Rights, Demands, and Radical Reimaginings: Art and Labor in the US

Alexis Clements is running a class on Art and Labor. When: Tuesday evenings, from 7.00-8.30pm Aug 27 – Sep 24, 2013 (5 sessions) Where: Brooklyn, NY (see class reg for full details) Description: In the past century, artists working across disciplines have undertaken a variety of efforts to not only get paid a decent wage …

CAA’s Larry Bogad TEDx talk – Tactical Performance: Thinking Theatrically for Powerful Protest

Larry Bogad is an author, artist, and professor of political performance at U.C. Davis. In this talk he discusses why good theater makes good protest, and why being right is not enough. He is a cofounder of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, and founding Director of the Center for Artistic Activism/West Coast. Bogad has …

I and We: Collective Movement for Beginners, Workshop presented by Robby Herbst

From some friends of the Center for Artistic Activism: What is Collective Identity? Sociologist Alberto Melucci suggests that in today’s alienated culture people find deep meaning and power through group identities that emerge through political social movements.With I and We, Collective Movement Workshop For Beginners individuals will explore their anxieties and their pleasures in becoming …

Wealth Inequality in America – YouTube

Very encouraging that this video has 6.5 million views. Since our idea is so far from reality, how does this change the way we talk about this issue? How do we approach the topic so the people we’re talking to don’t dig in and defend what they believe to be true? And how does the …

Will changing your Facebook profile picture do anything for marriage equality? | PsySociety, Scientific American Blog Network

As SCOTUS debates the constitutionality of Proposition 8 and DOMA this week, Facebook users all over the nation have become part of a burgeoning social media trend. Supporters of marriage equality have been changing their profile pictures to the icon on the left, a version of the Human Rights Campaign logo designed specifically to indicate …

Nonprofit Fights Poverty With Poverty | The Onion

This is from 2006 but somehow stayed relevant. Our crack team of anti-poverty activists is totally devoted to marshalling every resource at our disposal,” Lindstrom said as she stood under a flickering light bulb in the office’s bathroom and added some water to an old toner cartridge to squeeze every last drop of usable ink …

Brazil to give $25 monthly culture stipend to workers to go to movies, read books or visit museums

BRASILIA (AFP).- Despite the economic crisis, Brazil announced Thursday it planned to give workers here a 50-real ($25) monthly stipend for cultural expenses like movies, books or museums. “In all developed countries, culture plays a key role in the economy,” Culture Minister Marta Suplicy said in an interview on national television. She recalled that popular …

‘Be Wrong as Fast as You Can’ – NYTimes.com

I recently saw a Charlie Rose interview with John Lasseter, a founder of Pixar, about the creative process behind his movies. Pixar’s in-house theory is: Be wrong as fast as you can. Mistakes are an inevitable part of the creative process, so get right down to it and start making them. Even great ideas are …

The Power of Failure – NYTimes.com

“The ironic thing,” said Schmitz of Public Allies, “is that you have donors who took major risks in their own fortunes, but are very risk averse when giving to charity. People rightly want their dollars to have the maximum impact, but don’t apply the same logic model that they give to their private sector investment.” …

“It Was a Good Day” Ice Cube and Politics

“It Was a Good Day” is rapper Ice Cube’s biggest hit — a solid rap song with a great beat, it’s easy to see why this record was so successful. What makes this song truly great, however, isn’t Ice Cube’s vivid description of his good day, but looming, omnipresent possibility of a much worse day. …

Behavioral Science in Campaigns

This story in the New York Times talks about how behavioral science was used in the Obama campaign. Much of these ideas are echoed in the School for Creative Activism. An excerpt: Another technique some volunteers said they used was to inform supporters that others in their neighborhood were planning to vote. Again, recent research …