Lights, Camera, Action...

By Maya Schenwar, Conscious Choice. Posted July 7, 2004.

College senior Spencer Kingman bears all the marks of the stereotypical young leftist activist: He attends liberal Columbia College, studies documentary film, and spends his free time concocting new ways to shake up public opinion. But don't expect to run into him at the next mass peace march.

In the midst of an anti-war rally in Chicago in spring 2003, Kingman had an epiphany: conventional protest just wasn't working. Completely surrounded by riot police, watching hundreds of protestors being prodded and arrested, his isolation and helplessness were palpable. "I felt weak and irrelevant, for sure, but I was also learning things about political power," says Kingman, who is a member of Columbia's grass roots action group, On the Ground. "I wanted to protest in a way that circumvented this suffocating police control. I wanted to move about freely, interact with people who didn't agree with me, be in charge of my situation."

This type of thinking is what ultimately led Kingman to join a small guerilla theater group; a venue that he says allows him to voice his opinion without being silenced. Since then, he has worked to devise alternative ways to catch the public eye, such as staged political debates in Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) stations and a "sleep-in" on Michigan Avenue during rush hour. "I think protest is always most powerful when it is coming from the places where protest isn't supposed to happen," says Kingman. "Protestors are easy to recognize and easy to ignore, because everyone expects 'protestors' to protest. I have always been more moved by protest at work, in classrooms, at family reunions, in church -- places where it sort of breaks the rules."

What Kingman is advocating is simple: Protests need a makeover. In the current conservative political climate, left-of-center activists need extra oomph if they want the public to listen. The new approach to protest is about surprising people, pushing creativity to the hilt, and having a good time to boot.

Small, alternative-group protest tactics have grown increasingly popular on Chicago-area college campuses. Mateo Hinojosa, a junior at Northwestern University and a member of the group Northwestern Opposing War And Racism (NOWAR), has spearheaded subversive action through guerilla skits, puppetry and public art, in hopes of "galvanizing the apathetic."

Hinojosa explains that strategies framed with drama and music catch people off guard and capture the attention of those who might refuse a flyer, walk past a sit-in or ignore a letter to the editor.

During one action at Northwestern, the group rushed into a crowded cafeteria, banged a drum and acted out depictions of racial profiling and violence against Muslims. The goal was to heighten awareness of anti-Muslim harassment by bringing students face-to-face with the issue, according to NOWAR member Brian Crotty. NOWAR also staged a mock funeral procession that wove its way through campus, depicting mourning Iraqi mothers and paper-bag-headed "Big Oil" moguls with bloody papier-mâché hands. "People were kind of taken aback that we had the guts to go all out," says Crotty. "It definitely sparked discussion that I heard later."

As with Kingman and On the Ground, NOWAR members have taken the Iraq War, with its continuing struggles, as an impetus for further activism – not a sign to slow down. "The peace movement remains a very real and very powerful force," says Hinojosa, who is currently studying abroad in Cameroon, where he's producing a bilingual, social justice-oriented play.

1-2-3-4, We Don't Want Another War!

Since the official end of the Iraq War, another quirky protest tactic has become higher profile: cheerleading. "Radical cheerleaders" – groups of skirt-swishing rabble rousers of all shapes, sizes and genders – have taken to the streets. Squads have popped up in almost every major city in the U.S. and Canada, as well as in the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Rome, Warsaw, London and Northern Ireland, according to Mary Christmas, a radical cheerleading pioneer who started the Haymarket Hussies squad in Chicago four years ago.

Cheerleading is a fresh alternative to the typical protest chant, says Queefer Suthernland of the Chicago squad, Lickity Split. "It's a political, farcical, loud, crowd-appealing sing-along for those dissatisfied with American society." Lickity Split takes advantage of cheerleading's direct, shout-it-out approach:

I won't believe one more excuse!

GEORGE BUSH

Give us truth and stop abuse!

GEORGE BUSH

However, Christmas also notes that in the current politically conservative climate, cheerleading, which conjures up nostalgic images of squeaky clean, simpler times, has drawing power with the mainstream. Hence, creates an opportunity for poignant social commentary. "Cheerleading is a more conservative, status-quo reference, and it surprises people when cheerleaders turn out to be feminist and revolutionary," says Christmas. "That surprise captures attention, and besides, cheerleading is popular in the mainstream for a reason. It's catchy, it's fun, it's infective."

Chicagoan Maya Schenwar, a former Conscious Choice intern, will be a senior at Pennsylvania's Swarthmore College.

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