Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – ANNETTE RUBINSTEIN

mailgooglecom
April 8 — ANNETTE RUBINSTEIN
New York Marxist School co-founder, radical educator.

APRIL 12, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Christian Easter
*Guatemala: Cuchumatan Indians have ceremony to preserve corn from frost by using prayers to chase the frost into a crack in the mountain and sealing the crack with mortar.

ALSO ON APRIL 12 IN HISTORY…
1790 — Richard Steele publishes first issue of The Tatler
1961 — Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is first man to orbit Earth.
1971 — Women’s peace march on Pentagon, Washington, D.C.
1975 — Black American dancer Josephine Baker dies, Paris, France.
1981 — First U.S. Space shuttle launched.
1988 — Harvard University patents gene-altered mouse.
1989 — Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman commits suicide, New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – ATTILA JOZSEF

jozsef_0904111
April 11 — ATTILA JOZSEF
Prominent Hungarian surrealist poet, libertarian communist.

APRIL 11, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Festival of Unmediated Play
*Prophet’s Birthday

ALSO ON APRIL 11 IN HISTORY…
1722 — Christopher Smart, dotty Brit poet, born, Shipbourne, Kent.
1905 — Surrealist poet Atilla Jozsef born, Ferencvaros, Budapest, Hungary.
1908 — Left communist, literary radical Jean Malaquais born, Warsaw, Poland
1926 — American horticulturist Luther Burbank dies, Santa Rosa, California.
1961 — Nazi henchman Adolph Eichmann goes on trial, Jerusalem, Israel.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

NYU New School Re-occupation Media Roundup

A steady stream of micro-news has been filtering in today about the reoccupation of 65 Fifth Avenue by students of The New School for Social Research. The best stuff out there at the moment can be found here, via the New York Times CityRoom blog:

[…] students at the scene described a tumultuous situation in which protesters were pepper-sprayed before being placed in handcuffs and loaded by police officers into the back of a white van, around 11:30 a.m. Mr. Browne said it was “untrue that pepper spray or mace were used in effectuating the arrests.”

A video (see above) shot by a freelance journalist, Brandon Jourdan of Brooklyn, showed about a half-dozen police officers standing near the door on 14th Street when it was pushed open from inside. The footage then shows officers shaking cans of pepper spray as they hold the door back, spraying inside the corridor, and then slamming the door shut. The footage showed an officer, a few moments later, lunging toward Mr. Jourdan’s camera, before swerving toward a young man standing on the street shouting. In the footage, the officer pushed the man’s face and knocked him to the ground before arresting him.

NY1.com reports:

Police have arrested 19 New School students who took over a university building in Union Square this morning, demanding the resignation of the university’s president and vice president and asking for more say in school policy. About 60 students from New School in Exile and the Radical Students Union had barricaded themselves inside the graduate faculty building at 65 Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. […]

ArthurMag.com contributor and New School student Andy Folk was on scene showing his support:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ruMQM4_bQQ

“Our demand for them to resign is consistent with the faculty’s ‘no confidence’ vote in Bob Kerrey,” said student Andy Folk. “That demand was not met. Other demands were met, such as starting a socially-responsible investment committee, which Bob Kerrey is trying to bury in red tape. So, we need to show him by force and civil disobedience that students have a right over the school that they pay money for. This is just a demonstration of students taking back their space.”

Other sources to check out are Student Activism website. Also worth checking TWITTER SEARCH for the most recent occupation chatter.

UPDATE 7PM: Head down to Union Square South at 10PM tonight to show your support!

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – WINONA BEAMER

winona-beamer-2
April 10 — WINONA BEAMER
Hawaiian native culture expert, folk activist, hula dancer.

APRIL 10, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
* Christian GOOD FRIDAY.
* Florence, Italy: EXPLOSION OF THE CAR. A large wooden carfull of fireworks and explosives sits in the piazza. A wire runs to the cathedral. A dove-shaped rocket is ignited at the altar, runs along the wire and explodes the car.

ALSO ON APRIL 9 IN HISTORY…
1841 — Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune begins publication.
1866 — American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) founded.
1919 — Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata dies, Chinameca, Mexico.
1959 — Utopian architect Frank Lloyd Wright dies, Taliesin West, Arizona.
1981 — UN approves world treaty assuring no civilians should be attacked with “napalm, mines or booby-traps.” Defeated by U.S. veto.
2008 — Hawaiianist Winona Kapuailohiamanonokalani Desha Beamer dies, Maui.

All information courtesy of The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Today’s Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – JACQUES BREL

Jacques Brel
April 8 — JACQUES BREL
Belgian-born wry, sardonic folksinger, composer.

APRIL 8, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
*Thailand & Japan: BUDDHA’S BIRTHDAY. Children’s holiday; dancing & the release of captive animals.
* DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN DAY.

ALSO ON APRIL 8 IN HISTORY…

1341 — Petrarch crowned poet laureate, steps of Capitol in Rome
1864 — Thirteenth Amendment passes, abolishing slavery in the U.S.
1898 — Yip Harburg, American lyricist born.
1929 — Ironic Belgian folksinger Jacques Brel born.
1973 — Spanish painter and communist Pablo Picasso dies, Mougins, France
1978 — French anarchist combatant, historian Gaston Leval dies.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – HARRY HAY

hay_090407

APRIL 7 — HARRY HAY
“The Dutchess,” lavender and red, gay commie, radical fairie elder, founder of the Mattachine Society.

APRIL 7, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
* China: PURE BRIGHTNESS FESTIVAL — Tending of family graves, with a great feast.
* FESTIVAL OF COMMODITY FETISHISM

ALSO ON APRIL 7 IN HISTORY…
c. 30 — Underground religious cult leader Jesus crucified, Jerusalem.
1722 — Utopian socialist Charles Fourier born, Besançon, France.
1770 — Romantic poet William Wordsworth born, Cumberland, England.
1803 — French socialist feminist Flora Tristan born.
1870 — Munich Soviet leader Gustav Landauer born, Karlsruhe, Germany.
1912 — Mattachine Society founder Harry Hay born, Worthing, England.
1915 — Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1927— First televised political demonstration occurs.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – ERICH MÜHSAM

muhsam_090406

APRIL 6 — ERICH MÜHSAM
German anarchist poet, murdered by the Nazis.

APRIL 6 festivals:
* France: FÊTE OF THE LITTLE BOATS — A children’s festival involving little pine boats with lighted candles.
* GO FOR BROKE DAY.

ALSO ON APRIL 6 THROUGH HISTORY…
1528 — German engraver Albrecht Dürer dies.
1712 — New York City slave revolt begins.
1812 — Anarcho-socialist theorist Alexander Herzen born, Moscow, Russia.
1820 — Photographer, caricaturist Nadar (Félix Tournachon), born, Paris, France.
1825 — Phantasist painter Gustave Moreau born.
1830 — Angelic tablet finder Joseph Smith founds Mormon Church.
1832 — Black Hawk War begins.
1866 — American muckraker Lincoln Steffens born, San Francisco, California.
1878 — German anarchist poet Erich Mühsam born, Berlin, Germany.
1896 — First modern Olympics, Athens, Greece.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – CEM KARACA

cemkaraca

APRIL 5 — CEM KARACA
Turkish folk and protest singer, street activist.

APRIL 5 festivals:
* Christian PALM SUNDAY.
* Tibet: SUNNING OF THE BUDDHA. Lamas bring buddha statues out of temples of abstract tranquility to enjoy the sun.
* Zurich: SIX RINGINGS FESTIVAL: Boog (Old Man Winter), a giant snowman stuffed with explosives, is jeered, taunted, and then blown up.

ON THIS DATE
1624 — Pocahontas marries John Rolfe.
1800 — Luminous flying ship spotted over Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
1837 — Algernon Charles Swinburne born, London, England.
1856 — Black educator Booker T. Washington born, Hales Ford, Virginia.
1906 — Hipster, flipster musician Lord Buckley born, Stockton, California.
1926 — H. L. Mencken arrested in Boston for selling The American Mercury.
1945 — Turkish rock protest singer, activist Cem Karaca born, Istanbul.
1958 — Castro declares war on dictatorial Batista regime in Cuba.
2006 — “Happenings” event creator Allan Kaprow dies, Encitas, California.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – DOROTHEA DIX

dix

APRIL 4 — DOROTHEA DIX
Advocate of humane treatment for so-called “mentally ill.”

APRIL 4 festivals:
* Ancient Rome: FESTIVAL OF THE MAGNA MATER OF PHRYGIA, a reliquary embodied in a small meteorite. An ecstatic procession with the magna mater in a chariot drawn by lions, castrated priests leaping and dancing and gashing themselves to a din of flutes, cymbals and drums.

ON THIS DATE
1802 — Mental health reformer, activist Dorothea Dix born, Hampden, Maine.
1900 — Prince of Wales, in Belgium, escapes anarchist assassination attempt.
1914 — French writer Marguerite Duras born, near Saigon, French Indochina.
1915 — Blues guitarist Muddy Waters born, Issaquena County, Mississippi.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – TERENCE MCKENNA

mck

APRIL 3 — TERENCE MCKENNA
Sacred substance psychonaut, shamanarchist.

APRIL 3 holidays and festivals:
* Ancient Egyptian FESTIVAL OF MIN.
* ETERNAL RICTUS DAY.
* Iran: SIZDAH-BEDAR: It is unlucky to stay indoors.

ON THIS DATE
1783 — Writer Washington Irving born, New York City.
1860 — Pony Express service begins.
1882 — Quintessential Western outlaw Jesse James shot by Robert Ford.
1924 — American actor, social dropout Marlon Brando born, Lincoln, Nebraska.
1950 — Radical educator, historian Carter G. Woodson born, Washington, DC.
1950 — Radical composer Kurt Weill dies, New York City.
1972 — Showboat politico Adam Clayton Powell dies, Harlem, New York City.
2000 — Entheogen psychonaut & futurist shaman Terence McKenna dies, Hawaii.