Actipedia | A Wiki for Creative Activism

Kids Helping Kids

Practitioner:
Hip Hop Saves Lives, Negusworld

Kids Helping Kids is a youth hip-hop program run by two NGOs, Hip Hip Saves Lives and Negusworld. Together, these organizations work with middle school and high school students to make conscious hip hop influenced by activist work happening worldwide.…

A Maze in Philadelphia Focuses Attention on the Hidden Cruelty of US Prisons

Practitioner:
Sam Durant

The US prison system is one of the world’s great shames. A quarter of the world’s prisoners are being detained in a country that represents only 5% of the world’s population. It is a system that has been compared to…

The Privilege of Escape

Practitioner:
Creative Time, Risa Puno

For an art project about the effects of white privilege and the disturbing ways in which its effects are built into our society, Risa Puno’s The Privilege of Escape is a surprisingly fun, even enjoyable experience. The first public artwork…

Dismaland

Practitioner:
Banksy

“He describes it as a “family theme park unsuitable for small children” – and with the Grim Reaper whooping it up on the dodgems and Cinderella horribly mangled in a pumpkin carriage crash, it is easy to see why. Banksy’s…

There Will Be Blood

Practitioner:
Emma Arvida Bystrom

“I got my period in the store!” “I got my period on the car seat!” “My mom talked about my period in front of a cute guy!” These headlines from Seventeen Magazine’s “Embarrassing Moments” feature reveal the humiliation many women…

Sit-Down Strike for Rhythm

Practitioner:
Rhythm Ambassadors

At the New Orleans Swing Dance Festival the all African-American dance troupe The Rhythm Ambassadors were presented along side an African-American iteration of the Preservation Hall All-Star band with African-American vocalist Taryn Newborne to deliver the message that the African-American…

“Playboy’s” Top 10 Party Commandments

Practitioner:
Force

Force: Upsetting Rape Culture is a group of creative activists who seek to raise awareness about rape culture and promote consensual sex. They “create art actions to generate attention and get millions of people talking,” in hopes that sex can…

Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed Burlesque

Practitioner:
Written and performed by Gigi Naglak (left) and Meghann Williams (right)

Chlamydia dell’Arte: A Sex-Ed BurlesqueYou’ve never taken a sex-ed class like this one!First performed in the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, followed by a run in Washington, DC in 2010, and in New York in 2012, CHLAMYDIA DELL’ARTE: A SEX-ED BURLESQUE is…

APEC Osama Motorcade

Practitioner:
THe Chaser

A satirical TV comedy show caused a security alert after coming within yards of George Bush’s hotel at a top-level government conference in Australia. The Chaser’s War on Everything, which airs on the ABC network, sent a team to the…

IT IS GUNS

Practitioner:
Jenny Holzer

In response to shootings across the United States, and in sympathy with students’ demands for more gun control, artist Jenny Holzer wrote text that animates issues of the firearms industry and gun violence. Her hyperactive black-and-white writing flashed on mobile…

Chinese Artists Protest Against Japan’s Nuclear Wastewater Release Through Visual Arts

Practitioner:
Chinese Artists

Japan has begun discharging nuclear wastewater into the ocean four times a year, each time lasting 17 consecutive days. Under their 30-year plan, it is estimated that approximately 1.34 million tons of wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant will…

Activists Illustrated – Women at the Heart of Global Struggles

Practitioner:
María María Acha-Kutscher

Latin American Artist María María Acha-Kutscher takes photographs from social and feminist movements and turns them into stunning pop art illustrations. ” Indignadas (Outraged Women) consists of a visual record of participation of women in public protests around the world,…