video
When we say we want total liberation, what do we mean by that? What possible pitfalls are within this concept, and how can we articulate and practice it from within our own lives, in solidarity with others? This animated essay aims to explore the philosophical, practical and imaginative questions posed by opposition to all forms of oppression and the dream of liberation for everyone. Total Liberation is being produced by just wondering…, a small autonomous collective based in Romania that creates critical and speculative animated essays.
Web-Based Resources for Anarchist Initiatives
The Anarchist Federation of Cyber Communes (AFCC) is an international effort to link existing and new organizations that operate according to anarchist principles. With a mission to facilitate the creation and growth of active communities, to amplify anarchist voices, and to occupy the web with an anarchist presence, AFCC is building a project that will: (a) provide a web platform for anarchist initiatives to promote their work and connect with one another, including a podcast hosting service, and (b) produce content for public education. The project will include a podcast called Reading Theory, online resources for anarchists, and social media content such as memes and infographics.
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Agency promotes contemporary anarchist perspectives and practices through commentary, media relations, and educational campaigns. For further information, go to Agency’s new website (updated July 2024): www.anarchistagency.com.
The Institute for Anarchist Studies has funded creative intellectual work that furthers anarchist ideas and makes them accessible to a broad audience for nearly thirty years. For more information, go to: www.anarchiststudies.org
