Alena Rosen

The Fair Trade Clothing Co-op (FTCC) held a celebration of its first anniversary at the Smiling Buddha Bar on Saturday August 4th, 2007. Starting up out of Kensington Market in 2006, the FTCC soon moved to their current retail location inside of Seekers Books (509 Bloor St. W). The Fair Trade Clothing Co-op is the first of its kind in Toronto, with an emphasis on a worker-run business and a fair trade ethic. Contracting primarily with the Single Mother’s Co- op (Cooperativa de Madres Solteras) of El Salvador, the FTCC is involved both with retail and wholesale sales, and do their own silk-screening. The Smiling Buddha Bar (961 College St.) is a good venue for small, intimate events, such as this one. After negotiating with a lineup change and the friendly folk manning the merchandise table, me and my compadres settled into a cozy blue velveteen couch. DJ Grand kept the records spinning in between sets.

While politics in music are nothing new, there’s something about political themes in hip-hop that grab the listener. This is what the music was meant for. The unbilled second act, a local MC by the name of Testament, came in with a fresh response to Mims’ much remixed radio hit “This is why I’m Hot”, rhyming “This is why I’m not[…]not gonna buy/not gonna shop.” Self-described as “not a rapper, but a revolutionary that raps GOOD,” Testament brought politically focused raps over some familiar crowd-favourite samples. His set was peppered with clever rhymes like “Local hands…boycott global brands,” which was delivered over a sampling of the most excellent Nas and Lauryn Hill collaboration “If I ruled the world. Testament’s socially conscious lyrics overtook the quiet beats, and the vocal delivery was crisp and concise. Testament is fun and political, a one-man hip-hop Propaghandi.

The Dope Poet Society, with tunes like their classic “Fuck Mike Harris”, have long been established as one of the leading underground Canadian hip-hop groups. Their infamy was in evidence as the small dance floor filled up with the arrival of Professor D and DJ Spinister, also joined by Georgia Fox, Newsense, and Thereasa. The Dope Poets got the party started with a rendition of Dead Prez’s “(It’s bigger than) Hip Hop”. With beats pumping away at about twice the level of the previous acts, their slick, driving lyrics were harder to decipher. Yes, this means they have skills. The Dope Poet Society delivered several numbers off their newest album, including the rousing title track “PROINTELPRO” with Thereasa on the chorus, a play on the FBI’s COINTELPRO. The Beatles influenced “I get high” felt out of place –there weren’t any Beatles fans in the audience, a first for the Dope Poets. Times change, but the Dope Poet Society still brings a bang.

Lila Rose, as the opener and only non-hip-hop of the night, started strong with an accapella spoken word piece. While Lila often performs backed by a more numerous band, she delivered a powerful set joined by Jason Dandeno on upright bass. Listening to Lila is like having a friend taking you close, whispering confidences in your ear. Her songs are both intimate and strong, and communicate hope and warmth, with a good groove. Her lyrics and vocals, ranging in delivery from sweet to aggressive, maintain positive, proactive message. While Jason added to the energy on stage, the best moments of the set were Lila’s solo performances. The most powerful song of the entire evening was an experimental “in progress” song. Haunting, ethereal looped vocals and live pedal effects transported the listener from a small bar in downtown Toronto, to a better place.

Youth Challenge International (www.yci.org) builds the skills, experience and confidence of young people to affect positive change in their communities. YCI believes that young people have a unique perspective that can have a significant impact in Canadian society and on our national and foreign policy. As a result, they established a network of teams to facilitate youth-identified grassroots projects aimed at developing creative ideas and policy solutions to pressing global and local issues. The Youth Leadership Action Team is one of the teams created by YCI.

The Youth Leadership Team wanted to provide opportunities that empower youth to actively participate and contribute to the local and global community. It is clear that youth today believe they have a significant contribution to make to the world, but they feel as though their views and opinions are not taken seriously. A disconnection exists between youths’ desire to be active participants in the larger community and the belief that their contributions are not viewed as valuable.
In response to this, the Youth Leadership Action Team decided to host an art competition and exhibit for youth aged 15 –24. We asked youth to submit a creative expression demonstrating what Gandhi’s statement “Be the Change you want to see in World” means to them. Participants were allowed to submit any creative piece using any medium they desired. All entries were judged by a pre-selected panel and the winner received a $1,000 scholarship to a leadership and development course of their choice! Second and third prizes were also awarded and these prizes included an iPod Shuffle and Camera bag. First prize was awarded to Shasta Grant from Nova Scotia. She entered a canvass painting that explored the themes of global injustice and excess. Second prize went to a video from Kai Zhuang and Emma Janssen. The video focused on the ways in which people combat negative thoughts and make a difference in the world. Joey Lawrence was the third prize winner and his entry was a photograph illustrating how children are able to make the best out of difficult situations. In total 11 pieces were received and everyone did a fantastic job demonstrating the quote from Gandhi.

All art work was shown at an art exhibit on July 21, 2007 at Whipper Snapper Gallery in Toronto. The proceeds from the event were given to an organization
called Beatz to da Streetz, a youth-led arts program that aims to provide a safe and supportive space for youth aged 16-24. The program leverages the powerful connection between young people and music to promote opportunities for creative expression and self-discovery, building life skills, opening access to professional mentorship, education and income generation. At the exhibit five musicians, Romeo, Murda Qually, The Voyce, Marv and Smooth J, from Beatz attended and performed for the audience. Their music spoke about youth and the impact their actions can have on the world today. It was a great celebration of creativity and young talent.

The Youth Leadership Action Team wanted to encourage and stimulate youth to take action! The above quote from Gandhi fit with this intention beautifully. Gandhi was one of the most influential leaders to emerge during the 20th century and he is a great example of someone who made a positive and significant change in his country. It is this spirit that the team wanted to convey. The Youth Leadership Action Team wants youth to feel that they have the ability and tools to make positive changes in the world in which they live!

Cultural Resistance Reader
by Stephen Duncombe
Verso: New York, 2002.
ISBN: 1-85984-659-9
“Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
-Bertolt Brecht

Spanning centuries of writings and happenings, Stephen Duncombe’s Cultural Resistance Reader gives a history of a different type of activism. Defined in his introduction, cultural resistance is “culture [including art, actions, subcultures and alternative communities] that is used, consciously or unconsciously, effectively or not, to resist and/or change the dominant political, economic and/or social structure”.

The reader (which means a collection of essays or writings from a variety of people on one theme or subject) spans centuries of cultural resistance and activism, from the Diggers of England who tried to reclaim land for the poor, to the Riot Grrrls of the early 90s who carved out their own identity in the face of macho, heterosexist punk and grunge subcultures. The best part is that Duncombe’s selection mixes the bigshots of the academic Establishment- like Karl Marx (The German Ideology) and Mahatma Gandhi (Hind Swaraj) with less academic (but no less thoughtful and impactful) rebels like Kathleen Hanna and her fellow Riot Grrrls (Riot Grrrl Is…). This lends credibility and enriches both sides of the spectrum, allowing people who only know the ‘classics’ expose themselves to younger, outsider thoughts, and younger people who may have grown up immersed in the many activist subcultures discover and connect to similarly-minded writers from generations before.

Best of all for me, this reader contains my favourite essay ever written in the history of humanity, a must-read for all feminists and gender-equality activists; A Room of One’s Own, by the hugely talented and influential Virginia Woolf in 1929. A lot of young people I’ve been talking to haven’t come across Woolf and her witty, incisive, beautiful essay on the state of women writers and womankind in her time. An eloquent work, this is my kind of feminism. With this wide sampling of writers and thoughts through the ages, you may find your new favourite rebel in this book.

WILDFIRE: Art as Activism
Ed. Deborah Barndt
Verso: Toronto, 2006
ISBN: 1-894549-55-4

Although not as enthralling as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Wild Fire, Art as Activism is a great read. The book is a collaboration of short personal essays of different individuals’ experience with using and producing art through activism. This was a very inspiring book to read—during a few of the stories I was torn between the desire to finish reading and the sudden inspiration to jump up and start doing something myself. This is a great book for anyone, like myself, who doesn’t know just where to get started in making a difference. You don’t have to picket debates, start riots and get arrested in order to show passion and maybe change someone’s mind. Activism can take many forms and seems very effective through art, as it can reach beyond age, class and language barriers. I don’t want to give away all the good bits, but I started keeping a page of favourite quotes from the book as my bookmark, and this one stands out to me:

“…a passion that is not only an expression of life but also a way of living.”

That’s what I want art/activism to be for me!

The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics
Eds. Milton Glaser and Steven Heller
Verso: Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2006
ISBN: 978-1-59253-307-7

If you believe that talk of sex, religion and politics has no place in polite discussion than this is not the book for you (or
magazine for that matter). The Design of Dissent is an amazing collection of politically charged art compiled by Milton Glaser (the guy behind the I heart NY campaign and co-founder of New York Magazine) and Mirko Ilic (an established graphic designer who has worked on Time, the New York Times and taught at Cooper-Union). Presenting topics such as communism, media, gun control, equality and animal rights, this book is stuffed with stunning images from cover to cover. Some gruesome, some funny and all poignant. Everything in this book has been well thought out and aims to change the way you look at things, right down to the table of contents placed on the last page. Providing a well rounded mix of political and environmental issues, and of course some good old Bush-bashing (who can resist?), this is truly a worth while addition to your personal library. Perhaps what is most valuable about this book is that the messages come, for the most part, from the people who are actually involved and living in the situations on issues. Artists come from countries such as Iraq, Palestine, Israel and Ex-Yugoslavia, on which we often receive such skewed perceptions from the western media. Another aspect which I found interesting was seeing how very relevant and current works created quite a while ago (up to around 25 years) are today. It can be said that it is people, not art, that create change, but art inspires people, and it is inspiration that we need as fuel to continue to fight for better tomorrows. The Design of Dissent is a high octane choice.