China Martens

China Martens is the author of The Future Generation: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends, and Others (Atomic Book Company). She is the proud 44-year-old empty nest mother of a wonderful 22-year-old grown daughter and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Don't Leave Your Friends Behind: How to Be a Radical Parent Ally

Kidz Corner participants at the Mid-Atlantic Radical Bookfair in Baltimore in 2006, possibly the first time that a radical event in Baltimore had organized childcare/kids' activities. Photo by Vikki Law.

In 2006, at the anarcha-feminist conference La Rivolta in Boston, Vikki Law and I gave our first “Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind” workshop. We wanted to share our experiences as a radical 40-year-old mother of an 18-year-old and a 29-year-old anarchist mother of a 5-year-old with the predominantly young, childfree audience of radicals.