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Reclaim MLK - Civil Rights Movement Guerrilla Screening in Temescal, 1/17/15: photos
In solidarity with Black Lives Matter activists across the country who set out to "Reclaim Martin Luther King's Legacy" for MLK Day 2015, Oakland's Anti-Police Terrorism Project (APTP) called for 96 hours of direct action in the San Francisco Bay Area. On the second day, after a morning action confronting the Berkeley City Council and an afternoon die-in in Oakland, a silent outdoor guerrilla screening was held in the Temescal area of Oakland.
[Photo: Slideshow screens on the 49th Street side of a commercial bank, also used for "official" projections during summer Temescal Street Fairs.]
An outdoor action was announced for the area of Telegraph Avenue and 51st street, but what it was to be was not made public ahead of time. Shortly after 7pm, activists blocked off 49th Street on the Telegraph side and about a half a block up with traffic barriers then brought out a movie projector on a cart. A silent slideshow of historical civil rights movement photographs was shown for about an hour and a half. Some brought blankets to use for sitting on the street while others stood in the area to watch. Passers-by meandered in and out of the area throughout.
About a half hour into the guerrilla screening, Oakland police arrived but approached no closer than the corner of Telegraph and 49th. Organizers of the screening spoke with police and apparently police consented to allowing 49th Street to be closed for the limited time of the screening. After another twenty minutes or so, police left the scene.
The slideshow continued for another half hour or more and then the projector was packed up, the street re-opened, and activists dispersed of their own accord.
The idea behind reclaiming MLK's legacy is to rescue it from the sanitized version whereby King has been painted by liberals for decades as a make-nice or passive historical figure rather than the defiant radical fighting for justice that he actually was in his time. MLK was very much controversial and often despised, not at all adored by the majority of whites in America, at the time of his assassination.
APTP actions were organized using a spokescouncil/affinity group model, allowing for a diversity of actions in a wide variety of locations. In all, hundreds of activists organized over two dozen actions which brought out a diverse group of thousands committed to racial and economic equality in the Bay Area and across the United States.
For more more info and coverage of APTP "Reclaiming Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy" actions, see:
An outdoor action was announced for the area of Telegraph Avenue and 51st street, but what it was to be was not made public ahead of time. Shortly after 7pm, activists blocked off 49th Street on the Telegraph side and about a half a block up with traffic barriers then brought out a movie projector on a cart. A silent slideshow of historical civil rights movement photographs was shown for about an hour and a half. Some brought blankets to use for sitting on the street while others stood in the area to watch. Passers-by meandered in and out of the area throughout.
About a half hour into the guerrilla screening, Oakland police arrived but approached no closer than the corner of Telegraph and 49th. Organizers of the screening spoke with police and apparently police consented to allowing 49th Street to be closed for the limited time of the screening. After another twenty minutes or so, police left the scene.
The slideshow continued for another half hour or more and then the projector was packed up, the street re-opened, and activists dispersed of their own accord.
The idea behind reclaiming MLK's legacy is to rescue it from the sanitized version whereby King has been painted by liberals for decades as a make-nice or passive historical figure rather than the defiant radical fighting for justice that he actually was in his time. MLK was very much controversial and often despised, not at all adored by the majority of whites in America, at the time of his assassination.
APTP actions were organized using a spokescouncil/affinity group model, allowing for a diversity of actions in a wide variety of locations. In all, hundreds of activists organized over two dozen actions which brought out a diverse group of thousands committed to racial and economic equality in the Bay Area and across the United States.
For more more info and coverage of APTP "Reclaiming Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy" actions, see:
For more information:
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/01/...
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