An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.

IN PERSON: This is an offsite event, and tickets are required for entry.

LIVESTREAM: We are teaming up with our friends at The Real News Network to livestream this talk. RSVP for the link to Friday's stream.


While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.

The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.

In README.txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning is an American transparency activist, politician, and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst. She lives in Brooklyn and works as a security consultant and expert in data science and machine learning.

Ryan Harvey is an activist, independent journalist, and musician based in Baltimore, MD, and the National Field Director for Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. He has worked extensively in support of active-duty military members and veterans organizing against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and has co-founded several organizations including the Riot-Folk Collective (2004), the anti-war Civilian-Soldier Alliance (2006), Firebrand Records (2015) and Rebel Lens (2017).

THIS IS AN OFFSITE EVENT, taking place at 2640 Space (2640 St. Paul St.)

Tickets will be required for entry. We are making advance tickets (with a book purchase) available now, and will be opening up a limited number of free tickets for those who wish to attend but who are not able to purchase a book in early October.

The event will start at 7PM, and doors will open at 6:30PM.