Our guest moderator this month is Zoe Van Buren, director of the Folklife Program at the North Carolina Arts Council. Van Buren’s research has focused on material culture, occupational folklife, young traditional artists, and urban folklore. Van Buren, our narrator of Freeman Vines’ story, weaves together the events and brings context to Vines’ words. Inspiration is a word that comes to me often when I think of this book, and Van Buren writes about it beautifully here: “The g

To honor Black History Month, we are reading Freeman Vines' book, “Hanging Tree Guitars”. This may be a departure from the classical woodworking text, but I am truly grateful that I found this book. Vines, though facing extreme prejudice, existed in a state of exploration and creativity. The influence of a singular tone from a guitar sent him on a lifelong journey of crafting and shaping instruments carved from unique materials including the trees used to ritually murder and

Due to some scheduling changes, the meeting for January's book, "The Anarchist Tool Chest" By Christopher Schwarz will take place this Sunday at 12:00 PM EST. and Chris will be joining us as guest moderator still. I understand the inconvenience of the time change, but this is a group and this is the consciences we reached as thus. If you have any questions for Chris, drop them in the Discord and we will make sure they are heard. The meeting will be recorded and posted to our

Image via Lost Art Press I was going to write a three-paragraph blog about Chris Schwarz, author of January’s book “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest,” saying something along the lines of…Chris has a huge part in the preservation of woodworking print, creating a platform that reaches across the spectrum, from backwoods chairs to hands and eyes, to every word written by Charles Hayward. And without Chris, I would admit this book club may never exist. But I will spare you the sentimen

All images via Lost Art Press We are kicking the off the new year with one of my new favorite books: “The Anarchist Tool Chest” by Christopher Schwarz. I don’t often compare books to movies, but a particular scene pops into my head while I’m reading this book. As a millennial, the movie “The Matrix” had a significant impact on me, especially the scene where Neo is in the Matrix downloading all his karate skills, bulking up his arsenal of weapons, and, most importantly, instan