Full Description
This collection brings together interviews with a compelling range of musicians, artists, and activists from around the globe. What does it mean for an artist to be "political"? Moving away from a narrow idea about politics that is organized around elections, advocacy groups, or concrete manifestos, the subjects of Creative Activism do their work through song, poetry, painting, and other arts. The interviews take us from Oakland to London to Johannesburg and from the Occupy movement to the coal mines of Appalachia to the fantasy worlds created by some of our most fascinating writers of spectacular fiction. Listening to the important "cultural workers" of our time challenges any idea that some other time was the golden age of political art: Creative Activism gives us a front-row seat to the thrilling artistic activism of our own moment.
Contents
Introduction
SECTION 1: Coal
1. "I'll Throw This Apple Atcha": The Meaning of Mining According to Billy Edd Wheeler
2. "Visible, Horrible, Ugly": Toxicity According to John Sabraw
3. "The Baby Needed Milk": Collectivity According to Diane Gilliam Fisher
SECTION 2: War and Peace
4. "It's a Great American Tradition": War and Industry According to John Sayles
5. "Revolution by Tricks and Clowning": Trips According to Maxine Hong Kingston
6. "Part of My Being": Politics and Poetics According to Keorapetse Kgositsile
SECTION 3: Borders
7. "I Sing about Cesar Chavez in Gold Lamé Hot Pants": Revolution and Celebration According to El Vez
8. "I'm Not Some Fucking Gadjo!": Migration According to Eugene Hutz
9. "Gaps We Cross with Technology": Solidarity and Surveillance According to Cory Doctorow
10. "What It's Like to Be Stuck": Interruption According to Julio Salgado
SECTION 4: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
11. "It's Like Walt Whitman Gave Me a Blow Job": Action According to Abe Rybeck
12. "Simultaneity of Actions": Liberation According to Sarah Schulman
13. "Wigs and Skin": Colonialism According to Ama Ata Aidoo
SECTION 5: Economic Justice
14. "Hey, I See You": Revolution According to Boots Riley
15. "Power and Powerlessness": Detecting History According to Sara Paretsky
16. "Sometimes I Get Political, Sometimes I Get Offensive": Pushing Back According to Dallas Wayne
SECTION 6: Prisons
17. "The Anti-Slavery Act of 2002": Private Prisons and Social Justice According to Si Kahn
18. "Politics through Artistic Eyes, and Art through Political Eyes": Prison Rebellion According to Raúl Salinas
19. "From My 6 x 9 Cell": Prison and Painting According to Anthony Papa
SECTION 7: Transformations
20. "It's All Connected": Service According to Betye Saar
21. "I'm a Bit of a Threat": Immortality According to Roz Kaveney
22. "Folklore, Fakelore and Fucklore": Metamorphosis According to Emma Bull and Will Shetterly
Bibliography
Index
