Anarchist Neighborhood:Bowling Green, Ohio
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Bowling Green is a city in Wood County, Ohio, USA. The population was 29,636 at the 2000 census. It is located within the Toledo Metropolitan area, 20 miles south of downtown Toledo. BG is the common short form for Bowling Green. It is the county seat of Wood County whose population is around 121,065.
BG is the largest city to exist entirely inside what was formerly "The Great Black Swamp" of legend. While much of the swamp has been drained, leaving behind large ditches, the area south of the Maumee River is still very wet and gets very humid in the summer heat. The land surrounding BG is mostly rural farmland, while BG itself is a tiny industrial/commercial area, turned college town, and garnished with the trappings of county and city government.
It is the home of the Black Swamp Arts Festival, The National Tractor Pulling Championship, and (the former home of) the Allied Media Conference. Wealth and european Americans flooded to this area a little over one hundred years ago when oil was discovered, leading to a brief period of an oil boom before most of the oil was drained and the money stopped rolling in.
There has been a small anarchist presence in this town since the early 90's.
Contents |
[edit] Calendar
[edit] Upcoming events
[edit] Ongoing events
- Food Not Bombs; Food not Bombs meal second and fourth saturday of every month at the UCF building (313 thurstin ave.) from 5 till 7pm.
[edit] Past Events
[edit] 2006
- Great Lakes anarchist/regional ARA gathering; August 19-20th.
- Topless Picknick; august 26th in the city park
[edit] Active Organizations, groups, projects
There are several organizations and groups that exist in Bowling Green at any one time. The anarchist community here goes through periods of high activity and low activity. BG is currently in a period of low activity.
- BG Community bookshelf and radical library: (the infoshop) up and running.
- Bowling Green Food Not Bombs: Serves meals twice a month.
[edit] Defunct/inactive Organizations and Groups
- Bowling Green Anti-Racist Action: The local chapter of Anti-Racist Action. It was active after the Toledo uprising until the fall of 2006. Former members are involved in other projects including food not bombs and remain committed to anti-racist and anti-white supremacist organizing.
- Pandora's Box: Pandora's Box was a group whose stated purpose was to promote creativity, community, and consciousness on the campus of Bowling Green State University. It was an anarchist friendly student group started in the fall of 2004 at Bowling Green State University. On May Day 2006 Pandora's box brought the Lesbian Rangers from Canada to give a presentation. A running project of Pandora's Box was the radical film festival, where radical films were shown to audiences of up to 75 people at its most well attended film. Its last semester as an official group was spring 2007.
- The Big Thaw Collective: It advocated no politics other than promoting non-hierarchal community. The collective started off by putting on one of the most amazing art shows that Bowling Green has ever seen in 2005. However this was mostly the start and finish of the collective, since they worked on some smaller projects afterwards before fading into non-existance several months later.
- Paupers' Paperbacks: was formerly one of the most well stocked anarchist book stores in the area but has been out of business for several years now.
- Dystopia Inc: A group of artists and activists based in the Gothic/Industrial subculture. Their main goal was to establish a community space that could be open for multiple functions. The three main collectives that made up Dystopia were:
- IGUN: industrial gothic underground night. It was a group of people who hosted a gothic dance club on a weekly basis.
- IGE: Industrial/Gothic/Experimental: This was a group of people that consisted of a department at the local radio station.
- Oonze Faktory: a local industrial band.
- The Anarchist Encounter Group: once this group was something of a weekly anarchist study group, it is now mostly known as the grandmother group for many of the current groups in BG.
[edit] Alternative Media
[edit] Culture
[edit] Music
There is a lively and unique music scene in Bowling Green, surprising for a town of its size. Noise music, Metal, Industrial/Gothic, and Punk music all have close-knit communities in Bowling Green. There are also several DIY record labels. Not all of these are explicitly anarchist but are anarchist friendly and have helped out with shows at the local Infoshop.
There is also a relatively large Mexican community that hosts Mexican Dances at the Wood County fair Grounds. Its not uncommon to see an anarchist or two in attendance.
[edit] Issues facing Bowling Green and Wood County
- Factory Farming and Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's) threaten the health and well being of the people here.
- Poverty. 1/4 of the residents of Bowling Green live at or below the 'poverty line'.
- Brain Drain. The cool people in the area that have a lot to offer tend to move to Portland, OR.
[edit] Networking
Contact anarchists in BG by e-mail: bg.ara@hotmail.com
[edit] Demographics
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