A Call to Action.
I used to try to separate my “artist” persona from my personal life, the same way I used to not realize that the personal is political. But now I realize I am my best self (as a person/artist/activist/etc) only when I am fully me — that is, I am a stronger artist when I incorporate my personal life and my activism into my art, and I am a stronger activist when I incorporate my art and my personal life into my activism.
I’ve been heavily involved with the Occupy movement since early October when I first visited Dewey Square in Boston because Amanda Palmer was playing at the encampment. Nothing has been the same for me since then; you might say I’ve been “occupied” with direct action, engaging my communities locally and globally, and helping facilitate the Occupy Boston Women’s Caucus, which has been an amazing experience and brought my life even more purpose than I already felt I had.
I hope to share more about my Occupy experiences/insights as time goes on (though, if you’ve followed me on this blog for long, you know I can be incredibly inconsistent with posting!) but for now I am issuing this call to action: if you are in the Boston area, please come to the Occupy Boston Women’s March this Sunday at noon. (Here’s the Facebook event!)
We have some really cool entertainment planned during the march, as well as some amazing spoken word and music afterwards in Dewey Square (Letta Neely, Spectra Speaks, Idalia, Zilla McCue and Gemma Cooper-Novack). We are expecting over 1,000 people and hoping for it to be an inspiring and eye-opening day of advocacy, awareness, and support for disenfranchised communities and under-served voices.
This is your chance to help make change in the world. This is your chance to be a part of a movement that has the potential to change our nation’s rapid downward spiral. This is your chance to stand up for what’s right — whether you identify as a woman or just someone who believes that everyone should be treated equally.
Invite all your friends and join us at the Occupy Boston Women’s March on Sunday!
xo Allison
PS — The video below is from my first day at Occupy Boston. “The Ukulele Anthem” sums up my views on music (and saving the world!) amazingly…
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Tags: activism, amanda palmer, dewey square, direct action, equality, march, obwomen, occupy, occupy boston, occupy wall street, women's caucus
I’ve also been occupied by occupy
if you’re interested, I wrote a blog post on the movement, this is my take on it : http://gsilentvoices.wordpress.com/2011/11/24/the-occupy-movement-what-is-it-and-why-should-you-care/
You might like this direct action protest I took on my own. I called my credit card’s customer service line to do some “negotiating.” Having a bit of leverage, I thought it presented a great opportunity to mess with them a little and make a few points about the unfairness of the credit card lending system. I made a video of the call and posted it on my blog and Youtube. It is quite funny even if you are pro-megabank. Since it’s a protest at home, I called it my kitchen counterstrike against Bank of America. Pay attention to his response to the classic line “Why does Bank of America hate Christmas?” http://www.ragingwisdom.com/?p=508
I put in too much time wrestling with my video editing software, so I at least want the video to add a few chuckles to peoples’ lives, if not raising awareness about the absurdity of the credit card lending system. Feel free to ‘tweet’ or share it with your members; they deserve a few laughs at the expense of Bank of America.