“Solo was going to fire again but suddenly an invisible force swept up his pistol and delivered it to Vader’s hands.” A panel from Diguo Fanjizhan’s The Emperor Strikes Back (1982) (image courtesy Orion Martin)

 China’s Pulp Comics

When: Tuesday, January 24, 7pm
Where: Parsons School of Design (2 W 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan)

For the NY Comics & Picture–story Symposium, Hyperallergic contributor Orion Martin will discuss what he calls the “largest comics industry ever”: China’s pulp comics. While they’ve waned in popularity in recent years, over eight billion of these hand-sized comics were printed in 1985. Known as lianhuanhua, they draw on history, folk tales, popular culture, and martial arts. Martin, who has written about Chinese comics for Hyperallergic, will trace their long history, stretching back to 1920s Shanghai. —EWA

 Shanzhai Poems

When: Wednesday, January 25, 6–8pm
Where: Picture Room (236 Mulberry Street, Nolita, Manhattan)

For a project called The Shanzhai Lyric — resulting in a new publication, 閃 SHINE — Ming Lin and Alexandra Tatarsky wandered Zoo Market, a five-story clothing market in Beijing, looking at the way language is used on shanzhai (counterfeit) clothing. The result is a series of poems that explores how “shanzhai language might be included in post-colonial discourse surrounding the strategic use of language as a mode of resistance, as a subversion and reappropriation of American cultural imperialism.” That may sound lofty, but their Instagram promises some truly thoughtful provocation. —JS

A photo posted by @shanzhai_lyric on

 Make America Fun Again

When: Saturday, January 28, 12–6pm
Where: To be announced!

Remarkably in its 13th year of unsanctioned chaos, the annual Idiotarod is taking to the streets this Saturday with its art-enhanced shopping carts driven by teams. This year’s theme is “Make America Fun Again,” and registration (plus your own shopping cart) is required to participate, though not to watch. Past teams have included Elvises and a Chapel-O-Love, and Andy Warhol with a giant banana. Just don’t get too attached to a cart creation; the 2013 edition ended with a flaming catapult. —AM

 Zine and Small Press Fair for POC Artists

Poster for the Brown Paper Zine and Small Press Fair (courtesy 3 Dot Zine)

When: Saturday, January 28–Sunday, January 29, 12–7 pm
Where: Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (80 Hanson Pl, Fort Greene, Brooklyn)

Diversify your zine collection and say hello this weekend to the first-ever installment of the Brown Paper Zine and Small Press Fair for Black and PoC Artists! Presented by 3 Dot Zine at MoCADA, the inaugural event highlights the printed makings of artists of color, celebrating these creative individuals in a city that’s already home to queer and feminist zine fests in addition to more established art book fairs. Alongside the usual tables offering publications for sale, the event will also feature a slew of programming, from Women’s Healing Space, a writing workshop, to a screening of the documentary #BlackGirlLit: Between Literature, Performance & Memory, to a panel discussing diversity and representation in self-publishing. The 19 participants include Blk Grls Wurld Zine, Collectiva Cosmica, and Yellow Jackets Collective. —CV

 A Night of Philosophy

When: Saturday, January 28, 7pm–Sunday, January 29, 7am
Where: Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library (10 Grand Army Plaza, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

In a time of extreme close-mindedness and “alternative facts,” a marathon devoted to the open and honest exchange of ideas sounds like a worthwhile antidote. On Saturday night, the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library will stay open for 12 hours straight, hosting dozens of discussions with international philosophers (e.g. Achille Mbembe, Simon Critchley), performances by Trisha Brown Dance Company and others, breakfast, and more. Go for the “What Is the Future of Democracy?” talk; stay for “On Hope & Despair.” —JS

 The Fight for Oak Flat

When: Sunday, January 29, 3:30–5pm
Where: Queens Museum (New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens)

Dakota Access pipeline protesters may have won a temporary victory — which now looks like it will be reversed — but the fight to protect Native lands is far from over in this country. Take, for instance, the case of Oak Flat Campground, a 2,400-acre tract in Arizona that’s sacred to the San Carlos Apache. Protected since 1955, the campground is now threatened by a controversial land-swap deal that allows the development of a copper mine on the campground. This weekend, students in the Social Practice Queens MFA program will bring together Wendlser Nosie Sr., former chairman of the San Carlos Apache Reservation, and Standing Fox, Apache Stronghold member and a Bedonkohe Apache photographer and artist, to discuss Oak Flat at artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s aspirationally named “Peace Table.” —JS

Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (via sculpture-center.org)

 Contemporary Art in Congo

When: Sunday, January 29, 2–5:30pm
Where: SculptureCenter (44–19 Purves Street, Long Island City, Queens)

How can the contemporary art economy benefit plantation workers in Africa? The members of the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League, or CATPC), who are paid less than living wages for their work harvesting cocoa and other crops destined for foreign markets, have found a unique answer to this question by turning the byproducts of their labor into contemporary art that can supplement their incomes. At Sunday’s conference, they will discuss their work and its economic context, while scholars working on related subjects will frame CATPC’s unique project in a broader context of plantation and postcolonial economics, social justice art, and more. —BS

 So Long, Front Room

When: Ends Sunday, January 29
Where: Front Room Gallery (147 Roebling Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

These was a time that Hyperallergic’s home neighborhood of Williamsburg had a thriving group of galleries; by now most of them have closed or moved away, as chains like Brooklyn Industries and Whole Foods have crept in. Front Room is one of the holdouts: the gallery has inhabited a well-worn space on Roebling Street for 18 years. Come March, it will relocate to the Lower East Side (following in the recent footsteps of Pierogi), but not before saying goodbye with a group show of the some of the gallery’s artists, including Thomas Broadbent, Stephen Mallon, Miho Suzuki, and more. Stop by and wish them well. —JS

*   *   *

With contributions by Elisa Wouk Almino, Allison Meier, Benjamin Sutton, and Claire Voon

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