Zuoxiao Zuzhou is a Chinese singer whose accented, croaky voice is hardly ever in tune. But for his fans he's the voice of a generation — one of the very few voices who dare to speak out. After a collaboration, Cowboy Junkies member Michael Timmins called him "China's Leonard Cohen."
On the occasion of the European Cultural Capital Graz 2003, WochenKlausur developed a year-long program of activities for older people with severe mental disabilities. The object was to offer them opportunities for a change of their daily routine inside the home.
Amidst a crowd of protesters and oversized signs, Pat Walsh shouted, “What’s disgusting? Union busting?”
At a glance, Walsh, a woman with well-kept gray hair and an open
smile, didn’t strike one as the usual angry protester. But that night,
Walsh was fighting.
“My husband, John, has been locked out from Sotheby’s,” says Walsh.
“He’s been a worker for 30 years. I’m here to fight for him.” Currently,
Regardless of one's spiritual ties (or lack thereof) to Christianity, all artistic activists can take a note or two from Jesus's playbook--the actions of "a radical Mediterranean Jewish peasant building a revolutionary movement two millennia ago."1. Jesus: Media Mogul. Jesus was a master of making a scene, ensuring that news would spread. If he was around today, the media wouldn't be able to get enough of him.
For an art project about the effects of white privilege and the disturbing ways in which its effects are built into our society, Risa Puno’s The Privilege of Escape is a surprisingly fun, even enjoyable experience.
From creativetimereports.org:
Artist-activist collective MTL's clickable collages connect disparate aspects of Palestine's geographical and political landscape, offering provocative insight into "how Palestinians suffer and struggle in ways that are parallel to those elsewhere" according to philosopher Michael Hardt.
Following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, corporations jumped on the opportunity to commodify the Black Lives Matter movement. In June of 2020, Netflix launched a Black Lives Matter collection, and by December, they had released Cops and Robbers, an animated short about racial injustice.
Note before the post: This article is great in highlighting a specific case of creative activism in the streets of New York City, but also gives some contextual background to how this project manifested.
On a sidewalk in the Village in downtown Manhattan, an African-American woman leans on her elbows and knees, wearing only black underpants. Scrawled in black marker all over her body are the words "Ain't I a Woman?"
A well-known advocate for the poor in Puerto Rico was released from jail Thursday evening after a San Juan judge dismissed charges stemming from his arrest earlier in the day during a protest against the island government's response to the coronavirus crisis.
"By yesterday afternoon, news of Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s lifetime NBA ban had already settled in. But there was still plenty of anger among the protesters who gathered outside the Staples Center Tuesday.
El Estudiante Militante is a giant puppet built by the members of Papel Machete and students of the University of Puerto Rico during the first three days of the 2010 student strike at a cultural camp established by the theater group in solidarity with the striking students. The puppet was built with materials inside the campus of the University.
A disability / textile arts project, challenging assumptions about disabled artists & highlighting shoddy treatment of disabled people by current government:
https://shoddyexhibition.wordpress.com/
Thief steals 44 lb golden cookie from the world-renowned Bahlsen Cookie Headquarters in Hanover, Germany earlier this January. Under the guise of Sesame Street's beloved Cookie Monster, the thief sent the headquarters a ransom note demanding cookies be donated to a children's hospital in Hanover. As plain cookies simply would not suffice, the Cookie Monster demands cookies of the milk chocolate variety.
If you headed into the West 4th St. Subway Station on March 9, 2014, you may have seen a group of people writing on cardboard, taping it to the walls, and seemingly holding a small class in the underground space. Those were some of the members of Free University NYC, a radical educational project started during May 2012 as a form of educational strike. They hold classes in public spaces like parks and subway stations, and are entirely free.
The Hungarian artist, undercover as an oligarch, infiltrated Manhattan’s ultra-luxury high-rises with her fake husband, Zoltan, for a book of intentionally unartful photos.
Across the United States, 2,693 people have received a letter in the last few months, which identified a debt and read: "You are no longer under any obligation to settle this account with the original creditor, the bill collector, or anyone else." This is the work of the Rolling Jubilee project – a non-profit initiative which buys personal debt for pennies on the dollar in the secondary market (where debt is sold to companies who then resell i
The Bread and Puppet Theater was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side. Besides rod-puppet and hand puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions were rents, rats, police, and other problems of the neighborhood. More complex theater pieces followed, in which sculpture, music, dance and language were equal partners. The puppets grew bigger and bigger.
Miguel Hernández was a spanish shepherd, poet and playwright that dedicated most of his works to dignify the poor peasants of the rural areas of Spain.
The Howling Mob Society has created ten
historical markers representing history from the perspective of the working class. In particular, these markers detail events and significant locations from the
Great Strike of 1877 - a historical event in Pittsburgh's labor history that ignited a popular uprising of workingmen, families, and
neighbors alike as citizens stopped train services, burned railroad
Inspired by the Laughing Farmers of Karnataka, protesters in New York make Carlos Slim's visit to New York uncomfortable while he appears on a "Live From NYPL" program. This excellent video summarizes the action.
Mayday is a neighborhood resource and a citywide destination for engaging programming, a home for radical thought and debate, and a welcoming gathering place for people to work, learn, drink, dance and build together.
In 1930, the Indian National Congress adopted satyagraha (essentially, nonviolent protest) as their main tactic in their campaign for independence. Mahatma Gandhi was appointed to develop a plan of action; he proposed marching to the sea to make salt in defiance of the Salt Act of 1882.
A popular theme throughout media is the relationship between technology and art. While art is often bolstered and disseminated through technology, discussions arise of how technology both positively and negatively affects content. Caroline Sinders’ exhibition Within the Terms and Conditions explores the way content has been spread online.