Entropy (noun) 1. a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder 2. chaos, disorganization, randomness There is a scarcity of platforms that make space for Indigenous youth to represent themselves and speak back to the stories … Continue reading “Indigenous Youth, Standing Rock, and the Rise of Anti-Colonial Entropy”
This short essay was commissioned by Dissent Magazine, which after putting me through an arduous editorial exchange rejected it. (Draw your own conclusions). I attach the original essay here, slightly revised and welcome any comments. I hope to expand … Continue reading “A Note on Race and the Left”
Social Text Web Editor Ashley Dawson discusses his research and activism as part of the Just Publics @365 podcast series.
Overmedicalization, as every feminist, queer, and disability scholar knows, is a cornerstone of oppression. Yet traditional critiques of medicalization also have oppressive effects. For one thing, they typically fail to challenge stigma against sick people, preferring instead to simply … Continue reading “Happy Asexual Meets DSM”
Overview The first rule of guerrilla warfare is to know the terrain and use it to your advantage. No longer does this require navigating the mountains of Cuba with a rifle on one’s back, as today’s political topography is … Continue reading “School for Creative Activism – a project of the Center for Artistic Activism”
Mildred’s Lane is a 93-acre, wildish site deep in the woods of rural northeastern Pennsylvania on the border of New York State. It is an ongoing collaborative involvement with my fellow artist and friend, Mark Dion, our son Grey … Continue reading “Mildred’s Lane and The Mildred Complex(ity)”
One of the members of my working group, The People’s Think Tank, recommended me as a good person to speak to young activists last week at the Civil Rights Student Summit in New York organized by Teaching Matters. The folder they gave to the set of people they brought in to speak to the students, most of whom were in eighth grade, said “community activist” on the front. Reading that brought me back to a discussion facilitated by the Think Tank on May Day, where we got to talking about what it meant for us to be activists. When it was my turn to speak, the only words on offer were something like “I really don’t like to think of myself as an activist. I kind of want to think of myself as a normal person.
My student debt for a MFA from Bard College is currently $58,412.10. My attempt is to use the internet to get 100,000 people to mail the Sallie Mae corporation (who administers my loans), a check for 58 cents. And that by doing this, the collective activity of these small gestures will not only relieve my debt, but will overwhelm and flood their P.O. box in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Aaron Burr Society is dedicated to exposing the myths of Free Markets and Free Trade with absurdist, conceptual artwork operating in the public sphere.
Scene: The dark, vaguely panoptic courtyard of Vestre Faengsel, one of the ‘correction facilities’ that has been turned into an aptly named ‘climate prison’ for the duration of the ‘COP15’ United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen. The ‘climate … Continue reading “Minority report from Copenhagen”
Protest and Organization in the Alternative Globalization Era, by Heather Gautney, details the history of the alter-globalization protests over the last decade and the attempts by various groups on the global left to build alternatives to neoliberal development through the mechanism of the World Social Forum.
Those in the London area over the next two months may want to check out this seven-week long series of artist residencies on the theme of art, action and activism at the Stanley Picker Gallery in Kingston.
We are right around the corner from the tenth anniversary of the street protests that erupted on the streets of Seattle. To commemorate this anniversary, there are a slew of talks, screening, and events around the country. In NYC on … Continue reading “10 Year WTO/Seattle Protest Anniversary”
Audio Statement from students protesting tuition hikes at UCLA. And more footage from recent protests.
“They sentenced us to thirty years of boredom, trying to change the system from within” (pace Leonard Cohen) Simple-minded Web 2.0 gurus latched on to the summer of discontent in Iran as the “Twitter revolution”. But such technological determinism belies … Continue reading “Thirty years on: The Iranian summer of discontent”
