Tag: dissent

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The High Cost of Dissent in Russia

Droplifting–adding objects or messages to store shelves to make a political statement–is treated as a minor irritant in the United States. Placing 5 labels protesting Russia’s war against Ukraine on grocery store items has yielded 7 years in a penal colony for artist Aleksandra Skochilenko.

If we take our freedoms for granted, we might lose them.

Russian artist jailed for seven years over Ukraine war price tag protest, by Andrew Roth, The Guardian, November 16, 2023

Aleksandra Skochilenko replaced five supermarket price tags with pieces of paper urging shoppers to stop the war

…“How fragile must the prosecutor’s belief in our state and society be, if he thinks that our statehood and public safety can be brought down by five small pieces of paper?” said Skochilenko, 33, in a final statement in court on Thursday.

“Despite being behind bars, I am freer than you,” she said. “I’m not afraid to be different from others. Perhaps that’s why my state is so afraid of me and others like me and keeps me caged like a dangerous animal.” Read the whole article here.

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Cecily McMillan’s Awakening

I Went From Grad School to Prison
As Told to Abigail Pesta
Cosmopolitan
August 12, 2014

This past spring, Cecily McMillan rode a bus across a bridge to Rikers Island, home of the notorious New York City jail. When the Occupy Wall Street activist was released nearly two months later, she had left her old self behind.

cecily-mcmillan-arrest-425

I didn’t cry my first night in jail.

By the time I got through the 12 hours of intake “” the lines, the fingerprints, the strip search “” it was 4 a.m. In a dorm with 50 women, I lay on a cot smaller than a twin bed, with a mattress so thin, I could feel the cold metal beneath my back.

I didn’t feel much of anything emotionally, except a vague sense of resolution. At least I knew my fate now. I was a convicted felon.

I had spent two years awaiting a trial, accused of assaulting a policeman at an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City in March 2012. As I remember it, the officer surprised me from behind, grabbing my right breast so forcefully, he lifted me off the ground. In that moment, my elbow met his face. Continue reading “Cecily McMillan’s Awakening”

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Middle Class Melt Down: Unconventional Ice Sculptures

Submitted by Deborah: Marshall Reese and Nora Ligorano did this melting ice sculpture called “Middle Class” for the Republic Convention. On to Democratic Convention next.

Middle Class Ice Sculptures

Melt down at the Republican and Democratic Conventions

Tampa: Lykes Gaslight Park, Sun., Aug. 26, 2012 / Unveiling 11:30 AM

Tampa Event from 11:30 AM-9 PM / Optimum time 11:30 AM-2:30 PM

Charlotte: Marshall Park, Tues., Sept. 4, 2012 / Unveiling 1 PM

Charlotte Event from 1-6 PM / Optimum time 1-3 PM

Large ice sculptures of the words Middle Class will melt away on the first day of the Republican and Democratic Conventions, in nearby public parks in Tampa and Charlotte. The work is by artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese. The sculptures they will install weigh over 2,000 pounds and measure 15 feet wide. Individual letters are 4 feet tall.

The artists call these sculptures “temporary monuments.” After unveiling them, Ligorano and Reese let them melt away and film their disappearance, which can take anywhere from 6 to 24 hours. The dates for the conventions, “do not bode well,” Reese says, “for the sculptures”™ survival.” “They may disappear,” Ligorano adds, “even faster than usual. It”™s a tossup whether, that”™s due to economic or climatic conditions.” Continue reading “Middle Class Melt Down: Unconventional Ice Sculptures”

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Alison Klayman Film About Ai Weiwei Premieres

For Ai Weiwei, Politics And Arts Always Mix
by NPR Staff
July 25, 2012

Listen to this Story on All Things Considered [7 min 49 sec]

Last week, a Chinese court rejected artist Ai Weiwei’s lawsuit against the tax bureau that had imposed a massive fine on his company.

Ai was fined more than $2 million after being detained for three months last year.

This marks yet another political struggle for Ai, who is famous abroad for his art and has emerged as a leading Chinese dissident, a voice for individual freedom. A year after being released, Ai is still monitored heavily by officials, although he uses his Twitter feed to continue criticizing China’s government.

Filmmaker Alison Klayman was an intern on NPR’s All Things Considered before she left for China, where she wound up chronicling Ai on video. The result is a documentary “” her first film “” called Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, part of which chronicles Ai’s crusade to seek justice for an alleged police beating.

Movie trailer:

Continue reading “Alison Klayman Film About Ai Weiwei Premieres”

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