News

by George Sax, Artvoice 09/10/2015  -  http://artvoice.com/issues/v14n36/news_fbi A number of pages from a vast secret file kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a local leftist political activist, received by him through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, indicate a years-long surveillance of his activities. And they raise the question of whether the bureau used the Buffalo News to thwart his organization’s lawful programs. Leslie J. Pickering and others also believe his constitutionally protected rights were infringed upon in the process. When 24-year-old Buffalo native Pickering returned to this city from Oregon in 2002, he wanted to continue...

by Buck Quigley, July 16, 2015, Artvoice http://artvoice.com/issues/v14n28/summer_reading   Burning Books owners Leslie James Pickering and Theresa Baker-Pickering One of the more pleasurable summer pursuits is taking advantage of the long days to catch up on some reading. While you can consult with with various mainstream outlets like Oprah’s Book Club—where you are currently encouraged to read Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel Far From the Madding Crowd which recently became a major motion picture (again)—we thought it would be fun to suggest a number of titles that would make your summer reading something more than simple entertainment. Without further ado, here...

By Phil Fairbanks, July 15, 2015, The Buffalo News http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/federal-court/pickering-long-a-target-of-the-fbi-turns-his-story-into-an-art-exhibit-20150715   Except for an old Underwood typewriter, Leslie James Pickering never really wanted or expected the FBI to return the computers and office equipment agents seized in a raid 14 years ago. But when the FBI finally offered, Pickering, the owner of Burning Books in Buffalo, saw an opportunity to draw attention to the government’s on-again, off-again surveillance of him. And he’s doing it through art. At a gallery on Elmwood Avenue Wednesday night, Pickering unveiled a multimedia art installation depicting the press office he ran while serving as spokesman...

Radical Time Capsule The Public by Michael I. Niman / Jul. 7, 2015 http://www.dailypublic.com/articles/07072015/radical-time-capsule A long time ago I gifted a worn and rather worthless car to a friend. Though he intended to nurse my old hooptie back to life, he wound up abandoning it. Years later I stumbled upon the car, embalmed in bird droppings and wrapped in vines, tucked away in another friend’s backyard. Finding it was like finding a time capsule, ripe with artifacts from my prior life, reemerging like a ghost after two decades.  My reunion with my old car offers, at best, a poor analogy for...

  7pm Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St. (881-0791 / burningbooksbuffalo.com) Free Would you consider Jake Conroy to be a domestic terrorist? The US government does. Part of the animals rights campaign, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, he was engaged in an international effort against the private animal experimentation laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, which created an uproar among activists after an undercover video was leaked that showed HLS workers abusing and shouting at beagle puppies. Conroy and his organization not only targeted the lab, but the investors and supporting corporations that were affiliated with HLS. This method of action nearly toppled the...