Projects tagged "North America"

In NYC, Activism Begins With Lessons In Theater
Practitioner:
EMERGE NYC
Date:
May 31 2017
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?"
Emerging Indigenous artists are mixing tradition with an urgent, organized message
Practitioner:
Ash-Milby, Ka’ila Farrell-Smith, Portland Art Museum
Date:
Dec 4 2021
The new exhibit “MESH” at Portland Art Museum features Indigenous contemporary artists advocating for change Visual artist, writer and activist Ka’ila Farrell-Smith says she considers herself a wartime artist. She is a member of the Klamath tribes and lives in Modoc Point, Oregon. When asked about how history influences her work, the answer weaves through over 150 years of white colonization and Indigenous struggles in the West:
Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate
Practitioner:
Katie Knight
Date:
Feb 14 2008
The Creativity Movement (formerly known as the World Church of the Creater) is a self proclaimed white supremacist organization with factions across the United States. In 2004, a high ranking leader of the Montana based faction defected from the group, but not before donating over 4,000 of the group's bibles called the 'RAHOWA' (acronym for racial holy war) to the Montana Human Rights Network.
Mapping skin deep
Practitioner:
CERRUCHA
Date:
Mar 17 2014
“Mapping skin deep” is an audiovisual public installation consisting of portraits with testimonies from refugee/undocumented immigrants currently residing in Montreal and elsewhere. Their bodies have been scarred in post-production tracing the route they took from their homeland to Montreal, hence mapping them skin deep.
Singing Disrupts Oil Auction
Practitioner:
Feminist Economics
Date:
Feb 22 2016
Utah environmentalists infiltrated a federal oil-and-gas lease auction and refused to stop singing until they were escorted out.
AIDS Memorial Quilt
Practitioner:
Cleve Jones
Date:
Nov 1 1985
In June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease.
Rat Row
Practitioner:
Laborers Local 79
Date:
Jan 7 2025
A fat cat, a pig wearing a top hat and five rats. All seven inflatables faced the 34th Street entrance of the Empire State Building last Thursday, two weeks into a protest by members of Laborers Local 79 who rallied, hundreds strong, in the afternoon shadow of the props.
MADE HERE Project: Documentary Series
Practitioner:
Tanya Selvaratnam (Producer, ) Chiara Clemente (Director, ) Karina Mangu-Ward (Producer)
Date:
May 1 2010
MADE HERE is a documentary series and website focusing on performing artists based in New York City. A collage of intimate interviews, performances and behind-the-scenes footage, MADE HERE mirrors the rich diversity of the artists and communities they serve. It reflects on Performance Artists battle to balance work and art in New York City.
Schoolwork, advocacy place strain on student activists
Practitioner:
Brown University Students
Date:
Feb 18 2016
Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester.
A Haunting Artistic Tribute to Garment Workers Killed in Bangladesh and the US
Practitioner:
Artist Rachel Breen, Poet Alison Morse
Date:
Apr 1 2018
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Exactly 1,281 white garments hang from the ceiling of the Perlman Teaching Museum’s Braucher Gallery. The collared shirts, knit sweaters, tights, and other items of clothing glow with an eerie luminosity.
#IHaveADream
Practitioner:
The Sanctuaries
Date:
Jan 19 2015
I really enjoy the events that we host at The Sanctuaries. They're well planned but not over-planned, so there's space to just be yourself. On Monday, January 19th, we held a wonderful event that celebrated the teachings and life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The turnout was strong!
A Man Was Lynched By Police Yesterday
Practitioner:
Dread Scott
Date:
Jan 1 2015
In 2015, Walter Scott fled for his life, stalked by a policeman who then cold bloodedly shot him in the back. We all saw the video and in response to this murder I made the artwork, “A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday.” This simple banner, printed with the eponymous words, is an update of an iconic flag that the NAACP flew from their national headquarters window in New York in the nineteen-twenties and thirties the day after someone was lynched.
‘Framing Britney Spears’
Practitioner:
Samantha Stark
Date:
Feb 12 2021
"Spears entered the conservatorship in 2008, at age 26, when her struggles were on public display. Now she is 39, and a growing number of her fans are agitating on her behalf, raising questions about civil liberties while trying to deduce what Spears wants.
The Guerrilla Girls and the "HORROR ON THE NATIONAL MALL!"
Practitioner:
Guerrilla Girls
Date:
Apr 22 2007
“The Washington Post” asked the Guerrilla Girls to create a full page for their section on feminism and art, which was published on April 22, 2007. The Guerrilla Girls’ page contains an image of a fake tabloid, called “NOT OK! The Guerrilla Girls’ Scandal Rag,”. The tabloid’s cover features a sensational headline and some statistics, which highlight the fact that national museums rarely feature female artists and artists of color.
Weekly protest at the slaughterhouse
Practitioner:
Toronto Pig Save
Date:
May 10 2012
By Catherine Porter I spent an hour Wednesday morning talking pigs and Leo Tolstoy on a traffic island outside the Princes' Gates. Anita Krajnc and her group call this “Pig Island.” They come here most weeks to watch and photograph the pigs en route to their death at nearby Quality Meat Packers.
3,000 Candles at the Lincoln Memorial #SoAllCanVote
Practitioner:
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice
Date:
Jun 24 2014
At the same site where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, we lit thousands of candles - one for each signature on our petition - to commemorate the legacy of brave freedom fighters Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner and to stand up for the rights that are once again in peril.
Beauty In Transition
Practitioner:
Jody Wood
Date:
Jan 5 2006
Beauty in Transition is an artistic project created by multi-media artist Jody Wood, that established a pop-up mobile hair salon providing beauty services including a hair wash, cut, color and/or style service to willing participants living in homeless shelters. By provoking face-to-face dialogue in a calming recuperative salon environment, this project aims to facilitate empathetic understanding and to unravel the reductive label of homelessness.
The Timothy Convention
Practitioner:
Wanderlust Projects
Date:
Oct 19 2013
TimCon28 was a scavenger hunt that infiltrated the historic Waldorf-Astoria hotel in midtown Manhattan. Under the guise of attending the "Timothy Convention", forty people explored back passages and service areas, interacted with unsuspecting hotel guests, infiltrated official hotel events like the Annual Disney Service Awards, and solved historic clues that led to birthday cake on the roof.
Faces of the Movement
Practitioner:
Faces of the Movement
Date:
Feb 12 2015
Faces of the Movement is a daily-release photo project that highlights the stories of everyday people who have joined together to fight for justice against police brutality in the United States.
Bullying Jr.
Practitioner:
Burger King
Date:
Oct 17 2017
Scrawny. Short. Ugly. Fat. Weird. 30% of school kids worldwide are bullied each year and bullying is the #1 act of violence against young people in America today. The BURGER KING® brand is known for putting the crown on everyone’s head and allowing people to have it their way. Bullying is the exact opposite of that. So the BURGER KING® brand is speaking up against bullying during National Bullying Prevention Month 2017.
Flower Power
Practitioner:
civilian
Date:
Oct 21 1967
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles.
Overlooked New York
Practitioner:
Zina Saunders
Date:
May 13 2012
"To discover the seemingly endless variety of enthusiasms pursued by New Yorkers, whether they were carried from immigrants' cultures from overseas or indigenous to the city landscape. These are real New Yorkers who have found fascinating ways to
Project Black Mask HK
Practitioner:
Joyce Ho
Date:
May 28 2020
"Project Black Mask HK (PBMHK) was founded by a (then) 18-year-old, Joyce Ho, who is an American-born Hong Konger. On May 28, 2020, during a peak of the Coronavirus Pandemic, many people expressed frustration with their inability to protest on the streets (of the United States) in support of the freedom and democracy for Hong Kong. PBMHK became a space where people could do exactly that.
Occupiers Set Up Living Room in Bank of America Lobby
Practitioner:
Occupy Wall Street
Date:
Mar 12 2012
A crew of occupiers makes a home of a Bank of Americalobby with a couch, a coffee table, a rug and a pottedplant. "Bank of America took our homes so we though we'dmove in here!"  
APEC World Leaders Dinner Gets Occupied
Practitioner:
The Yes Men
Date:
Nov 13 2011
A change in the programmed entertainment at last night's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gala left a few world leaders slack-jawed, though most seemed not to notice that anything was amiss.

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