A few thoughts on Fremont Solstice, We the People and Occupy Living Rooms

Recently, I have been neglecting this blog. Too many activities, notenough time to think about them. So here are  a few

events that I have attended or participated in so far this summer.

We the People Festival followed the famous Fremont Solstice Parade, an outstanding Seattle tradition of crazy creativity and supposedly no politics and everything made by hand. No mechanized vehicles either.

It was a stark contrast to the “Pride” Parade the following weekend, in downtown Seattle. All the groups that I saw were sponsored by corporations and even wearing matching tee shirts with messages.

(the most shocking was Wells Fargo, one of the kings of foreclosures,  with marchers wearing tee shirts that read “no place like home.” )

So just being creative as an independent free spirited person is a political act in our current world of corporate control. The act of making wonderful costumes that suggest imagination and humor is already subversive!

In addition politics can imbue a piece without any obvious reference to political issues.

For example, the giant dragon made out of 10,000 plastic bottles was a potent statement in itself.

We the People Festival was not afraid of being political, but we made games about political issues. Apparently the main organizers had met at the Occupy movement in Seattle. So this ongoing creative expression was an outgrowth of that. The event was really extensive, lots of displays and games.There was a “New Economy Game” just next to Gas Works that was a giant board game with all sorts of ideas for local changes that can make a difference.

Rebalancing the Budget Beanbag Toss

I made a bean bag toss about rebalancing the budget away from military spending. People said the military budget holes were way too small, those are the oblong shapes (the red line above the toss is part of the very long red line that represented the US military budget in a piece by Fred another participant.  But people really enjoyed tossing bean bags into new priorities like funding for green transportation, schools, healthcare and creativity. A simple act, we originally planned it to be more complicated, gave people a real sense of satisfaction, and who knows maybe they went home and thought about the issues a little more. I am wearing my “unarmed civilian” hoodie from “We will Not be Silent” a potent  NYC based group of artist activists who constantly infiltrate the street with their pointed signs.

The idea of a bean bag toss was a result of synergy. I started out with a monopoly game idea and it evolved with lots of other people throwing in ideas, into a bean bag toss.

During the planning meetings we made a lot of the games with recycled materials. One of the organizers has a travelling art supply in her car, and she finds materials in all sorts of unexpected ways. Another person works at an event planning business and gets lots of vinyl after the event is over. Hundreds of recycled bottle caps were used in another game. All in all it was a ton of fun and a new way for me to act on my desire to bring together art and politics.

I also had an event in my living room, Occupy Living Rooms:  “Something I Can Do: Voices From Occupy Seattle.” Three actors Meg Savlov, Rich Hawkins, and Christine Nyland performed for an audience of about ten people.  The prolific and intense theater artist Ed Mast was director and co writer with Christine Nyland.  The performance was literally in the middle of my small living room, with the audience sitting on our sofas and chairs, the script lying on the floor in the center of the room. We heard the voices of many different members of Occupy mark  the various stages of Occupy  from the first idealistic days to the last days of sleeping outside in the rain ( in Seattle’s version) . Of course the movement has now morphed into various separate directions, GMO, foreclosures, student debt.

But there is also an insidious attack on the organizers, accusations and police raids. This is frightening.