MayDay Rooms
MayDay Rooms is an archive, resource space and safe haven for social movements, experimental and marginal cultures and their histories. It was set up by founder members: Iain Boal, Gillian Boal, Pauline van Mourik Broekman, Anthony Davies and Howard Slater in September 2011 and moved into 88 Fleet Street in May 2012. A Brief History of the organisation was published on its website in February 2013.
Its building in the centre of London contains an archive of historical material linked to social struggles, resistance campaigns, experimental culture, and the expression of marginalised and oppressed groups. MayDay Rooms offers organising and event space for activist and self-education groups, and runs a full programme of events including film screenings, poetry readings, “scan-a-thons” for digitising archival material, historical talks, discussion and reading groups, and social nights – all free of charge. (2023)
- Publications
- Peter Linebaugh, "Archiving With May Day Rooms", CounterPunch, Feb 2013.
- "Somewhere between automation and the handmade. Interview with Rosemary Grennan", in Vernaculars Come to Matter, (Re)Orienting Language and Technology, eds. Cristina Cochior, Julie Boschat-Thorez and Manetta Berends, Rotterdam: Everyday Technology Press, 2021.
- Dr. Pauline van Mourik Broekman Archiving from Below: MayDay Rooms in context’. Remap Blog. August 7, 2024
- Rosemary Grennan, "MayDay Rooms: Building Archival Resources for Contemporary Movements", in Archiving Activism in the Digital Age, eds. Daniele Salerno and Ann Rigney, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2024, pp 40-51.
- Links
- Website
- Archive catalogue
- Leftovers, a shared online archive of radical, anti-oppressive, and working class movements
