"may she find what she's missing, even if it's not what she lost"

mattilda's public art project, lostmissing, is an open letter, a lost cat flyer, a tantrum a question a pressure point a release, the present holding the past, and hunger.
If you can relate, participate by posting her flyers, making your own, and sending photos.

signs of change

1. Beautiful posters from Exit Art's Signs of Change show, curated by Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee.
2. Brooklyn scaffolding used as an "ad" for a JustSeeds art show, from f.trainer.

altered & improved

For the lowdown on billboard and sign improvements (and gorgeous photos!), see

• California Dept. of Corrections
  
• Billboard Liberation Front
  
• Wooster Collective
  
• Streetsy
  
• Culture Jammers Encyclopedia
  
• I Hate Billboards
  
• that photo site

fierce pussy

While we're talking about street tactics and fags and stuff....

It seems I missed the Fierce Pussy book launch and show at Printed Matter!

Fierce Pussy was a early nineties group that came out of ActUp NY, and whose fast and dirty street art warms the heart.

safe for whites

Created for The Unapologetic Mexican by Joaquìn Ramòn Herrera

jesse helms dead

For a queer artist of my era who is pro-choice, vehemently anti-racist, and has done of lot of AIDS activism, the death of Jesse Helms has an impact. When Reagan died the media immediately forgot his (many) sins, and focused on his charm, how loved he was. It may be tempting to go there when someone dies, but both Reagan and Helms unapologetically ruined the lives of many, many people, and are responsible for the horrible deaths of many more. When Reagan died, little shrines celebrating his death popped up around NYC, and I couldn't help but be grateful for them. The collective memory loss was too horrible without something countering it. I'm not celebrating the death of a toddering old man, but I am happy about the end of the influence of one BIG white supremacist in the U.S. Goodbye, Jesse, and good riddance.

queeruption doin' it oldschool

We Riot silk screened T-shirt / Poster, originally uploaded by noa_revolting.

peckers

Nearly 20 years ago, when Hooters restaurant was causing a stir in Tucson, AZ, our little branch of Queer Nation produced these billboard-sized posters, and wallpapered the town with them.

I'm a little embarrassed by them, and a little proud of them. Our efforts did make the papers, though the bulk of the wheatpasted billboards disappeared quickly.

Note the *tofu* weenies!

caught cutting

I read a lot of mediocre books, which makes me even more picky and critical of the good ones. When a book actually surprises and inspires me, I'm all that much more excited.

AK Press is an important cooperative press running out of Oakland, and you should support them. Last year they published another book by political art boy wonder Josh MacPhee called Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority. I didn't love everything in this book, but I was oh so grateful to have access to information and images contained within. It was part of the inspiration for starting the abovegroundpool free activist archive. I'm always on the search for interesting political work, or images of the activism taking place around the world. [Current obsession: the rich history of Olympic protest.]

And I chose this page of the book to show a sample of, because it made me laugh out loud. There I am, cutting my own hair, both proud of being self-sufficient, and a little embarrassed by the resulting chops and my lack of willingness to leave it up to the professionals.

The point is this: there is a rich history to activist art. This book helps us begin to track it.

bang bang

Closing arguments were given yesterday in the Sean Bell case: "The three police officers on trial for killing a 23-year-old man on his wedding day behaved appropriately." It is looking like police officers who poured 50 bullets into Sean Bell and his friends, all unarmed black men, are going to be found not guilty, just like the officers in the murders of unarmed black men Patrick Dorismond and Amadou Diallo.

The NYPD and the NYC "justice" system should continue to be challenged. Consider listening to Le Tigre's Bang Bang during your action planning meeting....

Or support:

• October 22nd Coalition
  
• Human Rights Watch
  
• Cop Watch