A pop musician and lifelong history student, Zack Daniel Schiavetta is part of the 2019/2020 OHMA cohort. A 2019 Graduate from the State University of New York at Purchase College, he’s a musician who has been performing and releasing his own records since 2014, but has held history very close to his heart.

Zack views and studies history as a way to understand power and how it is obtained, destroyed, manipulated, and perceived. His senior thesis was “A Brief History of New York City Anarchism: 1901-2011”, documenting the story of a movement that sought to destroy government power, and attempt to claim the city as their own from the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, to the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. He was first introduced to this topic as a touring musician, organizing shows, and releasing records, within the D.I.Y music scene of New York City and the northeastern United States. He saw the “Circle A” symbol marked in the D.I.Y spaces he’d play and book, as well as fellow musicians and friends identifying themselves as anarchists. He was intrigued by the political philosophy that his friends held onto and wanted to research more about this history.

During his time at OHMA, he wishes to expand upon this further, by researching and conducting interviews of New York City’s anarchists. He hopes to finalize his findings and research by publishing it as a book.