(no subject)
what a rad protest.
all day saturday, at the white house. news estimates say 100,000. but that's impossible. it had to be more. We started marching at around 1pm, and stopped off for lunch along the way. 3 hours later, when we rejoined the march (after lunch, chatting, doing street performance...) the march was still going on - we just caught up wiht a different part of it. and it was only about 10 blocks. it was packed/crowded/intense.
best chant of the day goes to Bard College students who were dancing and happy and enraged all together yelling:
"violence and occupation
never lead to liberation
that's bullshit
get off it
this war is for profit"
we heard it and ran to join. we also marched in a big group of haitians for awhile, who were singing and chanting. there was a man with the most beautiful, deep voice. truly stunning.
After the speakers and the march, we returned to the lawn just in front of the washington monument for the allnight free concert. we missed joan baez (but had seen her in the morning at a tiny rally of code pinkers, and sierra got hugged and kissed by her) but we got there in time to see
Steve Earl,
Bouncing Souls,
the Coup,
and some others. but then the show got REALLY good... We got escorted to the very front of the crowd to see
Sweet Honey in the Rock.
They are beautiful, political, powerful women. During the show, Shirley (the SHIR interpreter) was brilliant, and we were cheering for her, and she added some interpreter insertions to which we jumped up so high and waved and screamed "i love you" with our hands. After the show, kelley and i ran after sierra to go meet them. turns out sierra knows them from home. so we met a bunch of them, and then HUNG OUT WITH YSAYE for awhile. we went over to camp casey and sang with the beautiful folks over there. Ysaye went in and asked if they'd be willing to do a song at her request. and as soon as she started singing, one guy yelled "oh fuck - sweet honey!!!!" it was beautiful. I returned to my other crew of friends, and kelley and erin took off, and we layed in the grass and laughed and did somersaults, and were overwhelmed and cried. tears of empowerment, community, self-determination and community.
This relaxation in the grass was followed by a march around the stage to the back where we waited less than patiently for midnight when the show we were all waiting for would start. At 11:50, we stormed the stage, getting as close as we could in our group of four (people were REAL cozy up there, as is the case after a day like saturday) and after a bit more political propoganda and speechmaking, and out run our long awaited beauties:
Kathleen, Jo and JD
LE TIGRE!!!!
They were decked out in their STOP BUSH outfits, and put on a rockin 1 1/2 hour set. it was intense. we danced and jumped and nearly fell over many times. what an amazing show. and it reminded me of jackie because her house was the first place i ever heard le tigre. great to remember those connections, and the beautiful people who have shared bits of themselves with us.
we got home around 2:30.
great day.
all day saturday, at the white house. news estimates say 100,000. but that's impossible. it had to be more. We started marching at around 1pm, and stopped off for lunch along the way. 3 hours later, when we rejoined the march (after lunch, chatting, doing street performance...) the march was still going on - we just caught up wiht a different part of it. and it was only about 10 blocks. it was packed/crowded/intense.
best chant of the day goes to Bard College students who were dancing and happy and enraged all together yelling:
"violence and occupation
never lead to liberation
that's bullshit
get off it
this war is for profit"
we heard it and ran to join. we also marched in a big group of haitians for awhile, who were singing and chanting. there was a man with the most beautiful, deep voice. truly stunning.
After the speakers and the march, we returned to the lawn just in front of the washington monument for the allnight free concert. we missed joan baez (but had seen her in the morning at a tiny rally of code pinkers, and sierra got hugged and kissed by her) but we got there in time to see
Steve Earl,
Bouncing Souls,
the Coup,
and some others. but then the show got REALLY good... We got escorted to the very front of the crowd to see
Sweet Honey in the Rock.
They are beautiful, political, powerful women. During the show, Shirley (the SHIR interpreter) was brilliant, and we were cheering for her, and she added some interpreter insertions to which we jumped up so high and waved and screamed "i love you" with our hands. After the show, kelley and i ran after sierra to go meet them. turns out sierra knows them from home. so we met a bunch of them, and then HUNG OUT WITH YSAYE for awhile. we went over to camp casey and sang with the beautiful folks over there. Ysaye went in and asked if they'd be willing to do a song at her request. and as soon as she started singing, one guy yelled "oh fuck - sweet honey!!!!" it was beautiful. I returned to my other crew of friends, and kelley and erin took off, and we layed in the grass and laughed and did somersaults, and were overwhelmed and cried. tears of empowerment, community, self-determination and community.
This relaxation in the grass was followed by a march around the stage to the back where we waited less than patiently for midnight when the show we were all waiting for would start. At 11:50, we stormed the stage, getting as close as we could in our group of four (people were REAL cozy up there, as is the case after a day like saturday) and after a bit more political propoganda and speechmaking, and out run our long awaited beauties:
Kathleen, Jo and JD
LE TIGRE!!!!
They were decked out in their STOP BUSH outfits, and put on a rockin 1 1/2 hour set. it was intense. we danced and jumped and nearly fell over many times. what an amazing show. and it reminded me of jackie because her house was the first place i ever heard le tigre. great to remember those connections, and the beautiful people who have shared bits of themselves with us.
we got home around 2:30.
great day.