“The infringement Festival is an interdisciplinary festival open to all critical artists.  Celebrating freedom of expression and designed as a real arts democracy, this festival is a critical response to the oppressive neoliberal worldview and all its billboard trucks, televisions, flyers, advertisements, jingles, made-for-TV Wars; and the depoliticisation of people through this diversionary Spectacle.”

These are words of wisdom and I knew that the artists of Brooklyn could get behind this.  We decided to start off small this year.  The core artists participating in the festival were musicians from the labels Wake UP records and Anvil Entertainment.  We are a tight group of non-commercial Brooklyn Musicians.   We got the crowd  dancing and everyone was having a great time at both venues, Don Pedro and the Jungle.

I plan on the festival growing next year.  I’d love to branch out and include some acting and dance companies in it.

I’d like to educate the audience more on what the Infringement Festival really stands for.  I think the best way to let people know what Infringement is all about is to spread the mandate.  I hope to post it far and wide throughout Brooklyn this year.   Also having literature available at shows and talks would real nice.  It’s going to be a fun year and I hope to get many more people and groups and venues involved.

Groups interested in participating next year should please contact me at brooklyn@infringementfestival.com

I have been getting involved in theatrical experiments commenting on global culture and consumerism.

This recent Buy Nothing Day, Optative Theatre Laboratories planned a performance at the flag-ship American Apparel store on St. Laurent. Unfortunately, American Apparel didn’t think very much of our statement and tried to shut us down before we could even get started.

They sent a rat into our midst in order to find out information. When we got to the store, we were greeted by security officers grabbing our camera men and thugs trying to push us outside. We were still able to finish the jam and handed out our information on American Apparel to customers going in and out of the store. We also compiled some video footage of what did occur during the course of our little experiment.

Afterwards, due to what was dubbed activist “blue-balls”, we did a performance of Death By Late at a local Starbucks. We went in to the store in pairs and began to discuss the pro’s and con’s of the Starbucks organization. After all the groups were in place, we began to choke on the coffee and dive onto the floor of the shop. Our statement seemed to be better received in this case, with even some of the customers applauding our performance. The employees here were totally clueless and didn’t do anything to stop us.

In regards to the attempted performance, I am most concerned about the fact that American Apparel took so much effort to stop our statement. They claim to be “hip” and young and capitalize on activist chic, however when it comes down to it they have proven to be nothing more than another corporation trying to keep their image clean.

If they didn’t have anything to hide, they could have allowed us to make our statement. If there was nothing wrong with their corporation, they could of let us slit our own throats and let their loyal customers protect them. But what did they do? They took the time and effort to infiltrate our meeting and tried to stop us from commenting on their business. Isn’t this a free country? Aren’t we supposed, in fact, to criticize corporations? What would happen to us if we lost the ability to criticize what we don’t like?

In doing my research on AA, I found a lot of information on their business practices that I liked. It seems like a lot of people out there are rooting for them. They certainly aren’t the worst by far. The problem that I am facing now, is wondering which propaganda was from their spin people and due to corporate propaganda and what was real? If they take this much effort to stop people from making a comment on their drawbacks, is this positivity legit? There are definitely some problems with the way that they are running things.

I have a problem with the fact that there was a movement to establish a union in their LA factory that the company put down. I know that there are a lot of drawbacks to unions and that they can be corrupt as well but I also think that it is possible for a union to be helpful to the employees…isn’t that what they are there for, after all? One of the excuses they use for why this isn’t bad is that none of the other garment manufacturers in LA have unions for their employees. I say, so what? Nobody else is doing it isn’t a valid reason for not doing something. If we all used that kind of logic, we wouldn’t accomplish anything.

Another small, trifling, little problem is the sexism (blatently, glaring, so incredibly obviously) apparent in the actions of the head of American Apparel, Dov Charney. Our entire experiment was meant to spoof the behavior of this rather eccentric leader. Several women seem to have sexual harassment suits against him at this very moment. He is also reported to conduct business meetings in his underwear, to hire women because he is sexually attracted to them, to masturbate during magazine interviews…and the list goes on… Personally, if you want to masturbate during an interview and the person doing the interview is okay with that, all the power to you. I don’t really care about someone’s sexual practices unless those practices make people in the workplace uncomfortable.

As a woman who has been sexually harassed by her boss before, I find these allegations extremely distasteful. A woman should be able to go to work without having to deal with her boss hitting on her. There are all sorts of reasons why this is wrong, such as: the difficulty in rejecting a boss’ advances without being fired, feeling like your looks are the only reason that you have a job (and thus feeling degraded) to mention a few. They should at least have a policy for sexual harassment. There should be some way that women can feel empowered in their workplace. Are his employees his toys, just little dolls for him to fondle, hire and fire, and parade around in his ads?

The ads are a whole other story. I’m on the borderline about them. I think that there are definitely a lot of women who wouldn’t mind someone taking a picture of their crotch or their ass, tits, etc. There are lots of women, and men, who quite enjoy any sort of publicity that flatters their egos. We do live in a free society and if people want to allow a corporation to use their bodies to sell a product, that is their prerogative. The message of the ad campaign, while slightly vulgar and not terribly intelligent…also has it good points. They are pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in advertising, they are doing something slightly new. The problem that I have with it, personally is with the parts of it that aren’t new at all. They are still objectifying the female body (not new) and this time they are not using a thigh or a shin, a waist or an ear, they are using a woman’s vagina. So, when you look at the woman’s sexual organ, covered (barely) in American Apparel clothing you think, I want those underwear. I was happy that my vag was unclaimed territory. Looking down at my pussy was never a consumer experience for me.

Thanks American Apparel for associating my sexuality with a product. They also seem to put women in roles in which they don’t appear to be expressing their sexual liberation, they look like scared little girls under the eyes of MAN (yes, capital M.A.N.). There’s even a picture of a girls face with a big ugly man hand (supposedly the camera man’s hand?) grabbing her chin in a gesture that seems to say daddy’s little girl (it makes me want to fucking puke!).So, here are some suggestions for ways in which to use female sexuality in a liberating way:

1) Don’t have women cowering and naked with the camera man at a higher angle (this one seems fairly obvious to me…)

2) How about using some models over 18? Maybe some women who can defend themselves?

3) How about some pictures of girls masturbating (as though on their own).

4) How about putting the women in a powerful role, upward angled shots, women straddling men, etc.

5) Look at the dynamic, if the camera man in dominating the subject you will get pictures of women being dominated. Therefore, allow the subject to dominate.

People just don’t seem to get it! If all we see in the media is women in lower positions, women being dominated by men, and in AA ads, women bending over and showing off their sex organs for a FUCKING TSHIRT COMPANY then we get a distorted image of what we are as women. Don’t buy American Apparel. For the sake of woman kind, don’t model for them, don’t work for them, don’t think highly of them. They are trying to tell us that they are our liberators; they are using us. They are using us like we have been used before, been used for hundreds of years. Don’t bend over for the corporation, don’t gladly sell your body, stand up and speak up, even if they try to silence you.

Visit Cassandra’s blog: http://cassandratheprophetess.blogspot.com
For more on the jam (including videos and pics) log onto www.optative.net/bnd/aastory.html

Dear Editor,

I was touched to see Michael Black taking us on a trip down memeory lane in his recent letter (“You Might Enjoy Our Fringe Coverage Pages 29-31, page 5, HOUR June 9″). Of the current “dysfunctional family” Fringe program, Black laments that “I don’t see things that jump out at me, unlike a decade ago where a family from the West Island did a show about Dr. Seuss.”

As the director and co-author of “Who Ran Off With Dr. Seuss” presented by the Wahoo Family Theatre Company at the 1994 Fringe, I cannot agree more that the nature of the festival is nothing like it was when dedicated artists, myself included, did everything in our power to create and maintain the Fringe as a fertile ground for artists and their wild imaginations.

After the word “Fringe” was trademaked in Toronto (1998), the festival quickly declined into a pale shadow of its former cultural glory.

Luckily now there is the infringement festival, a place that is sure to delight Mr. Black. With over 65 acts from Montreal and beyond that capture the spirit and creativity of the bygone Fringe era, Mr. Black may well come to realize that the arts aren’t dead yet in Montreal. Not only does the infringement have an air-conditioned central location with cheap beer, free pool, and live music from Noon – 6 every day at BARFLY (4062 St. Laurent), but it also showcases artists of all stripes who would support the 21st Century concepts of arts democracy, non-hierarchal organization, critical performance, celebration of otherness, and the end of pay-to-play for artists as we know it.

Most of all it is a strong family of dedicated artists and activists – just like it was at the original (pre-trademarked) Montreal Fringe. Critics and journalists should take note too – the infringement festival deserves coverage and support – especially with so many critical acts such as “You’ll Never Piss in This Town Again” by transgendered Bostonian performer S. Bear Bergman.

I certainly hope to see better coverage in HOUR, who apparently forgot to mention the festival at all in its theatre column last week. For more information please visit: http://infringementfestival.com/

Donovan King, Artistic Facilitator
Optative Theatrical Laboratories
www.optative.net

Art is not a mirror to reflect reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.” – Bertolt Brecht

It all started with Michael Black’s annual advertisement for the Fringe(tm) deadlines. This year, he went beyond his typical cheerleading to bring up some interesting points:

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2004/111104/letters.html

(its about halfway down the page and called “Fringe heads up”)

I responded in hopes of informing people struggling with the issues Mr. Black brought up that they have another option:

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2004/112504/letters.html

(fourth letter down called Infringement heads up)

This letter drew an inexplicably harsh attack from none other than Montréal Fringe(tm) producer Jeremy Hechtman:

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2004/120204/letters.html

(third down, Fringe fires back)

This was a baseless attack on infringement Artists. Mr. Hechtman even went as far as insinuating that we were like the Republican Party. As someone who went to both NYC and Ottawa to protest Bush with other like-minded people in the infringement movement (not to mention our involvement in countless actions against corporate opression here in Montréal), I found those comments both laughable and insulting and felt compelled to write a response. Other infringers did the same.

Ultimately, though, it was Vivian Unger who said in the press what most of us here were already thinking (thanks, Vivian!) :

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2004/120904/letters.html

(last letter on the page, Infringement riposte!)

So let me know what you think. If you have a letter, send it to me and I’ll post it here.

For now, here’s some of the letters we sent that have not yet been published.

’till next time,

Jason

***

In response to Jeremy Hechtman’s question (Fringe fires back, letters, December 2nd), I was referring more to practical guidelines such as the December deadline and the registration fee (which I mentioned elsewhere in the letter) than specifically artistic ones like the unwritten rule the Fringe has about not pissing off their sponsors if you want to stay in the festival.

I do find it funny, however, that Mr. Hechtman thinks infringement artists would be “more at home joining the Republican Party” when we have a clear mandate to nurture critical art and encourage it to infringe on opressive structures like the GOP or more local “lie-spreading bullies.”

In fact, by focusing on one little line, and then turning to name-calling in hopes people will forget that we charge nothing to join, strive for diversity and put the artists ahead of the sponsors, you are employing the same tactics the neo-cons use to convince people they’re really just a swell bunch of guys.

We should all work to strengthen and diversify this community’s artists, not hinder them.

Jason C. McLean

Chaos Organizer – The infringement Festival (Montréal)

www.infringementfestival.com

***

I find it ironic that in his letter to the editor bashing the rival inFRINGEment festival [letters, Fringe Fires Back] Fringe Boss Jeremy Hechtman would stoop so low as to accuse us of being closet Republicans!

While he doubtless scored some cheap points with his “swift-boat veterans for Henchman” type distortion the reality is quite different.

The inFRINGEment has been, from it’s outset, a people’s festival. Created as a critical response to the corporatization, exorbitant fees and, in at least one instance, blatant censorship of the St. Ambroise Montreal Fringe FestivalTM the inFRINGEment has sought to offer artists a choice. Between high entry fees and ticket surcharges – and no fees at all. Between a festival beholden to corporate sponsors – and a festival which lives and breathes an anti-corporate ethos.

Last year’s critical success, with both media and audiences, and the expansion of the inFRINGEment to three new cities has provided us with the credibility and profile to offer just such a choice to our fellow artists.

The problem for Mr. Hechtman? The artists are choosing, and they are choosing in record numbers. And really, who can blame them? The financial advantage alone is enormous, not to mention the opportunity to dispense with lotteries, deadlines and other bureaucratic nonsense and participate in reclaiming our culture.

So perhaps Mr. Hechtman can be forgiven for his bile. However, the irony of accusing the inFRINGEment of Republican tendencies is too much to pass up.

The organizers of the inFRINGEment organized a wildly successful touring fundraiser named Bush Fire in Toronto and Montreal earlier this year. It was an off-season inFRINGEagain event put together to help subsidize the buses they too had organized to go down to New York and theatrically protest the Republican National Convention. Buses Mr. Hechtman was mysteriously absent from.

Some inFRINGEment organizers were also heavily involved in organizing subsidized buses to Ottawa two weeks ago to protest George W. Bush. In fact, Mr. Hechtman was mysteriously absent from those buses as well!

GASP! Could it be that Mr. Hechtman is engaged in that other age-old Republican trick: accusing your opponents of being what you yourself are? In his case not a cheese eating surrender monkey but… a Republican sympathizer!!!

In any case give us a call (583-FEST), check out our website (www.infringementfestival.com) or drop us a line (infringementfestival@yahoo.ca). Help us reclaim our culture from the corporate presence which permeates our lives and, starting small, with one little corner of the world, make it ours again. Oh, and we promise not to turn you into cheese eating surrender monkeys OR closet Republican sympathizers!

Ethan Cox

Here’s a few of our more recent communiqués, feel free to comment on them. New ones will be posted here soon along with a bunch of other stuff.

Don’t worry about “becoming a member”, just post anonymously until I get it fixed,

Jason