NYC event collects interest from activists

55 thinkers and changemakers from an exciting range of grassroots initiatives gathered on March 16 with theCoup for a film and discussion on turning information into action.

Witness, Third Wave Foundation, CodePink, Teachers for Justice, Make the Road, Common Ground, NYU, PODER, the Street Vendors Project, Fresh, Benetech, The Nation, Streets Films, and Human Rights First were just a few of the organisations and campaigns creating this stellar event at the Brooklyn Creative League.

Arwen Lowbridge had a few words about her experience at the event:

I found myself at a wonderful event last night amidst social and political activists working in the fields of human rights, education reform, climate change – just about any cause you could name. It was held at my office-away-from-home Brooklyn Creative League and presented by theCoup and Witness.

After a screening of the film, we broke up into groups based on topic of interest (stories, visual representation, mobile & tech, community & networks) and briefly discussed the film in relation to our topic, our work and our experiences. I was in the community and networking group and was somewhat relieved to learn that every cause seems to be having trouble turning virtual networks into physical action. How to get people (besides the Mad Tea Partiers) off their butts and out of their seats and into the world to do something in real-time seems to be the $64,000 question.

10 tactics is a great resource for those of us looking to connect with people in meaningful, authentic ways and Tactical Technology Collective provides free toolkits and informational resources as part of the project. It was fascinating to reflect on how these tactics have been used (or misused) in advocacy/awareness campaigns in the arts.

Story written by: theCoup with excerpts from Arwen Lowbridge's blog.

Images by Kavita Kulkarni. Top: Activists gather in Brooklyn for the showing of 10 tactics. Bottom: Participants working in groups engaging with the 10 tactics material.