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"Trespassing with Light" & Stopping Traffic with Debt
Video of BofA HQ projection action & report from Charlotte, NC
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Dear Backbone Friends,
You can read the entire article on our actions in
Charlotte, NC and watch our new action video HERE.
Below is an excerpt from that report that I am fondly calling
"Trespassing with Light," as well as some important thank yous
to folks who helped with the Charlotte effort. If you find
this video of value, please help by sharing it across your
networks.
In gratitude and collaboration,
Bill Moyer
Backbone Campaign
Support this
creative work by becoming a member of the Backbone
Campaign TODAY!

Trespassing with Light (& Sound)
We pulled off three projection actions as part of our skill
sharing and action fun in the heart of the BofA beast,
downtown Charlotte, NC. The first action was the night before
the protests, placing a "Dislike" button above the main
entrance of their HQ. Another was projecting Foreclosed onto
the BofA Stadium. The third, and my favorite was at the end
of a long day of taking over the streets during the BofA
shareholder meeting. After packing up and fueling up, we hit
the streets again.
This time we had a mobile sound system in the van and an
amazing audio track created by John Hulsey for City Life/Vida Urbana,
featuring the compelling voice and writing of underwater
homeowner Presley Obasohan of Boston. The
audio component added a tremendous amount of poignancy to this
particular projection action. So did staying stationary and
inviting the "authorities" to confront us. Rather than acting
like criminals, we experimented with merely exercising our
freedom of speech in a respectful and beautiful action. It
seems to me that the best strategy for confronting security
state is to - whenever possible - ignore it.
Charlotte has a ridiculous ordinance against projecting that
was used to shut down our artful freedom of speech action near
to the hotel where the Bank of America shareholders were
staying. The security you see in the opening of the video are
private security brought in by BofA in honor of the protests.
The officer in the video who asked us to stop the action is a
Charlotte, NC police officer. (We did not get his name and
rank.)
I am very proud of our courageous crew, especially Rod Tharp
who sat in the hot seat having to provide the officer with his
driver's license. As Rox ran sound, Laura worked the spotlight
($15 rental at local production company), and John captured
the action on video. Me? I just sat there and enjoyed the
profound beauty of Mr. Obasohan speaking such truth to such
foolish power... Until the officer seemed intent on enforcing
their trespassing with light ordinance [they don't call it
that - but the officer - in an un-taped portion thought that
was a very creative description ;-]
Learning new tactics at Localize
This!
Projection as protest is a fun and easy tactic to master. It's
relatively cheap and potentially super effective. We will be
instructing in this and a vast spectrum of other nonviolent
creative tactics at the 4th annual Localize This! artful
activist and organizer training camp. Sign-up to attend at
LocalizeThis.org
Support
training others in artful activism by becoming a member of
the Backbone Campaign TODAY!
Gratitude
Besides Rod and Bruce, special thanks is owed to Barbara
Turburton for travel support, Bob Powell for GOBOs, Don and
Cathy (our Charlotte hosts), and Laura Farley whose energetic
organizing and creative vision helped us play a meaningful
role. The great shot of the Dislike button is by photographer
Tracie
Williams.
Fearlessly Forward Together!
Bill Moyer
Backbone Campaign
Again - We cannot do this important work without your
contributions. Help us keep to
coming by becoming a member of the Backbone Campaign
TODAY!
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Great footage of our Giant Debt Ball figure
prominently in CNBC coverage HERE.

Rod Tharp, Bruce Wilkinson, and I brought out and deployed
our giant
Debt Ball with shackles and chains through the streets of
Charlotte,
where rumor has it that people haven't taken the streets in
decades...
someone said 40-50 years! Our Giant
Debt Ball and the hundreds of fearless protestors made it
nearly impossible for the police to deny us the
streets or to take back the intersection outside the Bank of
America
tower where shareholders were meeting. Press coverage and
photos
abound!
More great photos from Charlotte HERE.

Right to the City!
After protesting BofA, we attended the Right to the City
conference of
community organizers and organizations from across the country
working
on eviction protection and more. We built a new Eviction Free
Zone
banner there for our allies in Boston, City Life/Vida Urbana
in a record
time of 2.5 hours.

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