The fine folks from Making Contact (a program at the National Radio Project) present Marching for Change: Street Bands in the US, a new documentary about the musical funsters who make protests danceable.
Social justice marching bands have emerged in recent decades as essential contributors to North American protest movements filling streets of unrest with their fun beats and good vibes.
This new documentary includes appearances by such luminaries as the Hungry March Band, Rude Mechanical Orchestra, Infernal Noise Brigade, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra.
VIVO in Vancouver presents the 11th annual Signal + Noise Media Art Festival. From the press release:
The 11th annual Signal + Noise Media Art Festival presents a collision of revolutionary Armenian Kino Cinema, remixes of ex-Yugoslav and CBC Television Broadcast ID Music, travelogues from an arctic sea voyage, and science fictional rediscovery of diminishing islands.
The world of sound art encompasses a diversity of textures. At this weekend’s Radio Without Boundaries conference in Toronto, the workshops and performances range from the beautifully abstract to more traditional uses of voice and narrative. Big Shed Square Dance is all about stories.
The ‘square dance’ workshop was put on by Big Shed, the folks responsible for The Place and Memory Project which uses people’s memories and stories to recreate places that no longer exist. The fun thing is that story-gathering takes place on the telephone. Big Shed has a memory hot-line waiting to take your call.
The W2 Media Cafe (Vancouver) is hosting a day of remembering for the ill-fated Komagata Maru, a ship carrying 376 refugees from British India that arrived in Vancouver on May 23, 1914. After two months, the Komagata Maru was sent back to India where many of the survivors were arrested, beaten and 20 were shot to death by the British.
The day of remembering will include panel discussions by filmmaker Ali Kazami, artist Rita Wong, lawyer Catalin Mitelut, and activist Kat Norris. The infamous history has clear echoes today with current treatment of refugees who encounter border policies based on race, wealth and political affiliation.
There will also be a 60-minute Komagata Maru Memorial Walk hosted by artist T’Uy’Tanat Cease Wyss (Skwxumesh) to the Coal Harbour to visit the site of the Komagata Maru memorial plaque.
The Komagata Maru memorial day program will conclude with the screening of Continuous Journey, the amazing and moving documentary film by Ali Kazami, with introduction by the filmmaker.
For more info: Komagata Maru Panel Discussions and Walk
A Montreal artist collective is taking their public art to the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Billed as “The Pigeon’s Club”, an art festival for the homeless, the event will offer two days of revelry and amenities for Vancouver’s down and out, homeless and street involved.
The festival which runs May 20-21, is being organized by ATSA, the internationally acclaimed Montreal duo of Pierre Allard and Annie Roy who have held a similar although much bigger event in Montreal for almost a decade called Etat d’Urgence.
The idea is to offer an “all inclusive” vacation package to those who are traditionally excluded from such luxuries – food, health services, clothing give-aways, hair-cuts, live music and performances.
Last Wednesday, April 20, the activist group known as Liberate Tate staged another protest performance at Tate Britain. Set on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 workers and spilled 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf o Mexico over 87 days last year, the group poured an oil-like substance over a naked member of the group who laid motionless in a fetal position in the Single Form exhibition.
Single Form, an exhibition dedicated to the human body, is one of a series of BP funded art displays staged throughout Tate Britain. The performance art comes in tandem with a letter printed in the Guardian and signed by 166 artists. The letter urges the Tate “to demonstrate its commitment to a sustainable future by ending its sponsorship relationship with BP.”
To celebrate National Poetry Month, Art Threat TV presents a profile of Kaie Kellough, one of Montreal’s finest literary performers. Kaie’s range and dynamism as a performer and poet have garnered him attention and admirers across the country and internationally.
A few weeks before artist Ai Weiwei disappeared into police custody in Beijing (see link below), he was scheduled to present at a TED Talks Conference. He couldn’t make it, but he had a video statement delivered to TED Talks where it was presented with a slide show of some of his art work. In the presentation, he talked about his treatment by the Chinese government, the power of art to make social change and his need to speak out against injustice. Here it is.
Despite a growing number of countries including the US, Britain and Germany calling for Weiwei’s release, there is still no word on Weiwei’s whereabouts or well-being.
Israeli Arab director and pro-Palestinian activist Julian Mer-Khamis was shot dead by masked gunmen on Monday, April 4 in front of the Freedom Theater he founded in Jenin Refugee Camp in 2006. Even though Mer-Khamis co-founded the theater with Zakariya Zubeidi, a former military leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades in that West Bank city, the institution has been the target of violent threats by militants and the building was set on fire twice in the past years.
Members of the high-profile artist group VOINA were attacked and arrested by police along with close to 100 other participants at Strategy-31 protests in Moscow on Thursday. Article 31 of the Russian Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of assembly, but in practice – as Friday’s violent actions attest – Russian police often respond harshly towards critics of the Russian government. Friday’s event is being described as one of the largest ever Strategy-31 protests, suggesting that the movement is gathering momentum.
Oleg Vorotnikov, Leonid Nikolaev and Natalia Sokol with her son Kasper (members of VOINA) were arrested and, according to their spokesperson, denied access to legal representation. Oleg was later released. According to their lawyer Dimitri Dinze, Oleg was beaten severely while in custody and says that Leonid and Natalia have also been beaten.
Contributors
Stefan Christoff, Colin Horgan, Julia Pyper
Michelle Siobhan Reid, Valerie Cardinal, Race Capet
Laurence Miall, Terry Fairman, Tyler Morgenstern
The fine folks from Making Contact (a program at the National Radio Project) present Marching for Change: Street Bands in the US, a new documentary about the musical funsters who make protests danceable.
The world of sound art encompasses a diversity of textures. At this weekend’s Radio Without Boundaries conference in Toronto, the workshops and performances range from the beautifully abstract to more traditional uses of voice and narrative. Big Shed Square Dance is all about stories.
