anarkita: consciousness raising in early parenthood/childhood

New lives to care for: magic, amazement, joys, learnings, existential thunderstorms.

Reproductive labour takes overtime. Everything feels overstretched, logistically impossible. Unwaged care-labour: hard, vulnerable, lonely. Job-hunting wage-labour: precarious, distressing, disturbing.

Yet, times are generous, with radical awareness, reflections, and insights. There is a spark, a fire, an opening.

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How do we nurture radicality before it gets captured by existing institutions (daycare, school, and waged work)?

How do we practice mutual aid/care, peer-support, and collective parenting in early parenthood/childhood?

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anarkita is an invitation to children, carers, and parents (in any body), to come together, to share and explore experiences of early parenthood/childhood, to identify common needs and struggles, to build a shared understanding/practice of solidarity.

We will gather on Saturday, 18th October, at 4 PM for a two-hour consciousness-raising circle at Cooperation Town Organising Room (Cooperation Town Hub, Wendling Estate, balcony level, Haverstock Road, London - NW5 4RA).

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Sparkled by a disquietude of Paola Debellis Alvarez (Other Ways To Care, Quepamos Todas: cinemateca andante), a deserting mental health worker, film programmer, and mother of year-old twins, experiencing precarity in research and motherhood, problematizing institutionalisation in care under patriarchal capitalism, projecting alternatives.

This is a free event, part of the AntiUniversity Festival 2025. Antiuniversity Now is a collaborative experiment to challenge institutionalised education, access to learning and the mechanism of knowledge creation and distribution. Antiuniversity events are open to all to organise and attend, regardless of experience, background, age or qualification. All you need is an interesting idea and an openness to share it with others in a collaborative way. You can read more about the festival on their archive website, on the current edition site, also on their Instagram.

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VENUE ACCESS

Cooperation Town Hub
Wendling Estate (balcony level)
Haverstock Road, London - NW5 4RA

The best way to find it is to put ‘Cooperation Town Hub’ or ‘NW5 4RA’ into your online map. When you arrive on Haverstock Road – look up! It is on the walkway above the street, opposite Bacton Tower. Yellow doors. Here is a page with visual directions.

There is step-free access from Lismore Circus (a ramp in front of the NHS clinic) or going up the metal stairs from Haverstock Road. The hub, including the garden, is wheelchair accessible.

Toilets (and all activities) are trans inclusive.

The Organising Room has capacity for up to 30 people, a kitchenette and access to the garden.

Learn more about the fantastic Cooperation Town (a movement and network of community food co-ops, self-organising on streets and estates across the country) by visiting their website.