By Will Potter
Multiple states have considered “Ag Gag” bills that criminalize investigators who document animal welfare abuses on factory farms. Iowa and Utah are the latest to approve them. These bills, lobbied for by Big Ag groups, are part of a long line of attempts to blame activists for exposing abuses, rather than hold corporations accountable.
BANGKOK — The rhymes came to Nutthapong Srimuong before dawn, when Bangkok is as still as it can be and the night jasmine overpowers the Thai capital with its perfume.
The country whose capital is turned into a killing field
Whose charter is written and erased by the army’s boots
The country that points a gun at your throat
Where you must choose to eat the truth or bullets
"Cats Against Cat Calling" began online as a movement under same slogan, powered through Hollaback! Hollaback! is an activist collective seeking to end street harassment. Working through a network of activists in various locations, Hollaback! encourages individuals to stand up for themselves against uncomfortable interactions in public.
You could hear their chants from the White House.
On June 6, hundreds of activists and protesters gathered on Black Lives Matter Plaza, a two-block section on 16th Street in Washington D.C. that was renamed amid BLM protests.
It can be important to reflect on the artistic recounts of activists experiences under state imprisonment. In a revealing interview with Artspace, Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei reflects on his 81-day secret detention in 2011 and the psychological strategies used to dismantle identity and autonomy.
In June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease.
Ten couples covered in body paint wearing only their underwear have celebrated their “naked weddings” at Hangzhou Paradise amusement park in Zhejiang province. The couples, some of whom have been married for many years, said they were rejecting modern Chinese values, which place greater value on money than love. In China, a naked wedding involves a couple marrying without owning a house or car.
The “Perceiving Freedom” glasses sculpture on Cape Town’s Sea Point promenade looking towards Robben Island, commemorates late President Nelson Mandela and the values of freedom and equality.
Documentarian Clayton Patterson captured video of police brutality during the Tompkins Square Park riots in the summer of 1988. When District Attorney Robert Morgenthau ordered Patterson to hand over his camera and tapes as evidence, Patterson refused, citing distrust of the criminal justice system. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but after a 10-day hunger strike, his lawyers negotiated a deal to free him.
A young and beautiful girl posted a piece of paper selfie every day on Instagram, the most popular social network at the moment. In just over 4 months, with 184 selfies, her fans quickly rose to 90,000. In the photo, she is sometimes sweet and lovely, sometimes sexy and attractive, and sometimes turned into a healthy and positive "organic girl"... Now there are nearly 150,000 people around the world who follow her every day.
Since the 1980s, revitalizing the economy has always been the country's development strategy. Although China's economy has grown rapidly in just twenty years, attracting worldwide attention, environmental destruction has also become a problem. For example, the Fu Nan River in Chengdu, like many rivers nationwide, is severely polluted.
Yumi Ishikawa, a Japanese actress, freelance writer, and part-time funeral parlor worker, started the #KuToo Movement because she feels it’s unfair she has to wear heels at work. She also feels that being required to wear heels is rooted in a cultural problem, one much deeper than physical discomfort.
War Drags You Out is a project by artist "Saint Hoax" looking at the similarities between defining characteristics of Drag Queens and Political Leaders.
Text from St. Hoax's website:
"After attending a drag show for the first time, I was struck by the richness of this glamour oriented culture.
I took a minute to actually look at the faux queens and deconstruct their main components.
Concerned Citizens impersonated LA Autoshow hosts, interrupting a keynote speech from the General Motors' CEO. They present a pledge on behalf of GM, committing in writing to becoming an leader in fuel efficiency, and to follow through on all the environmental rhetoric promised in speech. The real CEO refuses.
"Everyday Iran”, inspired by “Everyday Africa”, is the most widespread mobile photography project based on social networks in Iran which started since early in 2014.
We in Everyday Iran ask the whole people who live and work in Iran to send us their photos of daily life in the country with #everydayiran. Those photos which are selected by 5 Iranian curators are reposted on our social media pages.
Guerilla Crip performs disability rights poetry in her local woods to protest about the persecution, discrimination and oppression that disabled people in the UK have endured since 2010 in the UK. We are being impoverished, demonised and targeted in society and by successive governments. Enough is enough!
"Today there is literature coming out of Syria that we could have never even dreamed of just a few years ago," Atrash says.Rather than relying on metaphors and allegorical images, these new poems rely on literal, visceral descriptions, with a newfound emphasis on a united Syrian identity instead of religious symbols.
Ghada al-Atrash, a Syrian-Canadian writer and translator, has been studying Syrian poetry for decades.