Dear children of the first-spring sun, dear earth day tree lovers, luddites, cyberpunks—

IT WAS GREAT TO SEE SO MANY OF YOU LAST FRIDAY NIGHT AT "LET'S GET OFF TOGETHER!" GETTING OFF MEANS GETTING OUT: OUT OF AI DOOMSDAY NIGHTMARES, INSTAGRAM PSYCHOSIS, AND THE IMESSAGE BLUES. GETTING OFF MEANS MOVING ON TO A NEW STORY.

Over 200 of us glimpsed into freedom—we made art on the spot, we danced on a data center, we meditated—we showed a group of technobrats that there's a better way.

Photo by Alyssa G/USA Today

It's all in the imagination—

WHAT IF WE KEPT CONNECTING LIKE THIS, OUT BEYOND SOCIAL MEDIA, WITH WORD OF MOUTH AND TRUST AND BODIES?

WHAT IF WE HAVE POWER FOR OURSELVES, THAT BIG TECH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH?

WHAT IF OUR FAR-FLUNG HOPES ARE BECOMING UNDENIABLE?

You don't have to wait. Come to the SoL Music Jamboree all night tonight at Tompkins—sit by the Brooklyn Bridge tomorrow for a quiet sunset—find more infrastructure outside Big Tech in upcoming workshops—put your phones away and read poems with us—or just keep partying offline.

Moving on—

—Nick

★ ★ ★

Rest of April & the May horizon

Fri., Apr. 17 | Music Street Jamboree @ 5 p.m., Tompkins Sq. Park

The Street Jamboree is an open, experimental jam session—a public open mic, introduction and buzz builder for the Summer of Ludd, and a general good time. Starting at 5pm in Tompkins Square Park, under the loving shade of the Hare Krishna Tree, we will be JAMMING and GROOVING with ourselves and one another. It will continue until there are no more acts (rolling sign-ups), and there will be playful participatory facilitation throughout.

Come one, come all! NO AMPs (bc no permits) & NO EGOS!  If you can hum a sound, clap your hands, YOU BELONG.

Sat., Apr. 18 | Break Up with Spotify Again @ 6 p.m., JADE

Be the change you want to see. Own your music library and revive the lost art of sapphic yearning via hyper-specific curated playlist. You'll leave with all your playlists and liked songs as mp3s & a new CD collection. More at https://luma.com/rxy4t50q.

Sat., Apr. 18 | Sunset in Silence (Astachal) @ 6:45 p.m., Harbor View Lawn at Bklyn Bridge Park

Experience the sunset in silence, off your phone, together—and then hang out after!

Email organizer and designer Samvit Sengupta for more: samvit.sengupta@gmail.com.

Mon., Apr. 20 | Attention Lab COALITION @ 6:30 p.m., DUMBO

The School of Radical Attention's flagship "Attention Labs" are experiential, participatory workshops dedicated to the joint exploration of human attention. Through group attention practices and guided discussions, we create and test tools to rebuild the art of sustained attention, which has been under attack by persuasive technologies.

This lab's focus is COALITION: the collective potential of attention activism.

Sign up for any lab here.

Tues., Apr. 21 | buying, n.&a.m.a.n. (buying norms, & adjustments make alternative networks) @ 6 p.m., online

delete your uber eats and amazon apps, can we buy something else? another webinar where i present practices to buying things away from big tech. let's reevaluate how we consume goods, and see what works for you. instead of a webinar hosted by a video conferencing tool, I am going to present each slide in an email over the course of an hour

email staoue@pm.me.

Tues., Apr. 21 | Proteus: Phone-Free Creative Workshop @ 6 p.m., Edge Studio

​​Our workshop will lead you through thought-provoking creative writing prompts in a collaborative environment, and provide unique alternative technologies (such as Vinyls) to have fun experimenting with.

RSVP here.

Thurs., Apr. 23 | Unplatform Creatives Workshop @ 6:30 p.m., 875 Third Ave.

It's no secret that extractive digital platforms have taken over creative life. Creating culture of all kinds has never been more precarious, and creating a world where you're able to making a living off your art without worrying about appeasing algorithms seems harder than ever. The good news is that a better world is possible - but only if we go there together.

The Unplatform project invites artists, musicians, writers, and all other creatives from across NYC to come together for a conversation where we'll collectively imagine a vision for creative life outside the shadow of Silicon Valley - and, more importantly, think about how to make that vision a reality.

RSVP here.

Fri., Apr. 24 | Airplane Mode Vol. 4 @ 6:30 p.m., Downtown Manhattan

The premise is simple: Dinner, then 24 hours with no phone.

Are you up for it?

RSVP here. Mention "NYC Off Tech" in how you heard about this.

Sat., Apr. 25 | Digital Security Workshop @ 12 p.m., Peace Cafe

Let’s get our shit on lock together 🔐 evil forces are afoot, keep yourself and your friends safe! 🧿 ᗩᒪᒪ E᙭ᑭEᖇIEᑎᑕE ᒪEᐯEᒪᔕ ᗯEᒪᑕOᗰE • ᗷᖇIᑎG Yᖇ ᑭᕼOᑎEᔕ

Sun., Apr. 26 | WILD IRIS Sidewalk Study @ 12 p.m., Bed Stuy

In Louise Glück's poem "Daisies," she writes "The garden / is not the real world. Machines / are the real world." As spring brings new life to the urban ecosystem of Brooklyn, what can turning toward this supposedly unreal world of greenery illuminate?

Join us in an exploration of Glück's provocation alongside Emerson's essay "Nature" in one of Bed-Stuy's lush community gardens. We'll attend to our surroundings through the lens of Emerson's "transparent eyeball"—a state of being that dissolves the border between self and nature.

Facilitated by Marcela Mulholland and Ethan Luk. Email strotherschool@sustainedattention.net for a spot.

Sun., Apr. 26 | Earth Chxrch with Rev. Billy et al. @ 7 p.m., Quaker Meeting House

Join us at 15 Rutherford Pl. for our monthly service. 1 preacher, 35 singers and a crowd of earth loving humans. Step into the Fabulous Unknown.

Tues., Apr. 28 | Devotion and Distraction Talk @ 4:30 p.m., Columbia

Featuring Natasha Schüll (author of Addiction by Design) and other prominent thinkers—

Attention is a valuable commodity. The capacity not only to keep distractions at bay, but also actively to pay attention to particular people, works of art, ideals, and politics is in constant tension with the attention claimed by mass media, consumption, and the wired ecosystem of our daily lives more broadly. Drawing into the present our year-long exploration of the relationship between devotion and distraction at various moments in the past, this final panel discussion turns to the places occupied by spirituality, self-help, and various other types of subject formation within the contemporary attention economy.

FREE! RSVP here.

Thurs., Apr. 30 | RED TIDE Sidewalk Study @ 7 p.m., Gowanus

They say that the red tide is an omen of a marine apocalypse. Red tides occur when marine life dies and algaes bloom due to excess nutrients and warming temperatures.

Join us for a Study in Gowanus, a long-time Superfund site and a point of encounter between marine and urban life. Thinking with philosopher Bayo Akomolafe, who writes about “monsters as cultural technology” that “teach us about the otherwise,” we’ll explore what lessons the monstrous blooms of our warming future might have in store for us.

Facilitated by Kyle Barnes and Samvit Sengupta. Email strotherschool@sustainedattention.net for a spot.

Thru Apr. | ATTENTION IS A SCHOOL: SoRA Workshops @ Various, National Academy of Design

Learn about the ideas of the Black Mountain School, Simone Weil, and more through shared practices of attention.

More information about the month-long residency can be found here.

Fri., May 1 | dumb.co Launch Party @ 9 p.m., The Look Up

You're invited to a PHONE-FREE night of dancing, drinks and ducks. Dumb.co takes NYC, and wants people to have the best night dancing like nobody's watching 2 celebrate our new product and brand launch!

We'll have merch, goodies, and a special performance from Danger Boss(if u know u know.)

FYI our new phones have iMessage, WhatsApp, Uber, contact sync and 2-factor authentication & will be in custom boxes. If you're an existing dumb user, come upgrade. If you're not... flip off!

Fri., May 1 | Month Offline May Sign-Up Deadline

30 days with a flip phone and new friends.

Learn more about & sign up here.

Mon., May 4 | Mass Reading of "Howl" @ 5 p.m., Wash. Sq. Park

"I saw the best minds of my generation prepare a public reading of HOWL, kids cleaning smudgy glasses with the fabric of leaves, crushing iPhone components under cathartic keratine teeth, joshing & jabbing at the soft underbelly of a grim & grimy money machine, singing in words & worlds, I'm done writing this poem text but it was fun to start it." — J.O.

We're handing out free copies of Allen Ginsberg's gospel, FILLING UP the park, & reading together in ecstasy.

More info to come. Organized by Adam Aleksic, Jeremy Ornstein, Nick Plante, & friends. Email nickplante@proton.me with questions.

May 8–14 | Skin in the Game: Experiments in PlayDating @ 9:30 p.m., MetroRock Bushwick

How Do We Play presents Skin in the Game—a participatory, play-based dating event series that uses principles of attraction to create the optimal conditions to find love. A bubble of facilitated activity that sparks a state of play and childlike openness.

Step into a world of games, music, and aphrodisiacs designed to help participants connect on a deeper level and tap into their desires.

This experience demands active and authentic participation outside of one’s comfort zone—come curious and ready to play.

No phones! Tickets here.

★ ★ ★

Weekly Gatherings

Every Sun. | Luddite Club @ 2 p.m., Bklyn Central Library

The Brooklyn Luddite Club returns, at its original meeting place. All are welcome. First meeting 4/12.

Email loganlane1@proton.me for more.

Every Sun. | CIRCLE TIME (Parallel Play) @ 4 p.m., Bushwick

You always want to ask people what they're working on at the cafe? NOW YOU CAN! This is Circle Time. Sundays, BYOPP (bring your own passion project) and prepare to share.

Format: Intros → Focus Time → Optional show & tell

Hosted by Rebecca Lipsitch of How Do We Play.

More info here!

First and Third Sun. | Date with Détournement @ 9 p.m., Various Locations

Join public art projects that push back against alienating tech.

First and third Sundays.

sighren.ludd@proton.me if you want in.

Every Wed. | Technocritical Writers Room @ 10 a.m. / 7 p.m., Hybrid

Writers from across the community engage in generative sessions to share stories, visualize futures, and push critiques of digital technology towards new action.

10 a.m. at Jefferson Market Library, and 7 p.m. on a Jitsi call.

Facilitated by artist and organizer Amalia Mayorga. Email rosemayorga@proton.me for more.

Every Wed. | Phone-Free Adelphi @ 7 p.m., Fort Greene

Screen-free night of creativity from 7 to 10 p.m. We turn off our phones, work on something creative (or just read or meditate), then reflect on the experience.

Capped at 15 people. Please only come if you can stay the whole evening!

Stay up to date and RSVP for any week using this form. Email danmaxfox@gmail.com with questions.

Every Fri. | Crafternoon @ 1:30 p.m., Stavros Library (SNFL) First Floor Corner Space

Two hours of freeform crafting and conversation every week at the midtown Manhattan library. Bring your own project. We have tools and materials for sewing, painting, fiber, and paper arts, and are always happy to assist you in finding books related to your creative interests. Walk-ins welcome. More info here.