Arts & Culture – Page 40 – Actipedia | A Wiki for Creative Activism

The story behind the strange 8th Ave. subway statues and the cartoons that inspired them

Date:
Apr 17 2004

At the Eighth Avenue subway station, sewer alligators are not an urban legend. Anyone who’s been through the 14th St./Eighth Ave. station has probably seen the bronze gator sculpture — and probably wondered what it means and why it’s there.…

NYC Artist Is Using Her Unapologetically Brown Identity to Empower Others

Practitioner:
Johanna Toruno

Date:
Apr 17 2004

You’ll find Johanna Toruno on the streets of NYC plastering pictures of her flower-filtered poetry, Kendrick Lamar, and Selena on blank walls, street lights and buildings. When I came across The Unapologetically Brown Series on Instagram I was intrigued not…

General Idea and the AIDS crises

Practitioner:
General Idea Collective

Date:
Apr 17 2004

The Canadian artist collective General Idea found its drive in the AIDS epidemic, becoming aesthetically and conceptually refined in the in the 1970s and ’80s, after long forays into absurdity and performances evocative of Dada and Fluxus. A retrospective presented…

Oxycontin Protest at the Met

Practitioner:
Nan Goldin and Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN)

Date:
Apr 17 2004

The US artist Nan Goldin has staged her first public protest since she launched her activist group PAIN (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), shaming members of the Sackler family who have profited from the sale of Oxycontin and institutions that have…

How ‘Animal Farm’ Gave Hope to Stalin’s Refugees

Practitioner:
George Orwell

Date:
Apr 17 2004

Reading the introduction to Animal Farm by Christopher Hitchens a few years ago, I was stunned to learn that George Orwell, then a struggling writer in London, worked by letter with a group of refugees to publish the novel in…

“STAND UP FOR SOMETHING” Oscars 2018

Practitioner:
Andra Day & Special Guests, Common

Date:
Apr 17 2004

The American rapper’s performance of ‘Stand Up for Something’ with singer Andra Day has gone down as one of the highlights of this year’s Academy Awards. Common used his Oscars performance to condemn Donald Trump’s “hate” and the National Rifle…

Chinese ‘naked’ wedding celebrations focus on love – not money

Practitioner:
Ten couple from Zhejiang

Date:
Apr 17 2004

Ten couples covered in body paint wearing only their underwear have celebrated their “naked weddings” at Hangzhou Paradise amusement park in Zhejiang province. The couples, some of whom have been married for many years, said they were rejecting modern Chinese…

Fotokonbit (Putting Cameras in Haitian Hands) – ONGOING working organization

Practitioner:
fotokonbit

Date:
Apr 17 2004

The Haitian Creole word “konbit” denotes the idea of similar talents joining together to work towards a common goal. The founders — a group of photographers, educators, and artists — came up with the idea for Fotokonbit a few years…

The Protest Banner Lending Library

Practitioner:
Aram Han Sifuentes

Date:
Apr 17 2004

The Protest Banner Lending Library is a space for people to gain skills to learn to make their own banners, a communal sewing space where we support each other’s voices, and a place where people can check out handmade banners…

Colorful pianos in the summer

Practitioner:
Sing For Hope

Date:
Apr 17 2004

Sing for Hope is bringing its renowned Sing for Hope Pianos back to the streets of New York City this summer. From June 5-25, as a celebration of the work Sing for Hope does in communities year-round, 60 Sing for…