GPI Gathering: Sunday, January 21
Attendees: Laurie, Jeff, Ken
Jan. 27 Mobilization
· Rhythm Workers Union are meeting at 5th Ave (on Mall). Putting together Mother Drum Ship at 10:30, call to meet at 11AM. Expecting about 10 DC RWU, with about 5 from out of Town. March moves at 1pm (Laurie planning to meet with this group)
· Jeff is meeting with Howard Community College SDS aka Radical Block – marching from Dupont Circle at 11AM.
· Critical Mass from Dupont at 2pm on Saturday of the March.
· Ken has been doing some outreach — also potentially doing the stage management on the day of. Focus on keeping the program short – because of the weather etc. Massive Civil disobedience planned – but no specific details are yet available. Telling folks to bring white roses, which is symbolic of a anti-nazi underground group that resisted during Nazi Germany. Expecting about 500,000 to be there.
ACTION ITEM:
Laurie to send to Ken chant sheets
Laurie will make sure GPI system is deployed
NCOR Workshop
March 9-11
NEED TO RESPOND TO NCOR WITH NAMES OF PRESENTERS!!!
· Jeff wants to be one of the presenters, NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS? WHO IS WILLING???
· Ken volunteered to help out with drumming instruction with a specific focus on rhythms.
· We will need drums and shakers.
Upcoming performances
FRI. Feb. 2 – Shanti-Saallam – NOT PERFORMANCE
· Potters House in Adams Morgan (No more details available at this time)
SAT. Feb. 3 Juliana Bottomlining: Laila, Mo, Laurie, Bob, Cherie,Kristan and myself
· Saturday, February 3, 7:00PM
· Benefit to support Oglala elders
St. Stephens and the Incarnation Church
16th and Newton Sts. NW (Columbia Heights Metro)
Sept/Oct
· Nathan of Jubilee is looking for poets to write on fasting as part of a National Rolling Fast. You can get more details by emailing: nfishmannj@yahoo.com
ReportBacks
· Ken say a great movie on Cuba that put on SALSA — he’s planning to get a copy and hopes to put together a screening in the future.
· Empower DC Gig – featured Joe Briggs and Lamont Carey – great messaging and reception.
ADMIN
Permit
· Laurie will take on
Weekly Announcements
· Johanna is no longer assisting with this.
· Anyone else willing to do every other week, alternating with Laurie?
Artist List
· Planning to send out email to artists to continue efforts to decentralize performance opportunities.
· Help to send to list that already exists as well as those that are not.
· CAN YOU HELP?
· Email below
· Before sending – be sure to check in with Laurie and Mo to be sure we don’t duplicate efforts.
XX:
We are updating and preparing to implement a new system of communication with the artist network of the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency (GPI). Sometime in the past you had signed up and/or were added due to a performance and/or in contact with one of us who thought you were dope.
We've found over the last 3+ years that GPI gets more performance requests then we can actually handle, so we wanted to come up with an easy way for people looking for politically conscious artists to be able to find them. Therefore we would like to create a listserv to be able to communicate with our artists. It would work in 3 ways:
1) A guerrilla would send you an email with the details of an event they were organizing. You would contact that guerrilla with your interest in performing and they'd respond with details, availability etc.
2) An organization/individual would send an email to the GPI website and request artists for an engagement. If no guerrilla (from a separate high traffic, highly active guerrilla core) is willing to "organize" the event we'd put it out to the full list serv with contact details. It would then be up to you to contact the organization/individual to arrange your participation in their event.
3) The artists on the listserv would be compiled into an excel spreadsheet (or searchable database) which would allow an organization/individual looking for a particular artist or artist type to contact individuals directly.
You are NEVER under any obligation to participate and perform, unless you agree to, of course. We hope this will make our process more transparent and extend opportunities to ALL our artists vs. our most active members.
If you're willing to be a part of our network and hear about performance opportunities, please complete the information below:
First Name:
Last Name:
email:
phone no (optional, but suggested):
Artist Type (check all that apply/are performance ready):
Poet/Spoken Word
Singer
Drummer
Percussionist
Guitar
Bass
Other Instrument(s):
Subject Matter of Poetry (loosely):
(Examples: peace and justice, anti-war, affordable housing, homelessness, New Orleans, World Bank, 9/11, immigration, DC Centric, etc)
Please return the above information to m0indc@gmail.com.
Peace, love and creativity –
XXX
DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency
Discussion:
· Be sure that no one is able to send them marketing info.
· Would only be able to get the list by working/talking with a core guerrilla.
· Look into creating a calendar that artists could come look up that would specifically list upcoming performance opportunities.
· Create a form that requestors would fill out which would populate calendar and make emailing easy.
ACTION ITEM:
Laurie to talk with Andrew reg. potential improvements to website expanding artist network
Announcements
· Jan. 22: Pro-Life march occurring starting on Mall, going to Supreme Court. A group of counter-protesters are being organized, meet at 11AM at Smithsonian Metro. Hit up Jeff if you want more info/have questions. Jeff will be unveiling his Jesus art.
· Jan. 30 – Empower DC Empowerment Circle on basics of DC Government –6:30-8:30pm, 1819 V St, NW
· Jan. 31 — Immigration Impacting Race, 6:45 at Al Fishawy, 4132 Georgia Ave., NW
· March 2008 Split this Rock, Poetry festival being organized by DC Poets Against the War and Busboys and Poets
Anything else folks want to discuss
Retreat in Spring
· Abrams Creek – It will cost folks $20 per night + food – might be able to negotiate a better deal if folks would be willing to do some “improvement†“work†for the place while we are there.
Discussion
· Discussed setting up separate food committee and/or even letting folks go it along (since there will be a charge for space).
· Jeff potentially able to donate some food to the retreat and definitely interested in cooking
· If we do food, collect money collected up front.
· Money for the space will be collected by Abram’s Creek
· Agreed to set aside some time to do a work project to help bring costs down.
· Ken has a van – so car pooling
ACTION ITEMS
Laurie to discuss options for cheaper per night fee (based on numbers or willingness to contribute to space).
Workshop Opportunity
· Jeff met Coleman McCarthy (Center for Peace Studies and a teacher at BCC – Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School) and he expressed interest in the GPI coming to work with students. Jeff is taking the lead and will let the group know next steps as they arise.
Banner
· Almost finished with the basics
· Will consult with Doug Calvin regarding next variation.