Brecht Forum and New York Marxist School Records
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
This collection contains the files of the Brecht Forum and the New York Marxist School. The New York Marxist School, now part of the Brecht Forum, was founded in 1975 to promote the study and renewal of Marxist ideas and their application to contemporary issues. The Brecht Forum offers community based educational programs such as public lectures and seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops, and language classes. The collection contains minutes, reports, curricula, catalogs, course syllabi and reading materials, programs, newsletters, Marxist Education Collective documents, materials of the school's Science Task Force; materials about the Grenada revolution and its overthrow; Philadelphia Marxist School materials; topical files, including files on the World Trade Center Trial, and files on several countries. It also contains Brecht Forum newspapers, event flyers, correspondence, photographs, programming files, minutes and reports from the New York Marxist School and Marxist Education Collective, and audio cassette recordings of conference events and lectures.
Historical Note
In 1975, a group of civil rights, community, labor, and student activists came together to found the New York Marxist School, which became part of the larger Brecht Forum, a left political, cultural and educational center in New York City. A leading role was played by Arthur Felberbaum (1935-1979), earlier a Trotskyist activist. The NYMS sought to promote the study and renewal of Marxist ideas and their application to contemporary issues. In 1984, New York Marxist School became incorporated as the Brecht Forum to include a broader range of educational and artistic programs. The New York Marxist School remained the Forum's core project, but also expanded to include additional projects like the Institute for Popular Education, founded in 1990 in collaboration with the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory & Arts at the Brecht. The Brecht Forum offered programs designed to promote critical analysis of capitalist society through programs such as public lectures and seminars, art exhibitions, performances, popular education workshops, and language classes. Brecht Forum closed in 2014 due to financial difficulties.
Arrangement
This collection is divided into two series by organization; Series I: Brecht Forum Records and Series II: Mary Boger New York Marxist School Records. Materials within series are arranged in rough groupings by topic. This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received from the donors.
Scope and Content Note
This collection contains the records of the New York Marxist School (NYMS) and Brecht Forum, a Marxist educational institution based in Brooklyn, New York. Originally established as two organizations, NYMS and Brecht Forum merged in 1985. The collection includes the institutional records of both organizations before and after their incorporation. Brecht Forum records include financial, fundraising and donor materials; Brecht Forum newspapers; flyers for events hosted by Brecht Forum; correspondence; photographs; files related to programming and educational courses; minutes and reports from the New York Marxist School and Marxist Education Collective; audio cassette recordings of conference events and lectures, and four hard drives. New York Marxist School records include early organizational files, meeting minutes, educational and programming files, conference materials, and promotional materials. NYMS remained an educational center after it was incorporated in Brecht Forum, and consequently records from each organization overlap to some degree.
Subjects
Organizations
People
Topics
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Mary Boger and the New York Marxist School were transferred to New York University in 2017 by Mary Boger. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu.
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Brecht Forum were relinquished and transferred to the public domain in 2014 by Matt Birkhold. These materials are governed by a Creative Commons CC0 license, which permits publication and reproduction of materials accompanied by full attribution. See, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Brecht Forum Records; TAM 635; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; Brecht Forum Records; TAM 635; Wayback URL; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Mary Boger in 2003; additional materials were donated by Matt Birkhold on behalf of Brecht Forum in 2013 and 2014, and found in the repository in 2014. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 2003.025, 2013.025, 2014.080, and 2014.127.
https://brechtforum.org/ was initially selected by curators and captured through the use of The California Digital Library's Web Archiving Service in 2007 as part of the Communism, Socialism, Trotskyism Web Archive. In November 2015, these websites were migrated to Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In February 2023, https://www.youtube.com/@brechtforum/videos/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2023.033.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. Born-digital materials have not been transferred and may not be available to researchers. Researchers may request access copies. To request that material be transferred, or if you are unsure if material has been transferred, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Appraisal note
Confidential material and a small number of duplicates were removed from this collection.
Take Down Policy
Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.
If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.
If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the special.collections@nyu.edu.
Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.
About this Guide
Processing Information note
Records in this collection are described in groupings by format and subject; the order in which files came to Tamiment has been maintained within those groupings. Materials in this collection have not been arranged by an archivist. Loose materials were housed in archival folders and titled by the archivist.
In 2014, the archived website was added to Series I. In 2023, crawls of the http://brechtforum.org/ website were transferred from the Communism, Socialism, Trotskyism Web Archive to the Brecht Forum Web Archive and additional administrative and narrative description was added.
Accession 2013.127 was added to this collection in 2014 as boxes 36-38.
The Brecht Forum Records and New York Marxist School Records were originally established as two separated collections. In 2015, the New York Marxist School Records (TAM 149) were repatriated into the Brecht Forum Records (TAM 635) and added as Series II: Mary Boger New York Marxist School Records. At this time the collection title was changed to the Brecht Forum and New York Marxist School Records (TAM 635).
In 2017 materials in this collection were rehoused. Files in Series I: Brecht Forum Records were removed from hanging files, under-filled boxes were condensed, and box numbers were updated to reflect changes in extent. Groupings established in hanging files have been retained. Materials in Series II: Mary Boger New York Marxist School Records that were loose in boxes were placed in archival housing. The box list was updated at this time to provide more detailed description of materials contained in this series.
Revisions to this Guide
Repository
Series I: Brecht Forum Records, 1960s-2023, inclusive; 1960s-2017, bulk
Scope and Contents
This series contains records of Brecht Forum (dated 1960s-2014). It includes organizational correspondence, public programming files, course catalogues, fundraising files, meeting minutes, financial records, and newsletters. The series also contains numerous audio recording of conferences, public events, and lectures.
Cassette Tapes, 1970s-1990s, inclusive
Cassette Tapes, 1980s-2000s, inclusive
Cassette Tapes, 1970s-2000s, inclusive
Betacam Tapes (some labeled "Manifestivity," referring to Brecht Forum's 150th anniversary celebration of the Communist Manifesto), circa 1998, inclusive
Cassette Tapes (original box labeled "BAC 99"), 1990s-2000s, inclusive
Correspondence - A through C, 1980s-2010s, inclusive
Correspondence - C through H, 1980s-2010s, inclusive
Correspondence - H through M, 1980s-2010s, inclusive
Correspondence - M through R, 1980s-2010s, inclusive
Correspondence - R through T, 1980s-2010s, inclusive
Correspondence - U through Z, and Annette Rubenstein Papers and Photographs, 1960s-2010s, inclusive
Cassette Tapes, 1990s-2000s, inclusive
Publicity/Program Calendars and Programming Files re: July Intensive School, 1970s-2010s, inclusive
Programming Files re: July Intensive School and Marxist Education Conferences, 1970s-1990s, inclusive
Programming and Subject Files, 1970s-1990s, inclusive
Programming Files re: Faculty Meetings, Arts Programming, Brecht Forum History, etc., 1980s-1990s, inclusive
Programming and Subject Files, circa 1980-1999, inclusive
Programming and Subject Files, circa 1990s-2000s, inclusive
Programming Files, 1990s-2000s, inclusive
Programming and Fundraising Files, 1990s-2000s, inclusive
Fundraising Files, 1990s-2000s, inclusive
Programming and Fundraising Files, 1970s-1990s, inclusive
Cassette Tapes, 1970s-2000s, inclusive
Cassette Tapes, 1980s, inclusive
Cassette Tapes, 1980s-2000s
Cassette Tapes, 1970s-1990s
New Marxist School - Catalogs, Reports etc., NY Committee on Marxist Education Minutes, Marxist Education Collective- Minutes, Reports etc., 1975-1999, inclusive
Marxist Education Collective - Minutes, Reports etc., NY Marxist School - Minutes Notebook, School Info. etc., Brecht Forum event fliers, 1970-1985, inclusive
School of Marxist Education Course Materials and Event Fliers, 1970s-1992, inclusive
Brecht Forum Newspapers, 1999-2004, inclusive
Financial and Programming Files, 1980s-2014, inclusive
Fundraising and Programming Files, 1980s-2014, inclusive
Financial and Subject Files, 1980s-2014, inclusive
Hard Drives, undated
Archived Website
Extent
Scope and Content Note
The Brecht Forum, originally located at 451 West Street in Manhattan, now at 388 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, is a Marxist cultural and educational center. The Brecht Forum was founded in 1975 as The New York Marxist School. In 1984, the founding collective incorporated as The Brecht Forum with The New York Marxist School as the Forum's core project. In addition to the New York Marxist School, it also offers other programs, language classes, and arts and cultural events. The website contains information on their curriculum and classes, programming from 2007-2014, as well as economic news analysis. Over the years, the Brecht Forum supported different types of programming, including the Neues Kabarett, the Right to City podcast series, the Manifestoon, the Institute for Popular Education, the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory, the Harvey Goldberg Classroom Benefits from 2006-2009, Strategic Visions discussion series, and other events and programs. In 2014, after the Brecht Forum closed, the website remained active as a video gallery until 2017. The YouTube channel was focused on the years 2007-2014, the majority of which were uploaded to be part of the video gallery on the main website after the Brecht Forum's closing.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Due to technical or privacy issues, archived websites may not be exact copies of the original website at the time of the web crawl. Certain file types will not be captured dependent on how they are embedded in the site. Other parts of websites that the crawler has difficulty capturing includes Javascript, streaming content, database-driven content, and highly interactive content. Full-Text searches of archived websites are available at https://archive-it.org/organizations/567.
Externally hosted content
https://wayback.archive-it.org/4562/*/https://brechtforum.org/
Externally hosted content
https://wayback.archive-it.org/4562/*/https://www.youtube.com/@brechtforum/videos/
Series II: Mary Boger New York Marxist School Records, 1970s-2000s
Scope and Content Note
The series contains early New York Marxist School records maintained by founding member Mary Boger. It includes NYMS documents; minutes, reports, curricula, catalogs, course syllabi and reading materials, programs, newsletters, public events documents, Marxist Education Collective documents, including conference materials; materials about the Grenada revolution and its overthrow, including tapes and slides; Science Task Force materials; Philadelphia Marxist School materials; topical files (political economy, Russian Revolution, etc.); files on several countries, including Cuba, El Salvador, Portugal, Puerto Rico, etc.; Women's movement materials; cultural magazines; and files on the World Trade Center Trial.
