2004-08-31 - 5:26 p.m.
At the United For Peace and Justice march on Sunday we met up with Keri’s friends from Seattle, Eric and Eric. Eric D. handed us stickers that read “An Army of Dreamers” which I feel pretty much sums up a lot of the resistance to the Republican National Convention being here in New York City. I felt this at Critical Mass on Friday, at the UFPJ march on Sunday (reportedly having 500,000 participants!) and especially on Monday at the Still We Rise March, which was a march planned by a coalition of housing, homeless, HIV/AIDS, poor people and people of color organizations from across the city. The energy was high and felt really good as the march moved up 8th ave towards the “belly of the beast,” Madison Square Garden where the convention is being held.
I like the idea of “An Army of Dreamers” because it puts forth the idea that we dare to dream of a more just world, a world where dreams are taken seriously. But the part about “Army” to be infers that there are a lot of us and we believe this world can exist and we will struggle for it, which means struggling against the plans and visions of the elite, the wealthy and the powerful as they try to mold the world to their agenda. It also takes the idea of "army" away from violence and killing and applies it to something positive- like a struggle to build a world free of violence (I won't go into arguments for/against violence right now but only say think of the systemic violence that exists as well as overt acts of violence).
Of course, I am thinking about the role of art in the Army of Dreamers. Where do we as fierce artists fit in? How does art work to sustain, inspire, educate, provoke? Art’s influence is not always tangible, so a lot of it is based on ideas, and dreams, and yet it can have an effect that is tangible if it inspires others and pushes them a bit too. For example, Lauren and I have received quite a lot of positive response from our rat shirts (Keri, Jonny, Lauren and I wore them on Sunday and joked that we were “Vermin Bloc”) that read “New York Says: GOP Out of NYC!” and “Please Don’t Feed the Republicans.” We also got a lot of nods of our rat themed placards that read “NYC Not RNC” and “New Yorkers vs. US Empire.” Jonny broke with the theme a bit and painted a yellow and black one, complete with beehive and bees that read “The Multitudes Will Swing The State.”
Today is a day of direct action, we’ll see how that all shakes down.
