Chicago Anarchist Film Festival
Posted January 6, 2009 by meredith_stern in Artwork Needed | Comments (0)
For the 9th year the Chicago Anarchist Film Festival will present a sample
of films from mainstream sources, rediscovered classics and the works of
filmmakers engaged in social change with an anarchist vision. Most media
of all types launch attacks that distort, discredit and deny anarchists
entirely. Anarchists and their allies respond with a relentless volley of
images and stories that reveal, revive and invigorate a rich anarchist
presence in society.
Chicago Anarchist Film Festival organizers seek un- and under-distributed
films and videos to include in the 2009 Chicago Anarchist Film Festival.
We also welcome suggestions for titles that may inadvertently allow
anarchy to seep through the cracks of the status quo. Movie collage, music
videos and trailers for works-in-progress will also be considered.
Deadline- April 1, 2009
If You're Looking for More News on Gaza
Posted January 6, 2009 by k_c_ in In the News | Comments (1)
I am discovering more online sources for news and opinion about the ongoing aggression against the people of Gaza by the Israeli government.
Tales to Tell-From Gaza is a blog updated by a volunteer with the ISM Gaza group that is documenting the Israeli attacks on Palestinians. This involves visiting hospital patients, bereaved families, and sites of attacks, and making reports on these for the ISM website among others.
I just received an email today from a Palestinian-American poet, via a friend, in it were many links to articles, including:
Guernica In Gaza tells the story of how the writer, Vittorio Arrigoni, arrived in Gaza. Originally published in Italian at Il Manifesto.Ilan Pappe, Israeli scholar, now head of the History Dept at
Exeter, published Israel's righteous fury and its victims in Gaza on Electronic Intifada. it offers a sense of how Zionism, the ideology and the facts on the ground of it, is at the heart of all political and military action taken by the state of
Israel.Marcy Newman is an educator, scholar, an activist and a witness. Her blog Body on the Line is an incredible warehouse of information with an insane number of links to other locations.
Naji Ali's weekly podcast, Crossing the Line:Life in Occupied Palestine, introduced by Mumia Abu Jamal, invites different people to talk about all things related to Palestine.
Jennifer Loewenstein's article Israel's Attempted Endgame in Gaza on CounterPunch an analysis of the latest incursion, within a framework of what life is like for the people in Gaza.
Sarah Roy's piece If Gaza falls . . . in the London Review of Books was written before
these attacks even began. A commendable job of explaining the state of
emergency Gaza has been under, since the siege on it's ports and
freedom of movement. Most of the people have been hungry, sick,
without water or electricity for months, for years. She also has an article, Israel's 'victories' in Gaza come at a steep price
in the Christian Science Monitor.
Giving to the Poor?
Posted January 6, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art / Graffiti | Comments (0)
I've been a fan from afar of Above for awhile now. I liked the arrows hanging from power lines, loved the aesthetic of the arrow covered roll-downs and trucks, but have to admit I wanted to see a little more diversity in visual language. Seems like Above has really started to branch out, doing a lot of stenciled scenes of life-sized people (a la Banksy -- I hate to have to compare, but it seems pretty hard to step out of that guys shadow these days). One of Above's recent pieces is a stenciled stage set, where an unwitting ATM goer steps in front of a stencil of a masked mugger, who appears to be stealing the cash and handing it to a homeless woman. The piece is interesting because it needs an audience to complete it, something so amazingly rare in street art these days. In addition, Above has made an edition of digital prints of a photo of the piece which he is selling and donating 100% of the profits to homeless advocacy organizations.
I wanted to post this here because I think it is interesting, and I'm wondering what people think. When clearly the dominant wave of street art activism seems to be making posters for presidential candidates, Above has taken a different path, and seems to have tried to create a coherent and intelligent piece that operates on multiple levels: as a piece of street art which acknowledges and invites participation from an audience, as a piece of political art making commentary of massive inequality in our society, and as a self-conscious commodity that tries to use the money it generates to address said inequality.
Street Art In Buffalo
Posted January 6, 2009 by icky in Street Art / Graffiti | Comments (0)
Attached are some pics a friend sent me, taken at the former site of Martin Sostre's radical "Afro-Asian" bookstore in the heart of Buffalo.
Solidarity with Bolivia
Posted January 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Posters | Comments (1)
I designed this poster as the centerfold of the new Northeastern Anarchist magazine, which should be out in the next couple weeks. Figured I'd give everyone here a sneak peek:
Celebrating 15 years of Zapatista Struggle
Posted January 5, 2009 by Jesus_Barraza in In the News | Comments (0)
15 years ago, on new years day the EZLN declared war on the Mexico, taking over the town of San Cristobal de las Casa in Chiapas in an attempt to start a revolution in Mexico. In the face of the North American Free Trade Agreement the Zapatistas took up arms against the Mexican government with the aim of taking President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the PRI out of power to restore legitimacy and stability to Mexico. The Zapatista offensive lasted 13 days, after which the EZLN agreed to begins negotiations with the Mexican government. The negotiations eventually fell apart when it became apparent that the government had no intent for real change. In January of 2006 the EZLN began La Otra Campana, a campaign to form a united opposition to neoliberal capitalism which plagues Mexico as well as the rest of the world.
Click through to read the EZLN's declaration of war from 1994.
Invasion 68 Prague
Posted January 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Events | Comments (0)
Reposted from Brushfire blog:
Invasion 68 Prague, an exhibition of work by photographer Josef Koudelka, opened yesterday at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. The exhibition will run until December 28, 2008.
The exhibition features Koudelka’s singular photographic account of the week after August 21, 1968, when Warsaw Pact tanks led by Alexander Dubcek invaded communist Prague. Both moving and formally compelling, Koudelka’s photographs provide an unparalleled representation of the life and death of that week. New York Times art critic, Roberta Smith writes:
“None of these photographs are less than beautiful; some combination of emotional urgency and Mr. Koudelka’s instinctive artistry makes them so. His restless vigilance created a historic and historical document that is less a series of photographs than a slow-moving film that we absorb one still at a time. He was there, and to an extraordinary and anguishing degree, so are we.” (Full article)
Koudelka’s photographs that week represented a turning point in his life. After their anonymous publication in Western newspapers, Koudelka sought asylum, and eventually emigrated from Prague in 1970. He has worked since then in Western Europe as a highly regarded documentary and landscape photographer. His books include: Gypsies (1975), Exiles (1984), and Chaos (1999). A recent retrospective of his work, Koudelka, was published in 2006.
The exhibition at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center has been co-produced by Magnum Photos, and coincides with a book by the same title published by Aperture. A “Meet The Artist” reception will be held on Tuesday, November, 18 from 6-8PM; Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra and Ambassador of the Czech Republic Petr Kolár will also be present.
The gallery is open from 11-4PM, Tuesday through Sunday.
News about a little strip of land
Posted January 4, 2009 by k_c_ in In the News | Comments (0)
In light of the current events in Israel/Palestine, a friend of mine asked me where I look for news about the agressions. I told him I usually check in with folks I'm familiar with that follow events there more closely than I do.
Anomalous on flickr is a spot I'll stop by to see what news articles, essays, and statements he's found, and sometimes just ask him his opinion. His flog is a good spot to begin with finding sources to dig into.
Haaretz.com an Israeli newspaper is another spot where I find really good coverage of current events of the region.
Al Jazeera.net is a place to find superficial BBC-like accounts that can be helpful.
It is hard to interpret what the reasons for this aggression are and what the outcomes will be. Its troubling everyway I approach it. Having just seen Waltz with Bashir an animated Israeli documentary about a massacre in the 80's during the Lebanese War, I can only imagine future accounts of the current actions. The film explores the soldiers attempts to recreate these events and his memory. It approaches the violence of war in an objective manner. I found its conclusion to be anti-violence after illustrating many of the conditions, social and political, that led to the Sabra and Shatila massacre. You should definitely see it if you have the opportunity.
My question to others is "where do you find your information about resistance and protest to these aggressions?" In Israel, Palestine, and globally. I have found myself disconnected to communities that are organizing demonstrations and opposition to these aggressions, and want to know more about what is happening in response. (Please don't tell me to join Facebook, the "main" source I've heard of protest outreach here in NYC)
Incite! Journal online
Posted January 4, 2009 by jmacphee in Film | Comments (1)
My friend Brett Kashmere has recently released the first online issue of Incite! journal of experimental media & radical aesthetics. The theme of the first issue is "Manifest," and there's a ton of material in the first issue online, and they are hoping to release a print edition. There something in here for lots of different interests but it is heavily bent towards experimental film and video. Here's how Brett describes the contents:
In this issue:
* Legendary collage filmmaker and programmer Craig Baldwin talks with Steve Polta about the 70s avant-garde, Baldwin's college years, political activism, and midnight screenings: all of which lead him to filmmaking and to his unique curatorial aesthetic.* In a strong diatribe against capital-driven mainstream cinema, the famed American independent film impresario Jonas Mekas celebrates the pioneering avant-garde and its connections to the heavenly.
A Call for Anarchist Art
Posted January 3, 2009 by jmacphee in Artwork Needed | Comments (0)
I've been in touch with the UK Anarchist Federation, and they are putting together a publication about the intersections of art and anarchism. They are looking for art and artists. Here's what they are up to and what they are looking for:
The UK Anarchist Federation is in the process of putting together a publication that explores the relationship between anarchism and various art forms. We are currently looking for submissions from artists who are interested in this area. Contributions could range from visual artwork, cartoons and graphic art, poetry, short literary works, architectural studies or critical pieces on theory or the history of anarchism and art.
We would very much like to get a diversity of material and are hoping to tour the project around radical and free spaces across the UK when the project is finished. All funds raised would be put towards developing anarchist projects across the UK and our international solidarity fund. We would very much like YOU to contribute to this project.
* All submissions need to be in to us by the end of February. The publication will then go into production shortly after. The publication will be "launched" so-to-speak and exhibited at our Anarchism 2009 event which will be happening mid-June in Manchester and a tour shall be arranged over the summer.Send all submissions to: natsec@afed.org.uk* Some of the themes we would like to see artists develop: labour struggles, the history of anarchist-communism (key thinkers, events etc.), anti-fascism, anonymity/state surveillance, immigration and the struggle against borders and direct action/black block. We are really keen on artists exploring their vision of what a post-revolutionary society would look like.
* Again, contributions can range in their form but a short abstract explaining the motivations behind the piece would be great. We would also be very keen for each artist to outline their attraction to art as a medium to communicate anarchist ideas. Initially we would only need digital copies of the work, but the actual works would be good to exhibit at the Anarchism 2009 event (this is something we will address nearer the time).
* Images need to be 300dpi and around A4 size just in case the book ends up being that big. They should be sent as .eps, .tif or .jpg files. The images you supply need to be the best quality, we can't do anything with tiny pixelated images.
NYC 4th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk
Posted January 2, 2009 by molly_fair in Events | Comments (0)
Sunday Jan 4, 2009
Memorial Rides:
Bronx - 10:45am
Queens - 12:00pm
Brooklyn - 12:45pm
Memorial Walk:
Manhattan - 2:30pm
Convergence:
4pm- Manhattan, Delancey at Allen Street
Gathering of cyclists, pedestrians, families and friends:
5-7pm
St. Marks Church
131 East 10th Street at 2nd Ave.
read on for detailed ride/walk schedule and check ghostbikes.org for updates
Official Statement from the United Nations Human Rights Council
Posted January 2, 2009 by k_c_ in In the News | Comments (0)
by Prof. Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
December 31, 2008
The Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war.
Those violations include:
Collective punishment - the entire 1.5 million people who live in the crowded Gaza Strip are being punished for the actions of a few militants.Targeting civilians - the airstrikes were aimed at civilian areas in one of the most crowded stretches of land in the world, certainly the most densely populated area of the Middle East.
Disproportionate military response - the airstrikes have not only destroyed every police and security office of Gaza's elected government, but have killed and injured hundreds of civilians; at least one strike reportedly hit groups of students attempting to find transportation home from the university.
Earlier Israeli actions, specifically the complete sealing off of entry and exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe shortages of medicine and fuel (as well as food), resulting in the inability of ambulances to respond to the injured, the inability of hospitals to adequately provide medicine or necessary equipment for the injured, and the inability of Gaza's besieged doctors and other medical workers to sufficiently treat the victims.
Certainly the rocket attacks against civilian targets in Israel are unlawful. But that illegality does not give rise to any Israeli right, neither as the Occupying Power nor as a sovereign state, to violate international humanitarian law and commit war crimes or crimes against humanity in its response. I note that Israel's escalating military assaults have not made Israeli civilians safer; to the contrary, the one Israeli killed today after the upsurge of Israeli violence is the first in over a year.
Israel has also ignored recent Hamas' diplomatic initiatives to reestablish the truce or ceasefire since its expiration on 26 December.
The Israeli airstrikes today, and the catastrophic human toll that they caused, challenge those countries that have been and remain complicit, either directly or indirectly, in Israel's violations of international law. That complicity includes those countries knowingly providing the military equipment including warplanes and missiles used in these illegal attacks, as well as those countries who have supported and participated in the siege of Gaza that itself has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
I remind all member states of the United Nations that the UN continues to be bound to an independent obligation to protect any civilian population facing massive violations of international humanitarian law - regardless of what country may be responsible for those violations. I call on all Member States, as well as officials and every relevant organ of the United Nations system, to move on an emergency basis not only to condemn Israel's serious violations, but to develop new approaches to providing real protection for the Palestinian people.
Stealing Gaza: An Experiment in Provocation
Posted January 2, 2009 by k_c_ in In the News | Comments (4)
By BRIAN ENO
January 2, 2009
It's a tragedy that the Israelis - a people who must understand better than almost anybody the horrors of oppression - are now acting as oppressors. As the great Jewish writer Primo Levi once remarked "Everybody has their Jews, and for the Israelis it's the Palestinians". By creating a middle Eastern version of the Warsaw ghetto they are recapitulating their own history as though they've forgotten it.And by trying to paint an equivalence between the Palestinians - with their homemade rockets and stone-throwing teenagers - and themselves - with one of the most sophisticated military machines in the world - they sacrifice all credibility.
The Israelis are a gifted and resourceful people who fully deserve the right to live in peace, but who seem intent on squandering every chance to allow that to happen. It's difficult to avoid the conclusion that this conflict serves the political and economic purposes of Israel so well that they have every interest in maintaining it. While there is fighting they can continue to build illegal settlements. While there is fighting they continue to receive huge quantities of military aid from the United States. And while there is fighting they can avoid looking candidly at themselves and the ruthlessness into which they are descending.
Gaza is now an experiment in provocation. Stuff one and a half million people into a tiny space, stifle their access to water, electricity, food and medical treatment, destroy their livelihoods, and humiliate them regularly...and, surprise, surprise - they turn hostile. Now why would you want to make that experiment?
Because the hostility you provoke is the whole point. Now 'under attack' you can cast yourself as the victim, and call out the helicopter gunships and the F16 attack fighters and the heavy tanks and the guided missiles, and destroy yet more of the pathetic remains of infrastructure that the Palestinian state still has left. And then you can point to it as a hopeless case, unfit to govern itself, a terrorist state, a state with which you couldn't possibly reach an accommodation.
And then you can carry on with business as usual, quietly stealing their homeland.
Artsblog.it Interview
Posted December 31, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds/Member Projects | Comments (0)
For anyone that speaks Italian some really cool folks in Rome did an interview with me at the Reproduce & Revolt show at the House of Love and Dissent. You can read it here.
Solidarity With Palestinian Struggle
Posted December 31, 2008 by Jesus_Barraza in In the News | Comments (1)
In Solidarity with the National Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People I started working on this poster, I am linking two files that can be downloaded and printed on both 8.5x11 (download here) and 11x17 (download here) so people can put them up in their offices or windows.
I have been been a strong supporter of the Palestinian struggle for sovereignty and land rights. Native people have been struggling for the same thing as Palestinians across the Americas for hundreds of years, people continue fighting to regain control of their ancestral lands and the right decide their future.
¡Que viva Palestina Libre!
¡Que vivan Los Zapatistas!
¡Que viva Evo Morales!
Solidarity with Gaza From the South Bronx
Posted December 31, 2008 by k_c_ in Street Art / Graffiti | Comments (1)
This piece appeared yesterday in the South Bronx. The wall faces the Bruckner Expressway, a highly used elevated highway passing through the Bronx.
My pal Anomalous compiles a lot of news articles, quotes and other materials on his Flickr site here's a particularly intense one
Hannukah descends on Gaza like 6 million locusts by AnomalousNYC. "I will play music and celebrate what the Israeli air force is doing." --Ofer Shmerling, an Israeli civil defense official in Sderot speaking on Al Jazeera as images of Israel's latest massacres were broadcast around the world.From 19 June until yesterday, there was not a single Israeli fatality from a Hamas attack. In all of 2008, there was a single suicide bombing, which killed one person. Over the course of the entire 4 years that Gazans have been blindly lobbing their pathetic bottle-rockets over their prison walls into the desert, fewer than 20 Israelis have been killed. Israelis stand a greater statistical chance of drowning in their jacuzzis than of being killed by a rocket from Gaza.
Israel's omni-directional military belligerence has never been about security, but about racial malice and real estate, and in this case, election-season machinations. And so, over the course of a few hours Israelis have murdered nearly 300 and hospitalized more than 800 Palestinians. In response, overnight polls indicate that support for Israel's ultra-rightwing parties, such as the fascist party Yisrael Beitenyu, which openly advocates ethnic cleansing, has grown exponentially. As Israeli MK Zahalka pointedly observed: "Barak is trying to win votes in exchange for Palestinian blood."
Interview of Favianna Rodriguez on Big Vision Podcast
Posted December 30, 2008 by Favianna_Rodriguez in In the News | Comments (1)
In November 2008, I was interviewed by Britt Bravo for her show, Big Vision Podcast. She interviewed me about my artistic vision, process, and new book, Reproduce & Revolt, which I did in collaboration with fellow Just Seeds artist, Josh MacPhee. The interview is great! I talk about growing up in an immigrant family, about how working with youth inspires me, and about how artists have to rethink models of how we engage with the public.
You can click here to listen!
Britt Bravo specializes in telling, and helping others to tell, stories about creating social change. The East Bay Express, named her the Best Podcaster/Blogger Most Dedicated to Social Change in 2007.
More Justseeds in Japan
Posted December 30, 2008 by jmacphee in Events | Comments (0)
Kei and Ill Commonz have been spreading the Justseeds goods around Tokyo. In November and December they had a couple more events, a report back from their trip to NYC, and an Anti-War and Resistance Fest. Here are a bunch of photos of the events, including CPH posters, Reproduce & Revolt images being silkscreened, video showings, etc...
I Can't Wait for the True Reckoning
Posted December 30, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News | Comments (0)
If you care to reflect on the crisis there are a bunch of NY TImes articles gathered in this link of their Business Section.
Its called the "Reckoning", or "the process of calculating or estimating". I look forward to another kind of reckoning, "the avenging or punishing of past mistakes or misdeeds" because it doesn't appear to have happened yet.
Report from Beneath the Sea
Posted December 29, 2008 by roger_peet in Environment | Comments (2)
I've just returned from several weeks travel in Mexico, mostly spent at the southern end of the Baja California peninsula. It's an area with a spectacularly rich marine ecology and magnificent terrestrial flora and fauna, as well as a showcase for depressing statistics on species annihilation and corporate tourism. I'm going to post several blog entries about aspects of my trip, and the natural and social history of the Gulf of California region. Note: the Gulf of California and the Sea of Cortez are the same thing.
The main focus of the trip was five days of diving around Espiritu Santo island, just north of La Paz, and I also spent a few days camping on a beach north of Cabo Pulmo. It was a vacation, sure, and an escape from winter, and most importantly it was an astonishing immersion in the natural world, no pun intended. Scuba diving is a genuinely sublime pursuit, akin to travel to a different planet, one where you can fly and are surrounded by a tumult of wondrous agile and beautiful life forms. Some of those are skittish, and others are quite curious as to what you are and what you might be doing. Some seem to have no consciousness of you at all. It's a very different kind of experience than most excursions into "nature", much more interactive, and the diversity of life encountered during a one-hour dive is often staggering.
One of the more spectacular dives was at the El Bajo seamount, an underwater mountain that reaches to within sixty feet of the surface about 7 miles off the northeast end of Espiritu Santo. A plankton bloom had developed in the areas we'd been diving, leading to low visibility at the majority of the dive sites we'd already been to. At El Bajo, however, we descended through the green cloud of microscopic organisms and algae into a clear bell-jar of deep water, down through schools of rainbow runners to the mountaintop. Having pulled ourselves down on the anchor chain, we bobbed up slightly into a gentle current, and followed it along the ridge. I looked up to the pale haze of sunlight, and at my cloud of bubbles. I was about ten feet deeper than anyone else. I looked at my depth gauge. 105 feet. There was movement below me. I looked down.
About ten feet below my flippered feet swam a hammerhead shark.
It was going slow, flexing itself languidly, about 8 or 9 feet long. I hovered over it, drifting in the same direction. It was a deep steel gray, unscarred, it's strange head about two feet wide. I saw a flash of white from its belly as it outpaced me and faded into the gloom. We started to drift upward, back into the green cloud, depressurizing.
It was pretty great to see that hammerhead, for a couple of reasons. One, they're notoriously shy and apparently hate the sound of bubbles escaping from scuba regulators. Two, they've been drastically impacted by fishing practices over the past forty years, with a marked increase in their rate of destruction in the past decade.
Modern Chinese Woodcuts
Posted December 29, 2008 by icky in Inspiration | Comments (1)
Modern Chinese Woodcuts
A few years ago I picked up a book of Chinese woodcuts, written in the early 80s, put out by a state press and updated in the mid 90s. Most of the book covers the technically impressive (yet politically questionable) period around the Cultural Revolution. Lately there's been a few new books I've seen that broaden the scope a little, focussing on cosmopolitan and bohemian art movements centered around Shanghai in the 20s/30s/and 40s. I just want to do a brief survey of what I've gleaned.
More from Greece
Posted December 28, 2008 by jmacphee in In the News | Comments (0)
Since we've filled the blog with joyous pictures of burning Christmas trees, I thought I'd post some links to more substantive information on the current struggle in Greece:
http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/
http://libcom.org/
http://anarchiststrategy.blogspot.com/
http://www.anarkismo.net/
http://katalipsipolytexneiou.blogspot.com/
http://www.nomikikatalipsi.blogspot.com/
http://katalipsiasoee.blogspot.com/
http://athens.indymedia.org/?lang=en
In addition, here a statement on Greece written by a number of activists and artists:
What We See, What We Hope:
Declaration of Solidarity with the Uprising in Greece
We want first of all to say a collective yes! to the uprising in Greece. We are artists, writers and teachers who are connected in this moment by common friends and commitments. We are globally dispersed and are mostly watching, and hoping, from afar. But some of us are also there, in Athens, and have been on the streets, have felt the rage and the tear gas, and have glimpsed the dancing specter of the other world that is possible. We claim no special right to speak or be heard. Still, we have a few things to say. For this is also a global moment for speaking and sharing, for hoping and thinking together...
Locust Tank(s)
Posted December 28, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds/Member Projects | Comments (2)
The Locust Tank image that I first made in 1995 got up in some unusual places this year. From the lobby of the MOMA to Gavin's arm to Topeka, Kansas to an underpass in Chicago and to the cover of the Canadian radical journal Upping the Anti.
CLDC Art Needed
Posted December 27, 2008 by jmacphee in Artwork Needed | Comments (0)
This just in:
Calling all artists and creative folks!! The Civil Liberties Defense Center is planning to design a t-shirt and poster(s) reflecting CLDC's commitment and solidarity to environmental, animal rights and anarchist activists who have been targeted in recent years by the government.
We are looking for a design that illustrates a love of nature and living things as well as showing respect for those who have ended up in prison and have maintained their integrity to a greater movement. Whether arrested at a timber sale protest for civil disobedience, or ensnared as part of the Green Scare, we would like to encompass all earth defenders who have risked their liberty to protect life on earth.
We are hoping to launch this design at our upcoming WOW hall benefit in Eugene--which is 2/27/09--and will be a benefit for our activist defense and political prisoner work highlighting those who have fallen as a result of the Green Scare (which includes SHAC and related cases in our minds). It is also THE Friday night entertainment for the Annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference which is also held that weekend and may be a great opportunity to reach out to like minded folks from all over the world.
So, PLEASE sit down with your artistic implements and contact us with any ideas, sketches, or full blown design concepts you can come up with as soon as you can. The design can be in any medium, color or black and white, and does not need to include any words unless you come up w/ a great slogan too.... Please send them to lregan@cldc.org. If we decide to use your design, you will get tons of credit and our enduring love and praise.
"City of Immigrants Fills Jail Cells With Its Own"
Posted December 26, 2008 by icky in In the News | Comments (0)
City of Immigrants Fills Jail Cells With Its Own
The Central Falls Panthers practice in the shadow of the Wyatt Detention Facility. Photo: Suzanne DeChillo/The NY Times
There's a surprisingly thorough and holistic article about private prisons, immigration detention and the collapse of a New England industrial town in Saturday's New York Times. Definitely worth reading!
DEC. 30- Great Small Works Spaghetti Dinner
Posted December 26, 2008 by erik_ruin in Events | Comments (0)
I'm super-honored to be performing my shadow-show FLIGHT (a slightly edited version) at Great Small Works' Spaghetti Dinner on Dec. 30th, alongside a great lineup of amazing musicians & puppeteers. if you're around NYC, please come, as it will be the last-ever performance of what i consider my best work to date.
Spaghetti Dinner
December 30, 2008, 7:30-10pm
at Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Sq. South NYC
Including...
MICHAEL WINOGRAD'S INFECTION skeleton mambo with a twist!Michael Winograd, Jessica Lurie, Petr Cancura, Jeremy Udden - reeds; Joe Moffet, Frank London - trumpets; Dan Blacksberg - trombone; Patrick Farrell - accordion; Avi Fox-Rosen - guitar; Jorge Roeder - bass; Jon Singer - xylophone, percussion; Jason Nazary, Kenny Wollesen - percussion; Kristin Slipp -voxFLIGHT - a shadow theater piece depicting the journey of a person displaced;
shadows created & performed by Erik Ruin, with assistance from Leslie Rogers & live violin score by Katt HernandezA Great Small Works Chanukah Shadow Puppet Show
Special New Year sonic massages performed by WOLLESONIC
and, Bread & Puppet Theater DIRT CHEAP OPERA, after Bertolt Brecht
Radical Perspectives on the Crisis
Posted December 26, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News | Comments (0)
While I have been ranting and writing so confusedly, about the economic crisis, since September, some friends were putting together Radical Perspectives on the Crisis. Check it out, contribute, this mess isn't fixed yet, and a broad localism is far from ever materializing.
A Holiday Card from @thens
Posted December 25, 2008 by k_c_ in Inspiration | Comments (0)
The Christmas tree in the center of Athens, see Icky's earlier post.
Greece: Protests and Unrest Enter Third Week
Protests continue across Greece in response to the police murder of an anarchist teenager, opposition to the government and unhappiness about the economy. Solidarity protests and actions continue around the world
Sock and Awe Game
Posted December 25, 2008 by k_c_ in Political Art | Comments (0)
Worth a whirl.
Sock and Awe game, and try to hit Bush in the face. Again, the internet helps us live our fantasies, virtually.
Zeitgeist Gallery: Detroit loses a surreal treasure
Posted December 24, 2008 by bec_young in Inspirations | Comments (0)
I'm sad to report that Zeitgeist Gallery in Detroit has shut it's doors for good.
For eleven years, the group that ran Zeitgeist provided a great venue for raw, uncensored art shows, poetry readings, music, and avant-garde theater in their building on Michigan Avenue. Before I moved to Detroit from Ann Arbor, Zeitgeist was one of the first places in Detroit I would frequent, for the shows of contemporary European surrealists organized by the legendary Jacques Karamanoukian. As the website promised, Zeitgeist always showed work which was "intuitive, dark, juicy, pure, untainted, and imaginative to the highest quality," and freely experimental.
In their usual extreme fashion, they pretty much only showed work by either local Detroit artists or by European artists. Because of this, they nurtured the work of incredible Detroit artists, such as Maurice Greenia Jr., aka. Maugre, who recently had a huge show of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. For twenty years, Maugre has been the weekly creator of "the Poetry Express," in which he fills a page with his surrealistic poetry and drawings, and he recently started a new blog. Other Detroit artists that were associated with Zeitgeist include James Puntigam, aka. DMC, Diane Alva, Vito Valdez and Mary Herbeck. Karl Schneider, one of the first artists involved with the space, still operates Izzy's Raw Art Gallery. Izzy's is located directly across Michigan, a street that is now, with Zeitgeist's closing, considerably less colorful and creative.
Chirstmas Cheer from Athens
Posted December 23, 2008 by icky in In the News | Comments (1)
"Athens' giant Christmas tree burns in front of the Greek parliament in Athens December 8, 2008. Protesters set fire to a major department store in central Athens and torched the city's giant Christmas tree outside parliament as anti-government protests worsened. (REUTERS/John Kolesidis) "
Art Students Occupy School in Buenos Aires
Posted December 21, 2008 by molly_fair in In the News | Comments (0)
Here's some news from a friend in Argentina:
A month ago the students of Escuela Bellas Artes Manuel Belgrano in Buenos Aires, responding to plans by the city government to close down the school, took and occupied their building. The faculty decided to join the students and have continued classes though out the occupation.
The students, whose ages range from 16-26, run the occupation by popular assembly and have opened the school to the community–holding workshops on sculpture, painting, screen-printing and theater. In the upper wings of the school they take turns sleeping on makeshift bedrolls and the lithography studio has become a temporary kitchen. The police and school administration have not yet made an attempt to retake the building.
The city's plan includes shutting down a number of historical schools throughout Buenos Aires and replacing them with semi-privatized new schools. This comes as part of a larger movement under the new mayor Mauricio Macri to privatize and reduce the public sector within the capitol itself.
In the last few days the students and faculty at Belgrano received notice from the education administration that they would have to take their final examinations and receive their graded critiques at three other schools. The faculty met and decided that they would not abide by this directive and will hold final examinations in Belgrano, as they normally would be. The students have decided to support this decision and will not have any final examinations outside of Belgrano, even though the administration is threatening not to honor the grades they will receive. In response the students threw a "party" in downtown Buenos Aires that blockaded a major street near the National Congress. They took all four lanes, one by one, moving displays of their art work to block traffic and hanging banners between light posts. A stage was set up and several bands played, there was also a public block printing station.
Brandon Bauer Exhibition Photos
Posted December 20, 2008 by colin_matthes in Events | Comments (0)
Our friend (and contributor to the Justseeds Prison Portfolio project) Brandon Bauer had an exhibition in Milwaukee last month. Here are some photos from the show.
Brandons blog:
http://randomculture.wordpress.com/
End This War
Posted December 19, 2008 by jmacphee in Political Art | Comments (0)
I just got an announcement for an upcoming show by Philadelphia artist Theodore Harris. I've been a fan of Harris' work for years, he did the cover of the All The Days After book back in the day, and has a couple images in Reproduce & Revolt. I really like the image he sent out with the announcement, "End This War...(after Shirley Chisholm)," which is above. The show is:
War is a Map of Wounds: The Art of Howardena Pindell and Theodore A. Harris
February 2 - March 5, 2009
New Jersey City University
Visual Arts Gallery
Stencil Your Own Fuck You to the War on Terror
Posted December 19, 2008 by icky in Events | Comments (0)
SCREEN-PRINT OR STENCIL YOUR PERSONALIZED FUCK YOU TO THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR
Come by Friday evening for an event by Chris Arendt and Motorcycle Awesome, a collective of individuals dedicated to artistic expression against the war in Iraq.
Arendt is a former National Guard and Prison Guard at Guantanamo Bay. The collective Motorcycle Awesome aims to create a strong active community of civilians, soldiers, and Iraq Veterans Against the War united through artistic expression.
Screenprinting and artwork will be on display, and each person can leave with a hand-screened T-shirt, FREE, choosing from a couple designs.
Friday, Dec. 19, 6-10pm
IGLOO
325 NW 6th Ave #102
"Though Portland tends to shut down in the snow I hope that you might step out into our winter wonderland tomorrow evening to make your way down to Igloo, at 6pm, for an event my friend Chris Arendt is putting together through his collaborative, Motorcycle Awesome.
While still a guard at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Chris and two other guards started Motorcycle Awesome as an intra-military resistance group. Now back in the real world Chris has re-formed the group as a means to help connect veterans and citizens, and create a site in which both groups can talk and collaboratively create anti-war art together to distribute around the country.
Expect silk-screen, stencils, giant origami bird folding, beer, music, and more. Bring a t-shirt to have screened, and anything else you would like to have emboldened with amazing art work. Along with illustrations by Chris, Pete Yahnke, and Icky of Just Seeds have created work to be reproduced, and Josh Berger and Thomas Bradley of Plazm have created some amazing logo stencils for M.A.
Hope to see you tomorrow!
Sam"
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(Sam's involved with Portland art group Red 76, by the way)
