"Excavating Arts & Activism in Illinois & Wisconsin"

 Sunday, May 13, 2012 (7:00-9:00 p.m.)

Mess Hall
6932 N. Glenwood Ave. 
Chicago, IL  60626 


free and open to the public 
"Vote Walker Out" -- Overpass Light Brigade
You are invited to participate in "Excavating Arts & Activism in Illinois and Wisconsin" at Mess Hall – co-presented by Mess Hall and Borderbend Arts Collective. This discussion focuses on examples and problems from neighboring states in creative activism. There will also be a potluck; you're invited to join us during the potluck, and to bring something to eat or drink if you’d like. 

We'll discuss and compare the use of art strategies for grassroots political messaging and organizing, from within the Wisconsin Uprising to the work around closing prisons and opposing torture, fighting the mayoral austerity agendas, and organizing against the NATO summit in Illinois. We will look at tactics of visibility, of physical witness, of community coherence and of purposeful play. The focus will be on applicable strategies contextualized within artist and activist practice, and how strategies applicable in one state or city context might or might not be transferable to another. We will also explore the role of imagination, creative practice and the arts in building social movements. The participants include Alice Kim, Lane Hall, Yasmin Nair, Dan S. Wang and Dan Godston.