Baltimore Artivists

ATTENTION ALL ARTIST, ACTIVIST, TRUTH SEEKERS, INJUSTICE SUFFERERS AND SUPPORTERS ! WE ARE INVITING YOU TO GATHER FOR A DAY OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND DEMONSTRATION SUNDAY MARCH 3RD. 

STARTING @ JUBILEE ARTS( 1947 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE) 
AND ENDING @ SPIN CYCLE LAUNDROMAT (2020 MARYLAND AVE) 

WE WILL MARCH IN SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THOSE EXPERIENCING INJUSTICE, AND EXPRESS IT BY ANY MEDIUM NECESSARY.

JOIN UP FOR CREATION, LIVE PERFORMANCES, AND UNIFYING ACTIONS ALL IN THE NAME OF ARTIVISM. 

UNTIL THEN,
LOVE, TRUTH AND ART.
_______________________________________________
SCHEDULE

1PM:MEET AT JUBILEE ARTS AND ENGAGE IN COMMUNITY CREATION

2PM-BEGIN PROCESSION
3:45 -END PROCESSION
4PM- LOVE ON THE LINE@ SPIN CYCLE LAUNDROMAT ( 2020 Maryland Ave)
https://www.facebook.com/events/374653809409879/
4:30PM - OPEN SHARE EXPERIENCE @ YNOT LOT
( 4 W NORTH AVE.)
5:30 - ALL AGE DANCE PARTY W/DJ K-META @ The Windup Space (12 West North Avenue)

"So cry new tears. Write new words. Craft new prayers. Attend new marches. Channel new anger. Feel it all again. Every bit of it. All the empathy, all the sorrow, all the rage. Don’t fight it. Let it permeate you. Embrace its engulf. Because Freddie Gray deserves it. Baltimore deserves it. You deserve it. Do not allow them to desensitize you to the uniqueness and preciousness of our lives, to the beauty of being alive, and do not permit them to rob you of the agony of them being snatched away. 

And when it happens again — and it will happen again — when another police-involved killing of an unarmed person of color turns a city upside down, do it all again."

-Damon Young

REBLOGGED FROM

http://verysmartbrothas.com/baltimore-is-not-ferguson-freddie-gray-is-not-michael-brown/

BALTIMORE IS NOT FERGUSON; FREDDIE GRAY IS NOT MICHAEL BROWN

by Damon Young, 4/28/15

It is not difficult to witness what’s happening in Baltimore, Maryland right now and immediately think of Ferguson, Missouri. Or New York City. Or Cleveland, Ohio. Or Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Or perhaps even Los Angeles in 1992. The parallels are obvious; heartbreakingly, evisceratingly, surreally obvious. So obvious are these similarities that it does not take much effort to congeal each of these circumstances. Because much of what is happening in Baltimore right now just happened in Milwaukee. And much of what happened in Milwaukee just happened in Ferguson.

So instead of devising new solutions, crafting new prayers, feeling new sorrows, tempering new rage, and cultivating new ways to process this all and do something other than stare at your TV screen in shock, just repeating what you’ve already done — word for word; feeling for feeling — feels natural. Practical, even. It would be prudent to just write the exact same piece you did eight months ago, with “Baltimore” in place of “Staten Island.” Wise to give the same speech you did two years ago, but with “Maryland” substituted for “Florida.” Reasonable to cry the exact same tears you did for Rekia Boyd’s family, but Freddie Gray’s instead.

And it would be the worst thing you can do.

Because Freddie Gray wasn’t Eric Garner. And Eric Garner wasn’t Rekia Boyd. And Rekia Boyd wasn’t John Crawford III. And John Crawford III wasn’t Michael Brown. And Michael Brown wasn’t Eric Harris. And Eric Harris wasn’t Walter Scott. And Walter Scott wasn’t Laquan McDonald. And Laquan McDonald wasn’t Lavall Hall. And Lavall Hall wasn’t Jason Harrison. And Jason Harrison wasn’t Brandon Jones. And Brandon Jones wasn’t Ernest Satterwhite. And Ernest Satterwhite wasn’t Anthony Hall. And Anthony Hill wasn’t Tony Robinson. And Tony Robinson wasn’t Tamir Rice. And Tamir Rice wasn’t Tanisha Anderson. And Tanisha Anderson wasn’t James Howard Allen. And James Howard Allen wasn’t Akai Gurley. And Akai Gurley wasn’t Ezell Ford. And Ezell Ford wasn’t Rumain Brisbon. And Rumain Brisbon wasn’t Darrien Hunt. And Darrien Hunt wasn’t VonDerritt Myers Jr. And VonDerritt Myers Jr wasn’t Aiyana Stanley-Jones. And Aiyana Stanley-Jones wasn’t Luis Rodriguez. And Luis Rodriguez wasn’t Ramarley Graham. And Ramarley Graham wasn’t Jonathan Ferrell. And Jonathan Ferrell wasn’t Jack Lamar Roberson. And Jack Lamar Roberson wasn’t Kimani Gray. And Kimani Gray wasn’t Anna Brown. And Anna Brown wasn’t Oscar Grant. And Oscar Grant wasn’t Trayvon Martin.

Each of these people were people. Loving, reckless, optimistic, sincere, manipulative, sensitive, funny, lazy, talented, weak, introverted, ambitious and every other uniquely human quality existing in each of us. They did not exist to become a narrative. Or perhaps a lede to a story. Or maybe even a policy change. They existed to exist. Not to not exist. Not to be written with a dry erase marker and erased with a closed fist when a new name, a new cause, appears. Perhaps we made them into means, but they existed as ends.

Because Darrien Hunt — who was shot four times in the back — had just turned 22. He was into anime cosplay. His mother’s name is Susan. Rekia Boyd, also 22 when shot in the back of the head by Chicago detective Dante Servin, had eight brothers and seven sisters and was known for being “light-hearted.” Ernest Satterwhite, the 68-year-old great-grandfather shot to death after a slow-speed chase as he parked in his own driveway, was a former mechanic. 37-year-old Tanisha Anderson, who battled schizophrenia before dying facedown while an officer’s knee was in her back, graduated from East High School in Cleveland.

These are minor details of these people’s lives. But minor doesn’t mean insignificant. They are part of the collection of characteristics and traits distinguishing us from each other. Our humanity exists in this minutiae. And this is what we — the people currently feeling anything about what’s happening in Baltimore — need to remember. And if remembering doesn’t work, make notes to remind ourselves to remind ourselves. Freddie Gray and Michael Brown may have died under similar circumstances. And the images and videos and stories coming out of Baltimore this week might be similar to those that came out of Ferguson last summer. But Freddie Gray is not Michael Brown. He was a human being who lived and loved and died uniquely, and this uniqueness must extend to how we mourn and remember and write about and pray for and march for him.

So cry new tears. Write new words. Craft new prayers. Attend new marches. Channel new anger. Feel it all again. Every bit of it. All the empathy, all the sorrow, all the rage. Don’t fight it. Let it permeate you. Embrace its engulf. Because Freddie Gray deserves it. Baltimore deserves it. You deserve it. Do not allow them to desensitize you to the uniqueness and preciousness of our lives, to the beauty of being alive, and do not permit them to rob you of the agony of them being snatched away. 

And when it happens again — and it will happen again — when another police-involved killing of an unarmed person of color turns a city upside down, do it all again. 

Black Lives Matter Protesters Stock Forever 21 With 'Never 21' T-Shirts

REBLOGGED FROM:  http://gothamist.com/2015/04/27/black_lives_matter_forever_21.php

(Never 21)

Posing as employees at Forever 21 Union Square, a group of Black Lives Matter protestorsmanaged to clothe the front-window mannequins in "Black Lives Matter/Never 21" T-shirts on Saturday afternoon. Protesters also dropped a banner with the same message across the store's second floor windows, and stocked several clothing racks with "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts.

The action was carried out by a group of anonymous protesters who go by the name The Never 21 Project. According to a statement issued by the group, their goal was to draw attention to the number of "young black lives that have been lost to police violence before ever reaching 21-years-old, who were never afforded a true childhood... by the police." 

The Never 21 Project's website, which mimics Forever 21's white font and black and yellow color scheme, features mini-biographies of kids and teenagers who have lost their lives at the hands of the police, with emphasis on their ages: Aiyana Jones (7), Michael Brown (18), Tamir Rice (12), and Trayvon Martin (17). A statement on the homepage reads: 

Countless underaged lives have been lost at the hands of 'vigilantes' and disgruntled police officers. These youth were never given the chance to see age 21, or any age there after, so we respond by reminding the public of the battle that we are still actively fighting. We care about the lives of Black men. We care about the lives of Black women. We care about the lives of Black CHILDREN.

This morning, an anonymous Never 21 organizer recounted how the action unfolded inside the store. "It was kind of the opposite of shoplifting," he explained. "We called it shop gifting, because we were putting shirts into the store rather than taking them out." First a banner team, including a videographer and a legal observer, walked up to the second floor to hang the banner. The mannequin team entered as the banner team was on its way out, followed by three more protesters tasked with adding T-shirts to the clothing racks. 

Another protestor added, "We planned for a long time, and practiced beforehand on mannequins. We had the shirts sized large so that they would be easy to slip on." She explained that the group didn't run into any problems, because the store was so crowded. "No one paid attention to us," she said. "The door alarm kept going off for people who were trying to make returns." The biggest snag of the afternoon involved the front window mannequins, which stood on elevated platforms that were tricky to climb. 

After 20 minutes, store management recognized what had happened and removed the t-shirts. But not before passersby noticed what was going on. 

(Never 21)

Never 21 stresses that their action was not an attack on Forever 21. Rather, they see this as an opportunity for a huge company to stand behind Black Lives Matter. However, one participant acknowledged a bit of negative feedback. "Someone online wondered where the proceeds were going," she explained. "They thought Forever 21 had made the shirts themselves, and were selling them for profit." However, "Once people realized that it was a culture jam, they were more positive than I expected." 

Here's a video of the action, shot and edited by Never 21. 

The Forever 21 Project: Never 21 from Never21 on Vimeo.

No arrests were reported in connection with the protest. Forever 21 said in a statement this afternoon, "Forever 21 is not associated with the Never 21 Project and had no prior knowledge of their public demonstration."

FIST Youth Group

In the many images coming from Baltimore-in regards to the protests over the death of Freddie Gray- I noticed the FIST Youth Group Banner

According to their website-- http://fightimperialism.org--these pamphlets were handing out at the protest.  

The Death of Freddie Gray

Twitter Images from April 26th 2015

Thousands protest over US custody death of Freddie Gray

REBLOGGED FROM http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/04/thousands-protest-custody-death-freddie-gray-150425210831857.html

Several thousand protesters converged in the US city of Baltimore on Saturday to protest over the death of 25-year-old black man Freddie Gray while in police custody.

Gray died on Sunday after sustaining multiple injuries which included three fractures in his neck vertebrae, a smashed voicebox and the severing of 80 percent of his spine from his neck.

Gray had been in police custody for a week, having been arrested in a high-crime neighbourhood after he made eye contact with police and fled. After he was caught he was found to be carrying a knife.

Melissa Ealey, Gray's cousin, told Al Jazeera that no crime perpetrated could warrant such abuse.

"There is no reason the police had to conduct themselves in a manner to where … it cost him his life," Ealey said. "I can understand breaking the law is wrong but the way they apprehended him and the things they did were completely against protocol and just inhumane as a whole."

'National epidemic' of violence

Signs in hand, with slogans such as "Jail Killer Police" and "Unite Here," demonstrators from different racial backgrounds flooded two city blocks and marched to city hall, where the crowd overtook a plaza.

March organiser and lawyer Malik Shabazz described violence against blacks by American police officers as "a national epidemic against black men".

Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Baltimore, said the marchers had then headed towards Baltimore's Oriole Park Major League Baseball stadium at Camden Yards where Baltimore's Orioles were later set to take on the Boston Red Sox.

Rattansi said the protest outside the stadium ended relatively peacefully, although a few cars appeared to have been vandalised, as police warned protesters that they would face arrest if they didn't disperse.

"There was not very much in the way of heated scenes, about 20 minutes for the whole day but what we did see today was a few thousand people gather in city hall demanding answers over questions including why he was even arrested in the first place," Rattansi said. 

The police had earlier kept a safe distance, as the protesters called for sweeping national policy changes on how cases of police brutality should be dealt with.

Their demands included the establishment of an independent civilian review board in every city to review the cases, immediate suspension without pay for police officers accused of violence and protection for whistleblowers so they could freely speak about police brutality without retaliation.

"Speaker after speaker keep saying here, when a genocide is happening against you, why would you ask the people committing it what is going on," our reporter said.

Stafford Sutton, an activist who attended the march, said changes to federal policies were required to defuse anger after a spate of recent cases of police brutality. 

"I've seen a lot of individuals who have been done wrong. A federal mandate needs to be brought down. We have to go through the process, we have to follow it through and go to Washington," Sutton said. 

Demonstrators have flooded the streets of Baltimore almost every day since Gray's death, although Saturday's rally was the largest.

Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said roughly 1,200 officers were deployed downtown and across the city to try and keep the peace. At least five police officers were injured and 12 people were arrested. Batts said he believes the "very violent agitators" are not from Baltimore.

Gray's death has been compared to those of other unarmed black men who died at the hands of police in New York City and Ferguson, Missouri, and has intensified a national debate over police treatment of African Americans.

The US Department of Justice is conducting a separate probe into Gray's death. The result of an official police investigation into his fate will also be released on Friday. A wake for Gray is scheduled for Sunday, with his funeral to be held on Monday.