Anyone who reads Histriomastix knows that it ain't a political blog. (Let me clarify: Although I have written about political theater, or the lack thereof, on Salon, and critiqued religion, I'm talking about informed commentary on Events of the Day.) Unlike Isaac Butler and Matthew Freeman, I don't go anywhere near political issues—not because I don't have opinions, but because I don't have the time, research or vocabulary to express them. Which is, come to think of it, a lot like not actually having political opinions. Ahem. Nevertheless, I do have a friend who is quite engagé. My childhood buddy and personal role model-peer: Matthias Regan, PhD in literature from University of Chicago, the town he calls home. Matthias is a poet,essayist and fierce indefatigable collagist and visual artist. He is cofounder of the Rubba Ducky Press. You can see a sample of his work above. He is also a proud, wildly creative activist, and part of a group called the Cheap Art for Freedom Collective. Said group is in town this week and you really ought to check out what they're up to. In my less-dyspeptic, less-misanthropic, more constructive moods, I think of this sort of grassroots creative activism as the sort of thing I'd do if I moved out of the city to spread the gospel of secular aestheticism. Keep on reading.
The Cheap Art for Freedom Collective
(otherwise known as the Collective Anarchist Freedom Fuckers)
are coming to NYC!
We will be staging various events in & around the city during the week of August 19-25. For details on times and locations, call 831-776-8038.
Our projects will include:
1. Iraqi Ground Zero
We will be making a memorial to the victims of U.S. aggression in Iraq. We are hoping many people will join us in this endeavor, so have written up an announcement: please distribute it as widely as possible:
IRAQI GROUND ZERO MEMORIALS
Washington Square Park
Wednesday 8/22 3PM-EVENING
The Cheap Art for Freedom Collective will be coming to New York in late August. Among our projects in the city is one that requires your help. On Wednesday, 8/22, in Washington Square Park, we will be constructing memorials for Iraqis killed as a result of the U.S. invasion. After 9/11 New Yorkers constructed thousands of ad hoc memorials for family members, friends, neighbors, and fellow New Yorkers who died in the attacks. Small, homemade memorials—"candles, flowers, teddy bears, the names and images of the dead and missing”—appeared all over the city. We believe that similar memorials should be erected for some of the more than 500,000 citizens of Iraq killed since the invasion more than five years ago. Part of the pain experienced by a nation at war stems from our awareness of the suffering caused in our name. We ask you to share this grief with us by joining us in Washington Square park to construct memorials for the dead on the other side of this war. Any items you wish to contribute will be welcome. A memorial can be as small as a candle and as large as a monument; it can commemorate an individual or an event, such as the Fallujah massacre of November, 2004. The CAFF Collective will be constructing several memorials—large and small—beginning at 3:00 pm on Wednesday afternoon. Please forward this invitation widely.
The rest of the events will be taking place throughout the city at various random locations and times:
2. DIY T-Shirt Stencil Party in the Park (or some other excellent place)
We will be celebrating the DIY spirit Cheap Art by inviting passers by to create their own t-shirts using paint and stencils. A number of stencils with encouraging and admonishing messages in English and Spanish will be available.
3. Counter-Recruitment Events
We have "The New Yorkers' Guide to Military Recruitment in the 5 boroughs" and will be creating counter-recruitment counters at various offices. Look for flags, banners, and giant cardboard reproductions of patriotic squirrels.
4. I (Heart) NY Posters & Art Lines
The original campaign was part of the neoliberal take-over of a city made attractive not by Disney but by centuries of countercultural production. To celebrate this, the CAFF Collective will be pasting I LOVE NY posters featuring quotations and addresses of some of the cities best-loved radicals, including Emma Goldman, Allen Ginsberg, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the Tompkins Square Squats, the first birth control clinics in the world, and Dorothy Day's Catholic Workers House. At the addresses of these radical people and institutions, we will erect free art lines commemorating the spirit of rebellion that made New York what it is today…or at least what it used to be!
5. Free Art Lines
We will be giving our silk-screened t-shirts, posters, Each One Teach One pamphlets, and cardboard sculptures away for free at sites across the city. Expect to find lines in various neighborhood parks, at farmers' markets and at Coney Island.
6. Freedom Free Culture Jams
These 11x17 signs that mimic "no parking/zoning signs" call attention to the loss of everyday liberties in America at large and the city in particular. Look for them to be wheat-pasted, stapled, and otherwise plastered all over the city.