by VINCENT TINGUELY

Montreal's annual Anarchist Bookfair, now in its fourth year, is a hugely popular event featuring more than 50 tables of zines, radical literature, T-shirts, buttons and CDs. It's a user-friendly entry point into a whole array of free, informal workshops on a wide range of topics: building your own radio station, the history of resistance to heterosexism, revolutionary theatre, a preliminary postmodernist anarchist analysis of the Black Panther Party, and the list goes on. Special guests include former Panther Ashanti Alston, the Fédération Anarchiste-France, and Bo Brown, formerly of the George Jackson Brigade.

"It's a very original type of atmosphere and space," says Bookfair organizing collective member Stefan Christoff. "You have hundreds of people coming together to share ideas about how to fundamentally change society, directly illustrated by the wealth of anarchist literature at the fair."

One participant whose work typifies the spirit of the book fair is Eric Drooker, an American artist best known for his stark illustrations, described by Allen Ginsberg as "in the lineage of Frans Masereel, Rockwell Kent and Lynd Ward." His books include Street Posters & Ballads and the American Book Award-winning collection, Flood! A Novel in Pictures. Drooker describes his latest, Blood Song: A Silent Ballad, this way: "It's the coming-of-age story of a young woman, who escapes from her tropical island with her dog after her homeland is invaded one fine day by paramilitary death squads. Like Flood!," Drooker continues, "it is completely wordless, and is set against a backdrop of corporate globalism, environmental collapse and the immortal power of creative expression."

Drooker's coming to the book fair armed with a slide projector and a harmonica; he animates his books by projecting hundreds of his narrative images and accompanies the slides with music and words. He's also giving a workshop, Art & Politics Mix Beautifully. "My artwork, or cultural work, is my activism," says Drooker. "I don't use labels like ‘socialist' or ‘anarchist' because these words have too much historical baggage. I simply believe that art is a language to communicate information in an immediate and memorable way." Unlike many contemporary artists, Drooker believes that art can contribute to positive political awareness. "Since art communicates to people on a deep emotional level, it has the ability to affect consciousness," Drooker explains. "And of course, consciousness is a necessary ingredient in social and political change. My job as an artist is to inspire, to create light, and to make what's invisible visible."

Eric Drooker performs after the Anarchists Against War panel discussion on Friday, May 16, 10pm, (1710 Beaudry), $5. He'll be tabling at the Anarchist Bookfair, May 17, 10am–6pm, (2515 Delisle, metro Lionel-Groulx), free. Workshop May 18, 4–6pm (1710 Beaudry), and slide show that night at Words And Music At The Casa (4873 St-Laurent), 8pm, $5