Marywood held its third annual Radical Book Fair noon to 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, drawing representatives from radical associations and students to Marywood’s Nazareth Hall.

The event allowed students interested in different local and distant organizations to buy books and other supplemental material to support and learn more about these different associations.

Throughout the day, different expert speakers talked about controversial problems in the area, such as Jamie Longazel’s speech on the Immigration Relief Act in Hazelton and the Human Right to Water Act from speaker Uren Moodliar.

One of the organizations that took part in the Scranton Radical Book Fair was the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, which was taken care of by press office advisor Gregston Van Pukeston.

“We basically report on actions that are done for animal liberation and animal activism. We’re basically the voice for the animal rights movement,” explained Van Pukeston.

The North American Animal Liberation Press Office was one of the tens of different organizations at the Scranton Radical Book Fair on Saturday. Others included the Shalefield Organization Committee, The Marcellus Shale Earth First! Organization, and the Energy Justice Network.

Van Pukeston said that even though there are many around us that are “hands off” on these and other radical ideologies, many people were very receptive and interested in the vendors at the Book Fair.

Dr. Samantha Christiansen, assistant professor of history at Marywood and organizer of the Radical Book Fair, spoke about why she loved the idea of the Radical Book Fair and how it all started.

“My husband and I moved here from Boston, and Boston, like many other major cities, has an anarchist event fair every year,” explained Christiansen. “This is a similar event, so we thought that people in Scranton would be interested in this!”

Christiansen also said that she enjoys that Marywood was founded in a radical tradition and offers the space for events such as this.

Jon and Sam Christiansen plan to continue this event next year, since it has grown tremendously since the beginning. Visit the Scranton Radical Book Fair site for more information.

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