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Last night I went to see Rhodessa Jones' piece "The Love Project."
Bold and sassy, the performance artist struts and sings and dances and shares stories of risk and change. Perhaps the best moment is a story she shared about an adventure she and her partner Idris Ackamoor had back in 1989:
They were on a train from Graz, Austria to Munich, in a compartment with tons of luggage around, when a family of dark-skinned folks walked by. It turned out that the family was Albanian, and what they were seeking was sanctuary -- a place to hide so that they could escape to Germany, and freedom.
The compartment was small and the luggage was excessive. But Rhodessa described the moment of reckoning, when the faces and voices of Dr. King and Gandhi and Harriet Tubman and all the others who have gone before said to her, "How can you NOT?"
And so she and Idris allowed the family to travel under the beds, behind the luggage, while Idris stood in the doorway of the compartment with his saxophone, looking like the famous jazzman without a care in the world...
And a family disappeared into the Munich night air, to freedom.
***
What must happen to us to truly "be the change we wish we see"?
Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin (pronounced Kee-veen O Cree-awn) is an Irish artist who has exhibited widely around Ireland. His work consists of drawings and paintings and features local scenes as well as images from his travels to the west of Ireland and abroad. His social and political themes range from the local to the global.
Yesterday, I asked if a film can change people's minds. The question is in line with conversations going on on an email list I am on, as well as Christy's comments lately on her painting. Today, I want to extend the question:
Does art lead us or reflect our current views?
Caoimhghin O Croidheain is an Irish artist who responded to a comment from another linguistic analyst:
The first comment:
"But it is much harder, it seems to me, for art to be able to offer social critique - that is, criticisms of the systems of social power and resultant structured social inequalities."
Caoimhghin O Croidheain responded:
Some Notes on Political Art
What is political art? What makes art political?
It is very difficult to define political art. Views on what makes art political can range from the idea that all art is political (i.e. it either implicitly supports or explicitly opposes the status quo) to pointing out, for example, the obviously political murals on walls around Belfast. As a way of narrowing the former and broadening the latter I suggest here a view of political art that uses three categories:
Portrayal, Promotion, or Projection.
Portrayal
In the first category 'Portrayal' covers art that says 'this is what happens if, is happening now or happened in the past'. This kind of art describes events or situations that people find themselves in as a result of social or political structures. Any political perspective is implicit in the art but is also free-floating. For example, a painting of a white man whipping black slaves describes a particular situation where the black man may say, 'Yes! That is how we are treated!' yet the slave-owner may say, 'Yes! That is the way to treat them!' Thus both sides can see the confirmation of their point of view in the work of art.
For the slaves, the ultimate effect of such art may be positive or negative. In a positive sense it may create group awareness and solidarity, or, in a negative sense, it could also consolidate inertia, a feeling that nothing can be done to change the situation. The art styles or movements of Realism, Social Realism and Naturalism could fit into the category of 'Portrayal'.
Promotion
In the second category of 'Promotion' ways and means towards the resolution of the problem are presented. That is, a particular aspect of an event is highlighted over other aspects. This aspect would concentrate on the people or groups who are actively struggling to change the situation in which they find themselves.
Thus one view of an event, that which would encourage others or strengthen an activism already present, is promoted over images of the event that may have the opposite effect. In this case, the politics of representation takes precedence over the representation of politics.
Unlike 'Portrayal', this type of art is harder to manipulate from an opposing point of view. The politics is generally explicit and can have a positive inspirational effect. The art styles or movements of Socialist Realism and 'Political Art' (e.g. murals, banners, posters etc.) and Social Realism to a certain extent could fit into the category of 'Promotion'.
Projection
In the third and last category 'Projection' refers to art that takes disparate elements and then recombines them to form a new image. It is an art which says 'This is what could happen or could be if ...'. Art styles or movements such as Surrealism, collage, utopian or visionary images would fit into this category. Such speculative art can have a positive effect of providing inspiration by suggesting ideas that are outside one's usual ways of thinking, and can be implicitly or explicitly political.
For example, a picture showing the Rock of Cashel (ancient fortress in Co. Tipperary, Ireland) with a Japanese Shinkansen bullet train speeding by may be a jarring conjunction of images but suggests the possibility of a super fast transport system in Ireland. Therefore it has social and economic implications for the Irish State which in turn makes it implicitly political.
However, like in the first category Portrayal, opposing political viewpoints can claim this image for their vision of the future. The same scene would be explicitly political though, if, for example, 'Workers of the world unite' was written on the side of the Shinkansen.
Thus it can be seen from the above categories that the representation of particular actions or the inclusion of particular types of text ties an image down to an explicitly political perspective. The past, present and future, with some overlapping, are also covered in this way of seeing or defining political art.
*****
What do you think about the artifacts of the peace and justice movement? Are the activities: music, poetry, docu-drama, film, etc. helping? Portraying? Promoting? Projecting?
What have you read, created, or experienced lately and how did it help?
The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting."” ~Theodore H. White, The Once and Future King
Long before Harry Potter, there was the above-quoted book, which I read out loud to my children. The myth of Arthur, whose true nature is hidden and revealed only through the guidance of his wise teacher, Merlyn, would, I hoped, help their imaginations to take flight, and to look around for those wise guides in the world, magical or not.
I share it with my students as well. Today I share it with you, especially sparrow.
I, too, am sad today. Another favorite of my children, Madeleine L'Engle, has died.
Reading A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, and Many Waters to my son was a chance for some mind-opening and far-flung discussions about the nature of reality, physics, religion, and death. We read those books in the first year we lived in this house, with Richard and his daughters, and they became guides to how to ride change.
The guides in the first book are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs Which. Mrs Whatsit is a ditherer, an old lady dressed in eccentric clothes, and she reminded me of my grandmother (the Miami Beach one, not the Brooklyn one!), who was both dither-y and insightful and carried the family wisdom in one of her many straw bags, along with chocolate. Mrs. Whatsit eventually becomes a beautiful centaur, with wings, who carries the child-heroes of the story across the tesseract (the wrinkle in time).
So many lessons: about how true nature is revealed through actions, not dress; how wisdom is often accompanied by comedy (a lesson my son has learned deeply); and how our imaginations can conceive of impossible but beautiful ideas, like re-arrangements of time and space, or goodness in man.
The most powerful element, Meg Murry discovers, the element that overcomes fascism, mindlessness, and arrogance, is love.
I was going to write about Labor Day or perhaps police preparations for APEC in Sydney, when I received these photos and story. Even though I suspect we might have some political disagreements, this is a Mom's hummer, and belongs to Carla Comfort, who loved and misses her son.
(story and more photos below the fold)
[Editor's Note: This piece was written and prepared before today's Gonzales news, so let's continue the discussions and add these thoughts in]
As Marshall McLuhan prophetically wrote in the 1960s, "Art at its most significant is a Distant Early Warning System that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it. "
Political art comes in many varieties, from official government propaganda produced with a staggering budget to products of personal convictions of individuals working on a shoe string. YouTube and other video art are the latest phenomenon to emerge, but the pieces presented below are relatively low-tech and include seed art, car art, public space installation art, and personal marquee art.
These pieces were made of seeds and photographed by Kayakbiker at the Minnesota State Fair. The colors come from the type of seeds. (Artists: Kim Cope, Teresa Anderson)
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Recently I joined ArtKos, a group of people interested in political art, and my friend Kayakbiker and I submitted some work for a book for YearlyKos. Through ArtKos, I learned of some wonderful political artists and they are allowing me to present some work here.
Emily Duffy, an East Bay political and car artist, has presented political art via DailyKos diaries and her political art blog, and recently highlighted the work of Kelly Lyles, from the Pacific Northwest. I can see these "Rodent Dictators" live later today in my own backyard at CITIZENS IN HELL, ArtCore studios, Seattle, WA.
The following is adapted (with her permission) from Emily's article about artist Kelly Lyles.
(copyright Lyles 2007)
Rodent Dictators by Kelly Lyles
In the troubled postwar [world war I] period Mussolini organized his followers, mostly war veterans, in the Fasci di combattimento, which advocated aggressive nationalism, violently opposed the Communists and Socialists, and dressed in black shirts.... Amid strikes, social unrest, and parliamentary breakdown, Mussolini preached forcible restoration of order and practiced terrorism with armed groups.
Mao's record is dominated by two disastrous initiatives: the "Great Leap Forward," a broad campaign to organize peasants into communes during the late 1950s that resulted in mass starvation and repression; and the "Cultural Revolution," a youth- and army-driven nationwide campaign for ideological purity, again resulting in widespread repression and death.
No doubt you know plenty about the George W. Bush's anti-democracy presidency. In Kelly's triptych Mr. Bush is in very compatible company.
We arrived at the Museum of the American Indian at 9:45, fifteen minutes prior to the time people were told to arrive, to find that a long line was already snaking around the building, and that only 200 would be let in. Somehow we missed that memo. But we saw our Code Pink buddies up in the front of the line and so flew over there to photograph the intrepid few. Three of them spent the night; the rest showed up at 8 am, causing a near riot in the line behind them. Hottest ticket in town.
We tried to blend in,
but today I am wearing my t-shirt that says "These colors don't torture", with a peace flag. The pink outfit is in the laundry. So I was quickly spotted for the interloper I was, and tossed out.
As I left, I ran into the lovely, and injured Midge:
Now we are under a tree, with a cool breeze and a nearby Jumbotron. The Code Pink folks are inside, in front, and in the blazing sun. Hottest ticket, indeed!
Where have we seen this before?
From earlier:
It's Friday night as I write this and we just back from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. We saw a rockin' gospel concert tonight and I started thinking about music and rhythm and choirs and everyday people again.
It started when everyone in the audience started clapping along with the music, which took about thirty-five seconds. I looked around the tent and saw a fairly representative group of old, young, Black, Asian, Hispanic, White, gay, families with young children, and one very tall, weird spaghetti-like guy I remember from years past who does a sort-of ostrich-like dance around the tent. Well, at least no one else feels too strange getting up and rocking out after he gets going!
It was during the early clapping however, that I started to think about Dick Cheney and George Bush and Condeleeza Rice. I was caught up in the sense of joy and transcendence of the music, the cool night breeze, the smell of ethnic foods, and the sense of community and all of a sudden I realized that there was no way that they would ever, could ever understand the phenomenon I was experiencing.
Leaders who can be OF the people and still lead are missing from the mix, I fear. I watched as the Paschall Brothers allowed themselves to be overtaken by rhythm and melody and harmony, channeling their faith. One of them said to us that this is FOLK music because we are all just FOLKS.
Just folks. It's now Saturday and I am thinking about sparrow's adventure last night in her small town (see last thread header) holding up the truth for all to see. I am thinking about Al Gore's concert and today's Folklife festivities on the Mall and how we plan to be running back and forth, inhaling the community, the rhythms, and the sense that together, we too can overcome the indifference and the meanness of spirit and simply state the truth.
I'll be posting photos here today of what we encounter. I invite you to, in your own way and in your own place, find a moment to dance with the sun and the stars and to celebrate the fact that we are folks who dance with each other.
Find the beat...
My siblings and I have spent the past five days in western Massachusetts, experiencing the historical roots of participatory democracy.
Saturday was especially rich. We decided to pay homage to Arlo and Alice and headed for the Guthrie Center, the former home of Alice and Ray, of Alice's Restaurant.
Arlo has purchased the church and turned it into a community center. George showed us around. There is a recreation of Alice's Restaurant, a cabaret space and an upstairs meeting space (free yoga on Wednesdays!). Arlo is going to be releasing his new CD there this coming weekend, in case anyone wants to run over there.
We talked with George about the kind of community events he sponsors at the Center. Free meals and fundraisers for homeless and handicapped folks are regular events, and the music is at the center of the feeding process. People take turns playing and singing at these events, and income level doesn't matter.
And so we pondered the role of song and dance in community-building.
Finally, the sun has come and I went in search of some good political street theater and found it in Seattle's magical Fremont neighborhood. We celebrate the summer solstice in mythic style with a parade, pageant and sustainability festival. It's a yearly celebration of the arts, lasting community and positive futures. It's about co-creating a celebration that inspires us all to live well and joyfully, while living more lightly on our planet earth. We show up in the thousands.
Festivities include the beloved bike riders in body paint, extravagant costumes and floats as well as samba bands, giant puppets and impersonators of political figures we all know. "The Sun Arc" is a staged modern myth combining the ancient theme of the sun's rebirth with a modern sustainability twist. There is a recycled clothing "Swap-a-rama" and information on natural gardening and reducing global warming. The soundtrack ranges from country to folk to Cajun to hip hop to folk to world music and more. Then the art cars roll in. Many of you will recognize the folks from the Backbone Campaign (wearing the paper mache heads).
Over the next two days, we can make our own fashion statement from recycled clothing, learn the art of bee keeping, learn from master gardeners, make and play with toy boats, calculate our carbon footprints, participate in performances, sign the US Constitution, make a puppet, and help create a zero waste event by recycling and composting everything we use this weekend.
Here is a partial list of celebrants:
Clownland Security, Worker Bees, Chalk Fairies, Solstice Cyclists, Bilion Belly March, Trash People, Bugs and Beasts, 2nd Wind Drumline, The Lunicycles, Boxeus, YaYas for TaTas, Pure Cirkus, Hot Boyz and Solar Sisters, Wicked Jesters, Rainbow City Band, Chain Gang and Lady Liberty, Hare Krishna Marching Troop, Flock of Birds, Foam Free Seattle, Disco in the Streets, Super Huggers, Puff the Freedom Dragon, Rubber Duckies, SLUGS - Sun Lovers under Gray Skies, Rain Barrel Robots, Wood Troll.
Once again, it's nice to see some action at the intersection of life, art and politics. I have only included the most political photos. Several local blogs (including mine) will feature many many others.
The last time we used this adage for a threader title was for this blog entry.
As we go into this long weekend, in view of everything that's happened lately, it seems that the adage is truer than ever.
Thank you, GV.
Several months ago, the Washington Post Magazine published a rare profile of the famously publicity-averse cartoonist Garry Trudeau. The entire piece by Gene Weingarten makes for fascinating reading, and we highly recommend checking it out in situ on the WashPo's website. For purposes of this extended Special Edition threader, though, we're going to excerpt some key portions of the article that reveal the roots of Trudeau's brilliantly incisive Iraq war storylines featuring wounded-warrior B.D.
April 22, 1970 - April 22, 2007.
Happy birthday, Mom.
"I go where the silence is", said Amy Goodman, "and say something." And so too do the creative arts therapists, who are putting together a conference entitled GIVE PEACE A CHANCE: COMMUNITY CONSCIOUSNESS, INNER WISDOM to be held April 26-30 in New York City.
The group, the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, put together a YouTube video to share their perspective on how peace can come to us, if only we learn to talk out our differences. Given the events of Monday, this seems like more than a suggestion; it seems like we had better get going.
The country needs the healing power of conversation, expression, and mutual understanding. Moreover, the world is telling us we need it too. And they understand, as some of us do too, that the planet depends on our coming to our senses, in every sense.
Dance, sing, draw, paint, sculpt, write, enact, converse, witness, listen, and acknowledge that we are, for better or for worse, all in this together, and there is no progress without struggle.
Share some of yours today.
(Song "If We Can Talk About It" written and performed by Wells Hanley; videography and editing by Kris Parn)
The Seattle Times has a contest each year with Peeps candy. These were my favorite entries, when we need all the attention drawn to Peace activists (or Peeps activists, in this case) that we can get! As the judges said, "Who knew Peeps were such activists? We got Peeps melted by global warming, ecoPeeps sitting in a tree, anti-war Peeps, GreenPeeps sailing the ocean." (I also included the iPeeps and the WarholPeeps as well, and you can see more in the archives for the past four contests at the Seattle Times.)
Where is St. Patrick now that we need him?
One of the legendary saint's big claims to fame -- other than eventually becoming the nominal excuse for what a friend of mine once called "Mardi Gras for red-haired people with freckles," of course -- is that he is said to have chased all the snakes out of Ireland way back when.
Too bad he's not around today, because we could sure use somebody to chase all the snakes out of Washington. Our own national Babylon-on-the-Potomac is heavily over-infested with them these days, too.
Snakes to the left of us, snakes to the right of us. You can't cross the Mall in D.C. anymore without stepping over (or, preferably, on) some scaly serpent. You can't hit a K Street lobbyist with a wad of hundreds without staring some spineless viper right in the eyes.
And if you happen to work for the VP's office or the DOJ, well, you'll have to look straight up just to watch one of those nasty aspies slither on by over your head. The place really is crawling with snakes, especially after the last six years or so. Those nine guys in the black robes couldn't figure out how to count votes, but they were still adders anyway.
Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes? We hate snakes.
We at the DCP have gotten used to reading (and writing and a rhythymic tic) about peace marches and anti-war rallies being held on or near Capitol Hill, usually aided and abetted by Karen Bradley and her Code Pink compadres.
DiAnne Grieser keeps us posted on the Left Coast progressive movement and anti-administration events being held in Seattle as well. So when we see a new blog entry about peace and protests, those are usually the first things that come to mind.
But there are other kinds of peaceful protests and advocacy actions, too. Here's one example of the best kind of causes and the best kind of people at work outside the anti-war agenda, from a live-blog diary posted this morning by karendc at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/13/92630/3401:
Two of the poems Lori read at Busboys and Poets last night resonated with me; I hope you appreciate them as well. -- Karen
Driven 9/25/06
One handed freestyle keyboarding and talking on two cell phones at once, she is driven, on a mission.
She catches my eye.
The buttons on her jacket are mis-aligned, making her collar jump up on one side.
She is unaware of her visage, she is driven, on a mission.
She hangs up the phone in her hand and places it on the table beside her computer,
Seamlessly sliding into another conversation, another gear, another thought process, talking into the phone balanced in the crook of her neck.
She squints at the screen of the laptop in front of her, clicks on something, passes on the retrieved information to whomever exists on the end of the sound wave, and signs off.
Letting the phone slip from her shoulder to her waiting hand, she ends the call with a practiced thumb and the slightest of glances at the tiny screen on the face of the device, and expertly drops the phone into the unfastened pocket of the ill-buttoned denim jacket.
From click to click she flows.
To the computer from the phone she goes.
Both hands now on the keyboard she changes focus again, pouring her energy, without pause into the document in front of her.
I shake my head, trying to suppress an involuntary giggle that wants to bubble up through the uncontrollable grin on my face.
She is driven, on a mission, with a vision.
My motion, my vibe, my giggle stifled to a sigh, something catches her eye.
And she smiles, realizing that she was caught multitasking,
It is the work of Peace and she is basking
In doing good things without asking.
She is building bridges, herding cats, putting out fires
And raising a voice of truth above the rumble of liars.
She types through the grin, which is deservedly wry
Her steady forward pace nullifies the march of time
Promoting change, improving people’s lives
She is driven, on a mission
A phone rings, she again slips into one handed freestyle keyboarding and with a push of a button she is communicating on two fronts at once, once more.
And the smile leaves her lips, but not her eyes.
Just as well-crafted videos can inspire people on the internet, traditional street theater can do so in public spaces. Bill Moyer and Backbone Campaign from Vashon Island, WA do a very nice job of this, such the giant Backbone which went to the DNC convention and through the halls of Congress and which has visited the offices of major media.
On President's Day, the Backbone Campaign brought their public education in the guise of entertainment to the town square. Yesterday, on the anniversary of the US Constitution, they were at the Seattle Center, in the shadow of the Space Needle. This is a location where "the people" gather on weekends, ever since Elvis appeared there at the World's Fair in 1963. This weekend, I saw small conventions for jewelry makers, doll house enthusiasts and Bob the Builder fans around the center.
The Center House is an entertainment area in the middle of a food court where all these people and others tend to converge. On most weekends, there are stages and tables devoted to ethnic cultural events. It was all very well received as a family event, with t-shirt making, constitution signing and enjoyment of politically-themed music. I saw small children, in keeping with changes in technology, photographing the Constitution onto cell phone cameras.
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In the interstitials to be found between Art, Politics, and the Internets, a person keeps creating killer visual polemics and then posting them to the web. This is her latest effort:
And these are her reasons, in her own words:
Greetings from Old Europe,
I finally have some time to share my experiences here with all of you. Today has been an amazing day in a series of amazing days.
This morning, my new friend Dave (a physics professor from Minnesota) and I went to see the Astronomical Clock. We got to see 10 am, and it was really wonderful to see the children and adults get so excited about the emergence of the saints. I love that religion is not something separate from play or joy here. I thought about the fact that people planned the Velvet Revolution in those churches, right off the street, while music and prayers were going on. I love the idea of people taking back their country together, while they sang and danced and honored their city.
Raed Jarrar, Director of the Iraq Project for Global Exchange
Fear Up had a great opening night at the New York International Fringe Festival. We lucked out and drew a beautiful new space, the lighting designer did an amazing job with almost no previous access to the facilities, and we nearly filled the house.
Nicole Shalhoub and Michele Reisch (Costume Designer)
Here's what the Fringe Festival program says about the show:
Marietta Hedges
Fear Up: Stories from Baghdad and Guantanamo
The Democracy Cell Project
Writer: Karen Bradley and Marietta Hedges
Director: Joe Brady
Choreographer: Karen Bradley
A riveting expose of the Iraq war and prisoner abuse. True stories of detainees, interrogators, military and civilians in Guantanamo, Baghdad and America. 9 actors, 20 characters give voice to the torture technique called Fear Up. ARE WE ALL VICTIMS?
1h 25m Washington DC Drama FringeHIGH
VENUE #1: Dance New Amsterdam
www.democracycellproject.net/gallery/fearup.shtml
The bigger surprise was when the play was over, and we invited the audience to come around the corner to a bar/restaurant where we could talk about the play and the wars in the Middle East with two experts: Emi Maclain, the Guantanamo Initiative Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Raed Jarrar, Director of the Iraq Project for Global Exchange.
Raed Jarrar addresses the post-show crowd
We told the owner to expect about 20 people, but more than 40 showed up, producing a momentary panic among the restaurant staff. But the staff were as professional as our actors, and quickly settled down. After plenty of beer and pasta, Emi and Raed spoke about their work, and then we went to questions.
Shanti Elise Prasad
![flaming_red[1].jpg](http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/flaming_red[1].jpg)
![fearup_lit_match[1].jpg](http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/fearup_lit_match[1].jpg)
"Fear Up" director Joe Brady minces no words.
Three days before opening night, I had a chance to interview Joe during the usually frenetic schedule of a theatrical production week. Joe previously directed me, Victoria Ellen and a cast of actors in the Washington DC reading of "Fear Up" last September. "Fear Up" is about to make its debut at the New York Fringe Festival on Friday, August 11th.
Joe says, "In doing this play,"(based on interviews and stories of the Tipton Three from Guantanamo and Riverbend's blog from Baghdad), "the one thing I didn't want to do is to be didactic. I want a conservative member of the audience to be willing to really listen to what Riverbend and the Tipton Three had to say, AND I want a progressive audience member to not go away saying "been there, done that."
Joe is no stranger to political theater. His bio appears in this program from La Mamma: "...he founded both Mother Lode Productions, a theatre company dedicated to producing works which focus on social and political themes; and The Flying Tongues, a sketch comedy/improv troupe. With Mother Lode Productions, he won Best Director and Best Production awards for "The Mysteries" and "What's So Funny" by David Gordon and "Waiting For Lefty" by Clifford Odets. He also won Best Director for "Kafka Dances" by Timothy Daly at Axis Theatre.
I asked how he felt directing a play on one of the most politically volatile issues of this country--the Iraq War and its consequences--for a New York audience.
"Are you kidding me?--that's obvious".
"The space is amazing. We're incredibly lucky to have found a truly, remarkably, talented group of actors. The story is based on three parts: an introduction to the characters, the events in Guantanamo, the return to England by the Tipton Three to England as well as the more recent experiences in Haditha."
The show's main thread is the journey and evolution of the reporter who documents the odyssey of the Tipton Three from their capture, to their incarceration and release. The reporter also knows and covers the soldiers involved in the Haditha incident. Her path and development throughout the play provides for our discovery.
I asked if he felt the show was ready for opening night. "Of course we are. This piece hovers between theater and dance. Its a pretty intense experience with intense moments that are balanced by some funny writing by Riverbend and the Tipton Three."
Joe said, "When I came to this process this time, I wanted to make sure this piece was viable in and of itself--an interesting evening of theater."
"After seeing the show, I hope to have audiences ask themselves what are we going to do now".
![200px-Worldtrade[1].jpg](http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/200px-Worldtrade[1].jpg)
[courtesy of Paramount Pictures]
We do a section each week about Art and Politics, but until now, I never realized that the connection was so much closer than I had ever imagined. And now that I know, I'm not so sure I like it.
My new-found knowledge began with Matthew's link to the New York Time's article, 'Odd Bedfellows Align to Market Film About 9/11 coming out this month in advance of the premiere of "World Trade Center" by Oliver Stone.
Habfinger was right when he said, "Odd bedfellows..." because most who think of Oliver Stone, think of movies against the establishment and anti-war, such as "Platoon" or "Born on the Fourth of July". And movies like "JFK" or the 1995 film "Nixon" that portrayed the former GOP president as a borderline psychopath are certainly not designed to be-friend conservatives. There's more movies on his anti-establishment list: "Salvador" in 1986 was critical of President Reagan's Central American policy. And "Alexander" Stone's 2004 movie was rumored to be a subtle indictment of President Bush and the Iraq war.
As a result, most would be excused for choking on their morning coffee when they heard the rave revues from right-winged pundits about this movie:
"L. Brent Bozell III, president of the conservative Media Research Center and founder of the Parents Television Council — best known for its campaigns against indecency on television and for stiffer penalties on broadcasters — called it “a masterpiece” and sent an e-mail message to 400,000 people saying, “Go see this film.”
Cal Thomas, the syndicated columnist and host of "Fox News After-Hours", wrote last Thursday that it was “one of the greatest pro-American, pro-family, pro-faith, pro-male, flag-waving, God Bless America films you will ever see.”If you're like me, you're thinking, "What the heck...! How could this miracle happen?"
As the New York Times points out, these rave reviews were no accident and they were brought to you by the same Public Relations Firm that brought us the well-known smear campaign against John Kerry in 2004. (The Swift Boat Veterans...) Here's a sample of their work:
A screening in Washington last week, for example, drew members of the Family Research Council, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the evangelical Wilberforce Forum, along with a producer for William Bennett’s radio show, writers for The Washington Times and a reporter for the Web site of Human Events, which first reported the event. Creative Response Concepts has played a prominent role in promoting conservative causes. Heading into the 2005 Supreme Court nomination battles, it advised members of the Federalist Society on how to handle television interviews and was active in promoting the nominations of John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. When the AARP came out against President Bush’s plan to overhaul Social Security, the firm went to work for a conservative group that took on the AARP. And it promoted Newt Gingrich’s 1994 political strategy, Contract With America.
But it was in the 2004 campaign that Creative Response Concepts made its biggest mark on the political landscape, advising the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which assailed Mr. Kerry’s Vietnam record as a Navy officer and as a leader of the antiwar movement after he returned home. Its well-funded attacks were among the most damaging blows to the Kerry campaign.
The firm also played a major role that year in assailing CBS — then a corporate sister of Paramount at Viacom — for the “60 Minutes” report on President Bush’s record in the Texas Air National Guard that led to Dan Rather’s resignation as anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”
So from there, I began investigating more. Follow along as I try to show you the connections I discovered along the way.
In our era of unseemly American triumphalism, it is easy to lose sight of just how liberating and dangerous early American ideas appeared. Rodney Bolt, the author of ‘The Librettist of Venice’, a new biography exploring the life of the most unlikely of Americans, Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist for three of his greatest operatic works (The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Cosi Fan Tutte) illustrates this point, if only by accident. I quote from a New York Times Book Review by Megan Marshall:
“The precocious first child of an improvident Jewish leatherworker, Da Ponte lost his mother when he was 5, then became the beneficiary of his father’s decision to convert to Christianity as a means of marrying his way out of the ghetto. Born Emanuele Conegliano, the boy was baptized, along with his father and two younger brothers, shortly after celebrating his bar mitzvah; he also received a new name, that of the bishop who performed the conversion. Bishop Lorenzo Da Ponte found his promising young namesake scholarships to seminaries that yielded him a solid education in the classics, the invigorating companionship of other aspiring poets and a clerical collar that would hamper his romantic life, although less so than one might imagine.
GrassRoutes was a multidisciplinary arts event, held 5/21/06 in Seattle, which represented the paradox inherent in our transportation choices. It was held where in 1969, several thousand citizens marched to stop construction of an Expressway which would have cut through the beautiful Arboretum. Citizen protest won out, leaving "ghost ramps."
In "Tour of the Future: Come Visit the Historic Ruins of Highway 520," artist Nicole Kistler acted as our "tour guide of the future." Inspired by visits to archaeological ruins such as Tikal, Rome and Ankor Wat - whose societies collapsed - she decided to illustrate the eery parallel with the behaviors of our society. Signage was posed along the trail loop, with simulated binoculars and telescopes for viewing from historical and future periods. We passed installations such as a site of possible former car worship, the "tangled web" woven by the oil companies, and an opportunity to experience what it felt like to ride in a "single occupancy vehicle." Finally, we ended up at Ghost Ramp Field for a dance by backpackers and participatory percussion with instruments made from cars, the transportation mode of the past.
(more photos below the fold, including The Happy Monk)
Yesterday at the Code Pink Troops Home Fast circle, we had a far-ranging conversation about political and personal actions that can make a difference.
We heard from young and old, experienced and novice, US-born and Iraqi-born. We spoke with folks from all over the world as they stopped by to chat and thank us, or argue with us. Telling the personal stories and linking those with the variety of understandings of how we are and how we need to act made for a comprehensive, if not clearly directed day.
First, the photos:
Dick Gregory speaks of bodily fluids and perseverance, medical science and faith
Raed Jarrar tells us about the Iraq Reconcilation process and how the US pressured Maliki to remove four key points that the Iraqi people had agreed upon
As I sat there listening and talking with passers-by, I was struck by how much I was learning, and re-learning, about how to tell the stories, how to frame, how to engage with the truth, how to listen.
And I came up with a short list of notions and experiences I want to reinforce in myself as I continue down this strange path:
1. Be inspired, not inflated: BREATHE.
2. Trust your own inner crap detector.
3. Trust the path you are on too.
4. LISTEN. LISTEN more.
5. Commit to the moment.
6. Yes, and... Never say no to an idea. Generate something new from the event of the moment.
Off to the day...
It's not often enough that I can rave about an artist. And not only an artist, but an artist with a bold vision and an artistic maturity rivalled by very few of her age. Or mine.
She's prolific, thought-provoking, and a person whom I would love to meet. She's Ava Lowery.
I think I have about as many theater productions over a period of thirty years as Ava has video animations over a period of one year. Mostly, she concerns herself with the war in Iraq. Her latest, "More Than A Number" is devastating.
I first saw her work at Yearly Kos three weeks ago, and the more I see of her, her confidence, her demeanor and her creativity, the more I am impressed.
This weekend, while we're preparing for our Independence Day celebrations, take a minute to look at Ava's work. Its a reminder that our country's creativity and independence of spirit is neither lost nor in vain.
Its just waiting for us to hear the call to keep it.
Having a sense of direction in Las Vegas is absolutely critical to sanity and survival. First of all, heat is always the factor--as the city-within-a-city sized casinos will attest. One can easily get lost trying to find an exit from the hotel casino out onto the street. It is one big blur, exacerbated by the absolute need to avoid the extreme dry heat and the endless array of lights, few trees, except those grown in The Mirage, and the vehicular pollution. You can actually live in one of these hotels and never see daylight for days, weeks at a time. Odd place to talk politics?
Not really.
Now that its over, DiAnne and I, members of the DCP West, decided that our final report on the conference would be a cultural de-brief on Las Vegas, politics, and the general cultural vertigo we two west coasters experienced here in the land of heat, sin, depravity, greed and most recently, blogger politics.
Mixing the phantasmagorica of Las Vegas culture with national politics seems, oddly enough not a big stretch.
Evidence in point, Governor Mark Warner's party on Friday night for the blogosphere at the Stratosphere--the LV equivalent to Seattle's Space Needle--only with oxygen bar, full array of mall retail, and aquamassage (available in the casino lobby, not the party).
After my massage, we went up to the 109th floor of the Stratosphere. DiAnne and I looked across the nighttime Vegas landscape, replete with mega-hotel skyscrapers, the ant-like traffic below, While musing by the veggie and mashed-potato bar, the vodka martini trays, the band, with Blues-Brothers impersonators and the ubiquitous Elvis impersonator, I had to ask DiAnne to pinch me. Was that big "Star Wars" type contraption floating at roughly the same height as the top of the Stratosphere REALLY shooting laser death rays down at the city?
I have collected some of the documentary offerings from the Film Festival and Folklife Festival, both of which started last weekend in Seattle. Many of these will be travelling around the country this summer or can be rented. If they are not available where you live, there are ways to rent some of them long-distance or some will soon be available on-line. I also signed up to help organize both festivals next year, so if you hear of documentaries that should be aired, please send them along. It just seemed like a good thing to do.
Documentaries from the Folklife Festival:
In The Land of the Free (US)
Two Arab immigrants living in Seattle discuss their decisions to come to the United States and experss concerns that the freedoms that drew them here are diminishing.
Benaat Chicago: Growing Up Arab and Female in Chicago (US)
Arab-American teenage girls growing up on Chicago's South Side talk frankly about stereotypes and racism they face while expressing pride in their cultural heritage.
The Letter: An American Town and the "Somali Invasion" (US)
An insulated, predominantly white town becomes center of controversy when its Mayor sends an open letter to 1100 newly arrived Somali refugees informing them that the city's resources are strained and to please encourage other Somalies not to move there.
The Bride Market of Imilchil (Morocco)
For three days each September, men and women gthre in front of the Imilchil shrine to choose mates and marry in a nearby tent.
On Boys, Girls & the Veil (Egypt)
A young actor faces family pressure to marry. He is filmed on his daily rounds, during which he and his friends talk about work, marriage, gender politics and the hibab.
Beat of Distant Hearts (Algeria)
Sahawari refugees express their collective experiences through poetry, song and painting. These formerly nomadic artists struggle to keep their culture alive while fighting for independence in this last colony of Africa.
Folk Music of the Sahara (Libya)
The intoxicating folk music of North Central Africa comes alive in this visual feast. Entrancing rhythms and wailing vocal choruses punctuate scenes of stunningly dressed at celebrations.
Through A Thousand Children (US)
A Palestinian-American teenager reflects on his participation in a local chldren's peace project.
My Scarab (US)
In Arabic, "saraab" means "mirage", a metaphor often used for survival in the midst of war. An Itaqi political refugee seeks solace through painting and carving when confronted with his past and loss of hope.
Go into most offices on Capitol Hill and you see many items on the wall: photos of the Member with Important People, framed newspaper clippings of special events, medals, awards, maps of the home district, and letters from schoolchildren. But most also have paintings, drawings or collages from local artists and talented high school students.
I always look at these pieces because they say a great deal about the home district/state and the Member. Artists and students embed pleas in many of these pieces; I wonder if the Members notice the messages, and if they care.
"Official" Washington has had an uneasy relationship with the arts lately; actually the tension goes back to the assasination of John F. Kennedy. The Kennedy administration embraced the arts; brought them into the White House in a way that has not been seen since. When President Johnson took over, the cultural tensions increased, but the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1965, eased the overt comparisons.
What does a country owe its artists? What do artists contribute to the soul of a country? How much direct support can a government give to the arts before the artists are co-opted and nationalized?
These are tricky questions, but as the national conversation about culture and soul has deteriorated into the collective questioning about our very survival, much less our place in the world, they are rarely discussed. I propose we have lost our way, in part, because we have stopped noticing those pleas and messages embedded in the drawings of children and the searing works that artists are producing.
Nita Penfold, "Survivor"
When people struggle and struggle to get through the day and pay their bills, it is easy to forget the weavings of the soul that can construct beauty, make meaning out of pain, and shine the spotlight on exactly where we have lost our way as a country. But such work is God's work, or at least spirit's work, and we need to honor the process of creation in ourselves, even if the nation has turned away from such processes. The national soul is dying before our eyes, probably because of the pain of seeing and the need for obliterating consciousness.
But we, the people, can find what solace there is in making. For this Memorial Day weekend, let's create our own memorials to what was, what is, and what could be. Photograph your creations and send them in to info@democracycellproject.net and let's have a showing next week.
Art therapy. Needed now.
Russ Feingold spoke in Seattle today on behalf of a local candidate. This is a "mixed bag" community when it comes to politics, so the pre-speech eavesdropping and conversations proved to be interesting.
Before the speeches, I noticed Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign heading out the door with a large gold backbone! (The Backbone Campaign is a grassroots effort to embolden citizens and elected officials to stand up for progressive values.) I followed him outside and he told me they had been relegated to the area near the chain link fence ("like at the convention," he said, probably because the Backbone Campaign also give "Spineless Awards").
Luckily it was the route Feingold would use to come into the school building where the event was held. It appeared that he really appreciated his Backbone and he certainly deserves it. He opposed the Patriot Act, opposed the Iraq War, and proposed censure of Bush, before any of these positions were politically trendy or safe.
I learned also that Feingold once won by 31 votes (in an even closer election than our governor, who won by 126 votes). I learned that Feingold was once endorsed by Elvis Presley. He has not taken "soft money" and has spearheaded Campaign Finance Reform. He holds the seat of Senator Gaylor Nelson, who started Earth Day.
From local speakers, I learned more about my community and how to next take a direction. There is the possibility of burning shoe leather in more "purple" or "red" districts. We have those running who came from the grassroots, who left careers to help steer the country back in the right direction.
The quote of the day:
"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves and can not under God retain it."
Abraham Lincoln
(Elizabeth, voting rights activist, Seattle)
This past week has been multi-focused but one recurring theme keeps coming up: the role of the arts in education. So for today's lesson:
The Good News:
Under No Child Left Behind, the arts are considered core curriculum, and therefore, every child's right.
OK, that's it for the Good News.
Despite new unpackings of research that indicate the arts have benefits that are both instrumental to general learning and intrinsically satisfying, the struggle to provide funding at the federal, state, and local levels for adequate programs continues. Once again, the Bush Administration left out the measly 36 million dollars for Arts Education in the US Department of Education funding.
(sigh).
I did attend a hopeful, optimistic, inspiring event in Baltimore City on Tuesday. The program announced will support the development of arts education programs in every middle school in the city. A good start for a long-troubled system, and the eloquent evidence for success came in the form of a successful jazz musician's testimonial about the power of a caring teacher and programs that changed his life. Rep. Elijah Cummings also spoke of a drawing he has in his house by Baltimore City students, a large piece that says "FREEDOM" at the bottom. He thinks that word reflects the unlocking of the spirit that happens when students create new things and find their voices.
But I could not help but wonder whether or not the Ford Foundation, which funded this project, has the stomach for sticking through the challenges such a program will bring, as the pressure from NCLB bumps up against the needs of arts programs for air and light and time. Will the arts be shoe-horned into the planning periods of the "real" teachers? Will teaching artists become relief workers for stressed-out and disenfranchised classroom educators?
As an arts educator, I believe we know what works. What do I mean by "works"? I mean that students are engaged and inspired constructors of products that reflect their deep learning and growth towards individuality and responsible community involvement.
Interestingly, what works does not require much money, because what works is this:
An active teacher willing to move around the room as needed, prodding, encouraging, relating with students and creating a vibrant environment in which everyone, including the teacher, enquires and discovers and makes new things.
A pacing and accomodation that suits each child while encouraging the whole class to move forward.
Time.
Space.
Materials.
Standardized tests, Adequate Yearly Progress Reports, School Choice, Scientifically-Based Research, Safe and Drug-Free Schools, High Stakes Assessment--none of these goals make the difference we hope for in our children's lives: Education that nourishes, engages, and empowers children to unlock their uniqueness and place in the world.
But put a paintbrush in their hands, turn on the music, read a poem, dance with them, let them create a new world, and then watch what happens.
I don't know about you, but when I pass a bookstore and we're six weeks out from the official start of summer, my mind travels to what will best occupy me while lounging by the pool, flopped down in the hammock after weeding between the bulbs, or just generally lazing with a layer of SPF 30 at a cafe, at the beach or just by the water in general. I asked our DCP blog contributors to give us some recommendations on good summer reads. Here we go with a good start-up.
FROM SUZ KRUEGER
"Chasing Ghosts; A Soldier's Fight for America from Baghdad to Washington" by Paul Rieckhoff
The reviews for "Chasing Ghosts" are as passionate varied as the author's writing. Paul Rieckhoff is an Iraq II war veteran and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America (IAVA), who recounts his experience of recruitment, duty and post-duty observations and activism against the Iraq war. Anticipate a searing account of the war, and invective against the politicians who initiated it. We need all perspectives to continue to bring to light the story of how we prosecute and sell America this war. There is none better than a soldier who for whatever reason volunteered, fought and now speaks out. Paul Rieckhoff was recently on The Colbert Report and interviewed last week by NPR's "Fresh Air"(check the NPR website for the "Fresh Air" broadcast.
FROM DICK BELL
"Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America," By Lawrence Goodwyn
Goodwyn shows that almost everything Americans have been taught since the 1930s about populism was written by people who hated populism, whose writings systematically buried the revolutionary challenge which populism posed to the triump of corporatism at the end of the 19th century. Through a brilliant exercise of historical detective work, Goodwyn restores the history that has disappeared. He writes that the omission of the activities of one of Populism's important wings "has had the effect of dropping the left wing out of a left wing movement and leaving the evolution of the People's Party [the political party that grew out of the movement] almost as a causeless happening--a mass insurgent movement achieved without organizational insurgents."
Goodwyn provides an almost day-by-day history of the sudden appearance of what came to be called Populism in Texas, its rapid spread across the midwest and into the South, the birth of the Populist Party, and the tragic failure of the movement and the party to beat back the corporate forces that have dominated our country ever since. There are many, many lessons to be learned from this wonderful book about the challenges of organizing political movements dedicated to a different set of economic relationships among people than the globalizing capitalism after the fall of the Soviet Union. If you were going to read only one book about politics this summer, read "The Populist Moment."
I RECOMMEND:
'C-Train and 13 Mexicans" by Jimmy Santiago Baca (poetry)
This is a slim book of poetry written by California poet Jimmy Baca, made memorable by his poem "13 Mexicans"--summarizing in verse the lives and souls of those whose future resides in our current consciousness. Some of the poems are harrowing and rough, but all strike a note of the longing, rage and most of all the heartbreaking need to belong to a country whose acceptance of Hispanic immigrants is, at its best, entirely conditional.
CASEY SUGGESTS THE FOLLOWING TWO:
"Crashing the Gate" by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (non-fiction)
As net activists regardless of our stripe, candidate or party--we all owe Daily Kos and its crew its propers-so many of us are active because of each other, inspired by the passion and determination of the blogging community. Getting our Daily Fix of Kos. And relying on each other instead of media and political hacks to determine and fight for what our government does to and for us. The book is now a must-read for anyone interested in netroots, the Democratic party, the preservation of democracy, community-building and the politics of now and the future. How much more do we need to say other than get it and get with it.
"How Would A Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok" by Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald is a Constitution lawyer who first supported the Administration's foreign policy after 9-11. His disenchantment and ultimately his apprehension of the Administration's policies followed shortly after the discovery that the NSA was conducting a domestic spying program on American civilians. Mr. Greenwald forwards arguments that should make for decent ammo in the ongoing fight for our civil liberties against an Administration that seems to not want to be bothered with the rule of law. If you want to know how valuable and how potent Mr. Greenwald's book is, check out the wingnut comments on the Amazon.com blog which already decry it--ten days before it would hit the bookshelves. Do we have a winner here, Ms. Morris?
And if YOU have a book to add to this list, share it with us and BLOG ON...
At the corner of Art and Politics today, we find this amazing example from singer Pink, called "Dear Mr. President".
Go. Listen. Now.
Then come back for the link up to the Kerry live blogging from Faneuil Hall up at 10:30 AM (EST). Since the speech will not be broadcast on C-SPAN until tomorrow, we will be posting a link to the live bloggers on the scene in Boston.
Here's the link to Kerry Liveblogginging as promised.
And so I get on an airplane in a few minutes and fly to London for a new staging of FEAR UP: Stories from Baghdad and Guantanamo. Marietta and I have reworked it and updated it; we were concerned that in the aftermath of this year's revelations about torture, and the horrific death toll in Iraq, it would seem quaint or too tame.
So we added some new facts, and a couple of scenes. One is a retelling of the Helen Thomas/Scotty McClelland *discussion* about torture; another a scene with an Army interrogator at Guanatanamo.
I will include the scene with the interrogator, which was taken from a first hand account. But I want to say something to all of the DCP readers and commenters and crew members before I go. The PLAY, FEAR UP, came out of true stories, just like the ones we read and post and tell here, every day. There is a Chinese adage that says, "May you live in interesting times." Well, we have been through far more than interesting times over the past years. We have witnessed and fought against the most terrible of regimes, and we have stood up for brave good people who speak truth to power.
So it is, in the end, the stories we tell each other that make the difference; that reveal who each of us is, at heart. And it is the stories we tell that teach others how it is, and show us into the hearts of others.
As I travel over the next few days, I carry each of you and your stories with me. They are important and they are the fabric of our beings and of these harsh times. Please keep telling them. They are lights in the darkness, and the antidote to fear.
Elise Alper and Maboud E. tell the stories in the original production of FEAR UP
[From the ongoing Saturday series, "Art and Politics", examining the impact of Politics on Art, Art on Politics, and a few things in between.]
This was in my e-mail a few days ago, and I was reminded of its presence by John Aravosis. There is an artfulness about the structure of its writing that often eludes political communications.
REMEMBER WHEN you displayed your flag on the front porch on the 4th of July, and you didn’t have to worry about whether it would be misinterpreted as support for a corrupt president and his administration?REMEMBER WHEN ‘Support the Troops’ meant equipping our military with everything necessary for battle, instead of just being a catchy phrase that looked good on a bumper-sticker?REMEMBER WHEN your tax dollars paid for things like improved education and social programs, instead of making Halliburton shareholders millionaires?REMEMBER WHEN you watched movies about WWII, and it was the enemy who tortured captured American soldiers, instead of American soldiers torturing the people they’d allegedly ‘liberated’?REMEMBER WHEN you heard something on the TV news or read something in a newspaper, and you didn’t have to go to the internet to find out just how much of it was fact, and how much of it was ‘spin’?REMEMBER WHEN a politician was caught with his hand in the cookie jar and he resigned in disgrace, instead of excusing his own behaviour by claiming that his political opponents were equally as guilty of wrongdoing?REMEMBER WHEN ‘Made in the USA’ labels on products were the norm, and not a total oddity?REMEMBER WHEN you hitchhiked through Europe as a teenager, and you DIDN’T have to replace the American flag on your knapsack with a Canadian flag in order to be a welcomed guest in a foreign country?REMEMBER WHEN organized crime figures had to make phone calls from the corner phone booth, because they were the only people who had to worry about wire-taps?REMEMBER WHEN telling a fellow politician on the floor of the House to ‘go f*ck himself’ was considered behaviour unbecoming an elected official, instead of being accepted as the way a Vice President behaves himself?REMEMBER WHEN you could pretty well count on the fact that if the president said it, it was based on sound intelligence and was probably true?REMEMBER WHEN you could rely on your elected representatives to put your interests ahead of the corporations that filled their campaign coffers, or the lobbyists who gave them great basketball tickets?REMEMBER WHEN you didn’t even KNOW what religion the people you voted for were, because it didn’t really matter? Remember when you didn’t know what party your neighbour belonged to, because that didn’t really matter either?REMEMBER WHEN the pension you’d worked for your whole life wasn’t in danger of being wiped out by corrupt CEOs, assisted by respected accounting firms that made that corruption almost impossible to detect?REMEMBER WHEN you could brag that as an American, you were guaranteed things like free speech and due process of law, without checking the nightly news to see whether those rights were still in effect?REMEMBER WHEN the president upheld the law of the land, instead of coming up with ‘legal loopholes’ to support the idea that he’s above the law?REMEMBER WHEN you could say, “I’m a proud American,” without qualifying it with a list of all of the things your government is doing that you’re not exactly proud of?REMEMBER WHEN you actually thought that the people in charge of running your country were smarter than you were?REMEMBER WHEN your parents worked all their lives to ensure you a better life, instead of worrying about how bad the life they’d be leaving their children might be?REMEMBER WHEN the importance of clean drinking water and breathable air were unquestionable mandates, and not some crazy hippie agenda to be weighed against corporate profits?REMEMBER WHEN questioning your government’s policies was seen as ‘participating in the process’, and not ‘giving aid and comfort to the enemy’?REMEMBER WHEN the ‘enemy’ was a country or military force that posed a threat to American democracy, and not a nation of innocent civilians who whose destruction was dismissible as ‘collateral damage’?REMEMBER WHEN your country went to war based on facts beforehand, instead of constantly-changing suppositions after-the-fact?REMEMBER WHEN ‘patriotism’ was judged by your words and actions, and not by whether you were a member of the party currently in power?REMEMBER WHEN the ‘American Dream’ was attainable through diligence and hard work, and not the luck of the ‘outsourcing’ draw?REMEMBER WHEN the election of a president was considered the result of democracy in action, and not the result of Diebold executives doing the job they were expected to do?REMEMBER WHEN you sang ‘God Bless America’ as a kid, and never thought you’d grow up to wonder if, in view of your country’s actions, asking God’s blessing was asking a bit too much?I REMEMBER WHEN … and I wonder if these ideas will become ancient history by the time those of us old enough to recall them are dead and gone.
Thoughts? What would you add? What would you remove?
[From the ongoing Saturday series, "Art and Politics", examining the impact of Politics on Art, Art on Politics, and a few things in between.]
This film review is coming to you live from Santa Cruz, California, home of the University of California at Santa Cruz. Yes, THAT UC Santa Cruz.
We are still gasping for breath. Nikko and I just finished seeing "V for Vendetta", and the word that comes to our minds is simply:
"Awesome".
Not just because its topical, but it is. Not just because Islamic people, homosexuals, non-Christians are demonized in the society "V" exists in. But they are. And not because the analogies are literally word-for-word, event for event a cautionary tale of what a terror-based neo-dictatorship looks like in a republic like England or America. But it most certainly is.
It is that and its more.
"V for Vendetta" is a film that makes a hero out of a terrorist. This theme alone causes dyspepsia amongst neocons, but the deeper aspects as to WHY he became one is the heart of why you go to see this film. The parallel to Alexander Dumas "The Count of Monte Cristo" is drawn to make a point about not judging V the terrorist so swiftly or superficially.
The madness driving V to commit acts of violence against the state is everyone's madness to a greater or lesser degree. The state's need to control free thought, individuality, expression and personhood created a society fed up with being spoonfed lies by a government-controlled media. People live under heightened security alerts, and the overarching presence of the dictator. Everyone living in this society is part of a seething, disgruntled yet dulled and powerless mass, needing an alarm to wake up. Need I say does this sound familiar?
"V" provides the alarm clock and more. Both in the society in which the plot is based, and for the audiences of this film in theaters across the country.
In Santa Cruz, CA, a university town always lively with anti-war activities since the early 70's and UCSC a subject of surveillance by the Pentagon for its anti-war activities, it came as no surprise to see the long lines form in front of the theater for this film. A sense of irony hit me as we were watching--I felt as though I was watching a film within a film--the movie theater a microcosm of what we see happening across the country: NSA, FISA, Patriot Act. And right outside on the streets of this small California town.
It was not a comfortable feeling.
But the heroes of "V" say something that made my heart full and I hope gives you heart when you go see the film. They talk about the power of ideas and the value of hope. And in those ideas, lie the seeds for awakening.
See this film and tell us what you think.
[From the ongoing Saturday series, "Art and Politics", examining the impact of Politics on Art, Art on Politics, and a few things in between.]
Seattle's Consolidated Works is a contemporary arts venu with a theater, film center, galleries and it is the meeting place for a new organization of political artists.
In the first gallery is an installation with Rachel Corrie's emails that were read in the United States Senate and are a tender reminder. (The 23-year-old peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the Israeli army destroying homes. Seattle's Vets for Peace are known as the Rachel Corrie Brigade, in her honor.) Painted representations of Rachel's vulnerable body were surrounded by quotations from her emails in red as in blood, interspersed with pink-faced men in suits.
Several galleries contained multimedia works by the collective Negativland. Negativland coined the term "culturejamming," which figures prominently in
[From the ongoing Saturday series, "Art and Politics", examining the impact of Politics on Art, Art on Politics, and a few things in between.]
Since there are a number of things that have flown across the radar this week, I thought we would use this space to aggregate those items, and if folks want to begin a discussion on any of them in the comments, that would be lovely.
If not, well, quiet Saturdays can be nice, too.
Have you ever thought, "Hey, I could do that-" while you were watching Jib-Jab, or a snippet of South Park, or any other short political comedy bit? <