Woodbine is an experimental hub in Ridgewood, Queens, New York City, for developing the skills, practices, and tools needed to build autonomy. It is one node among many in a global network of people experimenting amidst the end of the world, and it is essential we maintain a physical presence in New York City to continue our work, and keep our city livable.

Earlier this year we renewed our lease for the first time since 2013, and did the first major renovations to our space since we moved in almost five years ago. Using our own funds, we took down a wall, we painted, we deep cleaned, and we streamlined the whole operation. Now we need your support to keep our doors open for years to come.

Woodbine’s expenses - rent, utilities, and insurance - are almost entirely paid by those who run and use the space, a collective of friends and neighbors who came together to open an autonomous and collective hub in Ridgewood, Queens, where most of us live. We receive no outside funding or grants, and everything that happens at 1882 Woodbine is completely volunteer run. We maintain Woodbine because we want to, because it fills a need in our lives and our city for a space to build community, to build autonomy, to experiment, to organize, to think together about the political movements of our time, and to escape the private and professionalized spheres of social interaction that leave us empty and uninspired.

As we approach the renewal of our lease in December, we’re seeking support for upcoming renovations and projects, and to give ourselves a small financial cushion going forward, allowing us the flexibility to pursue more programming and initiatives. In addition to renovations, repairs, and updated audiovisual equipment, we hope to soon have the funds to pay travel expenses to host visiting speakers, enhance our creative capacity for the writing and publishing efforts that call Woodbine home, and fund a mural for the building's facade.

BUDGET:
Monthly expenses:
Rent: $1650
Utilities: $175
Insurance: $50
Supplies: $75
Adobe subscription: $50

Additional:
New oven: $300
Additional refrigerator for produce: $500
Floor renovation: $1500
Painting the facade: $400
Printing texts, posters, fliers: $1000
Shipping of perks: $250

Woodbine currently hosts weekly Sunday Dinners; a weekly seminar we call our Research Group; a weekly farm share of organic produce from the women-owned Ironwood Farm in Columbia County; the monthly poetry reading series Crush; a weekly Movement & Meditation class; and regular Board Game Nights to experiment together with strategic thinking. This past summer we projected the World Cup tournament to watch soccer together with our neighbors on weekend mornings.

Since the very beginning, we’ve used our space to invite friends and comrades from all over the world to see what we’ve been doing, and to share their experiences, stories, and thoughts with us. This has included events and discussions with Kali Akuno from Cooperation Jackson, Franco Bifo Berardi, Janet Biehl, Walter Bosque from the Young Lords, Silvia Federici, DeeDee Halleck, Shane Hobel from Mountain Scout Survival School, David Huerta from CryptoPartyNYC, John Kane from Let’s Talk Native/Mohawk Warrior Society, Mauvaise Troupe, Ben Morea, Loubna Mrie, Sekou Odinga from the Black Panther Party, Elizabeth Povinelli, Carne Ross from Independent Diplomat, Roy Scranton, subMedia, Jackie Wang, Jan Zalasiewicz from the Anthropocene Working Group, as well as friends visiting from Athens, Beijing, Beirut, Carbondale, Damascus, Frankfurt, Fukuoka, Guayaquil, Helsinki, Istanbul, Lisbon, London, Manila, Milan, Montreal, Oakland, Oaxaca, Osaka, Paris, Standing Rock, Tarnac, the YPG in Rojava, the ZAD in France, and other places across the world.

We have also used our space and network to help build and encourage other projects, including Topos Bookstore Cafe; the Ridgewood Community Garden; the Health Autonomy Group; Tech Autonomy; we’ve hosted fitness and self-defense workshops; Spanish classes; skillshares on fermentation, herbalism, and cyber security; an addiction recovery meet-up; a knitting circle; meetings for an immigration support network; reading groups, etc. We also collectively released texts and videos, some of which you can find below, including “Nomos of the Earth” (2014) and “A Resolution” (2016), and more recently the videos “Health Autonomy” and “Coordinates” from earlier this year.

Help us keep our space viable and our projects thriving. If you’re short on cash, you can do us a solid by getting the word out on the internet or coming by to hang out. Dinner is every Sunday at 7pm.