Rage Against the Machine have always been rabble rousers, but the political statement that got them banned from Saturday Night Live sounds positively prosaic compared to other acts of protest they committed in their heyday, like shutting down the New York Stock Exchange or sporting a "Free Mumia Abu-Jamal" shirt on live television.
Aaron Hughes, an artist-activist and Iraq War veteran walked into the middle of a busy intersection in Champaign, Il. where he was then going to college, and propped up a signboard that read:
“I am an Iraq War Veteran.
I am guilty. I am alone.
I am drawing for peace.”
At noon today, a group of artists and activists including members of the Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (known as G.U.L.F.) unfurled a large parachute in the atrium of the Guggenheim Museum, demanding to meet with a member of the institution’s board of trustees to discuss the labor conditions at its Abu Dhabi site.
By C.J. HUGHESThe skies over
the glass cube that serves as the entrance to the Apple store on Fifth
Avenue turned a bit dark on Tuesday afternoon, at least for some
A group of German doctors have posed naked in an attempt to draw attention to shortages of protective clothing and equipment.
Calling their protest Blanke Bedenken, or Naked Qualms, members of the group said they felt at risk from coronavirus and claimed their calls for help over several months had gone unheeded.
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.
Today’s Bad Bitch Award goes to Karmenife Paulino, a 22-year-old graduate of Wesleyan University. Raped at a fraternity during her freshman year, she reasserted her sexual agency in a photoshoot entitled “Reclamation,” where she poses as a dominatrix on fraternity grounds.
BRAVE VOICES POETRY JOURNAL is the scripture of FREEDOM religion, with her twin’s doctrine of justice and resilience. It comprises two Testaments. (1) the old testament of precolonial Africa; from Genesis of civilization through Exodus to slavery. From kings; Mansa,Tshaka , Selassie…through Psalms; Senghor, Diops,Okara,Brutus.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the extraordinary story of a small band of Liberian women who came together in the midst of a bloody civil war, took on the violent warlords and corrupt Charles Taylor regime, and won a long-awaited peace for their shattered country in 2003.
The collective Ndaku Ya La Vie Est Belle, a group of Kinshasa street performers turn their bodies into living sculptures, and use them to political ends. Among the artists is Jared, who regularly takes to the streets dressed as Robot Annonce. The costume, made from broken radio parts, is designed to raise awareness of fake news. “People receive so much incorrect information and many inaccuracies are spread. I want to fight this,” says Jared.
"At the recent Amnesty International Annual General Meeting, we decided to do an action stating we stand with Shaima Alawadi and Trayvon Martin. Check out the action, even Asma Mahfouz, one of the founders of the April 6th Movement in Egypt and nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize participated in the action." -#MillionHijabMarch
MIAMI — Officials at the recently inaugurated Pérez Art Museum Miami confirmed on Monday that a valuable vase by the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei had been deliberately destroyed by a visitor in what appeared to be an act of protest.
Beyoncé delivered an intensely, unapologetic celebration of Black and HBCU culture at the Coachella Festival 2 weekends in a row. Not only were her performances some of the best live performances to date but they sent a pretty significant message to the world.
Here are some assessments of this beautiful demonstration of Blackness and Black Girl Magic:
From BBC News:
A group of unidentified guerrilla activists staged a unique pro recycling flashmob in a Quebec mall in July 2015. An actor 'forgot' an empty water bottle on the ground in a food court a couple of feet from a recycling receptacle. Numerous people walked past the bottle and did nothing. Finally a woman walking past it reached down and recycled the bottle. She was then given a standing ovation and thunderous applause from the entire food court.
BEIJING – Before Yue Xin became a central figure in China’s burgeoning movement against sexual harassment, she recorded herself singing a revamped version of the 1960s pop classic “Que Sera Sera.”
“Will we be equal? Will we be free?” sang the Peking University senior in a voice clip posted online, putting her own spin on Doris Day’s “Will I be pretty? Will I be rich?”
"The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence® is a leading-edge Order of queer nuns. Since our first appearance in San Francisco on Easter Sunday, 1979, the Sisters have devoted ourselves to community service, ministry and outreach to those on the edges, and to promoting human rights, respect for diversity and spiritual enlightenment.
Monday June 18, 2007 marked history with Operation First Casualty (OFC) – part IV, Chicago, Illinois. As IVAW members were coming into town, organizers were finishing last minute details. Participating IVAW members were from Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, DC and Indiana.
In December – as many around the globe were preparing for the holidays – Sama, a former attorney, remained hunkered down in her house in Kabul, Afghanistan, trying to comprehend how her world had changed.
On Sunday, April 29, dozens of protesters occupied the Beaux-Arts Court at the Brooklyn Museum as they reiterated demands for a decolonization commission, about which the art institution has remained silent. The calls for the commission come after the criticisms that followed the appointment of two white curators to the museum, including in the field of African art.
With people in Turkey and Syria still reeling from Monday’s devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake, many in the art world have united in support of the relief efforts for the disaster. The death toll has now surpassed 22,000, with close to one million people now in need of food amid freezing temperatures.
Daniel Hewson describes the use of protest posters and the work of collective, Burning Museum, and artist, Faith47, in the Fees Must Fall movement taking place in South Africa: