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Arts

Future Natures: On Seeing Commons Through Popular Genres

In academic research about the commons, few scholars are as venturesome in their creative approaches than the scholars and researchers associated with the Centre for Future Natures, at the University of Sussex in England. Led by anthropologist and research fellow Amber Huff, Future Natures explores “ecologies of crisis, commons, and enclosures," but its chief output isn’t monographs and books. It’s an exuberant array of creative works in popular genres like comic books, zines, social media, videos, and podcasts. 

Atlantic Theater Company Workers Go On Strike

On Sunday, January 12, Atlantic Theater Company (ATC) workers in New York City announced they are going on strike after long and arduous negotiations have not produced a collective bargaining agreement worth signing. This bargaining unit consists of carpenters, electricians, painters, audio and video technicians, hairdressers, makeup artists, wardrobe workers, and others. The show quite literally cannot go on without them. ATC workers voted 129-1 in favor of unionizing with the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) in February 2024, becoming the first major off-broadway theater to do so.

The Arts Organization Helping Transform Appalachia’s Craft Economy

Makers United supports historically marginalized makers in the craft economy by removing the barriers to accessing business development resources and e-commerce opportunities they need to grow their small businesses. In 2023, that commitment led Nest to expand Makers United to Appalachia, starting with 54 counties in eastern Kentucky, where they identified not only the need for economic investment but recognized the potential for growth in the craft sector, especially in rural and digitally disconnected communities. As a result, the program delivers one-of-a-kind support by working with local and regional efforts to improve makers’ e-commerce readiness and enhance their business’ e-commerce performance to help folk artists market and distribute their work.

Young People And Transition: Making Space At The Table

Young people today find themselves on the front line of a rapidly changing world. Whether actively engaged with climate issues or not, these issues will undoubtedly and profoundly shape their futures, quality of life and inner worlds. Witnessing the escalating environmental crisis unfold in real time alongside their personal growth and development, can make these challenges feel overwhelming. With 84% of young people aged 16-25 in the UK worried about climate change and 59% reporting that it affects their daily lives (The Lancet Planetary Health, 2020) it’s crucial that movements such as Transition strive to place young people at their heart, building supportive and empowering pathways to navigate these turbulent times together.

Seattle Festival Celebrates Palestinian Resilience And Resistance

Various artists, speakers and influencers joined hands in a show of solidarity at a concert attended by thousands in Seattle, USA, on Saturday, to celebrate the resilience and resistance of the Palestinian people. The Palestine Will Live Forever Festival was headlined by the Grammy-winning Seattle rapper, Macklemore, who performed his newly released song, Hinds Hall 2 – along with Palestinian American singer Anees and 16-year-old Gazan rapper MC Abdul – live for the first time to the roaring crowd. The event also featured many other pro-Palestine artists such as Jordanian rapper and singer Eddy Mack, and South Seattle-based Moroccan-American rapper Essam, as well as many other talented musicians.

The Revolutionary Fire In The People Starts With A Song

Mallu Swarajyam (1931–2022) was born with an appropriate name. From deep within the mass movement against British colonialism that was initiated by India’s peasants and workers, and then shaped by M. K. Gandhi into the movement for swaraj (self-rule), Bhimireddy Chokkamma drew her baby daughter into the freedom movement with a powerful name that signalled the fight for independence. Born into a house of reading, and able to get books through the radical people’s organisation Andhra Mahasabha, Mallu Swarajyam obtained a Telugu translation of Maxim Gorky’s Mother (1907).

The Only Right That Palestinians Have Not Been Denied Is The Right To Dream

On 26 January, the judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that it is ‘plausible’ that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The ICJ called upon Israel to ‘take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts’ that violate the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948). Although the ICJ did not call explicitly for a ceasefire (as it did in 2022 when it ordered Russia to ‘suspend [its] military operation’ in Ukraine), even a casual reading of this order shows that to comply with the court’s ruling, Israel must end its assault on Gaza.

Artisans Cooperative: An Etsy Alternative

We have all experienced it: Some organization or service starts out good — or great, even — and then as time goes on, either costs and fees go up, or quality declines. In the context of a dominant economy that demands faster production, cheaper labor, and lower quality — all for the sake of channeling wealth upward to shareholders who have little to do with the real-world value created by a business — it is understandable that people may feel cynical about any type of retail organization. This is a story of how the makers who create a living off their hard-earned skills, banded together to challenge this dominant business ethic, and about the cooperative they built that’s just now getting off the ground.

The Right To Repair And Other Forms Of Peer Creativity

Can creativity flourish and remain within the control of commoners? Or will businesses inevitably capture creativity and convert it into private property to make money?  Copyright and trademark law are certainly designed for those purposes. They presume a market identity for creators of art, software, and new knowledge. And in fact, the corporate world routinely vacuums up creativity that's developed through commoning – images, music, know-how, social sharing. Yet history tells another story. It shows that creativity naturally thrives in commons, and need not enter the marketplace to find support or fruition.

Why Movements Need To Start Singing Again

Social movements are stronger when they sing. That’s a lesson that has been amply demonstrated throughout history, and it’s one that I have learned personally in working to develop trainings for activists over the past decade and a half. In Momentum, a training program that I co-founded and that many other trainers and organizers have built over the last seven years, song culture is not something we included at the start. And yet, it has since become so indispensable that the trainers I know would never imagine doing without it again. The person who taught me the most as I came to appreciate the impact that song can have on movement culture is Stephen Brackett, an activist and hip-hop MC known on stage as Brer Rabbit.

National Endowment For The Arts Report On The Devastation Of The Arts

On March 15, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the US government agency that funds arts projects, released a report revealing a portion of the financial and job losses sustained by artists and arts organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic so far. The NEA study points out that between 2019 and 2020 the US “arts economy” contracted at almost twice the rate of the economy as a whole. “Arts and cultural production fell by 6.4 percent when adjusted for inflation, compared with a 3.4 [percent] decline in the overall economy.” While the arts and culture sector remained “a major contributor to the economy,” according to the NEA, “certain arts industries saw enormous declines.” The performing arts were the most affected, experiencing devastating losses in 2020 in particular.

Artists, Activists Demand Concert Venues Drop Amazon’s Palm-Scanning Tech

Concert operators may like Amazon's palm recognition system, but some performers and activists are less than thrilled. A group of 200 artists and 30 rights groups has penned an open letter demanding the Red Rocks amphitheater, its ticketing provider AXS and AEG (AXS' parent company) "immediately cancel" contracts to use Amazon One scanning at any venue. They also want the firms to ban all biometric surveillance at those events.

Why More Celebrities Don’t Speak Out On Israel-Palestine

The new MintPress podcast “The Watchdog,” hosted by British-Iraqi hip-hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know — including intelligence, lobby and special-interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. The Watchdog goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media. Hollywood is not exactly known for being a hotbed of anti-war, anti-imperialist activism. Indeed, so close is the relationship between the national security state and Tinseltown that the Department of Defense casually tweeted out on Oscar Night that it works closely with its “partners” in Hollywood to ensure the military is presented in a positive light.

Protesting Settler Colonialism In The Neoliberal University

During May’s uprising in Palestine against the latest aggression of the apartheid Israeli state, a few students at the Piet Zwart Institute (PZI) in Rotterdam wanted to express their solidarity with the struggle. They hung a banner on the institute’s building that read: “STOP THE ETHNIC CLEANSING; #SaveSheikhJarrah; Free Palestine.” The action took place at a time when the vicious attacks on civilians in Gaza, the ultra-right-wing mob violence against Arabs in Israel and the forced evictions of the settler colonialist system in Jerusalem had resulted in a global show of solidarity. A few hours after the banner was put up, the board of Hogeschool Rotterdam hastily urged the dean of the institute to remove it.

Arts And Activism In Pandemic Times; Eleanor Goldfield On Her New EP

This week, Clearing the FOG speaks with artist and activist Eleanor Goldfield about her new EP, "No Solo." This is her first solo production and it is her most personal and political piece. Goldfield talks about the struggles of artists during the pandemic as they have been left out of the rescue plans. She discusses the role of the arts, particularly in activism, and her involvement in direct action, mutual aid and supporting campaigns to save the forests. Goldfield is journalist, podcaster, documentarian, photographer and more. Her work, as well as her new music video, can be found at ArtKillingApathy.com.

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Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

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Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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