In 2019, I was part of a Facebook group for librarians. A library worker from Missouri posted that they worked at a university that was preparing to throw away this donated collection. She wondered if anyone would want it since the school turned it down. I immediately said I would take it in.
Since then, I’ve archived the collection of nearly 1000+ zines, posters and other protest ephemera. My goal was to make the collection accessible to the public. Little by little, the entire archive will be made available for browsing via this website. The collection is also available for in-person viewing. It debuted as a guerrilla art installation called Break the System: A Radical Archive on October 26, 2024.
This collection was originally put together by a professor studying anarchist protest movements as well as counter protest movements. The professor has since passed away, which led to its donation to the university that turned it down. The original library worker, Robin, also put in a ton of work translating materials from German in order to separate out the antiracist and anarchist works from the white supremacist counter protest work.
The archive has traveled across Connecticut numerous times. It took a large effort to first get the boxes shipped to here to CT, and then to get all the items to my home during the pandemic so I could archive them.
While I don’t know much about the original collector and have since lost touch with Robin, the library worker, I’m so grateful to everyone who has had a hand in bringing these works to the public.
****** FOR ROBIN !!!!!! *******
I’M LOOKING FOR YOU! If you happen to see this post, or any of the other posts/emails I’ve sent trying to contact you, please reach out! Your work to preserve this collection is as valuable as anyone else’s and we want you to be able to enjoy it with all of us 💜
In Liberation,
Tyasha/ Ty
Caretaker of Break the System
