intro to method and style

speakin and sharing (includes sign text)

daring to be poetree

the depth charge



first action

past fear

memorable connections



second action: GR Art Fest

soldiers called cops

someone i knew

video crew



third action: Three Fires Pow Wow

intro to why i dared

regalia

the action

sobriety march

entrance

first champion

second champion, gifts, and dance

into more depth

teepee dweller

second gifting

someone i knew

after the pow wow



notes

Grand Rapids, a "normally" dismal midwestern city of maybe 300,000 where truly
liberatory ideas have long been driven underground, alternative media blocked,
and public access to ideas beyond the religious and corporate networks highly
controlled (1). So it was that a lone "crucial artist" dared beyond conditioned
fears to hike *THREE different times* (in one month) in this city in order to
seed, spread, and blaze a trail of the kind of creativity and excellence that
only a handful of radicals seem capable of comprehending the value of so far. In
the tradition of the African griot, the Native American cocapelli or Heyoka, the
religious prophet Johnny Appleseed, or even eccentric street interactors like
Grandpa Woodstock, this half-crazed "weirdo champion" art-doer has worked
overtime, through more than twelve cities and towns and other communities across
the u.s.a. to get his quite provocative statements out!

The first action spanned more than six hours and a walking distance of at least
12 miles! The second, a few weeks later, for about 4 hours on the last day of
the city's annual 3-day "Arts Festival" downtown. The third, a week after that,
of a total distance of about 7 walking miles, with a main focus on the annual
"Three Fires Pow Wow" held at Riverside Park.

intro to general method and style

My art/arting consisted of decking myself out in a kind of mobile spectacle that
promised to not only catch attention, but as well "trip out" people because they
would have little or no preconceived idea of what i was up to...

(read more...)

speakin and sharing

My mobile arting also consists of how i interact with the public, both by daring
"abnormal" ways of speaking, and passing out "depth charge" flyers to all who
dare not flee or put up armor and ignore me (see the entire depth charge flyer
on link). As well, i carry or wear multiple day-glo signs of many sizes and
shapes with phrases like:

"WE ARE KEPT HYPED-UP AND DIVIDED AGAINST EACH OTHER--Realize the value of
reaching out to those you fear"

"REALIZE THE VALUE OF BEING RADICALLY BEAUTIFUL WITH EACH OTHER"

"DARE TO ART YOUR HEART"

"DARE TO PRESERVE YOUR WILD DEPTH--Dare to see this as your very own ticket to
Loving Living"

Also strategically passed out at least twenty copies of an article about
post-Left anarchy, by Jason McQuinn.

daring to be poetree

Prancing and strolling, defying categorical-isms

and expec-tations,

passing out my depth charge flyers,

jiu-jitsuing the spectacle to most

--"What, you're really not selling anything?"

--"What, you're REALLY not some religious fundamentalist?"

--"What, you're really not representing some fishy organization?"

Hot out, so my walk becomes like "a Sweat". A mobile *Sweat Lodge* of sorts;
doing "The Sweat of Everyday Life" with indigenous imagination mixed together
with the gist of Raoul Vaneigem's "Revolution of Everyday Life".

Not seeking mediated mention in mainscream war "News" ("the revolution will not
be televised"); i make it a point to avoid and not cooperate with professional
mediators...

(read more, and see the 'depth charge' flyer passed out...)
---------------------------------------------------

First action: Grand Rapids metro, NW and NE:

Biked through Latin neighborhood (full of good vibe) via Grandville Av over to
John Ball Zoo on the NW side, parked bike there, then hiked in full ceremonial
regalia down Fulton into downtown, over to Michigan Street, up the hill past
Butterworth Hospital to Coit, through that neighborhood over to Bradford and
then Lafeyette, to Leonard, up the hill to Fuller, over to near Knapp, back down
Fuller to Fulton, and back to the Zoo, at least 12 miles of walking, speaking
with people, and being wildly real in all!

Messing with the mindsets in mid of a typical work day, tripping people out ("Is
this an acid flashback?"), derailing these seemingly obedient so-called
"citizen" peasants from their highly propagandized tunnel vision ("What the hell
is that?"), in yet another creamy heart of American Whitebread-Conditioning
Central.

Past Fear

Soldiers called cops didn't know What/How To Think, and just stared. Didn't have
no mandate, no idea put into their heads from their "superiors". Conditioned
sheeple had voiced their fears that i'd be arrested or worse, a reflection of
the grip of the Cops/Fear In Their Heads, when in fact, there was no real need
to fear! Carrying signs and voicing ideas promoting *mutual* liberation and
general beautifulness can do that!

(...)

All in all i'd learned, via such self-inquiry luminaries as don Miguel Ruiz, not
to take such highly-tooled dreamers of hell personally (2). What *would* one
expect given the context of this suiciety (re: suicidal society)?

(...)

Most were pleasantly surprised, even impressed, when i proved to not only be
completely outside their classically-conditioned expectations (i.e. quotes
above), but continued arting in a way that had undertones of magicking!...

Memorable connections

the totally enthusiastic teenage dude who wanted to walk with me til i told him
how far i was going; the people at Kendall who took the time to read my signs;
the kids in the bus depot who mischeivously flipped me a bird; the always
slowing down car drivers; the yells of enthusiasm from construction and other
workers; the young man and his fam speaking near Coit st.; the elder gentleman
on a stoop challenging me with the concept of "offensive" due to fear (me
replying that being offensive can be valuable); the street gang openly
interested in taking my flyers; the enthusiastic thumbs-up/honking from
passerby/drivers after reading my signs; the tenement occupant yelling after me
to come closer and see what i was up to; the crossing guard's friendliness (and
my mentioning Matt Groening's "Childhood is Hell" book to several young crossing
guard aides); the group of pot smokers coming out of their house; the cup of
cold water given at one house; the badass lady and adult sons on Fulton; the
goth girl who came out of a store and congradulated me; the small group that
questioned me at length; the group of gangdudes who eyed me enthusiastically;
the little kids who could've easily shown me what WILD is all about had their
mothers not intervened.

(...)

--------------------------------

Second action: GR Art Festival

The last day of this annual festival, Sunday, June 6 (?), i biked in full
regalia downtown via 28th St (in heavy traffic), then Division Ave. Not deeply
inspired to do that action, but wanting to have some sort of presence at this
major event which a friend had thought i should appear at.

Walking into an entrance of the free festival, i noted a phalanx of soldiers
called cops...

(Read more...)

drunken acquaintance

A totally wild guy who i partied with just days before found me more than once
during the day and hooped and hollered and let his permitted weekend wildness
hang out. (...)

video crew

i actually ran out of flyers (even tho i was giving them out only to people who
asked, generally), had much interesting interaction (more deep than all the
other cities i've engaged combined!), and near the end, began being followed by
two young men carrying a video camera. (...)

--------------------------------

Three Fires Pow Wow, 6-12-04

intro to why i dared

My original first action in this tour began at a Pow Wow near Portland, Oregon
in 2000 (when i first began creating ceremonial masques and regalia with
spiritual path intentions--unlike previously, which were more experimental and
spontaneous). And i saw my desired interaction at the Three Fires Pow Wow as a
potentially *very powerful* compliment to the origins of these x-country
actions. After all, they are not only plunges into the Unknown/my Fear in a
large way, and very spiritually powerful in an individual basis, but brought
forth an enhancing of care and a desire for solidarity across all alleged
differences. To add, as both Ward Churchill and Trudell John have been pointing
out, we *ARE ALL* descendants of indigenous cultures (European included)! And
part of my task, i see, is to promote a return to trusting the general excellent
potential of imaginations created beyond the pale of so-called "civilization"
and their perpetual war/alienation model so seemingly inherent within that
entire value system.

So i began seeing myself as an informal "ambassador" of sorts, representing
galaxies of my desires and dreams, and wanting to get together with others
daring their individuality, and collaborate towards beautiful excellence!

Thus i saw/see my going into the realms of Pow Wows (and other semi-autonomous
zones) as quite appropriate, even tho i am no "American Indian" (but only a Euro
mutt, as far as i know); bringing the depth of my experience and reflections
into spaces which *could use* authentic, dared depth from other angles than
usually experienced---and perhaps evolving *my own* largely negative beliefs
about the apparent superficiality of publicly-held pow wows and the politricks
that seem to plague them (as with so many independent-seeking communities).

So where i'd only gone superficially in the original pow wow--which i'd been
invited to by a native (daring only into one main depth with an elder lady who
spoke of my being "Trickster", and retreating in fear by her warning, preferring
supposedly more-safe spaces in non-Indian areas), i dared after all my
experiences across the country and in diverse communities, to go fully into my
fear of this Unknown.

(Read more...)

regalia

This time i changed my regalia to a new intensity; i put my black n'white
striped pants on upside-down for a shirt (making a hole in the crotch of
course), added a roughly-cut but be-jeweled jacket i'd gotten for 25cents
(attaching feathers i'd come upon in my travels) and wore, for the first time
since IL actions, my dayglo-colored jacket upside-down for pants; and on one
shoe i tied one of a pair of the green frog slippers i dumpstered way back. The
ideah of that last one was to off-set the scary-looking "gator" masque (a friend
says it looks that way to him) together with the silly frog slipper (and
hopefully mess with the proclivity of folks--indigenous and not--to get stuck in
FEAR-orientation assumptions of what i appear as and "am doing").

The action

Okay, so i biked maybe 7 miles to the corner of Leonard and Monroe NE, locked
the bike up, and walked 2-3 miles from there to Riverside Park where the Three
Fires Pow Wow was being held. Along the way, passed a Boy Scout troop out for a
hike, found a birdfeather that i stuck in to a bandaid on my left index finger,
interacted with a guy in a car who resembled a burly off-duty cop (and seemed
intent on provoking my emotion, but failed), reflected increasing audible
response from passerby (whoops and joyful cries) as i neared the pow wow grounds
which was already teeming with activity.

Well, when i first wrote about this, i chose to "write without words" except to
send words that my 59-yr-old Inuit mentor first shared with me back in the late
'80s: "i thank yOu (in many languages)". This was meant as a way of respecting,
and not allowing the police state and its minions entrance into what i call a
sacred interaction...but now i wonder...because my *intent* is to demystify and
inspire imagination potential beyond the same old ghettos of traditional leftism
and anarchy, and promo that we all get together in one basic *resistance of
consciousness*.

sobriety march

Had earliest wanted to accompany the march for sobriety to see how they were
speaking of the issue, but didn't make it due to two things:

One, my mixed feelings about how social services propagandists would "probably"
be controlling things completely, and two, didn't wake up after partyin until at
least 4AM the previous night (heh).

By the way, while i see the heavy problems/challenges with drinking liquor/beer
in native and other communities, as with others, i also see how internalized
value assumptions and politics hinders any serious solving of this (like so much
else).

i could go on at length about this, but i'll save you that for now, and speak
only a bit:

If people *WERE ENCOURAGED TO RITUALLY ARTICULATE* drinking and being drunk in a
sacred manner, together with *believing in themselves* enough,
drinking/drunkenness could become a ceremonial tool **in a similar way that
peyote and tobacco is used!**

So i myself am standing with a grey area, not wanting to get smothered by the
usual manipulations of those subordinating themselves to BIA/Leftist-style
"reforms" and such politricks, nor wanting to demonize people's natural
inclination to want to escape the dumbing down reality of what living in this
"reality" has become for so many. Anyway, i see eye to eye with Sioux leader,
TrudellJohn, where he says basically (in a video i saw) that drunken indians
were the only ones who crucially REFUSED to conform to the superficial reform
games of BIA-style "integration" strategies, and thus were a *crucial* group to
modern efforts of independent defenses...

entrance

Entered into a balking silence. Wasn't at all sure how i'd be received, but
didn't expect what i got. i was doing, i claim, an angle on *spiritual nudity*
and didn't need to think about "what might happen" at length.

first champion

Almost immediately, a native guy (i'll call a champion) who'd been just parking
his bible-quote-decorated pickup truck when i first walked in through a parking
lot, invited me to come with him and go back and let him share some of his bible
quotes from the truck ... i intuited that he wanted to try to talk to the s t r
a n g e intruder via a language that i might be talked to with, thus acting as
one more excellent watcher for the community.

Then a van pulls up and a mainstream-style-dressed older lady (in 50s?) gets out
and asks me if i'm "trying to satirize" or otherwise defame what she called her
people.

(read more...)

----------------------------------------------------------
Note: when composing this article the first time around, the public computer i
was using "somehow" ceased up and didn't allow me to post this at any IMC sites.
I had to start all over again (because I didn't have a disk with me). I've
seldom seen this type of thing in my x-country travels, and can only
figure--based on the games that the political police have a record of playing
against systematic challengers (3)--that someone was at work to block this info
from reaching others. Luckily, I persisted in getting the library staff to
extend my day's allotment and *was* able to post it to two IMCs, but still not
the Michigan IMC...until now (hopefully).

notes:

(1) There are *no* alternative book/magazine/zine stores in Grand Rapids and
area. There is a recent try at starting some kind of local IMC project, but I
missed that conference. Public access to the Internet is more severely
controlled than any place in the country i've seen. None of GR's colleges allow
free access (a Grand Valley State College employee told me that while the
college is publicly funded, its internet services are not, thus no access to the
public; and GRCC allows access for $10 a semester after and ID check and much
personal info gathering; Davenport and the other two private colleges are all
"password protected" which is a change apparently after 9-11). Lack of alloted
time for my one-hour use of public computers at the main library downtown
prohibited me from going into more detail on these texts until I left the GR
area (i don't own a computer myself, yet), and then any website deemed "sexual"
is rigidly filtered from even adult viewing (i.e. reading an alternative gay
magazine i like called www.guidemag.com ).

(2) i highly recommend don Miguel Ruiz's _The Four Agreements_ and _The Mastery
of Love_.

(3) all serious challengers of the status quo would do well to educate
themselves on the history of once-illegal, now legal, official covert action in
order to take steps to avoid it as best they can, and deal more up front with
"paranoia". See Brian Glick's book _War At Home_ (South End Press, Boston, 1990)
for its exceptional run-down on the history and "what we can do about" this kind
of warfare.