02/10/2025
It is business as usual at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair (FBF), happening on Oct 15-19, with the Philippines as its Guest of Honor (GoH). Our government is continuing to spend hundreds of millions of pesos to promote Philippine literature on a platform complicit in Israelβs genocide of Palestinians, instead of heeding the call to boycott the FBF launched in January 2025 by Publishers for Palestine and endorsed by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
To counter the state-sponsored amnesia that FBF GoH celebrations are bound to induce, and to keep the conversation going about the work of cultural production in the time of genocide, we invite writers, artists, and zinesters to join FARTFUNKR BLTX: ZINE READING, TRADING, AND SHARING.
As the fanfare over our countryβs GoH participation amplifies the prestige of the fair, join us in the refusal to forget the price weβve been made to pay, supposedly for the good of our cultural production: the missed opportunity for the Philippines to stand resolutely in solidarity with Palestine, and the use of our public funds to enrich a platform that enables genocide.
Happening Oct 18 from 2-7PM, FARTFUNKR is set to provide a modest celebration of Palestine, a clear re-expression of solidarity from some Philippine artists with the Palestinian state and its people, and a joyous reminder of the value of art-making and community-building outside the hollow halls of the book fair from Frankfurt am Main to the Mall of Asia. Bring zines, bring friends, bring calls for freedom and justice from the river to the sea!
Registration link here > https://forms.gle/jU5gqcnGVsaEifda7 or scan the QR code!
This event is brought to you by
Mako Micropress
Magpies Press
Gantala Press
Komikeros 4 Palestine
Paper Trail Projects