The Collective of edition assemblage
Emerging from the leftist scene in Münster, the collective has existed since 2011. edition assemblage is a radical, leftist, political and journalistic network. The unifying factor is the desire to create new spaces in order to realize joint projects in new constellations.
The assemblage consists of the publishing house edition assemblage as well as of an open network of projects, groups and people who are mainly active in the media sector.
Political, programmatic and organizational questions are discussed together with authors, activists and supporters in the program council of the assemblage. We discuss concrete projects and topics in direct exchange with you or we invite you to a networking meeting. The assemblage works according to the principles of an economy of solidarity. We focus on collectivity, cooperation and solidarity-based action.
Here you can read a recent interview with kritisch-lesen.de with Hannah C. Rosenblatt and Carla Schäfer from our publishing collective about publishing as part of leftist political practice.
The collective are…
Carina Büker has been part of the publishing collective since the beginning, working primarily in typesetting and creating ads. She* also works in a screen-printing collective and as a nude model for drawing classes, listens to power metal while cooking, and is a member of a Kleingarten association … and then the day is over, too, right?
Ọlaide E. Frank found her way to the publishing collective through her work in the editorial group “Salon der Perspektiven“. She is part of the collective since May 2022 and involved in project management, public relations, and organizational work. She also works as a freelance writer and translator and is particularly interested in Afro-Disaporic + Queer literature across all possible genres.
vonkopfbismond.com
salonderperspektiven.de
Luka Staab has been part of the collective since 2020 and does project support, public relations and collective care, among other things. After studying liberal arts, his path led him via a collective pub and a program cinema to publishing to create collective places of thinking and learning.
“I imagine a house with archives, safe spaces, theories, radical poetry – a laboratory for the queer-communist future.”
Hannah C. Rosenblatt is a non-binary person who experiences autism. S_he gendering with the gender_gap because s_he finds the * ugly and doesn’t yet dare to use neopronouns for themself. In the publishing collective “edition assemblage” s_he works as a typesetter and media designer. When there is no pandemic, s_he gives lectures and workshops on trauma and violence, inclusion and self-help.
Willi Bischof has been publishing books with a perspective from the margins of society for over thirty years and accompanies authors in their book projects. A critical examination of his own, especially white privilege, is important to him. His favorite quotes are “nobody’s perfect” and “there are always more than 9 alternatives”.
Carla Schäfer is part of the collective since 2016 and working for edition assemblage sipping cappuccino from various cafés in Cologne since 2020. Responsible, among other things, for project supervision and program planning, she tries to think of bookmaking in the collective also as solidary alliance- and carework.
Mission Statement
An assemblage does not live from a common theme, but from the many possible points of reference, facets and influences. The publication network of edition assemblage offers a platform on which many alternatives are possible. Each project is independent and expanded through possible cooperation with other projects.
The image
An assemblage, something newly assembled, a network, a collage, with a foundation and full of opposites, does not need a stamp and does not fit into any pigeonhole. It is open to different people and groups, to new ideas, ways and forms. That is its (non-)program. The individual projects of an assemblage stand for themselves and thus become a movement, carried by the unique diversity of the participants, their autonomy and connection to other projects.
The focal points
Our thematic claim is to represent the entire socio-critical breadth of radical leftist politics, the movement and critical scholarship. Special foci are anti-fascism, theory, history and practice of radical leftist politics, anti-Semitism, theories of racism and critical whiteness, queer feminism and gender studies, media criticism and critical discourse analysis. edition assemblage takes a socio-critical stance against all forms of exclusion. We are guided by concepts such as power of definition and partiality for those affected by assault and violence.
Publishing Principles
In our publishing practice, the different positioning of all participants plays an important role. Also in our collective we seek to be conscious of our respective afflictions, privileges and their impact on all of us.
Furthermore, we expect white authors, for example, that they write from a whiteness-critical perspective. We want to support activists in intervening in debates. The goal is to bring leftist, socio-critical contributions from different perspectives to the table.
Where do we meet and how do we work?
Our office is located at Rudolf-Diesel-Strasse 37, in the same building as the collective “roots of compassion”. Networking meetings and workshops have been held mainly in Berlin, Münster and online.
