Arts

New Book On Pete Seeger’s Experience Of The McCarthy Era

April 29, 2014 Edward Renehan, www.prlog.org Educate! Arts, Protest

When Pete Seeger died at age 94 this past January, widespread media coverage included discussion of his trials and tribulations during the McCarthy era when he, like so many other entertainers and artists, was persecuted, subjected to gross indignities, and ultimately prosecuted for Contempt of Congress during the myriad anti-Communist witch hunts of that time. Pete Seeger vs. The Un-Americans: A Tale of the Blacklist, reveals never before known aspects of Seeger's experience during those dark days, including the backstory to his prosecution for Contempt (orchestrated by, of all people, Robert Kennedy). The tale is one of great personal honor and commitment to principle. As Bob Dylan has commented in a most under-stated way: "Pete [was] blacklisted during the McCarthy era and had a hard time, but he never stopped." Eleanor Roosevelt wrote admiringly: "Pete Seeger, the folksinger … lives not far from me near Beacon, NY, and is loved by many people, young and old, who have enjoyed his music. … He has refused to take the Fifth Amendment because he felt that could be construed as an admission of guilt, and chose instead to invoke the freedoms of the First Amendment. His case is now in the higher courts."

Remembering The Truth About The Vietnam War

April 29, 2014 Bruce Gagnon, www.space4peace.blogspot.com Educate! Arts, Wars and Militarism

I returned home to Maine this morning on the train from New York City. Fellow Maine Veterans for Peace (VFP) member Doug Rawlings and I were up early at our respective home stays to get to Penn Station for the 7:00 am train to Boston. We had loads of time on the four-hour ride back to Boston and then another two-hour bus ride to Portland to review the remarkable trip. We got to the Judson Memorial Church yesterday at 1:00 pm to help set things up for the national VFP event called Full Disclosure: An Honest Commemoration of the American War in Vietnam that would run from 5:00-9:00 pm and drew over 200 people. We helped hang banners in the huge church hall, put chairs out, and set up literature and food tables. National VFP board member Tarak Kauff and his partner Ellen Davidson were the lead organizers and it was a pleasure to support their good work. The photo above (taken by Ellen Davidson) is of a New York City artist who did a remarkable art performance piece for three full hours during the program.

Artist Paints Tipi For National Museum Of American Indian

April 26, 2014 DC Media Group www.dcmediagroup.us Create! Arts, Keystone XL

Artist Steve Tamayo, a Native American of the Sicangu tribe, painted life into a tipi on the National Mall over three days. The tipi will be given to the National Museum of the American Indian in a ceremony on Saturday, April 26th. Tamayo described the tipi as an embodiment of Native American culture. The tipi art depicts the Earth and heavens with images symbolizing the cycle of life. Simple icons of water, land, animals, and sky narrate the lives of Native Americans on the prairie. Through bright colors and traditional shapes, the complex is made simple and the mundane, significant. As many as fifty volunteers, including children as young as five, helped Tamayo paint the images he designed and laid out. At the top of the tipi is a depiction of the heavens, the sun and stars. The Big Dipper is the provider of water to the Earth. At the base are the oceans, lakes and rivers, where blue water begins the cycle of life.

Kenya: Artivists Versus The State

April 18, 2014 Alnoor Ladha, www.aljazeera.com Strategize! Arts, Creative Resistance, Finance and the Economy, Poverty

Cross-posted at CreativeResistance.org. Against this calamitous backdrop, we are starting to see hope in the country’s next generation of campaigners, organisers and even artists. These new hybrid cultural activists have been dubbed “artivists” and are continuing the struggles of their predecessors with a new approach. The author MK Assante describes the artivist as someone who “uses her artistic talents to fight and struggle against injustice and oppression by any medium necessary”. For two weeks in February, I had the privilege of joining almost 200 activists, organisers and artivists in a Nairobi community centre (unnamed for security reasons) for an Artivism Lab.

Tonight! ‘HoneyBeeLujah’ Campaign Launches In Times Square

April 17, 2014 Blake Zidell, target="_blank" >www.popularresistance.org Organize! Arts, Environment, GMOs, Pesticides

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, who first rose to international attention for their music-based challenge to consumerism, have turned their attention to big corporations’ role in climate disruption. They take up the plight of the Honey Bee in their new campaign, HoneyBeeLujah!, which launches with an hour-long action this Thursday, April 17, in Times Square. The event will begin in front of the U.S. Armed Forces Times Square Recruiting Station at6pm with the Reverend delivering the Choir’s new manifesto. Then the activist-performers, adorned and accompanied by hundreds of Honey Bees handmade by Savitri D. and the Choir, will move throughout what Reverend Billy calls the “Stonehenge of Logos” at New York’s most famous intersection.

Carry It On Tour: Anne Feeney and Evan Greer

April 15, 2014 Anne Feeney and Evan Greer, www.creativeresistance.org Organize! Arts, Creative Resistance

The Carry it On Tour features Anne’s bottomless backpack of hellraising songs, given new energy by Evan’s skillful accompaniment on a veritable arsenal of acoustic instruments. Greer’s catchy and original folk-punk anthems shine with the addition of Anne’s soaring harmony vocals. The two have been touring together for more than a decade — since Evan was just a teenager — and their dynamic stage performance, which ranges from hilarious to serious, will instantly and permanently change the opinion of anyone who has ever thought that political music has to be boring. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Anne Feeney is the granddaughter of an intrepid mineworkers’ organizer, who also used music to carry the message of solidarity to working people. Evan Greer is an LGBTQ parent, organizer, and multi-instrumentalist who writes fearless and dangerously catchy original songs that inspire hope and incite resistance.

Radical Quilting: Contribute To The Drones Quilt Project

April 13, 2014 Staff, www.creativeresistance.org Resist! Arts, Creative Resistance, Drones, Wars and Militarism

The Drones Quilt Project is currently on tour across the USA. The exhibit consists of 3 to 5 quilts of 36 blocks, each measuring 66″ x 66″, four information panels measuring 20″ x 30″ each, and a resource/take action handout. We hope to have the exhibit travel the country, so if you are interested in hosting the exhibit in your town, please contact us. Check the website to see when the exhibit is coming to a town near you. The idea for a Drones Quilt came from some women in the UK who started the project as a way to memorialize the victims of U.S. combat drones. We believed that there were lots of anti-drone activists in the U.S. who would like to make our own version of a Drones Quilt, and so the idea traveled across the Atlantic. The idea is to collectively create a piece of artwork which connects the names of activists with those killed. The names humanize the victims and point out the connectivity between human beings. Plans for the American version of the quilt include creating educational materials, photographs and information which together with the quilts will create an exhibit which will travel the country, informing and educating the American public.

In An Era Of Mass Species Die-Off: A Procession Of The Species

April 12, 2014 Staff, www.creativeresistance.org Resist! Arts, Creative Resistance, Earth Day to May Day, Environment

From CreativeResistance.org: The Procession of the Species is a joyous, spontaneous artistic pageant where community members celebrate their relationships with each other and with the natural world. Within the activist world it can be written off because one of the demands is “no words”, but the people who founded it are deep activists and present that demand as a challenge to think outside the box. . . The Procession seeks to bridge the arts, the environment, and our local community. As a celebration of art, it involves citizens in a creative process affirming art’s place in the forum of public expression. As a celebration of species, it awakens public sensibilities to the issues surrounding environmental awareness and protection. . . Procession of the species started in Olympia WA and has spread to 69 locations throughout the US and across the globe. See this page to find a POS near you.

Indigenous Artist Gregg Deal On ‘Redskins’ Name Controversy

April 11, 2014 The Stream, www.america.aljazeera.com Resist! Arts, Indigenous Rights, Racism

My desire was to say something that hasn't been said, including a perspective not brought to the table. Everyone wants to make this an 80-year issue, but it's not. It's a 522-year issue. The issues that are being talked about with the football issue actually span back to 1492. So to put into perspective an American Genocide, something any indigenous person would tell you is a real thing, and juxtaposing that with the ridiculous notion of 'honor' or 'reconciliation' through racial slurs and gross misrepresentation of indigenous people through caricatures seemed the right thing to do. Northeast D.C. has residents that are true locals of the city, and who have generations of family that have lived here. Many are fans of the football team. For me to have a piece like that in this area is provocative because of the history of the team in this part of the city. I

“Mercy Killers” Tour Sidesteps Corporate Theater

April 10, 2014 Corporate Crime Reporter, www.corporatecrimereporter.com Create! Arts, Creative Resistance, Health Care

From CreativeResistance.org: Mercy Killers is a remarkable one hour, one man play written and performed by Michael Milligan. It’s about a libertarian car mechanic whose wife gets sick and things quickly go downhill. Mercy Killers takes place in the interrogation room of a police station. Milligan is taking Mercy Killers to community theaters and even smaller community spaces around the country. The audiences are brought to tears. At the end of the play, Milligan engages with the audience and then passes the hat. He averages a couple of hundred dollars — enough to get him to the next town. But Mercy Killers is being kept out of mainstream theater spaces — mostly because of corporate influence. Mercy Killers shows a regular guy driven to the edge by the current medical insurance industrial complex. But the unspoken message of the play is — we need to get rid of private for profit health insurance. Thus the built in conflict with the big theater spaces.

Rebranding The Guggenheim As Labor-Exploiting 1% Museum

April 1, 2014 Staff, www.creativeresistance.org Resist! Arts, Creative Resistance, Worker Rights and Jobs

From CreativeResistance.org: Members of Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) joined by the OWS Illuminator occupied the facade of Guggenheim Museum in Uptown Manhattan for over 40 minutes. G.U.L.F. rebranded the Guggenheim’s flagship museum in protest of complicity at the ill-treatment and economic exploitation of migrant workers in Abu Dhabi who are beginning to build the new Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim on Saadiyat (aka ‘Island of Happiness’. G.U.L.F.’s act of messaging solidarity follows recent reports from Human Rights Watch, as well as investigative findings from members of the Gulf Labor Coalition (some of whom overlap with G.U.L.F.) who have just returned from a fact-finding mission in Abu Dhabi where where they visited several worker camps and spoke with workers. They confirmed a reality that is the opposite of happy: multiple labor violations, generated by a system built on human suffering and debt bondage.

Protest Rains Thousands Of Bills In Guggenheim

March 31, 2014 Mostafa Heddaya, www.hyperallergic.com Resist! Arts, Worker Rights and Jobs

A handheld bell sounded in the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, signaling the second protest action in as many months from the Global Ultra Luxury Faction, or G.U.L.F. The ringing was followed by the release of 9,000 “1%” bills of parodic currency which fluttered downward as patrons rushed to the inner edge of Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiral ramp. But unlike G.U.L.F.’s intervention at the museum late last month, there were no shouted demands or Occupy-style mic checks — the only sound that could be heard after the bills were released was the collective gasp of the hundreds of patrons who packed the museum, where lines for entry wrapped around the block (Saturdays are a free night). Posters and bills were also placed in the museum’s bathrooms and later posted in a number of the city’s subway stations and trains.

Remi Kanazi On BDS And ‘Hurt Feelings’

March 7, 2014 Alex Shams, www.maannews.net Create! Apartheid, Arts, BDS, Palestine

"This Divestment Bill Hurts My Feelings" is a video collaboration with Palestinian director, animator, and co-founder of Palestinian hip-hop group DAM, Suhel Nafar. The video, based on a poem I wrote, attempts to deconstruct and debunk the spurious arguments against divestment on college campuses. Integrating animation, typography, and motion graphics, we attempted to present a visually stimulating experience, while concretely laying out the case for divestment. Zionist students on campus inspired the title. In an effort to derail divestment resolutions, students would often profess that divestment "hurt their feelings." My hope is that the video educates, pushes people to act, sways people on the fence, and ultimately serves as a resource for those promoting divestment on campus."

The Joy and Resolve of a Movement Built on Creative Resistance

March 5, 2014 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Create! Arts, Climate Change, Finance and the Economy, Human Rights, TPP

In 2011, when occupy encampments exploded across the United States putting the issue of the unfair economy and corruption of Wall Street on the political agenda, there was also an explosion of activist art. Beginning with the iconic image of the ballerina on top of the Wall Street Bull, art has been central to occupy and was an important reason for its powerful impact. The explosion of arts activism involves a wide variety of artistic forms: puppets, balloons, music, meme’s, posters, banners, plays, street theater, poetry, animation and light displays among others. Art has added vitality and energy to advocacy; and it reaches people at deeper emotional levels and in their hearts conveying what cannot be said with mere facts.

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