December 2008
Artsblog.it Interview
Posted December 31, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 Calls for Art
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
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
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
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
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 Art & Politics
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
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
"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
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
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 Art & Politics
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
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"
------------------------------------
(Sam's involved with Portland art group Red 76, by the way)
New School Occupation- Day 2
Posted December 18, 2008 by molly_fair in In the News
I'm heading over to the New School now...off the blog and into the streets...
From within the occupied New School in Exile, 65 5th Avenue, New York City: We have been in occupation of the Graduate Faculty building of the New School University since 8pm Wednesday the 17th of December. More than 100 of us have taken over a student building, including our only library, which the administration has marked for demolition without creating any equivalent new space on campus. We have opened the building as a student-run autonomous space, in protest against the administration of President Bob Kerrey who recently received a vote of no confidence from the majority of faculty in this school. Details of our multiple grievances against Kerrey, his vice-President Jim Murtha, and treasurer of the board of trustees Robert Millard are laid out in our first communiqué. This morning we have an update on our situation. At around noon today New School security moved to block our access to the fire exits, preventing us from allowing in our fellow students of the Inter-University Consortium to whom they had refused access to the building in a violation of the Consortium agreement. When they failed to remove us, the NYPD were sent in to violently evict us from the fire exit and one of our fellow students was arrested. The police entered the building at the same time as President Kerrey arrived and offered to speak with us, we responded by refusing to negotiate with him and repeating our demand that he immediately resign. He left and took his police with him. At the moment our security has returned and our numbers have doubled, but we expect future incursions on our space and encourage all who support us to come to the Graduate Building at 65 5th Avenue and 14th street.Signed,
The New School in Exile
and this communique
We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France, and Spain.This occupation begin as a response to specific conditions at the New School, the corporatization of the university and the impoverishment of education in general. However, it is not just this university but also New York City that is in crisis: in the next several month, thousands of us will be losing our jobs, while housing remains unaffordable and unavailable to many and the cost of living skyrockets.
So we stress that the general nature of these intolerable conditions exists across the spectrum of capitalist existence, in our universities and our cities, in all of our social relations. For this reason, what begins tonight at the New School cannot, and should not, be contained here.
Thus: with this occupation, we inaugurate a sequence of revolt in New York City and the United States, a coming wave of occupations, blockades, and strikes in this time of crisis.
Be assured, this is only the beginning,
With solidarity and love from New York to Greece, To Italy, France and Spain,
To the coming insurrection.
-New School Occupation Committee
Student Occupation of The New School
Posted December 18, 2008 by molly_fair in In the News
The students at the New School in NYC are holdin' it down! New School in Exile
As of 19:00 (7 pm, Dec. 17, 2008) a diverse collection of students from the New School community began an occupation of the Graduate Faculty building at 65 5th Ave. This is the only central student space on campus, and hosts the remnants of the Fogelman Library, the "fishbowl" study space and the Fifth Avenue Cafe. The students occupying the building have declared the 65 5th Ave. space an open student study space and intent to keep the building open indefinitely. All New School students are encourage to come and join us in our "Study-In."The original idea of the University in Exile, and the New School in general, was to be a safe-haven for academic freedom and scholarship free of oppressive political regimes, be they in Europe or America, and to be a center for critical engagement with important issues of our times. It was known for its deep thinkers, its innovative academics, and its commitment to social and political justice as a bedrock of all other scholarship. The New School, under its current administration, is no longer able to fulfill that role of critical engagement and dissent. This continued betrayal of our founding principles cannot be tolerated any longer, and the time has come to revive the University in Exile. This is a call for student action! (from New School in Exile)
Letter of DemandsNew School: University in Exile
We, the students of the New School, declare ourselves in silent solidarity with the senior faculty's vote of no confidence in President Bob Kerrey, and teir vote of no confidence in Vice President James Murtha. Though we have not been given a voice in the current state of the university, we too desire substantive change in the direction and future of our education. Our grievances include:
Five Provosts in less than eight years is a sign of no institutional transparency, stability, and accountability. We need an institutional politics with a system of checks and balances, not one that works at the whim of one man.
Kerrey's unilateral appointment of himself as "chief academic officer"is unacceptable and emblematic of his inability to foster cooperative education.
The university is being treated as a profit-making venture at whose altar the requirements of scholarship are routinely sacrificed. We have been systematically stripped of the most basic resources necessary for academic excellence, including adequate funding, spaces in which to study and engage with each other, and a working library. We demand more opportunities for student funding, and we are willing to work for them. We need public spaces in which to foster a public sphere and an academic community. The absence of a serious library and its related resources for reserach is absolutely unacceptable and should not even be an issue of contention in an academic institution.
Academic planning and budgeting should be directed by individuals with a deep understanding and commitment to academic excellence and free inquiry.
We do not have adequate resources and we are not told why.
We have no hand and no say in our fates or the collective fate of our institution.
We desire meaningful and inclusive education that sees us as more than cash cows and treats us with respect as serious scholars, artists, musicians, designers, philosophers, writers, and most importantly, future educators. We are tired of being told by an out of touch administration what our needs are, and we are no longer willing to idly sit by while our education and our futures are gambled away. We want a university that is known for the quality of its students and faculty, not for its logo or the crimes of its leadership. It is time for change. We desire a better world, and we are willing to fight to achieve it.
For these and more reasons we support the faculty's votes of no confidence in Bob Kerrey and James Murtha, and further, we call for their immediate resignation.
-The Students of the New School- 12/16/08
Resistance and Creative Resistance
Posted December 18, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
Images, banner drops, tactical media, performances and actions loaded with symbolism were in full effect this week. The Yippies and the Situationists would be proud.
Just Do It.
Apply! Anchor Archive 2009 Residency
Posted December 17, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Calls for Art
I spent two weeks this Fall living in a shed at the Anchor Archive in Halifax, Nova Scotia as an Artist-in-Residence. Definitely one of the highlights of this year. The Anchor Archive is a zine library and independent media resource center, run out of a house in Halifax's North End. The whole complex includes the Inkstorm Silkscreen Collective and the Crow's Nest event space, where they hosted a skillshare series and other events dedicated to DIY living and culture. While there I presented a silkscreen workshop on multicolor registration, DJ-ed two danceparties, and made a zine with my friend Simone Roughouser. Halifax is a bit out-of-the-way, but what a gem of a place. What sweet people. And the ocean is but a 45-minute drive or 3-hour bike ride away!
above: roberts street social centre, shed residence at roberts street, mary mack in her zine nest in the crow's nest
Special Announcement!
The Roberts Street Social Center is looking forward to another wonderful summer of RESIDENCIES!
Please email the anchor archive at the address below to receive the residency application. The two week long residencies run from June to September and applicants from out of town or out of province are given priority consideration. We are accepting applications until February 15th 2009. The application form provide a more thorough description of the residency program and requirements. If you have any questions or concerns about the application process please don't hesitate to contact us, and please pass along this information to anyone who may be interested.
Here's to your brilliant, inspiring, critical creativity!
roberts street social centre
(902) 446-1788
5684 Roberts Street
Halifax N.S. B3K 1J6
anchorarchive@gmail.com
http://robertsstreet.org
New Student of an Old Technique
Posted December 16, 2008 by shaun in Justseeds & Member Projects
This winter I've started learning the nearly-lost art of typesetting and letterpress printing with friend and cohort Artnoose. I have a lot of ideas relative to my current video work that I'm hoping to flesh out on paper in the coming months, and these old printing techniques are really exciting me. I like the idea of trying to work in similar themes, but using very different media.
Below is my first letterpress print - the background layer is a quick dust of matte spraypaint. Inspired in part by a recent article in the New York Times about the overpopulation of white-tailed deer.
I guess that, technically, this isn't really my first letterpress image. I did do the covers for the latest Pittsburgh Directory Action resource guide last year, but that was using a polymer plate made from a drawing I did, and we had to rig the chase with a hefty amount of duct tape. It was a tad ridiculous. This time around, I'm trying to learn the whole process, including setting the type - although learning with Artnoose, I've found that there is a ton of packing tape involved in lining up the paper itself... what did they do before packing tape?
The House of Love and Dissent
Posted December 15, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Favianna, Dara and I are in Rome, preparing for our show at the House of Love and Dissent on Thursday. We're hanging prints, People's History posters, and images from Reproduce & Revolt. It's going to be fun! Here is the poster for the show. Thanks to Erik Ruin for the hands (from the Realizing the Impossible cover).
“This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!”
Posted December 15, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News
From the NY Times
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: December 14, 2008
BAGHDAD — President Bush made a valedictory visit on Sunday to Iraq, the country that will largely define his legacy, but the trip will more likely be remembered for the unscripted moment when an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at Mr. Bush’s head and denounced him on live television as a “dog” who had delivered death and sorrow here from nearly six years of war.President Bush, on a surprise trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, got a taste of dissent at a Baghdad press event Sunday when an Iraqi journalist threw shoes at him, forcing him to duck.
The Iraqi journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, a correspondent for Al Baghdadia, an independent Iraqi television station, stood up about 12 feet from Mr. Bush and shouted in Arabic: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you
dog!” He then threw a shoe at Mr. Bush, who ducked and narrowly avoided it.
As stunned security agents and guards, officials and journalists watched, Mr. Zaidi then threw his other shoe, shouting in Arabic, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!” That shoe also narrowly missed Mr. Bush as Prime Minister Maliki stuck a hand in front of the president’s face to help shield him.
Mr. Maliki’s security agents jumped on the man, wrestled him to the floor and hustled him out of the room. They kicked him and beat him until “he was crying like a woman,” said Mohammed Taher, a reporter for Afaq, a television station owned by the Dawa Party, which is led by Mr. Maliki. Mr. Zaidi was then detained on unspecified charges.
Other Iraqi journalists in the front row apologized to Mr. Bush, who was uninjured and tried to brush off the incident by making a joke. “All I can report is it is a size 10,” he said, continuing to take questions and noting the apologies. He also called the incident a sign of democracy, saying, “That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves,” as the man’s screaming could be heard outside.
But the moment clearly unnerved Mr. Maliki’s aides and some of the Americans in Mr. Bush’s entourage, partly because it was televised and may have revealed a security lapse in the so-called Green Zone, the most heavily secured part of Baghdad.
Watch a video in plenty of places like here, or in the NY Times article
or below
Liberation Ink and Reproduce & Revolt Team Up!
Posted December 14, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Favianna and I have teamed up with the Bay Area t-shirt collective Liberation Ink on their new line of shirts, all drawn from images in Reproduce & Revolt! Liberation Ink is an all-volunteer, apparel and design collective that was created to provide an alternative revenue generating strategy for social justice organizing in the Bay Area. The new line features 6 designs by diverse artists from Reproduce and Revolt, including Miriam Klein Stahl, Beth Gutelius, Josh Sanchez, as well as Justseeds members Jesus Barraza, Favianna Rodriguez and me, Josh MacPhee. On top of being collectively run, Liberation Ink uses sweatshop-free shirts and union printing, and since 2006 they have supported two Bay Area coalitions: Deporten a la Migra and the May 1st Alliance for Land, Work, and Power. The Liberation Ink crew has been making some of the coolest shirts in the past couple years. Definitely check them out, and pick up some of the Reproduce & Revolt shirts!
Housing for All poster
Posted December 13, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Jared Davidson of the Garage Collective in New Zealand sent over this poster about a housing struggle in his local community, Christchurch. The suit in the image is Mayor Bob Parker. You can read more about it here.
Reappropriate the Imagination!
Posted December 12, 2008 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Cindy Milstein has just put online a copy of the article, "Reappropriate the Imagination!," which was published in Erik and my book Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority last year. Take a minute and give it a read, click here to find it.
A Lifestyle Distinct: The Muxe of Mexico
Posted December 12, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News
My friend Katie Orlinsky has a photo essay in last Sundays NY Times about transgendered folks in Juchitan, Oaxaca.
In this part of Oaxaca — a narrow strip of land known as the Isthmus — the locals make room for a third category, whom they call “muxes” (pronounced MOO-shays). Muxes are men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.
You can see the slide show over at The NY Times, or check out the accompanying article.
Rod Out of Wind
Posted December 12, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Many of you have likely heard that news that Illinois Governer Rod Blagojevich was caught trying to sell Obama's old Senate seat! It's good to know the Democratic party hasn't changed too much, very comforting. Ray Noland of CRO has made a new poster about it, and put it online as a pdf for people to freely download and reproduce. You can download it here.
Art in Solidarity with the Workers of United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110
Posted December 11, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
Below is a post from Jacob Flom who is a student in my Art and Ecology class at UWM. Jacob does incredibly inspiring work with IVAW and SDS and it was not surprising to hear that he was in Chicago in solidarity with the workers who occupied the factory in Chicago. The photos are credited to Jacob Flom and the individual in the third photograph is Armando Robles, the Union leader for the factory workers.
"The workers at Republic Windows and Doors that have been occupying their factory in Chicago for six days have just won their demands for severance pay. After a national outpouring of support the workers won the eight weeks of pay that they were owed under the federal WARN Act, as well as two months health care, and compensation pay for unused vacation.
Bank of America, which recently received a $25 billion bailout, will give $1.75 million to Republic Windows and Doors in order for the company to pay it's laid-off employees. Bank of America agreed to the terms after protests sprung up at their bank locations across the country and further pressure was applied by a number of Illinois politicians.
Thursday night, the workers (led by Local President Armando Robles) marched out of the plant, chanting "We did it!" in English and Spanish. The sit-in was organized by UE Local 1110 after the company announced it would close it's doors giving workers only 3 days notice. When the factory shut its doors, the workers refused to leave until they received their pay. The union is now organizing efforts to keep the factory operational. However, it appears that the business may try to open a factory in a new location, in order to end their contract with the union members, many of whom have worked at Republic for over 20 years. Thus support for the workers is still needed!
The importance of the workers action is immeasurable and has global ramifications for the occupation was the first action of its type in the United States in decades.
As a student and member of SDS and IVAW, I joined other Milwaukee student organizers, as we drove to Chicago to witness the historic struggle and offer our support. Inspired by the conversations I had with many of the workers, I created a drawing for them. The image is the company logo, a window, with a fist smashing through it, holding the sign of the union. The piece reads: "Workers of the World Unite! and "Banks got bailed out, Workers got sold out."
-Jacob Flom, Students for a Democratic Society, Milwaukee chapter.
SDS: http://sds-mke.blogspot.com/
IVAW: http://ivaw.org
Complete details on the agreement can be found here: http://www.ueunion.org/uenewsupdates.html?news=438
Special Screening of July War
Posted December 11, 2008 by k_c_ in Events
Special Screening of July War
w/ Filmmakers Brandon Jourdan and Francisca Caporali
December 15, 2008 at 8PM
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue
NYC, NY
$5-10 Admission
July War takes a raw and unflinching look at the devastating
first-hand effects of the 2006 Israeli military offensive in Lebanon.
This powerful documentary examines the broader impact of the global
war on terrorism, using the war in Lebanon as a specific case study,
and questions whether it has actually curbed, or perhaps increased,
Islamic militancy. It also reflects on the US and Iranian role in the
war and the failures of current policy in the Middle East by Western
governments and their allies.
AIR Show This Weekend
Posted December 11, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Events
Artists Image Resource (AIR) this years Staff & Volunteer Show this
Saturday, December 13, 7-11pm
Artists Image Resource
518 Foreland Street
Pittsburgh, PA
412-321-8664
Over 32 artists' current work will be on view ranging from print, sculpture, painting, photography, sound and video installation.
matt cummings * howard booth * andy english * ian short * kerry gaydos * katyana gradler * matt forrest * mary tremonte * hunter blackwell * meredith hertel * allison glancey * jenn pascoe * erin foley * ryan emmett * rachel maran * jamie adams * sabrina adams * josh troy * gene marsh * mike hegedus * carolyn kelly * budai * kristine synowka * amos levy nathan mould * julia kennedy * lizzy devita * tresa varner * bill rodgers * robert beckman * nick fredland * ashley brickman * shaun slifer
DJ Mary Mack, DJ Sean MC and the duo of Hoof & Beek will be spinning music throughout the evening - food and drink will be provided - admission is FREE. This event is not to be missed and we look forward to seeing you!
AIR is a not-for-profit art printmaking studio in Pittsburgh, PA. AIR hosts a very popular Open Studio night on Tuesdays and Thursdays 7-11pm, and Wednesdays for teens 5-9pm, where you can make silkscreen prints at a nominal cost. I have been volunteering there on and off for close to a decade, and do most of my own printing there. (The Winter in America tree on the right, which is four feet tall, was created at AIR by Josh MacPhee & Shaun Slifer) Their facilities are amazing!
Taring Padi show in Mexico City
Posted December 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Our friend Santiago is helping put on a show in Mexico City of prints by the Indonesian printmaking collective Taring Padi. Here's the info and flyer. Sorry, Spanish only....
Exposicion del colectivo de grafica radical Taring Padi de Yogyakarta, Java central, Indonesia. LEMBAGA BUDAYA KERAKYATAN TARING PADIOrganización de Cultura Popular "Colmillos de Arroz"
El Colectivo Taring Padi de Yogayakarta, en la isla de Java en Indonesia,
se forma en 1998 en medio del gran levantamiento social que obliga a la
disolución de la dictadura del presidente Suharto. Taring Padi utiliza la expresión artística como una herramienta cultural en un esfuerzo para educar, inspirar y compartir con sus comunidades en Indonesia y las comunidades del mundo de la necesidad de luchar contra la opresión capitalista e imperialista. Su arte se comunica directamente con sus comunidades pero también nos
habla a todxs nosotrxs.
Inauguración: Viernes 19 de Diciembre / 19:00 hrs.
Música en vivo: Xeneque
Proyección de Documental del Colectivo
Clausura: Viernes 26 de Diciembre / 18:00 hrs.
Bandas invitadas: Anti-Master
Proyección de Documental
Lugar: Escuela de Cultura Popular Mártires del 68
5 de Febrero 257 – D
(esq. 5 de Febrero Col. Obrera Metro San Antonio Abad.)
La Furia de las Calles
http://espora.org/furia/
"Izena duen guztia omen da"
Happy Holidays from Palestine
Posted December 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Inspiration
My friend elin o'Hara slavick just sent me this great holiday card designed by British political artist and photo-montagist Peter Kennard. Kennard has been making political collages for decades, he is behind some of the best known anti-nuclear graphics, but he is sadly almost unknown in the US:
Book 'Em Book Sale Dec 13 & 14
Posted December 10, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Events
Book 'Em, Pittsburgh's books - to - prisoners program, is holding a book sale this weekend. All proceeds directly benefit postage for mailing book packages to prisoners (which runs about $900 / month). Book sale! Sweet treats! Giftwrapping!
Saturday December 13 10:00-2:00
Sunday December 14 3:00-8:00
Thomas Merton Center
5125 Penn Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Feel free to visit our weekly book packing sessions on Sundays from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the basement of the Thomas Merton Center, in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood. There is always great company and conversation, and often music and snacks.
For additional information, contact us at bookem(at)indypgh(dot)org.
(I designed and printed this poster, using a Beehive Collective image from Reproduce and Revolt! Josh MacPhee and Favianna Rodriguez's amazing book of copyright-free radical graphics. Quick-and-dirty and good-looking poster-making!)
Dinner and Storytelling with the Beehive & Photojournalist Allan Cedillo Lissner
Posted December 10, 2008 by k_c_ in Events
The Beehive Collective Presents...Dinner and Storytelling with the Bees and photojournalist Allan Cedillo Lissner with special guest, Tanzanian Investigative Journalist, Evans Rubara.
The Beehive will be presenting parts of their new work, about resistance to a mega-development plan in Latin America. Allan and Evans will present "Someone Else's Treasure" and "A Golden Opportunity?" a photo essay and short film about mining in Tanzania. Friday, Dec 12, 7pm Sixth Street Community Center 638 East 6th Street NYC, NY $10-20sliding scale
Dinner will be a four course meal: appetizers, salad, a couple of main courses, and a choice of desserts. Proceeds from the dinner will go directly to people displaced from the Mtakuja village to pave way for AngloGold Ashanti in Mwanza Region in Tanzania.
Providence Street Art
Posted December 9, 2008 by meredith_stern in Street Art & Graffiti
Lots of new prints makin it onto the electical boxes these days, here are a few recent examples...
Call for Submissions - THE END OF TELEVISION
Posted December 9, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Calls for Art
The End of Television is a video program beginning when analog television ends. On February 17th, 2009 the U.S. television broadcast signal will change over from analog to digital. No television will receive a signal without a special converter box.
On February 17th, The End of Television will air through analog broadcast TV on channel 2 in Pittsburgh. When broadcasters turn off their analog transmitters The End of Television turns it's analog transmitter on and broadcasts the program. Using a restricted and nearly obsolete medium (broadcast TV) , The End of Television re-imagines the omnipresent idea of "broadcast yourself." We are accepting all videos submitted before the deadline and there is no submission fee.
The End of Television will hold a countdown event on the evening of February 16th in Pittsburgh (Location TBA) and at midnight we will flip the switch.
Visit TheEndOfTelevision.blogspot.com for updates
Information on submissions below.
Digna Rabia flyer
Posted December 9, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Another flyer making use of Justseeds art, this one for the Digna Rabia events in Oaxaca Mexico, using the EZLN Celebrate People's History Poster!!
Arte di strada e movimenti sociali
Posted December 9, 2008 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
I'm excited to share that I recently had an article I wrote translated into Italian, and published in a great journal called Zapruder: Storie In Movimento. Zapruder is a non-academic history publication, as far as I understand developing loosely out of the Italian Autonomia tradition, which attempts to mine history for ideas that are useful to contemporary social struggles. This issue is dedicated to political propaganda, and is themed "Wall Against the Wall: Design and Communication in Political Posters." My article is called "Street Art and Social Movements," and is an edited version of a talk I've been developing for the past couple years under the title "Street Art and Counter Power." I'll be cleaning up the English version of this text and posting it here soon....
Photos from the Demonstration Outside the Occupied Chicago Factory
Posted December 8, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
The worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago by members of UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) Local 1110 has reached its fourth day and the 230 plus workers have vowed to continue the occupation until they are paid back pay and benefits or until the plant is re-opened. Above are some photos that I took tonight.
Chicago Indymedia updates on the strike:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/84882/index.php
Email campaign:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica/
Toronto Portfolio Show
Posted December 8, 2008 by jmacphee in Justseeds & Member Projects
thought people might be interested in the flyer for the Toronto showing of our Voices from the Outside prison print portfolio.
Greece Erupts
Posted December 8, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
Check out indymedia.org and other alternative news organizations for updates on what is taking place in Greece. For the past three days protests and riots having been taking place in numerous cities in Greece and other countries following the murder of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos by the hands of the police in Athens on December 6th. Police brutality provided the spark for the demonstrations but underlying economic policies and disenfranchisement is the larger story.
Anarchy Snowflake!
Posted December 8, 2008 by bec_young in How-To
I'm excited that it's that time of year again. I don't mean the time of year for cheesy songs that play over and over in public places, or the time of year for rampant socially-sanctioned consumerism. No, I mean the time of year for cutting paper snowflakes! I thought I'd make a pattern and share it with you. Now, get out your scissors!
I recommend you use paper that's relatively thin, otherwise it will be hard to fold and cut. There are different ways to fold your paper in order to get the hexagonal snowflake shape. I used the method on this homeschooling website, but don't be fooled- paper snowflakes are not just for kids! After folding your paper you should have a kite shape. Fold that in half for a scalene triangle. Cut out the pattern as shown above left, starting with the half-heart shape, and then cut everything around it. Above right shows you how it should look once it's unfolded partially, back to the kite shape. On your second flake, just free form it!
"Ice" screening in Portland
Posted December 7, 2008 by icky in Events
The 16mm movie "Ice" is showing this week in Portland. This is a great movie- kind of a science fiction radical how-to of revolution made in 1969 when it seemed, realistically, just around the corner.
If you haven't seen this and you're interested in experimental film or radical history or near future low budget sci-fi (or none of these things) you should come see this... it's fucking great!
ICE by ROBERT KRAMER
[1969, 134 MIN]
December 9&10, 7:30pm
11 N.W. 13th Ave (btn Burnside & Couch)
Portland, OR
$6
Doors open 30 minutes prior to scheduled start time. Elevator access is provided, please come to the door so we can accomodate. City Center parking is available for $7 on 14th street. For access to the space from the 3rd floor enter from the western stairwell
"Born in New York in 1939, Robert Kramer ranks as one of the most original directors of American underground cinema. A committed leftist who emerged radicalized from his studies in philosophy and Western European history at Swarthmore and Stanford, he worked as a reporter in Latin America and organized a community project in a black neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey, before founding the Newsreel movement—an underground media collective which made some sixty documentaries and short films about radical political subjects and the antiwar movement between 1967 and 1971. His films constantly work at wearing away the impermeability of documentary and fiction forms, paying special attention to his characters. A pioneering work that blurred the boundaries between fictional and documentary styles, Ice was hailed by filmmaker and Village Voice critic Jonas Mekas as "the most original and most significant American narrative film" of the late sixties. An underground revolutionary group struggles against internal strife which threatens its security and stages urban guerrilla attacks against a fictionalized fascist regime in the United States. Interspersed throughout the narrative are rhetorical sequences that explain the philosophy of radical action and serve to restrain the melodrama inherent in the "thriller" genre. " - Harvard Film Archive
Chicago Workers Occupy Factory!
Posted December 7, 2008 by molly_fair in In the News
I am very excited that this is happening...
Idled Workers Occupy Factory in ChicagoBy RUPA SHENOY AP
December 6, 2008CHICAGO - Outraged and determined Chicago factory workers who were abruptly laid off this week have occupied their former workplace and say they won't leave until they get the severance and vacation pay they say they're owed.
The employees say they received three days notice their plant was closing. In the second day of a sit-in on the factory floor Saturday, about 250 union workers occupied the building in shifts while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.
About 50 workers sat on pallets and chairs inside the Republic Windows and Doors plant, supplied with donated food, sleeping bags and blankets. Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give its 300 employees the 60 days' notice required by law before shutting.
During the takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.
"We're doing something we haven't done since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," Fried said.
She said the company can't pay employees because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won't let them. Crain's Chicago Business reported that Republic Windows' monthly sales had fallen to $2.9 million from $4 million during the past month. In a memo to the union, obtained by the business journal, Republic CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors."
Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement to news outlets Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.
Representatives of Republic Windows did not immediately respond Saturday to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
"Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."
Outside the plant, protesters wore stickers and carried signs that said, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."
Larry Spivack, regional director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, said the peaceful action will add to Chicago's rich history in the labor movement, which includes the deadly 1886 Haymarket affair, when Chicago laborers and anarchists gathering in a square on the city's West Side drew national attention when an unidentified person threw a bomb at police.
"The history of workers is built on issues like this here today," Spivack said.
Police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said authorities were aware of the situation and officers were patrolling the area.
Workers were angered when company officials didn't show up for a meeting Friday arranged by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, Fried said. Union officials said another meeting with the company is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
"We're going to stay here until we win justice," said Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, after occupying the building for several hours.
Speaking in Spanish, Funes said she fears losing her home without the wages she feels she's owed. A 13-year employee of Republic, she estimated her family can make do for three months without her paycheck.
Most of the factory's workers are Hispanic.
Signs of Change Closing Today!
Posted December 6, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
Today is the last day to see Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now in NYC!!! Over 1000 posters, flyers, photos, videos, audio and ephemera from social movements around the world. Come by today and check it out if you haven't seen it yet:
Exit Art
475 10th Ave. (10th Ave. & 36th St.)
New York, New York
(the 34th Ave stop on the A/C/E train is only a couple blocks away)
And we're gearing up for the show to travel to Pittsburgh. It opens on January 23rd at the Miller Gallery at Carnagie Mellon University.
(installation photos by Kevin Caplicki)
Bill Daniel Projection / Audio Performance
Posted December 5, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Events
From Justseeds buddy Bill Daniel, hobo filmmaker. You can still catch his installation "The Great Depression" for another month at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
"Hello Friends,
I'm writing to you today to tell you about two musical projection performance deallies that I'm organizing at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. The first will be this Saturday, Dec 6th, and will feature an improvisional performance by Jim Lingo, Josh Tanzer and Jarret Fate, who will be sonically interacting with the audio from a big reel of 16mm post-industrial found film oddities. The show will transpire in the gallery space where I currently have a photo/video installation up, called The Great Depression.
The other performance will be Jan 10th at the Melwood Screening Room and will feature Centipede Eest performing a live score to a collection of film and video collected from the American Road."
Saturday December 6
Doors at 7:00, performance at 8:00
FREE all ages
Pittsburgh Filmmakers
477 Melwood Ave
412-681-5449
Check out this sweet, though slightly inaccurate, review of The Great Depression in Pittsburgh's City Paper here
A Good Time for the Good Time Bill
Posted December 5, 2008 by molly_fair in Events
Support the Good Time Bill and Push for Change in the Federal Prison System!
Dinner, A Movie, (Hoot) and Conversation
Friday, December 5th, 7pm
6th St. Community Center
6th St. btwn Avenues B and C (F/V to 2nd Ave., exit 1st Ave.)
NYC
Three years ago, our dear friend Daniel McGowan was among the first people arrested as part of an FBI offensive against environmental activists and others, now known as the Green Scare. Daniel began serving his seven-year sentence in July 2007. In August 2008, Daniel was moved to the Communications Management Unit in Marion, IL, a facility that bypassed the usual review process and severely restricts inmates' communication with the outside world.
To mark the three-year anniversary of Daniel's arrest, please join us to learn more about Daniel's situation, the Communications Management Units, and our campaign to pass the Federal Prison Work Incentive Act (or "Good Time Bill") - A bill about to be re-introduced to Congress that would reduce the sentences of people in federal prisons by increasing the "good time" credit all federal prisoners receive. This would apply to all federal prisoners except the ones serving life sentences.
2 Justseeds Portfolio Events
Posted December 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
On Friday in Montreal:
Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex
at Ste-Emilie SkillShare * 3942 Ste. Emilie * metro Place St. Henri
Vernissage Friday December 5th, 7pm-midnight
Exhibit December 5th – 14th inclusive
In connection with the historic Critical Resistance 10th anniversary conference Just Seeds Artists Cooperative has produced a print portfolio project that they are donating to prisoner justice organizations across North America. The portfolio consists of 20 prints, each by a different artist, that all either critique the prison-industrial complex or address alternatives to incarceration.
The vernissage will feature:
* a presentation on prison art
* letter-writing to political prisoners
* Certain Days 2009 Freedom for Political Prisoners Calendar available for purchase
Presented by the Certain Days collective
& the Ste-Emilie SkillShare – both working groups of QPIRG Concordia
--> how to get to St Emilie Skillshare:
www.mapquest.com/maps/3942+Ste.+Emilie+Montreal+qc
_______________________________________________
On Saturday, December 6 in Toronto:
Let Freedom Ring
Calendar launch - book launch - panel discussion - art show
6pm - Panel discussion about prison organizing
9pm - Launch party, with bar, snacks, and local DJs
(art will be up all evening)
$5/$15 with calendar
Whippersnapper Gallery
587A College Street, Toronto, ON
Taller Tupac Amaru Holiday Open Studio
Posted December 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
If you are in the Bay Area, check out our new Justseeds members Taller Tupac Amaru at their Holiday Open Studio this weekend!!!
Taller Tupac Amaru Holiday Open Studios
(Melanie Cervantes, Jesus Barraza, & Favianna Rodriguez)
December 6 & 7, 2008
11 am - 6 pm
Taller Tupac Amaru Art Studio
1505 33rd Ave.
Oakland, CA
ARTE• TAMALES • BEER• LIVE PRINTMAKING DEMOS
Join us in Celebrating our 5 year Anniversary! 2008 has been a busy and exciting year and we would love to celebrate with good food, music, community and great art. Our Taller spent the year supporting grassroots organizing, traveling, teaching, building and participating in various collaborations, exhibitions and artist residencies.
Come check out our new work!
Prints! Radical Art! T-Shirts! Books! Printmaking Demos! Live Art and More!
Invasive Species
Posted December 4, 2008 by jmacphee in Street Art & Graffiti
My friend Sam Sebren sent along a cool new stencil he's been working on that he wants to share with the world. Just click on the image below, drag the larger pop=up image onto your desktop, and you should be able to print it out, cut it, and start putting it up on anything and everything this world no longer needs (I can think of plenty of invasive species....)
Portland 3rd Annual Working Class Book Fair
Posted December 4, 2008 by icky in Events
Hey Northwesties! Justseeds will be tabling with a bunch of prints at the 3rd Radical Book Fair at Liberty Hall. I tabled last year and it was really nice, lots of good stuff, nice people.
Liberty Hall is at 311 N. Ivy in Portland,
right off of Vancouver, a block south of Fremont.
Saturday, December 6th, 12-4pm
"Join the Portland IWW, Laughing Horse Books, In Other Words, Tarantula Press, Eberhardt Press, Just Seeds, Malkriad@s, Olin, Red Letter Press, Great Northwest Books, Decentra Collective, Black Rose Collective, and many more for this excellent event! A plethora of books, magazines, and organizing materials will be on sale. The IWW Working Class Book Fair is a Portland tradition that gets better with every year, and is an indispensable opportunity for those interested in social/economic/environmental justice to meet up with like-minded organizations.
Questions? Contact the Portland IWW at 503-231-5488, or, portland.iww (at) gmail.com, for more info."
It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Posted December 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events
If you are in NYC, come out to our big Justseeds show at the Brecht Forum tomorrow night, Thursday Dec 4th! After our event, cruise over to The Change You Want to See in Williamsburg for this video program!:
IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
The Change You Want To See Gallery
Thursday, December 4, 8pm
84 Havemeyer Street, at Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn NY 11211
Since its humble beginnings in 1994, subMedia has grown from a small group of determined filmmakers into a grassroots network of socially and politically engaged artists and individuals. subMedia scrutinizes popular culture and media through the production of film, performance art, video, music and zines.Equal parts performance and protest, an attitude of art following action defines subMedia’s productions. From the regularly released and highly produced video blog “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, to the collaborative documentary Ground Noise & Static, their work injects a radical analysis into the culture in a most entertaining way.
Please join subMedia founder, director and producer Franklin López (aka The Stimulator) as he steps out from behind the talking boxes to tour us through a video montage of his latest works, mixing culture jamming, news, radical commentary, music and action.
Sustainable Show Reviewed in Providence Phoenix
Posted December 3, 2008 by meredith_stern in Justseeds & Member Projects
Check out the weird write up in our local Providence newspaper on the Sustainable show...
http://thephoenix.com/Providence/Arts/72689-Live-through-this/
Justseeds in Portland City Hall Thursday night
Posted December 3, 2008 by pete in Events
Oddly enough we were asked to partake in a show at city hall that opens this Thursday. It's not everyday that we get invited to hang some political art on the walls of command central so we agreed. The event is in our Mayor-Elect Sam Adams' office. Holiday shoppers come on down, and if you don't catch us here, be sure to come by Liberty Hall this Saturday, we'll be tabling the Portland Radical Book Fair (yep, we're hitting both ends of the spectrum)
Here's the details:
Portland Prints II
City Hall Art Holiday Gift and Art Sale
Thursday December 4th 5-7pm
City Hall 1221 SW 4th
City Hall will have great local print makers including: couture stationary, letterpress & silk screen prints, magazines, and much more! Get hand-crafted art pieces for your loved ones this holiday season! Buy Local!
featuring work by the following:
Print Arts Northwest
Lark Press
Paul A. Lanquist
Encanto Press
Flight 64
Stumptown Printers
PSU's Student Activities Leadership Program
Bitch Magazine
Pinball Publishing
Letterary Press
Just Seeds
Graffiti Wars: Government-Punks Without Sneakers
Posted December 2, 2008 by molly_fair in Inspirations
A passage from Return to the Same City by my favorite detective novelist and radical historian Paco Ignacio Taibo II:
"I'm involved in ideological warfare."
"Against whom?"
"Against a gang of juveniles. A bunch of guys from my neighborhood who spraypaint."
"What do they paint?"
"Bullshit," Carlos said, lighting a new cigarette. "Sex Punks, Wild Border-" meaningless phrases like that, numbers, incomprehensible clues to mark their territory. It's like dog piss. Wherever I piss is my space and nobody can come in."
"And what do you do?"
"I paint on top of their paintings. I go out at night with my spray can and paint over theirs. It's a war."
"But what do you paint?"
"Punks are Strawberries, Long Live Enver Hoxha, or Che Guevara Lives, He's a Living Ghost, Be Careful Assholes, He Lives in the Neighborhood, or Sex Punks Were Born With a Silver Spoon in Their Mouths, or If a Dog Falls in the Water, Kick Him Until He Dies. Some come out too long, they're not effective, but I hadn't painted in a long time; my da Vinci profusion is in arrears. I've got them screwed. It's not just ideological warfare; it's generational warfare, too. Obviously it's a professional war and, in that, my painting technique dominates. Those sucklings are going to teach me how to paint walls...? My most successful one was Government-Punks Without Sneakers, and the second most successful, celebrated to the hilt by the dry cleaner guy downstairs, had to do with a discount chain of stores. It was: Paint Me a Blue Egg and Woolworth Will Buy It, but the Woolworth logo didn't come out that well."
Héctor raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry, it's not insanity, it's just to keep me in shape until I find a new little place in the class war. Besides, sometimes I agree with the punks and we restore universal harmony. The other day I was painting one that said If the PRI wants to govern, why don't they start by winning the elections, and the gang came along and instead of destroying it, they wrote Yes, that's true below it, six feet tall."
"And where is that painting?"
"Two blocks away. Want to go look at it?"
Héctor agreed. The morning was improving.
The Biggest Middle Finger
Posted December 1, 2008 by k_c_ in Inspirations
Here's some photos of a poster a friend made about the CUNY budget cuts.
"There's only one thing left to do...STOP THE BUDGET CUTS!"
From what I hear
...the big things that are pissing people
off... the tuition increase and the rise in pay for the Chancellor,
the fact that the budget gets cut the same amount as prison budgets go
up...
There is a bunch of information at the Building the 21st Century CUNY site.
