Profiled in CULTUREJAM, Reverend Billy is a long-time performance activist as the head of The Church of Stop Shopping. Taking his unique blend of evangelist preacher and anti-consumer culture message to a recent Critical Mass gathering of bicycle enthusiasts in New York City's Union Square, the Reverend was arrested reading the First Amendment into a bullhorn. The police site harassment as the charge. Tom Hayes reports on the story for the Associated Press, NYC Man held for reciting 1st Amendment.

Labels: activism, independent media, reverend billy, street art

The New York Times reports, "Depending on your point of view, the hulking 19th-century brick building at 11 Spring Street in NoLIta [New York City], a former stable and carriage house, was either a stunning eyesore or one of the most famous canvases and lodestars in the world for urban artists. When those of the latter view heard recently that the building had been sold and would soon be gutted and converted into condominiums, they considered it the end of an era.

11 Spring Street is featured extensively in our film TO BE SEEN, which examines the roll street art plays in urban culture, commercial culture, and the art world. Additionally, THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT, a new Chris Marker film that looks at a street art phenomenon in Paris, opens theatrically on December 20.

Labels: Chris Marker, graffiti, NYC, street art, urban studies