Slog

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/10/25/the-art-of-occupying-seattle


thank you Jen Graves and thank you Doug Parry

you will have to excuse me for a minute, i have just used up all available free space Blogger allows and am scrambling to liberate more room

thank you / and please come out Saturday night for a march and tent raising / haunted tents !

love,

NE!L~xoxox

the occupation changes who you are

i pull over to talk to these three young nuts who have taken it upon themselves to occupy pike street with their art show/ performance peice of broken gear/ improvised tents and electronics laboratory ~
after one of the greatest weekends ever and a wonderful rally and march of over twothousand people and a 500 tent raising celebration followed by enlightenment by General Assembly~
Monday morning's 4:15 cry for help via text message came as quite the blow

when a military trained tactical squad of police on bikes with barricades descended upon women and children sleeping in tents
proceeded to destroy tents with boots/ knives and batons, arresting ten~ provoking all with insults/ fear and shock
why does a civilian population of peaceful protesters need to be raided and assaulted by stormtroopers
i receive word that while this is all transpiring ~ these very same men and women speaking up for us~ while they are losing / having all their gear destroyed and confiscated / while the police are fucking everything up/ these same people are saving the giant hand signs of protest /
so the parks and police officers don't just dump the art into the waiting garbage trucks
and i almost cry ~ over the absolute sheer goodness of these volunteers ~ who sleep in the rain~
who are awoken every hour by flashing lights and kicks in the feet~ and buffalo eyed all day by men with guns and sunglasses who work for the 1% plutocracy
while i take my children to run in the fields and corn maze of country roads memories
where i can pretend ~ everything is alright again~
and we can shoot pumpkins out of cannons across a grey skies explosion
this is my favorite kind of art
but to be honest with you ~everything seems cheap and superficial now/ that i want to be on the streets with strangers in the rain under the umbrella of people's mic and assembly
pumpkin cannon !!!
while my boys eat ice-cream for breakfast in the rainy cold autumn
and inhabit a future world / i will never see
at the suburban malls i see these high-school kids and their mom's out on the streets and i run to them and tell them how happy i am to see them out on street corners waving and holding signs~
while this building should house the office of external Arts of Occupy Seattle /like a fresh canvas ~ i just want to paint all these big creamy square shapes

the crazy
these water bowls looked like somebody or a group of somebodies had been using them as latrines/ before this couple of quiet hard working people came up the streets scooped out the yuck and then clean/ polished and filled with clean water and flowers~ these are good / brilliant urgent people who get things done/ and i love them

and i really want you to be one of them~ get out on the streets with us ~ NE!L~

i ate the rich~ they taste like chicken

Modified for the better / scream it ~ ROCKUPY ROCKUPY ROCKUPY
last night i built 17 signs for today's proteest, march and tent raising
i had to call Deav and have her come over and look at these beauties
i wish my drive-way always looked this good
and that this was my job / to put things on sticks for you to carry down streets
make love~ not banks
raise a chicken army the sign


Saturday's March and sit-ins and the tent raising followed by a heartbreaking General Assembly
moved us all so much i could barely drag myself up the hills to home
i can't explain how important all of this feels~ how incredibly dedicated and brilliant these people are
i feel like my hearts going to explode
to hear the power of one voice begging for this occupation to have some larger meaning to survive and build a newness unimagined
filled with art and people and some transcendence
debit / credit cards were passed to the front and burned and then sliced up
money was burned, streets were marched on, and sat on, speeches were made
did i say money was burned and people were pissed, it's like burning a flag i heard someone say
oooh. . . . look there's some protesters in the trees
hundreds of children
casually holding signs and texting
dear diary. . . shouldn't Westlake Mall have bathrooms on the 1st floor ~ shouldn't all buildings have public restrooms on the street level
a bored police force
and Art has arrived and people with tents
yesterday we owned the streets . . . today . . . we wait for the police to strike

@ 3 am they will come for you

but not NE!L~ i sleep in a home and work from here

who will be the first martyr ?

it could be anyone of us~ it could be you~but i hope not
my direct action squad builds signs deep into the night~
thank you P, K, T, M~ and my get away driver Deav~
people like black~
and man they nearly ripped me apart to get to these mini-shy-protester signs
we made sixty-five or these and they vanished into the crowd/ within minutes
onto bike
and into the hands of the 99%
these two guys rocked
black is for the redacted
then the police showed up and moved stuff around and rode bikes and horses
enjoyed the sun and helping the homeless move into other places
i love these people
and their beautiful big white teeth
and staring at the backs of their heads all day as people on stage . . . scream
this revolutionary was concerned that the red fist represented Communism, but i assured her that / no / in fact it stood for the bloody revolution to come
and. . .now with tattoos


but not NE!L
i will be out in the streets placing art in your hair~ leaving letters of love to your car~ and putting things on sticks