Dear friends, as Not An Alternative is busy readying the new NO↔SPACE for public events and programming, we're teaming up with The Yes Lab to present a series of lectures and workshops this Fall at NYU. We hope to see you there.
And stay tuned for info on our new home: a beautiful 1500 square foot space on the waterfront in Greenpoint where we'll have dedicated desks with studio mates and collaborators, space for light fabrication, and film screenings, artist talks, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions. We have just a couple more desks to rent for October 1, if you or someone you know is interested in more info let us know!
Creative Activism Thursdays: Revolutionaries Live!
Fall 2011 Programming Series
Creative activism considers the relationship between representation and action, the material and immaterial. Contemporary activists employ traditional tactics as well as those that take into account our hyper-mediated world of signs and symbols, stories and spectacle.
This Fall, The Yes Lab, Not An Alternative, and the Center for Artistic Activism are teaming up to bring you “Creative Activism Thursdays” a series of lectures and workshops with theorists, activists and artists from around the world.
From the merry militants of Serbia’s Otpor movement to the the anarchic hacktivists of Anonymous, from Spain’s New Kids on the Black Bloc, to the AIDS activists of Act-Up, we’ll unpack cultural tactics and creative strategies from social movements, both current and historic.
• Sept. 22: Ivan Marovic, Otpor.
• Sept. 29: Srdja Popovic and Slobo Djinovic, Otpor.
* Oct 5: (POSTPONED)
• Oct. 13: (POSTPONED)
• Oct. 20: Leónidas Martín Saura from Las Agencias, Yomango, and En Medio.
• Oct. 27: John Jackson, author of Small Acts of Resistance.
* Nov 3: John Stewart and Dan Glass, Aviation Justice, UK Climate Campaign
• Nov. 17: Mark Rudd, formerly of the Weather Underground.
* Dec 1: Gabriella Coleman, about the Lulz in Anonymous.
• Dec. 8: Timothy Patrick McCarthy, The Radical Reader.
Revolutionaries Live! kicks off this Thursday with the great Ivan Marovic, one of the founders of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic.
In October 2000, a group of students from Belgrade University with a yearning to live a democratic life helped to overthrow the rule of Europe’s most bloody dictator, Slobodan Milosevic. Their influences were Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the work of the American academic and guru of non-violent resistance, Gene Sharp. They employed simple but effective tactics: using mobile phones, slogans and Monty Python-style street humor. But their secret was their methodology: unity, planning and non-violent discipline. Using this trio of tactics, they managed to pull together a politically divided Serbia.
After Milosevic’s fall, Marovic began consulting with various pro democracy groups worldwide and became one of the leading trainers in the field of civil resistance. Ivan will speak about the role of humor and creative activism in the struggles he has helped to guide.
Space is limited, RSVP required. After the Ivan's talk at NYU, we'll take the N/R train a few stops down to Liberty Plaza and Occupy Wall Street. There, around 8:30 or 9pm, Ivan will continue his talk for our very own here-and-now revolutionaries. So if you can't get into the talk, you can see it in context around 8:30 or 9pm Thursday!
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
All events are at 7pm at Performance Studies, 6th Floor, 721 Broadway, NY unless otherwise noted.
Dates scheduled so far for fall 2011:
Sept. 22: Ivan Marovic, Otpor. After Ivan's talk, we'll all take the N/R train a few stops to #occupywallstreet! Ivan is one of the founders of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. After Milosevic’s fall, Marovic began consulting with various pro democracy groups worldwide and became one of the leading trainers in the field of civil resistance. Ivan will speak about the role of humor and creative activism in the struggles he’s helped to guide. Introduction by Bryan Farrell of WagingNonViolence.org.
Sept. 29: Srdja Popovic and Slobo Djinovic, Otpor. Srdja is founding member of Otpor, the student resistance movement that played a critical role in the downfall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000. In late 2003 he co-founded the Center for Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS), a group that supports nonviolent democratic movements through the transfer of knowledge on strategies and tactics of nonviolent struggle. Slobo is an innovator in democracy and technology, founding Serbia’s first wireless internet company and a founder of Otpor. He has since become a leader exponent of sharing strategic non-violence training for democracy movements and peaceful opposition groups in the world’s remaining dictatorships. Introduction by Eric Stoner of WagingNonViolence.org.
Oct. 5: John Stewart and Dan Glass, UK Climate Campaign. John Stewart was a key organizer in the successful decade-long campaign to stop the expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport. He was named Britain’s most effective green activist by the Independent for bringing together aviation-impacted communities, climate activists, and fiscal conservatives. His publications include Roads for People: Policies for Liveable Streets and Victory Against All The Odds: The Story of the Campaign to Stop a Third Runway at Heathrow. Dan Glass was named one of the UK’s youth climate leaders by the Guardian and one of Attitude magazine’s 66 new role models for helping bridge LGBTQ and environmental justice movements. The grandson of four Holocaust survivors, he’s best known for having superglued himself to the Prime Minister to draw attention to communities impacted by aviation climate change. Dan revels in creating militant but cheeky ways to be a thorn in the side for those destroying the planet — occupying airports, dancing with old ladies blighted by flightpaths, and working with aviation justice direct action network Plane Stupid. Introduction by Not An Alternative.
Oct. 13: Gabriella Coleman, about the Lulz in Anonymous. Biella is a professor in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication and a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study. Her book, Coding Freedom: The Aesthetics and the Ethics of Hacking, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press and she is currently working on a new book on Anonymous and digital activism. Biella will speak about the revolutionary humor the hacker group Anonymous uses as one of its key tactics.
Oct. 20: Leonidas Martin is a Professor at Barcelona University where he teaches New Media and Political Art. For many years he has been developing collective projects between art and activism, some of them well known internationally (Las Agencias, Yomango, Prêt a Révolter). He writes about art and politics for blogs, journals and newspapers, has created several documentaries and movies for television and internet, and is a member of the cultural collective “Enmedio” (www.enmedio.info). Last but not least, he is an expert telling jokes, often using this divine gift to get free beers and avoid police arrest. Leo will tell stories about the current upheaval in Spain, among other things. Introduction by Not An Alternative.
Oct. 27, 7:30pm, Rm 105, 34 Stuyvesant Street: John Jackson, author of Small Acts of Resistance. John is co-author of Small Acts of Resistance, a collection of stories showing how humor, tenacity, and ingenuity can change the world. Currently Vice President for Social Responsibility at MTV Networks International, John was a founder and Director of Burma Campaign UK, and has been involved in major international campaigns on fair trade, landmines, child labor, and climate change.
Nov. 17, 7:30pm, Rm 105, 34 Stuyvesant Street: Mark Rudd, formerly of the Weather Underground. Mark led the legendary 1968 occupation of five buildings at Columbia University, a dramatic act of protest against the university's support for the Vietnam War. As charismatic chairman of the Columbia chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, the largest radical student organization in the United States, Rudd became a national symbol of student revolt, and went on to co-found the Weathermen faction of SDS, which helped organize the notorious Days of Rage in Chicago in 1969 before going underground. Mark will speak about the intended and unintended humor of ‘60s activism. Introduction by Jeremy Varon.
Dec. 8: Timothy Patrick McCarthy, The Radical Reader. Tim is Lecturer on History and Literature and on Public Policy at Harvard University and Director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he hosts the monthly public conversation series, “The Activist’s Studio,” convenes an annual spring conference on “Gay Rights as Human Rights,” and co-chairs the Regional Working Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. He will speak about the ways that humor is crucial to cultural transformation, and specifically the role of humor in the LGBT movement.
Revolutionaries Live! (aka Creative Activism Thursdays) is co-sponsored by NYU Dean for Social Science, the Hemispheric Institute, the Yes Lab, the Humanities Initiative at NYU Working Research Group on Artistic Activism, CAA, and Not an Alternative. Speakers will also attend following Yes Lab Friday.
We know more and more about digital activism with each new example of online "people power", yet we understand very little about the fundamentals. We have been asking the same questions about digital activism's effect on political power around the world, yet we remained locked in the same debates between optimists and pessimists, each armed with their own anecdotes. How can activists, practitioners, and citizens move the discourse of digital activism forward?
