The Iron Rail Book Collective ran a

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

-run radical

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

and anarchist bookstore in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

's main focus was a lending library featuring a wide selection of books on topics including anarchism and socialism, fiction, gardening and philosophy. The Iron Rail also sold records, zines, local CDs and some miscellany. Events held at the Iron Rail included workshops and art presentations. The Iron Rail also contained the Above Ground Zine Library with a selection of thousands of zines, some very rare. As of September 2017, their personal site and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

page have not been updated in since 2015 and 2016 respectively.https://www.facebook.com/ironrail/

Locations

The original address of Iron Rail was 511 Marigny Street from 2003 until 2011, in a building known as 'The Ark'. The entire building was evicted by the

New Orleans Police Department The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, while the city is divided into eight police districts. The NOPD has ...

in March 2011. This forced the temporary closure of Iron Rail and also the Plan-B New Orleans Community Bike Project and Hasbin Wilby’s Recycled Art Supplies. In a statement the collective said that "alleged code and permit violations" were the reasons for the immediate closure. Iron Rail argued that their affairs were in order and because they were a non-profit organisation the permits being requested were not needed. The collective then moved to 503 Barracks Street until February 2014. After this time, pop-up versions of the bookstore occasionally appeared in various venues in New Orleans.

Bookstore

The Iron Rail featured a section of political and underground books for sale. Categories included

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, anarchism,

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

and

primitivism Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an o ...

, prisons and police, Native American studies, labor struggles,

globalization Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...

, capitalist exploitation and subcultures. There was also a selection of cheap used fiction. The Above Ground Zine Library found a home at the Iron Rail after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the punk warehouse on Banks Street. Robb Roemershauser moved hundreds of rare zines and continued to maintain the collection at Iron Rail.

Library

The library contained an extensive collection of radical books on topics including feminism, anarchism, history, race relations, ecology, labor struggles, cultural studies, protest and activism as well as a wide array of other interesting topics like philosophy, art, language, health, fiction and parenting. The library contained over 5000 titles. There were two types of library memberships, one for residents and one for non-residents. The library was the first project to reopen after Hurricane Katrina.

The Collective

The Iron Rail was run by a group of anti-police volunteers working together to present a model for a non-authoritarian structure of organizing. In addition to being a library and bookstore, the Iron Rail was also the hub of radical activism in New Orleans. It regularly featured lectures, talks, discussions and presentations by various travelers, in addition to being the meeting place for many other groups.

Kimya Dawson Kimya Dawson (born November 17, 1972) is an American folk singer-songwriter, one half of the anti-folk duo the Moldy Peaches. Dawson's work with the Moldy Peaches earned them a cult following and critical acclaim, with their 2001 song "Anyone El ...

played a benefit for Iron Rail.

References

External links