Monday, December 9, 2013

The People's Puppets of Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Town Square, Tompkins Square Park, February 26, 2012
Photo: Stacy Lanyon
The first Occupy gathering I remember was a beautiful early fall weekend day very shortly after the occupation started in Zuccotti Park. One of my main creators, Joe Therrien, took me to Washington Square Park shortly after I remember coming into this world. There were thousands of people there, and I felt a little self-conscious because I hadn't been painted yet. I felt a little undressed out there in my natural state, but people kept coming up to us and saying how beautiful I was. It was just so wonderful to be out with all those people who were caring about the world they were living in and trying to make it a better place. Lots of people appreciated that I was a symbol for what they were trying to exercise as citizens, which was liberty and freedom—freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and freedom to question whether their government was representing the will of the people. That made me feel wonderful and filled with purpose. After that, I wanted to go out as much as possible.

Since that day I have been out in more crowds and more demonstrations and protests than I can keep track of.  I marched in the Halloween Parade. I have walked in solidarity with union workers. I have marched against fracking and other destructive activities fueled by corporate greed, which are ruining our planet and causing climate change. I have stood outside courtrooms waiting for people to be vindicated after being arrested for standing up for exercising free speech and fighting for issues they believe are moral and right. I have walked in solidarity with many immigrant groups—the same groups that my big sister standing in the harbor was given to the country in order to welcome, with a torch of hope to a land claiming to be a refuge of freedom and opportunity. I don't hold a torch but I have held signs and human hands. I held, in solidarity, the flags of other countries whose citizens seek freedom. My arms have embraced many, many occupiers—both young and old, countless children, New Yorkers, visitors from all over the world as well as police officers.

I've marched across the Brooklyn Bridge several times. I was luckily not arrested with the big group that was lured by the police into a mass arrest there. I guess I am lucky not to have been arrested yet, though there is a picture of me somewhere with my hands against the wall, and my poles have been ordered to be removed several times because they were considered weapons. I suppose in some ways I am a weapon, a weapon for helping to draw people's attention to what is going on around them in this country, what is affecting them, and what they can still do about it. I have been very confused by the police officers. I keep thinking that the Occupy movement is about the 99%, and the police are certainly part of the 99%. They are union members, and they worry about their families and their pensions, so I can’t help thinking that they must be walking with us in solidarity. Many times I have been smiled at by officers and even allowed to walk among their scooters when there was scaffolding on the sidewalk I couldn’t fit under, but I have also seen them be rough with my human compatriots. This is still something I think I need to figure out. My compatriots have tried to explain that the police are not really working to protect citizens, but instead work more to protect corporate and political interests. I think that must be very hard for them. Perhaps things will change. We all believe anything can change, but it has to be helped to change and that is, ultimately, why I am here.

It's now going into the third year since I was first made. I think I must have been in over a hundred actions. Whenever we would arrive at Zuccotti Park or at any Occupy event, it just created a more cheerful mood. There were always many applauses and welcomes. People remember the visuals of a demonstration. They create something that visibly describes what was happening beyond just signs with words. It creates a picture of what we want to see. This whole idea of my creation was at the core of what Occupy Wall Street fights for, liberty for all people. It’s a use of art as a form of social service. Art in general, and puppetry in particular, are brilliant ways to engage our own hearts and imaginations, and those of the public, as we seek to articulate solutions to the injustices of our world. They encourage conversation, participation, de-escalate tensions, and palpably affect the tone of actions, making them more inviting. There's a pronounced difference in an action where puppets are present, a greater sense of life, of beauty, a demonstration of what we are working to create, not just dismantle. The difference between a demonstration and an angry mob is art. Art is the manifestation of our desire not just to destroy the things in the world we don't like, but also to create things that are beautiful and meaningful. 

My friends in the People's Puppets quickly realized the power of puppetry for social change, so they started creating different visuals and different puppets for specific actions, like when Obama and Romney were built for the elections and the debt monsters that came about during the conversation around student debt, but I think one of the best days of my life was when my sister, Lady Justice, was made in all her golden glory, with her sword and scales. I love going out with her more than anything. Justice goes out on her own a lot these days, while I stay in and enjoy some much needed rest after the last two years of protesting. She’s really into going out and supporting courtroom protests and political prisoner issues. She went down to DC for the Chelsea Manning protests. I look forward to getting out on the streets with her again in the future. In my downtime, I’ve become heavily involved in the anti-fracking infrastructure movement, and I’ve been encouraging my puppet friends to bring more arts to the environmental events. 

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of problems in the world. When anyone is being oppressed, when anyone’s liberty is being threatened, there’s something wrong with the world. When people are being put in a place of disadvantage to benefit someone else, then something needs to change. Most of the problems can be boiled down to economic inequality and greed created by a fear of not having enough. The concept of greed as virtue is quite literally destroying the planet. We come together to push for social change because we are living in such an unbalanced world, a world where a small portion of people are taking away the rights to a healthy and stable life just for their own personal gain, and they are teaching these values to the greater world. We are striving to be a better example, to teach the world that another world is, indeed, possible.

One of the most important messages my friends and I have been trying to convey with our visuals is that all of our grievances are connected, that all these issues that people have been fighting have a common thread. People have been fighting for fair wages,  environmental justice,  racial justice and many other issues, but each of these issues has been fought individually, and what we want to say is that these issues are inseparable. They are all intertwined. They all affect each other. Me, the Pipeline Monster, Lady Justice, and the Debt Monsters are really all fighting for the same thing. Our issues are interconnected. An absolute resolution of any of these issues is impossible without also addressing the other issues, without getting to the core of what brings about these problems in the first place.  

 We want to see a world where there is liberty and justice for all. We want to see an end to oppression and a world where people recognize that everyone and everything is interconnected, where we  recognize the impact that we all have on our planet, each other and ourselves. We want a world where the creative potential of every person is allowed to flourish. We want to live in harmony with the energy systems of our natural world, where all life on this planet is respected as our family unit, where we can see that we cannot live a full life without each other. Human beings are amazing because we are creative. There is nothing we can't do if we work together without fear of failure. We are creatures with much higher consciousness potential than we are exercising as a species right now. We have the ability to create a more equitable world if we see ourselves in each other and begin to treat each other with empathy and kindness. This push for our conscious evolution includes caring that everyone has homes, food, fresh water and air and a comfortable, safe planet to live on. As long as our struggles continue, I plan to be there out in the streets with my friends who created and maintain me, showing with art that we can create a more just and freer world.

~Lady Liberty

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