You can watch the second video by going here.

You can watch the second video by going here.
This is a community solidarity proposal that Rami and I put together and proposed to G.A. last week…
Does anyone wish to see the OWS movement become violent?
-NO!
If we let a bunch of Occupiers, who have come from all over and have given their lives to this movement with the hope of changing this country and our world into a more inclusive space; if we let these people, who our movement has been taking care of, into the streets of New York at the beginning of February, without food and shelter, effectively cutting them off from the resources they have grown dependent on, we must understand there is a good chance one or a few of them will turn to violent means. Originally, this was brought to the GA as an emergency break-out discussion for the following reason: If any member of the OWS movement turns to violence, it creates an opportunity for the government to label the entire movement a terrorist movement and then every member must worry about consequences. Already the UK has given OWS the label, and rumor is our own government is waiting for the opportunity. On Wednesday night (01.18,12), at Spokes Counsel two fights broke out, fights that were caused due to there being haves and have-nots amongst us.If we don’t work to resolve this, we must understand this is only the beginning.
We are a community. We are a community living in the public eye of the world, demanding the larger world community work to take care of those amongst us that are disenfranchised. If we ourselves do not work to ensure all Occupiers are housed, fed, and working, we ourselves are no better than the society we are protesting. In the wake of housing options being cut,and access to G.A. funds being cut, we propose the OWS movement radically shift gears for a moment and work to ensure every Occupier become a self-sufficient member of our community. If we can become a self-sufficient movement, a group of people able to take care of their individual needs while protesting the great atrocities affecting all of us, then truly we can be a model able to change the world.
There is a huge disparity within our community, the top and bottom can and must learn from one another. Non-Occupiers need to understand that Occupiers can’t make it to many meetings as they’re forced to adhere to church hours, and Occupiers need to understand that non-Occupiers can’t always be out during the day since they have to work. And after this is understood, we must find a way for both groups to communicate and work together to ensure the weakest amongst us is self-sufficient and not seen as a burden or blight on our community. As a non-hierarchical movement, we must joyously lift up the weak amongst us while praising the already strong and everyone in between. We are a community. This must be our mantra.
We propose we work together to find every Occupier a home, a job, get those on food stamps that are eligible, get all those eligible for government subsidies on them, and ensure every Occupier is self-sufficient. And then, this Spring, when more people join our movement, ready to nonviolently fight with us, we must make it a priority to help them find employment and learn to be self-sufficient before leading them to places of protest.
During the Thursday GA (01.19.12), we broke out into discussion groups to address this topic. Many great ideas were already brought up: getting the Radical Social Workers involved; offering displaced Occupiers an easy transition into the New Haven and Newark Occupations for the remaining winter months; utilizing the Occupation force for fundraising, and have a larger breakout session outside of GA similar to Open Spaces. Almost everyone involved, whether they started hesitantly or supportively, at the end of our conversation was enlivened and understood the need for this. We ask that you join us on Tuesday as we solidify through discussion pragmatic ways to empower those Occupiers, who only three months ago, were being called heroes: help us form workshops immediately to offer our heroes key-knowledge, most take for granted,like resume creation and access to public welfare services, such as food stamps for those who are eligible If in three months, heroes can become bums, then the whole should once again cry, “Oh how the mighty have fallen.” But it will not be the heroes who have fallen, it will be the whole Movement, whether in the Office or on the Streets, and we will all rightfully be chastised for our fall!
The people with money in this movement have many times been the ones in the office, the ones using OWS money, and now in the coldest moment of our Movement, many of these very people are the ones shutting down spending…now I challenge you, if you have, to actively seek to help those amongst you that don’t have, help them to enjoy in the having. If this idea scares you,then I must ask you, why are you here?

Remember my friend Dorje, he wrote the beautiful proposal for the success of the OWS movement. Anyway, he has a Portrait Project. He asks you send him a photo of yourself and he will turn it into a sharpy marker portrait drawing like the one above, and I believe he has a few other types of portraiture’s that he does. Besides being an artist, Dorje is also a BRILLIANT poet. Many nights while living in the park, I had the honor of listening to Dorje recite the many poems he has not only written but memorized. If you have any desire for an original portrait style drawing of a favorite photo, I urge you to contact Dorje at his website yourpersonalportrait.com. I love you Dorje (check out Dorje’s WordPress site for more)!

Tomorrow, January 24th 2012, the People’s Library requests everyone in solidarity with the library to join us at the Red Cube at 4pm. As many of you know, since the raid we’ve had quite a few encounters with NYPD and Brookfield Security resulting in the seizure of more books. It’s an outrage that books are being seized by the people in power and tomorrow at 4pm we are hoping you will join us and help us voice our outrage. We will require your participation for about an hour, and be sure to wear your walking shoes as we will be taking a little field trip… Join us as we fight against censorship and the seizure of books, and fight for the dissemination of knowledge and free literature. Please spread the word to all that are in solidarity with the People’s Library of Occupy Wall Street – Meet at the Red Cube at 4pm SHARP! January 24th 2012 at 4pm!

On Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at The Bowery Poetry Club from 5:00pm-7:30pm the Poetry Collective of Occupy Wall Street invites you to share your poems at our Winter Poetry Assembly. We imagine a kind of poetry town hall meeting where EVERYONE can assemble together and share words. This event is FREE.
The way Poetry Assemblies operate: show up, put your name in a hat, and eventually you’ll be called. This method is used to show that there is no hierarchy in determining the order.
Please choose a poem no longer than 3 minute. The Bowery Poetry Club has generously waived the usual entrance fee (it’s free!), but not the whiskey fee, which is understandable given the crowd.
Remember these devastatingly beautiful nights!!!

Dirty Looks presents:
CHARLES ATLAS!
-filmmaker in attendance-
Wednesday, January 25, 8-10 PM
Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012
$7 Suggested Donation
Program
Son of Sam and Delilah, video, 27min., 1991
Butcher’s Vogue, video, 5min., 1990
Staten Island Sex Cult, video, 10 min. (excerpt), 1999
Instant Fame! Donald, video, 5min., 2005
Mrs. Peanut Visits New York, video, 6min., 1992-1999
The Draglinquents, video, 7min., 1990
I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy (from Turning), video, 4min., 2012
Dirty Looks, a monthly platform for queer experimental film and video, presents an evening of video work by Charles Atlas. With a career that spans 30-years, Atlas is one of the world’s most stalwart and vibrant videogrpahers of queer cultures and contemporary dance. This program will host a premiere of material from Turning, a feature-length collaboration between Atlas and Antony Hegarty, on the eve of the Museum of Modern Art commissioned Antony and the Johnsons’ Swanlights performance at Radio City Music Hall. Turning will receive its premiere in early 2012. Atlas will also be featured in the upcoming 2012 Whitney Biennial. With special performances from Leigh Bowery, Antony, and Carlos Morales (via Atlas’ rarely screened porn film, Staten Island Sex Cult), the works in this program cover more than twenty years of portraiture and collaboration at the vanguard of queer artistic practice.

“New York City 1988. Raging homophobia. A killer on the loose. Disco dancing till dawn. Performers struggle to survive. Delilah seduces Samson in song. Gender illusionists go shopping. Samson and Delilah, 1991.”
DIRTY LOOKS ROADSHOW

San Francisco//
//Thursday, Feb 9, 7PM Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts @ CCA, 1111 8th Street, Timken Hall. Screening selections from the FEMALE TROUBLE program and a conversation with Margaret Tedesco. Free.
//Friday, Feb 10, 8PM City of Lost Souls a trans punk muscial by Rosa Von Praunheim @ Artists’ Television Access, 922 Valencia Street. $6
//Sunday, February 12, 2PM FEMALE TROUBLE, a Genderfuck Program @ YBCA 701 Mission Street (at 3rd), as part of the series Bros Before Hos: Masculinity and its Discontents, featuring film and video by Steven Arnold, Rick Castro, Vaginal Davis, Zackary Drucker, Matthias Müller, Narcissister, Patti Podesta and Conrad Ventur. $8
Los Angeles//
Tuesday, Feb 14, 7PM Dirty Looks: Long Distance Love Affairs @ The Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. Featuring works by Cecilia Dougherty, Deanna Erdmann, Rhys Ernst, Glen Fogel, Mariah Garnett, Jonesy, Dani Leventhal, Charles Ludlam, Narcissister, Luther Price and Michael Robinson. Free admission, cash bar.
Thursday, Feb 16, 8PM FEMALE TROUBLE, a Genderfuck Program @ Human Resources 410 Cottage Home Street, featuring film and video by Steven Arnold, Rick Castro, Vaginal Davis, Zackary Drucker, Matthias Müller, Narcissister, Patti Podesta and Conrad Ventur. Rick Castro, Zackary Drucker and Narcissister in attendance! $8 suggested donation.
Portland//
//Thursday, February 23, 8PM FEMALE TROUBLE, a Genderfuck Program @ Grand Detour 640 SE Stark Street, featuring film and video by Steven Arnold, Rick Castro, Vaginal Davis, Zackary Drucker, Matthias Müller, Narcissister, Patti Podesta and Conrad Ventur. Sliding scale $3 – 6.
The Legend of Leigh Bowery (Film by Charles Atlas)
Keep Watching…. Read More…

Have you noticed that on just about every corner of New York City there is a bank? How do the banks afford to place their business on every corner of NYC? Ground floor real-estate in NYC is very expensive. The many corners of NYC used to offer diverse and interesting businesses, but those days are gone. The banks aren’t just on every corner, they’re in every decision being made.
The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.
The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley, who was appointed into office on January 13, 2011.
William M. Daley recently served on the Executive Committee of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Before Bill, Pete Rouse, served as Obama’s Chief of Staff after Obama’s first Chief of Staff left to be Mayor of Chicago. For 30 years, Rouse worked for Senator Tom Daschle who works for the legal firm DLA Piper (they deal with banks).
And before Pete, Rahm Emanuel served as Obama’s first Chief of Staff.
Rahm Emanuel was a managing director at the firm Wasserstein Perella’s Chicago office in 1999 and, according to Congressional disclosures, made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-years as a banker.
I met Michael while living in Liberty Sq. Michael is amazing. Hope you’re well Michael! Stumbled on these videos on youtube and brought back some sweet memories!