2010 Slingshot Desk Organizer

I am an INFJ, which means that among my other characteristics is the somewhat innate desire to plan. Since discovering them several years ago at the Lucy Parsons Center, I have been hooked on Slingshot planners. They’re an affordable, radical way to keep my Type A tendencies balanced with my subversive sensibilities.

In addition to radical historic dates and holiday listings, Slingshot planners contain a multitude of information and artwork, including unusual and beautiful drawings, quotes, and tips on every page. For the third week of June, for example, I am told to “exploit code, not people,” “learn hexadecimal,” and directed to hackbloc.org, a website that is the homepage of Hack This Zine and offers an IndyMedia feed and hactivist information about Tor, for starters. A section of November dates include drawings of a still and admonish, “Fuck Corporate Beer! Brew it Yerself.”

Each planner is handmade, and since I'm running two businesses of my own this year, I need more space to write than ever before. A previous supporter of the pocket planner, I took it up a notch for 2010. Thankfully, both editions carry the same basics: a measurements conversation chart (perfect for my expat self), a global radical contact list, and blank recycled paper in the back for additional notes, doodles, conspiracies, and action plans.

One page encourages activists and organizers—with graphics of a gourd and street sign, respectively—to “squash patriarchy” and “stop driving.” (Every Slingshot shipment to a distributor is taken to the post office on bicycle, after all.) I have stopped driving in the past year, despite the fact that my 1987 Mercedes is parked in a garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Until my partner and I move back to the States, I join forty percent of my current home’s population and get everywhere on my Danish bicycle.

Their yearly section on dealing with police is also invaluable information—from what to do about cop harassment to how to avoid problems for non-citizens. I happen to be hitched to one of those for the rest of my foreseeable future. Gotta know our rights, and so do you!

The Slingshot reading list, dubbed “Discover the Romance of,” offers suggestions from Bayard Rustin and Susan Sontag to Diablo Cody and George Orwell to fiction titles for children and young adults.

Best of all, Slingshot planners are full of pro-lady health tips. Included every year is a menstrual calendar, and this year, the booklet closes with acupressure points. Two full pages explain the subversive nature of great sex, complete with tips for navigating personal boundaries and why laughing is important during intimacy.

My large desk organizer came with a pre-laminated cover to withstand inevitable wear and tear. It offers important reminders as I put my personal and professional commitments in order: The revolution will not be spontaneous. Better get ready to pencil it in.

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