Welcome to Nox study grouP
Study Group is a monthly meet-up facilitated by Nox Library as an alternative community-oriented space for critical thinking and dialogue. With a focus on the relationship between art and revolutionary change, it encourages a collaborative approach to learning key concepts across the topics of labor, class, race, decolonization, anti-imperialism, and peace.
Each month, Nox Study Group will focus on a new topic to explore the question: what is the role of art in revolutionary change? Nox Library will provide optional supplemental material for participants to review prior to each meeting. Study group sessions will be rooted in conversations facilitated by Nox Library.
Check back on this page for the upcoming session’s list of supplemental material.
Join us in person every last Thursday of the month, 6PM @ Vámonos
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Schedule
January 29th - Art & Community
February 26th - Red Books Day
March 26th - Art & Capitalism
March 26
art & capitalism
The items listed below are supplemental to our discussion and optional for participants to review beforehand. We recommend checking out at least one:
paper: art work: A national conversation about art, labor, and economics
Temporary Services
Art Work is a newspaper that consists of writings and images from artists, activists, writers, critics, and others on the topic of working within depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property. Temporary Services created the newspaper in direct response to the 2009 economic crash. The paper was made to be taken apart and turned into an exhibition and used as a backdrop for conversations. Over 18,000 copies of the paper were distributed in 90+ cities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
discussion: Anti-capitalism In These Times: A Conversation with Boots Riley and Charisse Burden-Stelly Claudia Jones School for Political education
Charisse Burden-Stelly is a scholar of political theory, political economy, and intellectual history. Boots Riley is an American rapper, producer, screenwriter, film director, and communist activist. Here, they join in conversation with the Claudia Jones School for Political Education on being a Communist in the 21st Century and the struggle against capitalism.
Video: base and superstructure | approaching marxism prolekult
This video gives a broad explanation of Marx’s concept of the base and superstructure and then further breaks down the varying interpretations of these concepts. The base and superstructure attempts to explains capitalism’s relationship with the ideological formations of politics, religion, art and culture.
article: detroit 2050: A Present With and a Future Beyond Billionaires
nox library for runner mag
Article written for Runner Mag in December 2025 on Swords Into Plowshares’ exhibition, Detroit 2025: A Future Beyond Billionaires. The exhibition, as well as the article, question the relationship between art, culture, and billionaires and challenges artists and their communities to imagine a future for art beyond billionaires.
preface: A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy Karl marx
In his preface to ‘A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy’, Karl Marx plants the seed for his developing theory on the base and superstructure: “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness.”
FEBRUARY 26
RED BOOKS DAY
The items listed below are supplemental to our discussion and optional for participants to review beforehand. We recommend checking out at least one:
BOOK: cOMMUNIST Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
The Communist Manifesto is a pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels in 1848. Originally published in English, it has since been re-printed in a plethora of languages, inspiring peoples movements in all corners of the world.
Website: International Union of Left Publishers
The organization which put out the initial call for a celebration of the Communist Manifesto is the International Union of Left Publishers (IULP). Red Books Day is not just a commemoration of the original publication of the Communist Manifesto—it’s also a celebration of the legacy of movements rooted in scientific socialism and communism. The IULP calls for Red Books Day to be “a time to stand in solidarity with the comrades across the world who have been facing attacks from the right-wing.”
ESSAY: Black Panther’s Ten-Point Program
The Black Panther Party was established by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966. Initially established to protect Black communities from police violence, the BPP developed to serve its communities and the broader working class in a myriad of ways. Their ten-point program is an exceptional example of grass-roots organizing centered on political demands and working-class liberation, with a focus on the added layer of oppression imposed upon Black Americans. The BPP was heavily inspired by communist revolutionaries throughout history, as well as the Communist Manifesto itself.
Podcast: Black Communist Women’s Political Writing with Charisse Burden-Stelly and Jodi Dean by Guerrilla History Podcast
This podcast episode features Charisse Burden-Stelly and Jodi Dean discussing their co-edited book, Organize, Fight, Win, the history of Black communist women, and how the work of these women is relevant today.
Article: MAGA’s new McCarthyism by people’s world
Anti-Communism did not die with Joseph McCarthy; This article outlines the fascistic attacks on the broad left from the White House itself, starting with the Executive Orders and memorandums signed by President Trump, and what the implications are.
brochure: Detroit People’s Timeline by 2024 red books day detroit committee
Created in 2024, this timeline features working class people’s movements in Detroit.
January
ART & COMMUNITY
The items listed below are supplemental to our discussion and optional for participants to review beforehand. We recommend checking out at least one:
Art: Justseeds, Celebrate People’s History Poster Series organized and curated by Josh MacPhee
Justseeds is decentralized artist cooperative made up of 41 artists that was founded in 1998 and is currently based in Pittsburgh, PA. Celebrate People’s History Poster series is an artist project by Josh MaCphee and is produced at Justeeds. The poster series has highlighted 165 (and counting) artists that feature a movement, organization, person or event of successful moments in the history of social justice struggles. Both Justeeds and the poster series is a clear example of artist-centered projects that focus on community over individualism.
Art: Project Row House by Rick Lowe
Project Row House is a socially engaged artist project that started in 1993 in Houston, TX. Ricke Lowe and a group of other artists rehabilited a block of row houses in the Third Ward. The artists worked with community organizations like SHAPE and were able to support single mothers who needed housing. This is one example of how an artist project working with community can have a material impact on a people’s lives.
Article: Claudia Jones, Triple Oppression and Super Exploitation
When thinking about community, we should simultaneously work to understand the layers of oppression that exist among the people of a community, and how triple oppression and super exploitation call for unity in a common struggle.
Article: “Detroit students fight to save classmates kidnapped by ICE”
A look at how community members rally to support each other, ranging from youth and elders to union members and neighbors. This also sheds light on a major issue facing the Detroit community today: the attack on immigrant rights and ICE-led terrorism at home.
Article: “DIA workers say museum’s Diego Rivera murals inspired them to form a union”
A direct example of how art inspire workers, hence how art can galvanize a community.