The enforcement of city and state law pertaining to graffiti, advertising, and other signage has enormous power to visually shape public space. In New York City, enforcement is heavily skewed to ignore illegal commercial advertising, while simultaneously aggressively targeting graffiti and, in some cases, symbols of dissent.
If you're a fan of West Side Story (music by Leonard Bernstein), don't miss this "updated" video. Absolutely first-rate!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wGZRJG4ZJE
"Occupy West Side Story" takes aim at NYPD Deputy Inspector Edward J. WInski, the white-shirted bully of Occupy Wall Street, who replaced the infamous Tony Baloney.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening to the public on April 26, 2018, will become the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence.
Kendick Lamar is known as one of the most prolific, and socially conscious, rappers of our time. 'BLOOD.' is the second track off of Lamar's iconic album 'DAMN.' from 2017. What makes this song stand out is the sample used at the end of part one of the song.
Dawn Jones Redstone’s short film about reproductive justice features women of color leading the resistance.
The year is 2023.
Health care of any kind is highly inaccessible and in some cases outlawed.
Public utilities such as water are privatized and severely restricted.
Streets are filled with protesters clutching signs that say “Water is a human right” and chanting “Whose streets? Our streets.”
Russia is the midst of a strict COVID-19 lockdown. Although protesters cannot take to the streets, they are still holding mass demonstrations — digitally.
Activists fighting coronavirus-driven hate crimes are rallying on social media to turn masks into a symbol, rather than a target in racist attacks
Jeff Elder Apr 6, 2020, 2:03 PM
Activists against COVID-19-related hate crimes are leading a social media campaign using images of people in masks to fight back against attacks on Asian-Americans, which Congress and the FBI say are increasing.
Direct Cause: Students' freedom to enter and leave the campus has been restricted for two weeks, but the university has not even issued an official document, only a verbal rule of "not leaving the campus unless necessary."
Objective: To protest the arbitrary closure policy of Beijing Film Academy.
Faith Ringgold, the 93-year-old doyenne of African American art, a trailblazing master who foreshadowed the recent rise of art activism and Black figuration, is having her first solo museum show in Chicago.
This series of protests began on the UCT campus in an effort to remove the bronze statute of Cecil Rhodes in the center of campus due to the belief that Rhodes represents the oppressive colonization of South Africa that eventually led to apartheid.
On April 30th NYU in conjunction with Free University held liberation lab in Washington Square Park from 11 30 Am until roughly 5 or 6pm. The day was very festive and full of amazing talks, performances, installations and discussions. I even got to participate in this day via our final project in the creative activist course.
A year after the revolution, Egypt is still in conflict, still grasping for a catalyst to solidify its society and bring unity and peace to the people. Violence, poverty and unemployement are still rampant, and the voiceless still seek a voice.
As was the case in 2011, Hip Hop has reemerged as a voice for the Egyptian youth for 2012, with new challenges and frustrations countering their struggle for freedom and equality.
In Hong Kong in 2014 the song Raise Your Umbrella by Denise Ho and Anthong Wong became an anthem for the pro-democracy movement known as the Umbrella Revolution. The song was written after police fired tear gas into the crowds when protestors filled the streets.
In 2013, Ghana ThinkTank received a Creative Capital Award for Emerging Fields, enabling them to begin the multi-year ThinkTank at the Border project. In this project, they are collecting problems from civilian border patrols like the Minutemen, "Patriot" groups, and Nativist organizations, and bringing them to be solved by think tanks of undocumented workers in San Diego and recently deported immigrants in Tijuana.
New Beijing, New Marriage is a documentary shot by Fan Popo, a Chinese gay rights activist in 2009. The film recorded that a gay couple and a lesbian couple, who were volunteers instead of real homosexual couples, were having their wedding photos taken at Qianmen Street on Valentine’s Day. Qianmen Street is a crowded and famous shopping street in Beijing.
These two works on canvas were made with my own blood, using the severed distal phalanx of my index finger as the painting instrument. They are connected to my solo anti-war action in Copenhagen in September 2026.
Their central messages are “No to War!” and “Peace & Love!” The index finger—the finger used to pull a trigger—became the central symbol of my refusal to participate in aggression and the killing of other people.
Norwegians raised their voices in unison on Thursday to get under the skin of admitted mass killer Anders Behring Breivik. An estimated 40,000 people turned out in central Oslo's Youngstorget square to sing "Children of the Rainbow," a Norwegian version of "My Rainbow Race," written by American folk singer Pete Seeger.
Sima Qian: China's 'grand historian' By Carrie Gracie BBC News, Beijing
Speaking truth to power has always been a high-risk strategy in China. Its rulers tend to prefer flattery, and writers who forget this do so at their peril. China's "grand historian" - 2,000 years ago - was one of many who have paid a terrible price.
Right before the presidential elections in Mexico, planned for July of 2012, a local software enterprise has developed a smart-phone game that shows how to commit fraud at the elections.
Daku is an Indian graffiti artist that engages in street art with political and social meaning. Little else is known about the elusive artist, due to the illegal nature of his work. The name "Daku" literally translates to bandit or dacoit in Hindi.
Nanfu Wang feels safe in New York. Surveillance, that essential preoccupation of the documentarian in America, is a chokehold from which she has been temporarily released. From her Brooklyn apartment, the Chinese filmmaker prepares for the release of her debut feature documentary, Hooligan Sparrow.
Some 70 or 80 local activists, politicians and other concerned citizens gathered outside Irvington Village Hall Sunday evening, two days after the release of gut-wrenching video of the murder of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols at the hands of policemen in Memphis.
Artists in Rio de Janeiro have staged a pop-up street show to protest against the closure by the new far-right state government of an exhibition because of a performance attacking dictatorship-era torture.