REPRESSION & ...Broomsticks(?)

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to make the group aware that Lady Liberty made an appearance at a community event that Occupy: The Bronx held on Saturday to defend a community garden that the city had recently bulldozed.  5 people were arrested for peaceably standing on the sidewalk (they were NOT blocking traffic -which was non-existent).  We then marched to the 40th precinct, and had a GA while we waited for them to be released.  Then we marched BACK to the garden and shared
thoughts and the history of the garden & action, then left.

HOWEVER, on our way to the subway, the cops prevented us from leaving and demanded that we give them the rods that controlled the puppet's arms and head because they were potential weapons.  !!!

- Joe

Open Letter to Labor Servicing the Culture Industry

I’ve worked as an art handler in New York, both as a freelancer and on the payroll with benefits. The two modes of handling art both share the constant threat of losing one’s job if any mistakes are made or if any hesitation to accommodate what is requested—or more often expected—is revealed. Freelancing is less and more stressful. Freelancing allows for a lifestyle where literally 10–14 hour days (like many others, I’ve done 16ers, some overnighters) can be packed into a week during an exhibition change, with weeks off to “focus on one’s own work.” Constantly flirting with poverty, as most freelancers are, a seemingly large chunk of money is obtained that vanishes rather quickly after coping with the realities of New York rent. A pattern emerges after freelancing for a while where the free time is often spent worrying and networking for the next job. Cultures develop over a period of time amongst crews. They get to know each other and the people who staff the gallery fulltime, but when the gig is over, so is the connection to the gallery or the museum. God forbid a freelancer come down with the flu or something worse; if you don’t work, you don’t get paid. The freelancer also has to be always accommodating and ready to work when the phone rings. If not, the phone may not ring again. Freelancers are constantly juggling the phone ringing too much, overbooking and having to say no; or more often, the phone doesn’t ring enough. Freelancers expend a lot of time and energy (labor) in a constant hustle when they are not presently working. A certain degree of satisfaction and camaraderie can come from working on a crew to pull off an insanely large installation under pressure in a short period of time, but at the end of the day, in spite of his/her specialized skill, in spite of the fact that most hold MFAs (that they’ve taken on a lifetime of debt for), the freelance art handler is the lowest rung on the ladder of the art world, barely worthy of eye contact.

Click to read more ...

Occupy Sound: Volume 2

[From Wyatt]:

...This is a follow-up to the PopWork USA/Rebuild the Dream collabo project featuring songs of struggle and beats that let you get your march or rally on properly. Click here to listen or download.  This volume includes suggestions by online listeners and participants on the Rebuild the Dream website so not exactly my list but definitely my curating. From Steve Earle to the Temptations, Black Flag to Phil Ochs, M.IA. to N.E.R.D (see full playlist at www.popwork.org). Let me know what you think.

Thanks again for everyone’s ideas. To hear it just go here.  ...Here is the playlist for Vol 2: Power to the People (excerpt) – John Lennon; Amerika V. 6.0 (The Best We Can Do) – Steve Earle; The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff; Pull Up the People – M.I.A.; Rise Above – Black Flag; Ball of Confusion – The Temptations; Soobax – K’naan; Lapdance – N.E.R.D.; Church of the ATM (excerpt) – Chris Rock; Mr Greed – John Fogerty; Get Up Stand Up – Bob Marley; That’s What I Want to Hear – Phil Ochs; Open Letter – Living Colour; Our Song – Joe Henry; Bluestime in America – Michael Hill’s Bluesland; Who Will Survive in America – Kanye West/Gil Scott-Heron; Water No Get Enemy – Fela Kuti

A big surprise was the number of original songs that have been submitted since the first volume was released. For those of you with original songs or recent songs inspired by OWS, send in those MP3s! One special podcast will feature all of these genuine contributions that have streamed in over the last few weeks from songwriters and musicians. It will be Occupy Sound Vol 3: The Originals.

Barricade the Barricade, or Occupy Red Cube

To all performers, artists, merry-makers, interested parties, and any seeking justice for the 99%…

Start your day bright and early to greet the Wall Streeters on their way to work with a dose of rebellious performance

Any performers willing to support this action would be greatly appreciated.

Thursday, November 17
8:00am meet up at Red Cube
8:30am Performance

Barricade the Barricade, or Occupy Red Cube
Help Us Free Public Art

In support of Occupy Wall Street and the Day of Global Action, please join us as we build a living sculpture to surround the Red Cube at Broadway and Liberty, across from Liberty Square. By linking our bodies in the creation of our own public art form, we can render useless the barricades that tarnish the art work displayed on our city streets. Isamu Noguchi, the sculptor of Red Cube, is quoted as saying, “the sculptor is not merely a decorator of buildings but a serious collaborator with the architect in the creation of significant space and of significant shapes which define this space.” (blueofsky.com). Let’s form a living sculpture around the entire Cube and show the world how powerful our bodies can be in defining our space! We will occupy public art and take back what is intentioned for public access! The group, intertwined in various and intricate ways, will remain still and strong throughout the 30 minute performance. Only when participants hear the sound of a helicopter (sure to be there) will they shift their poses to face the Cube. When participants hear the sound of a siren, they will shift to face away from the Cube. These interactions with environment, along with our intertwined bodies, remind us how interconnected we really are.

Any and all are welcome to join our living sculpture. No prior experience necessary.
Wear read in solidarity with the Cube.

There will be a sign detailing 5 simple rules for this action, so any passersby may join:

1. Observe the human barricade/sculpture.
2. Join human sculpture/barricade whenever a traffic light turns green. Link to someone else and find a comfortable pose you can sustain. Please respect self and others when connecting to other bodies.
3. When you hear a helicopter, shift your pose to face inward toward the Cube.
4. When you hear a siren, shift your pose to face outward away from the Cube.
5. Come and go as you please, when a traffic light turns green.

 

We also welcome musicians, puppeters, and any others who wish to share their talents in this inspiring action. Come support the sculpture with your creativity!!

See you there!!

Peace together,

Amy



See more of Sharon Rosenzweig's investigative Occupy cartoons in our Political Cartoon Section.

WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

By Occupennial Co-organizer Paul McLean

Since late September, Occupennial has provided artists with the opportunity to share art inspired by the occupation of Zuccotti Park in the financial district of lower Manhattan, and satellite occupations that have sprung up around the country and the world. Occupennial has opened a virtual space in which documentation of #OWS and other occupations can be catalogued and revisited. We have created areas for memorializing the artist actions that have helped shape and empower #OWS, and we have built the architecture for occupant artist community and production, including listings, proposal throughputs, resource exchanges and a growing network of organizations and venues dedicated to supporting 99% expression in all its peaceful, artist forms. Occupennial has also initiated a program of actualization for occupation-generated artist projects, starting with our successful collaboration with Printed Matter in Chelsea, with other amazing ventures currently in process.

The police action and clearance of Liberty Square in the early morning hours of November 15 remind us of the tremendous importance of establishing and maintaining an archive of the Occupy art that is inspiring the 99% to stand up and displace the 1% choke-hold on our commonwealth, and democracy. The urgency of your contributing to our database, chronicling this historic moment couldn't be greater. It would be a tragic cultural loss to let the memory of #OccupyWallStreet, and the hundreds of occupations that have occurred in communities of every description, spanning the globe, to fade away. Therefore, we at Occupennial once more ask you to please send us your photos, videos, poems, songs, paintings, drawings, cartoons, ideas, texts and art-action documentation, so we can continue to grow a communal archive for the occupation.

Contact us:
Use the CONTACT button at the top of the page or send your content via email to occupennial@gmail.com

Send us your Occupy art, etc., and occupation documentation:
Use the CONTACT button at the top of the page or send your content via email to occupennial@gmail.com; or use the Drop Box in the sidebar.

Sweeping away the encampment at Liberty Square will not stop the Occupation. It's too late for that, now. ...But it's up to us, the 99%, to insist on our own survival as a movement, and as free people. To ensure our cause doesn't disappear we must commit to preserve the shared memory of what we've done individually and together, what we've expressed, to continue our actions in support of #OWS and all the occupations, and to create new expressions of 99% solidarity every day, wherever we are.

With love and appreciation,
Paul

REMEMBER LIBERTY!!

Painting by Katherine Gressel

OCCUPIED BLUESTOCKINGS

OCCUPIED:  AN OCCUPY MOVEMENT GROUP SHOW
EXHIBITION: NOVEMBER 14TH THROUGH DECEMBER 8TH
OPENING RECEPTION: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH, 7-10PM

OCCUPIED, is an art show and events series inspired by the evolution of the Occupy Wall Street Movement, hosted by BLUESTOCKINGS.  Over 30 artists from around the world contributed posters, prints, signs, photographs, drawings/works on paper, and multimedia installations.  The show opens Monday NOV 14th and runs through DEC 8th, 2011.  The show and events series is intended as a "cultural benefit" for OWS Arts&Culture and BLUESTOCKINGS. It will be a vehicle through which to engage in dialogue and contemplation of the OWS movement thus far.

Come out to BLUESTOCKINGS this MON NOV 14th @ 7PM to celebrate the opening night of OCCUPIED featuring artwork inspired by, and from artists working with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Tonight’s program also includes performance, music, food, drink and discussion. The exhibition will be up through Thursday, December 8th.

OCCUPIED: AN OCCUPY MOVEMENT GROUP SHOW runs November 14th thru December 8th at Bluestockings 172 Allen St, NYC, NY (1 blk south of Houston St @ Stanton, 2nd Ave stop on the F train).  The opening party is Monday November 14th, 7 to 10pm, is free and open to the public.  For more information contact Bluestockings at 212-777-6028 or art@bluestockings.com. www.bluestockings.com, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154380834660987, http://www.facebook.com/bluestockingsnyc

BLUESTOCKINGS is a volunteer powered and collectively owned radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Through words, art, food, activism, education, and community, we strive to create a space that welcomes and empowers all people. We actively support movements that challenge hierarchy and all systems of oppression, including but not limited to patriarchy, heterosexism, the gender binary, white supremacy and classism, within society as well as our own movements. We seek to make our space and resources available to such movements for meetings, events, and research. Additionally, we offer educational programming that promotes centered, strategic, and visionary thinking, towards the realization of a society that is infinitely creative, truly democratic, equitable, ecological, and free.

A Message from Dallas

Subject: Occupy Dallas Culture - Culture Committee - Creative Factory Occupy Dallas

Hello, my name is Goran Maric.

I am an artist, creative cultural producer, and am a member of Cultural Committee and Outreach committee at OccupyDallas.org

Creative Factory Occupy Dallas
http://www.creativefactoryoccupydallas.com/

Occupy Culture
http://occupydallasculture.tumblr.com/

Well, ever since the beginning of Occupy Wall Street, I and few other creative souls have been deeply moved by your organizational capabilities to get artists and other creative cultural producers engaged with Occupy movement.  And not just that, but your ability to present it in a quite intelligent and organized manner is what I find extremely appealing.

Here, in Dallas, TX, we, creative cultural producers and visionaries are working hard to get our creative brothers and sisters organized, so that all of us, 99%, together, can utilize our creative potentials for the advancement of our causes, while at the same time work on cultural enrichment of people directly involved at the site of OccupyDallas, as well as of people in the city of Dallas.

We, creative cultural producers and visionaries at Cultural Committee of OccupyDallas believe that the creativity of people involved in these Occupy movements is what has made these movements thrives in the face of all obstacles that are coming toward us on a daily basis.

Also in cultural production, it is the creativity, we believe, that makes works of art excited and ultimately successful.  In this analogy we believe that, ultimately, Occupy Movements throughout the world are the best works of art that are out there, and the people involved are the best artists for that matter, for it is people's, 99ers', creativity that makes these movements strive.

For that reason Cultural Committee created Creative Factory Occupy Dallas, an output of creative cultural producers, for we, creative cultural producers and visionaries, from Cultural Committee at OccupyDallas believe that each and every person is a creative factory whose output, the product has contributed to the ongoing struggle we, the 99%, are engaged in on a daily basis.

http://www.creativefactoryoccupydallas.com/

We hope an truly looking forward to further interaction with Occupennial.

For now our big Solidarity with Occupy Wall Street that is going on hand in hand with its creative cultural producers...

Solidarity