Spilt Magazine, along with Above Ground Magazine, produced this video. It features me, Ilicit, Brother Ali and a bunch of the occupiers.
Occupy Minnesota from Spilt Magazine on Vimeo.
It actually features a lengthy segment of my last-minute poem/speech about how the word "revolution" has to be a concrete thing and not just an abstract concept, that progressives have to have a gameplan beyond "raising our voices," that struggle means sacrifice and hard work and paying attention to the day-to-day details of movement-building. I didn't want to just read a "rah rah we're so great" kind of activist poem (after all, the other speakers were inspiring and optimistic), so I ended up with this... a pretty awful poem, honestly, but a speech that spoke some hard truths. At least I hope.
The very best thing about the Occupy Movement that I've experienced is how it opens up conversations. I've talked to more people about activism and movement-building over the past two weeks than I have in a long time. That's incredibly valuable. But there's a lot more to be done. Follow the progress here and on Twitter here.
Also, I'll be performing a hip hop set down at the People's Plaza on Wednesday at 5pm before another march on the banks. Hope you can make it!
Related: "Thoughts on Occupy MN" by me and "How the Occupy Wall Street Protesters Can Defeat the Corporate Elite" by Yotam Marom (forwarded to me by Dan DiMaggio); worth a read.
EDIT: I just found a HQ video of my entire speech:
1 comment:
Nice poem/speech, Guante! We gotta look within the word, revolution, to ask ourselves some important questions
Post a Comment