Occupiers open Free University
[Salon] While reports were bouncing around Twitter about vandalism in San Francisco and arrests on New York City’s Williamsburg Bridge, birds were chirping in Madison Square Park where perhaps several thousand students (by organizers’ estimates) were attending nearly 100 open-air lectures and workshops in an event dubbed “The Free University.”Did May Day succeed?
[Salon] In the home city of Occupy Wall Street yesterday, myriad activities dominated three iconic public spaces — Bryant Park near Times Square, Madison Square Park in view of the Flatiron Building, and Union Square, roughly straddling the East and West Villages.
An end-of-day march then filled the lower part of Broadway en route to Wall Street, running up to 18 blocks long with as many as 30,000 participants, said organizers. (And whether or not the numbers are too high, the magnitude of the claim seems about right.)
Artists on strike!
[Salon] Occupy Wall Street has drifted far from those early whimsical days. With militant chanting, cries of “F— the pigs,” mass arrests and charges of police brutality, the movement has taken on a warlike air. But art, performance and even comedy have been another part of it since the beginning — something that many participants are trying to bring back.
Occupy SOPA: Inside the New York Protests
[TechNewsDaily – via NBC]
The protest largely became a defense of the First Amendment. “I am opposed to any law – especially very badly written laws – that infringe on our country’s basic rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” said Naomi Reyes, a fashion design student. She sounded remarkably like an Occupy Wall Street demonstrator.
[Read the rest of Occupy SOPA: Inside the New York Protests]Occupy Geeks Are Building a Facebook for the 99%
[Wired]
“I don’t want to say we’re making our own Facebook. But, we’re making our own Facebook,” said Ed Knutson who joined of activist-geeks redesigning social networking for the era of global protest. (Wired)Occupy Goes to Washington, Finding Politics is Complicated
[Wired]
With most of the largest protest encampments around the country dismantled by the authorities, D.C. has two Occupy encampments — largely left unbothered by federal authorities — which are now the liveliest venue for the movement’s experimentation with methods and message — and the best indicator of the turbulence that lies ahead.
[Read the rest on Wired.]Occupy Wall Street Prepares for Its Valley Forge
[Wired]
“If this is the revolution, this is our Valley Forge,” said a doughy, middle-aged man with frazzled long brown hair.I was shivering when we spoke at 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning — as I had been shivering for the seven previous hours.
[Read the rest on Wired.]Exclusive Video: Tension, Dissension and Construction in Occupied DC
“Eat your heart out Zuccotti!” exclaimed Sophie Vic, chiding the far-more-celebrated former occupiers of Zuccotti Park in Manhattan.Vic was literally jumping with excitement as compatriots assembled a 24-by-24-by-17-foot wooden meeting hall designed to hold 100 people.
[Read the rest on Wired]Inside Occupy Wall Street’s Growing Student Protests
[Wired]
A wide swath of New York City students are angry about debt, tuition hikes and what many consider to be a lack of openness from the administrations of public and private colleges. Students have been a major force in Occupy Wall Street, dating to its first General Assembly on Aug. 2 in New York City.
[Read the rest on Wired.]Tim Pool And Henry Ferry: The Men Behind Occupy Wall Street’s Live Stream
[Fast Company]
The best ground view of Occupy Wall Street comes from a former skateboard videographer and a one-time Realtor, aka Tim Pool and Henry Ferry of The Other 99. With little more than mobile phones they’ve offered a perspective that the mainstream media can’t match. Here’s how.
[Read the rest of The Men Behind Occupy Wall Street’s Live Stream]
