Feminist Global Resistance will be posting a series of articles on techniques and safety tips for activists.
Our next article is, “Cultural Activism”. Some of this article is from the voice of a former Guerilla Theater activist, some from resources created by others and always with the assistance of our friends.
What is Cultural Activism?
Cultural activism is a form of activism that uses art, culture, and creative expression to promote social and political change. We will discuss a variety of forms of cultural activism and the use of our creativity to message the planet.
This article will use videos and pictures to tell most of the story. How better to show “Cutural Activism”?
To all activists, “dancing the streets” or participating in any form of action, activism requires a knowledge of what one may encounter during any action. Be prepared for any event and stay vigilant.
Remember, we are in this together so together we help each other.
Activism can be fun but it is serious business – take care of yourself and each other.
As always: Be prepared for confrontation and keep it safe out there!
Love and Solidarity!
Cultural Activism
Guerilla Theater:
Guerilla Theater is a protest art form that involves “surprise” performances in public spaces to raise awareness on social/political issues. The term, “Guerilla”, draws from the writings of Ernesto “Che” Guevara from which the term was taken. The action or presentation, usually on sociopolitical themes such as war or repression, occurs on the streets or in other nontheater locations and can be a part of a larger protest or a stand alone piece. It’s about being resourceful, strategic and amplifying your message in an unexpected and, more importantly, paradoxical or absurd way.
In the US, “The San Francisco Mime Troupe ” (No actual mimes) is credited with originating the practice in 1959, in San Francisco. The Troupe began performing short political plays in parks and other public places throughout the city and have continued to this day. Notable past members included:
- Saul Landau – American journalist, filmmaker and commentator. He was also a professor emeritus at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he taught history and digital media.
- Nina Serrano, – American poet, writer, storyteller, and independent media producer
- Steve Reich– American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music
- Wally Hedrick – American artist in the 1950s California counterculture, gallerist, and educator who came to prominence in the early 1960s. Hedrick’s contributions to art include pioneering artworks in psychedelic light art, mechanical kinetic sculpture, junk/assemblage sculpture, Pop Art, and (California) Funk Art
- Victoria Hochberg – American film and television director and writer. She was one of the Original Six, a group of women directors who created the Women’s Steering Committee of the Directors Guild of America, to protest against gender discrimination in Hollywood.
- John Broderick – American film director, producer, screenwriter and entertainer. He is mostly known for the sword and sorcery film The Warrior and the Sorceress.
- Peter Coyote– American actor, director, screenwriter, author, narrator of films, theater, television, and audiobooks, and Zen Priest. Coyote was one of the founders of the Diggers, an anarchist improv group and anarcho-socialist community-action organizers active in Haight-Ashbury during the mid-1960s
- Emmett Grogan – Diggers (See Peter Coyote)
- Bill Graham – Rock concert promoter
- Ed Holmes – Founder of Saint Stupid’s Day Parade, held annually, on April 1, in San Francisco
Since those very early days, Guerilla Theater has grown to include flash mobs, carnival-like parades, musical performances, improv skits, plays songs and/or poetry readings.
One of the more powerful examples of Guerilla Theater was on November 25, 2019, in Santiago, Chile, performed by the feminist collective, “La Tesis” performing “Un violador en tu camino”. That performance went viral on the internet, inspiring feminists in major cities around the world to repeat the performance.
Pussy Riot uses Guerilla Theater:
Rebel Clowning:
Wavy Gravy (née, Hugh Nanton Romney Jr), poet, improv theater artist, stand-up comic and psychonaut (Merry Pranksters, Electric KoolAid Acid Test), began dressing as a clown during protests in 1970. He had been on the receiving end of police brutality in protests over the years. He found that, when he dressed as a clown, the police were caught off guard and he could make them laugh in order to cut the tension.
Activist or protest clowning has been around for centuries but it has become a common practice in many larger protests of late.
Troupes of clowns are becoming a more frequent part of protesting – The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) and Juggalos may be well known, but other organizations are beginning to use clowning as an act of protest. One does not have to be a professional or part of a well-known troupe to be a clown activist.
Below:
“Rebel Clown Army fights Army Recruitment (and wins)”, 2008, Glasgow KISS, batallion of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, launch operation AWOL (Armed With Outrageous Laughter)
Protest Visual Art:
Posters, graffiti, handbills, sculptures, billboards, banners, street art and murals, and more – Every artist has a point of view. From individual expressions to organized creations, the use of these art forms is a powerful tool for political or social change. Cave drawings to graffiti, artists are using their creativity and power to express those views.
In the US, art has been used to educate and incite people since before the nation began. Paul Revere engraved his piece depicting the Boston Massacre, which was published in 1770 in the Boston Gazette. Without the distribution of Revere’s engraving, the Boston Massacre may have remained an isolated incident instead of becoming a key event that helped trigger the Revolutionary War.
Every movement has its art and art helps define the movement with a strong and poignant message. The art doesn’t create the change but it may embolden and galvanize enough people across socio-economic backgrounds to mobilize for a cause.
Paintings, ceramics, and sculpture have often been created as a protest, a statement about the geopolitics of the time, or as a statement of political position.
Guernica was Picasso’s statement on the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. It has become an international symbol of the anti-war movement.
The “Battle in Seattle” or 1999 Seattle WTO protests:
Occupy:
BLM:
Protest Music:
Music, like other art forms, has been used for protest throughout history. In the US, the tradition of protest songs pre-dates the Revolutionary War. Often using well known tunes, lyrics were written to fit the cause or movement. The songs were used on the battlefield of the Revolution, in the suffrage movement of the 19th century and through the Labor movement of the early 19oo’s.
In 1774, Doctor Joseph Warren, a fervent advocate of American resistance to perceived British tyranny, wrote “Free Americay” which was set to the tune of the “British Grenadiers;” “Our Country Now From Thee,” a suffragette song, was written to the tune of “My Country tis of Thee;” And, in the 1910’s, “Sabo-Tabby Kitten” (IWW Song) was written to the tune of “Dixie.”
As long as people have been getting fed up with the status quo, the social order or oppression suffered under the control of others, they have been singing about it. Those songs can be haunting in their tone or lyrics expressing the pain and suffering of people….
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
…, or they can be loud and charged with energy – a call for action and a push for social change…
Killing in the name of
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Uh!
Killing in the name of
Killing in the name of
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
But now you do what they told ya!
Well now you do what they told ya
Those who died are justified
For wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites
Those who died are justified
For wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses
Uh!
Killing in the name of
Killing in the name of
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
Now you do what they told ya
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control)
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control)
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control)
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control)
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control)
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control)
And now you do what they told ya
(Now you’re under control!)
And now you do what they told ya
Those who died are justified
For wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites
Those who died are justified
For wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites
You justify those that died
By wearing the badge, they’re the chosen whites
Come on!
Ugh!
Yeah!
Come on!
Ugh!
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me
Motherfucker!
Ugh!
Since musical styles, like human emotions and social issues, are so wide-ranging, protest songs are too.
Some written about events like Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam,” written after the 1963 assassination of Medger Evers, Civil Rights leader, by a 74-year-old white supremacist and long-time Klan member, Byron De La Beckwith, at Medgar’s home in Jacksonville, and the bombing of Alabama’s 16th Street Baptist Church, that same year, that killed 4 adolescent girls and severely injured one other who lost her right eye in the blast…
The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddamn
And I mean every word of itAlabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi GoddamAlabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi GoddamCan’t you see it
Can’t you feel it
It’s all in the air
I can’t stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayerAlabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi GoddamThis is a show tune
But the show hasn’t been written for it, yetHound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day’s gonna be my lastLord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong there
I’ve even stopped believing in prayerDon’t tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I’ve been there so I know
They keep on saying “Go slow”But that’s just the trouble
“Do it slow”
Washing the windows
“Do it slow”
Picking the cotton
“Do it slow”
You’re just plain rotten
“Do it slow”
You’re too damn lazy
“Do it slow”
The thinking’s crazy
“Do it slow”
Where am I going?
What am I doing?
I don’t know
I don’t knowJust try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi GoddamI bet you thought I was kiddin’ didn’t you
Picket lines
School boycotts
They try to say it’s a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister, my brother, my people, and meYes, you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you’d stop calling me Sister SadieOh, but this whole country is full of lies
You’re all gonna die and die like flies
I don’t trust you any more
You keep on saying “Go slow”
“Go slow”But that’s just the trouble
“Do it slow”
Desegregation
“Do it slow”
Mass participation
“Do it slow”
Reunification
“Do it slow”
Do things gradually
“Do it slow”
But bring more tragedy
“Do it slow”
Why don’t you see it?
Why don’t you feel it?
I don’t know
I don’t knowYou don’t have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam, that’s it
Or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s “Ohio” written after Kent State…
Many songs are sung during a protest march or at rallies. They define a movement and a movement defines them.
Other songs of note:
“We Shall Overcome” performed by Joan Baez at the “March on Washington”
Delilah Bon – “Dead Men Don’t Rape”
And so many, many more…
Cultural Activism requires only imagination – Create, Re-create, Express yourself and focus on the message you want to convey.
We are all poets, musicians, clowns, actors, and artists – There are no boundaries; No limits.
Wallpaper walls and sidewalks; Paint the streets; Shout from rooftops; And blast your message so it can echo across the planet. Dance and sing for you are the clarion for change; The troubadour spreading the message; The dancing warrior in the fight…
Mix it up; Use it all. Catch people off guard; Surprise is your element.
Love and solidarity