Art

You walk into a large, bright gallery full of large colorful portraits, portraits of men.  They are fairly ordinary looking men.  They could be from Western Asia or the "Middle East." 

You approach one and look at him for an instant.  He looks normal, relaxed, almost expressionless, certainly expressing no very strong emotion. 

Before you can look long, your eyes are drawn to the curving lines of words swirling around the canvas like leaves in water.  You read words like these, twisting your head almost upside down to follow them:

"FROM THE TIME OF MORNING PRAYERS THEY WOULD DRAW A CIRCLE ON THE WALL, AND I HAD TO STAND ON MY TOES TWO HOURS WITH MY NOSE TOUCHING THE CIRCLE."

Until our supply of tickets runs out, anyone who donates $10 or more per ticket will get their name on a list to get into these amazing events in New York City.  Just donate and we'll contact you to confirm:

Both events are at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, John Jay College, 899 Tenth Ave., NYC.

The Guantanamo Lawyers’ Panel
Thursday, September 8 at 5pm in the Gerald W. Lynch Theater lobby
This panel of lawyers who represent Guantanamo and other detainees and work to defend civil liberties at home is bound to create an incredible dialogue about some of the most hotly debated and contested issues surrounding the ongoing detainment of terrorism “suspects” and the line between interrogation and torture.  Panelists:  Jonathan Hafetz, Seton Hall and Rutgers Universities; Martha Rayner, Fordham Law, currently representing a Guantanamo detainee; Gita Gutierrez, the Center for Constitutional Rights; Alex Abdo, ACLU’s National Security Project; chaired by Kathleen Chalfant, award-winning actress of stage and screen and advocate of social justice.

Another Life
Written and Directed by Karen Malpede (author/director of Prophecy, editor: Acts of War)
Starring George Bartenieff with Eunice Wong, Ariel Sharif, Omar Koury, Christen Clifford, Dorien Makhloghi
Co-Produced with Theater Three Collaborative
Invited Dress Rehearsal Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 7:30pm, following The Guantanamo Lawyers’ Panel
A surreal, real, and satiric story of a mogul and his daughter locked in a titanic struggle, Another Life offers a whirl-wind trip through the past ten years.  Greed, torture, war-lust and sexual enslavement vie with a subtle but growing resistance that leads to brave acts of caring and whistle-blowing.  Another Life  employs inventive language and memorable characters to bring to light questions of complicity and conscience in civil society. For more information, visit www.theaterthreecollaborative.org
(Here's the Foreword I wrote for the forthcoming book. --David Swanson)

I need a graphic to use for linking to this site, to put on T-shirts, stickers, etc.

Does "Let's Try Democracy" inspire any graphic artistry from generous contributors?

I'll give you full credit and link to your site!

david at davidswanson dot org

Over here in London, I'm hanging out with some terrific activists, including Andrew Burgin and Celia Mitchell:

Celia Mitchell reading Cutting it up by Adrian... by Fourman-Films

This was Adrian Mitchell:

And this:

Brilliant and humane playwright Karen Malpede has produced another play that grabs this country by the lapels, shakes it, caresses its cheek, and kicks its ass. The play is called "Another Life" and the life it leaves me thinking about is the life of our dreams.

The play is not so much a national nightmare or a national fantasy as a surreal reproduction of the mixture of horrors and hopes that most dreaming is: the most gruesome and graphic and taboo of our collective fears without exactly the fear itself, the deepest of longings and desires in immediate and mundane form but recognizable as revelations upon awakened reflection.

The U.S. Economy:

Arizona Immigration:

Egypt:

Healthcare:

New York:

Bread and Puppets Circus
Random Row Bookstore
Charlottesville VA
Feb 17, 2011
Video by David Swanson

The shooting of John Lennon in 1980 was staged, or at least he didn't immediately die. Or at least that's the premise that launches a hilarious work of fiction called "Life After Death (For Beginners)" by Michael Gerber, in which -- among other things -- Lennon tries to discover who killed him and whether it was for money or politics or love.

I guess it doesn't sound very hilarious, and I'm guessing that Yoko Ono, who has been a friend to the peace movement all these years, might not find it hilarious, since she serves as the butt of many jokes. Other butts of jokes include John himself, the other three Beatles, their manager, Jackie Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gloria Swanson, Elvis, and above all the human race -- which sort of makes it nothing personal for all those other people.

And here's a new review:

"Prophecy itself, despite the theatrical legacy, is as explosive as this week’s headlines—literally. This is because, besides Iraq, the play has the temerity to give voice to a pro-Palestinian stance—and we know what happens to people who take such positions: They’re reviled and drummed out of the press corps, as veteran reporter Helen Thomas was, after a crotchety answer to an on-the-spot question, which no one needed a Ph.D. to realize wasn't going to work. But, besides Helen’s senior moment, being sympathetic to Palestinians also gets booed at the Academy Awards; in 1978, Vanessa Redgrave had her career marked by the affiliation, and, unless they do them themselves, playwrights don't get their plays involving the subject produced in America—Malpede’s fate."

By David Swanson

I wrote a review of Karen Malpede's new play "Prophecy" when I had only read but not yet seen it. Karen read the review and invited me to lead the first in a series of talk-back discussions following performances in New York, and I did so on Wednesday. For that incredible privilege I'm glad I wrote that early review, but I'm sorry it was so insufficient as an attempt to convey the intensity of the phenomenon that is "Prophecy."