Public Movement, Pedro Reyes, Project Row Houses, .

1. Do now: What’s a problem that our
school or students deal with?
• Students:
• Julio: Procrastinating
(sometimes happens to me)
• Artan: Stressing about grades,
upcoming tests, college future(s),
etc.
• Aidan: Overall expectations from
parents/teachers.
• High SAT scores/grades
• Being punctual (in life)
• Perfect > Doing your best
p6
• School:
• Promia: Scanning can make
people late to class.
• Sakin: it’s not a problem.
• Abdul: yes it is.
• Marco: budget for extra things.
There should be a way for
teachers/parents to know where
funds are going.
• Artan: We should go on more
school wide/class wide trips.
• “Waste of class time”
• If we have too much “fun” we may
not be “learning.”

2. Do now: What’s a problem that our
school or students deal with?
• Students:
• Christian: Procrastination
• Tenz: we just don’t know how to
manage our time. No use in starting
things before they’re due.
• Azalea: People don’t plan what they’re
gonna do. People overestimate their
own skills.
• Benz: NO SLEEP!
• Marco: we keep ourselves from
sleeping. I could choose to go to bed at
10pm…but that’s like time wasted. Even
though it isn’t....
• Kendell: tension between sleep and
doing HW.
Kendell: Meeting teachers expectations. If
one student sets the bar too high, they
expect all others to reach that level?
p6
• School:
• Homework – excessive amounts?
• Yeva: Funding for campus-wide
upgrades.
• Clubs, a Pool, a Pool table, ping
pong room, water filters
(temporary solution…), a football
team, better lunch!
• Kendell: connections with other schools.
What about a campus-wide field day??
• Marco: Campus wide-Spirit week
• Azalea: Grade-wide more school trips.
• Gyaban: The common core standards –
• Marco: Test focused classes and not on
life and living.
• .

3. How do we handle “problems” at our
school?
• Levy: For test based nonsense—I tend to ignore that mentality of learning
and regurgitating it. (handling it by isolating oneself from the problem
itself.)
• Christian: When it comes to time management and procrastination, I turn
off my phone and remove it from my field of vision to focus on my work “my
head is in my phone.”
• Azalea: Things that relate to other schools or funding could fall to Student
Council.
• Herb: SC gives the students a voice to teachers/admin
• Kendell: They put together petitions to resolve things.
• Tatiana: Addressing current events/problems in the school.
• Adiba: We always start with an agenda of events and ideas. We talk about
things we want to contribute to the school.
• Kendell: For junior year workload: Klein is trying to put the schedules
together a bit better.
• Moh: Teacher-Student relations: If their relationships could become
better, they both could benefit. They need to UNDERSTAND each
other.
p6

4. How do we handle “problems” at our
school?
• Prince: I know that Sadiya be trying to do some stuff.
• Danisa: She puts together dances, field days, dress down days.
• Aidan: I sometimes compare the schools I used to go to with this one…
and in my middle school there was a lot more student interactive
stuff....like field trips, dances, etc.
• Adrianna: These things are not fun unless you make them fun.
• Katelyn: Sometimes my responsibilities get in the way of having fun at
dances and such. My WEEK self and WEEKEND self are very different.
• Adrianna: We complain (roaches in the water)—and it worked!
(kozak: I’m curious what the step-by-step process is for that
solution.)
• Sarah: Klein and Hazel try to talk about various types of problems in the
advisory classes.
• Dest: but that’s all talk and not doing anything. It’s making us feel listened
to but not solving anything.
• Ingrid: STUDENT COUNCIL MEETINGS! Anyone is welcome
p6

5. What are you doing to SOLVE those
problems?
• Herb: complain to teachers. I used to complain to Klein and I guess he
talked to teachers, we saw this new HW policy come into action for long
breaks from school.
• Tenz: For procrastination and HW, I make a schedule for myself….you
have to discipline yourself.
• Marco: Related to Tenz: Focus and then take a break. Be fair with
yourself. Take a ten minute break, not an hour break.
• Christian: I disagree with Marco, some people find a way to control their
phone-impulse, but I can’t.
• Dak: ??
• .
• .
p6

6. What are you doing to SOLVE those
problems?
• Prince: we need trips to make the school more fun, but it’s not
something that’s necessary.
• Sakin: I agree with Prince. We all mention these problems, but I’m
not doing anything about them. Maybe I’m lazy. Maybe it can’t do
anything about it.
• Aidan: In my advisory class, people are very vocal to Principal
Froner, and he listens to our complaints.
• Sarah: People will always talk (complain) but won’t stand up unless
it actually affects them. (Bystander syndrome)
• “Upstanders” To be involved in problem solving that we don’t directly
benefit from.
• Marco: I try to solve the problem for myself (arrive early for
scanning, bring my own water rather than roach-water).
p6

7. SOCIALLY
ENGAGED
ART
It’s goin down.

8. SOCIALLY ENGAGED ART CAN BE
DIVIDED INTO TWO GROUPS…
COMPLETELY SOCIAL
ENGAGEMENT
IS IT ART?
OR IS IT POLITICAL ACTION?
 THERE IS BASICALLY NO
ACTUAL ARTWORK TO
EXHIBIT IN THE END…ONLY
THE EXPERIENCE OF THE
PARTICIPANTS IN THE
PROJECT.
SYMBOLIC APPROACH
 AN ARTIST IS ENGAGING A
SOCIAL GROUP, BUT THE
PROJECT MAY BE SHORTER IN
TIME OR RESULT IN THE
CREATION OF A WORK OF ART
THAT CAN BE SHOWN IN A
GALLERY OR MUSEUM

9. IN EITHER CASE…
THE ARTIST MUST UNDERSTAND THE
SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF THE COMMUNITY
THAT THEY’RE DEALING WITH.
THE ARTIST CANNOT JUST GO TO A
RANDOM LOCATION AND MAKE SOME
RANDOM ART WITH PEOPLE AND LEAVE
THE NEXT DAY.

12. Public movement
POSITIONS
OLD NEW

13. Public movement
POSITIONS (November 4, 2011)
Given two options, what would you choose?

14. Public movement
POSITIONS (November 4, 2011)
Given two options, what would you choose?
Positions is a
choreographed
demonstration that invites
people to take a stand on
any number of urgent
issues. Presented in
Warsaw, Holon, Bat-Yam,
Eindhoven, Heidelberg,
Stockholm, and now New
York, the Movement
invites the public to
embody their preferences,
aspirations, and beliefs.

15. Public movement
POSITIONS
PENCILS PENS

16. Public movement
POSITIONS
CAT DOG

17. Public movement
POSITIONS
MAC PC

18. Public movement
POSITIONS
SITTING STANDING

20. Public movement
POSITIONS
POLITE RUDE

21. Public movement
POSITIONS
WINDOWS WALLS

22. Public movement
POSITIONS
REPUBLICAN DEMOCRAT

24. Public movement
POSITIONS
LOVE MONEY

25. Public movement
POSITIONS
NO YES

26. Public movement
POSITIONS
PALESTINE ISRAEL

27. Public movement
POSITIONS
North South
Korea Korea

28. Public movement
POSITIONS
DESKTOP LAPTOP

29. Public movement
POSITIONS
BLACK WHITE

30. Public movement
POSITIONS
OPEN SHUT

31. Public movement
POSITIONS
TYPICAL UNUSUAL

32. Public movement
POSITIONS
Communism Capitalism

33. Public movement
POSITIONS
FREEDOM PROTECTION

34. Public movement
POSITIONS
DAY NIGHT

35. Public movement
POSITIONS
UNIFORM NO UNIFORM

36. Public movement
POSITIONS
FEMALE MALE

37. Public movement
POSITIONS
STOP KEEP GOING

38. Public movement
POSITIONS
Evolution Creationism

39. Public movement Who they are….
PUBLIC MOVEMENT IS A
PERFORMATIVE RESEARCH
BODY THAT INVESTIGATES
AND STAGES POLITICAL
ACTIONS IN PUBLIC SPACES.
THE MOVEMENT EXPLORES
THE POLITICAL AND
AESTHETIC POSSIBILITIES
RESIDING IN A GROUP OF
PEOPLE ACTING TOGETHER.
IT STUDIES AND CREATES
PUBLIC CHOREOGRAPHIES,
FORMS OF SOCIAL ORDER,
OVERT AND COVERT
RITUALS.

40. I initiated Birthright Palestine? at the New
Museum in New York. It was constructed of five
different public meetings, in which we
collaborated with experts to investigate the
phenomenon of Birthright Israel, a 10-day trip for
Jews between the ages of 18 to 26, who travel
around Israel together on a bus. It was founded in
1999, and is sponsored by the government of
Israel and by American Jewish philanthropy. The
program aims to strengthen the connection
between the state of Israel and Jews around the
world, physically and spiritually, by applying group
psychological dynamics. Next year alone, there
will be 51,000 participants. We examined some of
the different aspects of the program; ideas about
branding, erotic and psychological dimensions of
the trip, political implication on the notion and
regulation of return to Palestine-Israel, and finally
to raise the question if there should be Birthright
Palestine.

41. DANA YAHALOMI, leader of Public
Movement
I initiated Birthright Palestine? at the New Museum
in New York. It was constructed of five different
public meetings, in which we collaborated with
experts to investigate the phenomenon of Birthright
Israel, a 10-day trip for Jews between the ages of 18
to 26, who travel around Israel together on a bus. It
was founded in 1999, and is sponsored by the
government of Israel and by American Jewish
philanthropy. The program aims to strengthen the
connection between the state of Israel and Jews
around the world, physically and spiritually, by
applying group psychological dynamics. Next year
alone, there will be 51,000 participants. We
examined some of the different aspects of the
program; ideas about branding, erotic and
psychological dimensions of the trip, political
implication on the notion and regulation of return to
Palestine-Israel, and finally to raise the question if
there should be Birthright Palestine.

42. Describe Public Movement …
• Moh: A heavy take on political
approaches….trying to involve both Israelis
and Palestinians.
• Benz: Their work is ironic…having an Israeli
lead Palestinian effort...and the irony of this is
that for a piece like “positions” how it’s more
“typical” to choose “unusual” there’s a
contradiction.
• Kellyah: They’re able to make people think
on a deeper basis...they don’t give the whole
story, but a small piece that people can make
full.
• Tenz: They pop your bubble and bring you
into the realities of the world.
• .
• .

43. Describe Public Movement …
• Artan: They set up public art for people to
express opinions. It’s not “traditional” but it is
interactive.
• Prince: Their work is supposed to be
confrontational. It’s very “in your face.”
• Abdul: Birthright Palestine addresses the
gap between Israelis and Palestinians.
• ….
• Artan: They’re critical of the government (s).
• Aidan: Based on Positions They want people
to choose sides...no middle ground.
• Sarah: They bring up topics that most try not
to talk about.
• .
• .

44. “Rebranding European Muslims” is
an international PR project by the
Israeli performance and research
group Public Movement.
One hundred years ago, the Austro-
Hungarian Empire was the first
European country to recognize Islam
as an official religion. Muslims have
long since become a visible part of
today’s population – yet they still
predominantly represent “the
Others”, while Europe itself is on the
verge of forfeiting its utopian ideals
once and for all.

45. Public movement
For the ’final work’ in 2012, Public
Movement hosted a gala to workshop this
idea of rebranding european muslims. It did
not aim to serve Muslims, or to encourage
tolerance but to broaden the scope of the
political imagination and to create a
necessary conversation by proclaiming
the need for Europe to incorporate the
dreams of Muslims into its own in order
to survive. It tried to turn irrational fears of
infiltration, of losing a supposedly
‘authentic-identity’ into the urge for a new
vision.

46. Public movement
At the heart of the gala, three
prestigious branding agencies
from Amsterdam, Stockholm
and Vienna presented their
creative proposals for the
future direction of the
Rebranding European Muslims
campaign – and the audience
itself was asked to decide
which one was the most
convincing approach.

47. Public movement
Public Movement
Rebranding European Muslims - 2012

48. Today, European Muslims are a visible part of the
population, an everyday reality. But despite this they
are still the “Other” to the European dream. Second-
and third-generation migrants, born and raised in
Europe, find themselves just as distant from the
cultures of their parents as from the cultures
surrounding them.
“This is about a redefinition of the
relations between [all] the sides.
[With] one brilliant sentence and a
good image, you can change entire
worldviews, and all without making
any judgment about the brand and
its values, of course.” Dana Yahalomi
Interview with Haaretz

49. Public movement
Christian: People calling me something other
than what I am can cause confusion and chaos
in your life.
Levy: IT kind of seems like none of their ideas
work. It’s 6 years later and there’s still the
same problem.
Azalea: I agree with Cass…what if a person
came from a place and want to identify as
European. They’re being forced to identify as
that other thing.
Kendell: There’s Muslims everywhere! It’s a
global thing.
The approach for multiculturalism
has failed completely.

50. Public movement
Danisa:…I kinda disagree with the whole thing calling
everyone “American” or “European” when they’re
descended from another place. It makes people forget
where they came from. My cultural origin is not
necessisarily my birthplace. (Katelyn helped too,
HUHH!)
Sarah: Agree with Danisa, the question “where are
you from?” is complicated.
Arwynn: People may not want to be accepted by a
country like America because of how that place has
treated them.
Aidan: Probably the most confrontational artist
(group) that we’ve talked about so far.
Cass: In a way they’ve created another system of
oppression to replace an old one, which makes
people identify with the place they happen to live.
The approach for multiculturalism
has failed completely.

52. PROJECT ROW HOUSES
History: Project Row Houses was founded in 1993 by artist and
community activist Rick Lowe along with James Bettison, Bert Long,
Jesse Lott, Floyd Newsum, Bert Samples, and George Smith. They
sought to establish a positive, creative and transformative presence in
this historic community.

53. Located in Houston’s Northern Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest
African-American neighborhoods, Project Row Houses is founded on
the principle that art and the community it creates can be the
foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods. The
Northern Third Ward, has long been plagued by severe unemployment,
teenage pregnancy, crumbling infrastructure, and drug trafficking.
Addressing this situation, Project Row Houses provides programs that
encompass neighborhood revitalization, community service and
education.

54. Seed money came from the National Endowment for the Arts and from
the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. The director of the Menil
Collection gave his staff Mondays off to help renovate. Chevron redid
the outside of a dozen buildings. Hundreds of volunteers pitched in to
clear trash and sweep up used needles, hang wallboard and fortify
porches. A local church adopted a house, and so did people and
families from the neighborhood.
Rick Lowe, founder of PRH

55. About: Project Row Houses
(PRH) is a community-based
arts non-profit organization in
Houston’s northern Third Ward,
one of the city’s oldest African
American neighborhoods.
Founded in 1993 as a result of
the vision of local African-
American artists wanting a
positive creative presence in
their own community. Central to
the vision of project row houses
is the social role of art as seen
in neighborhood revitalization,
historic preservation, community
service, and youth education.

56. The programs of project row
houses are built around Five
Pillars inspired by the work of
internationally renowned artist
John Biggers and his
principles concerning the
components of row house
communities:
1.Art and Creativity
2. Education
3. Social Safety Nets
4. Architecture
5. Sustainability
.

57. Could this happen in NYC?
Where????
Jamaica, Queens
East New York, BK
Highbridge, Bronx
Canarsie, BK
Far Rockaway, Queens
Moh: Lots of empty lots, filled
with trash. There needs to be
development
Kendell: This couldn’t happen
in NYC. the real estate culture.
Benz: We don’t have houses
like this. We have BUILDINGS.
Gya: this country deals with this
problem through taxes and
fines. It’s a way of keeping
order.

58. Could this happen in NYC?
Where????
South Bronx
Hunt’s Point
“The Ghetto” – overpopulated
parts of NYC with tenement
housing, the Jewish ghettos
from history lessons.
Dyckman
Ingrid: It’s like “oh your
neighborhood is shitty, so
let’s fix it.”
Who says that it needs to be
fixed? Maybe it’s not
necessary.

59. Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses tried to think afresh what it
meant to be a truly political artist, beyond devising the familiar agitprop,
gallery decoration and plop-art-style public sculpture. He considered
what the German artist Joseph Beuys once described as “the enlarged
conception of Art, which includes every human action.” Life itself might
be a work of art, Mr. Lowe realized: art can be the way people live.

60. And the Third Ward could be his canvas. He was inspired by John
Biggers, the late African-American muralist who painted black
neighborhoods of shotgun houses like the ones on Holman Street and
showed them to be places of pride and community, not poverty and
crime. “It hit me,” Mr. Lowe recalled, “that we should find an area
like the one that Biggers painted that was historically significant
and bring it to life.”
Shotguns
By John Biggers
Oil on canvas,1987

61. “People
interested in
housing and
social services
have a narrow
focus. From a
developer’s
standpoint, the
houses we’ve built
are not cost-
effective. But to
me, they’re not
just housing.
They tell a story
about a
community.”

62. ….

63. FINAL THOUGHTZ
.Gyaban: It’s nice to see a society that tries
to establish these types of values. I didn’t
think it would be possible but I guess it is. I
don’t know if I could truly participate
though…
Nila: It’s very community giving and selfless.
Jaylieen: I like the effect it has on people. It’s
purpose is to help.
Dear P6….
Jen: It’s not just about people who “lead us” we
have to play some sort of role in this. They (the
government) can’t do everything for us….We
have to be a part of it. We can’t just leave the
hard work for someone else.
Dak: I don’t think it’s exactly art, but I do think
that the thought process behind it and
execution of it is helpful and beneficial. It’s
selfless.
Christian: Agreed. How is living art?

64. Michael: This is a good project over all, it
helps those who need it. But it also has some
controversy, since it raises issues of
gentrification and how we perceive people
and how they live.
Abdul: It’s nice I guess….but you don’t need
to say that it’s art. You could just do a nice
thing without turning it into an art project.
Dest: people wouldn’t know about it
if it wasn’t an art project. It draws attention
and raises awareness.
Julio: I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s
type personal to me. I live in the projects and
around the border of my neighborhood
there’s these hotels…The people that used
to live there are moving away.
Arwynn: Agreed with Abdul. It’s a good thing
but it makes me question the intentions of the
people who get involved. Is it about art or
helping people?

67. Other estimates state the number is closer to 290 deaths per week in Mexico…
Fyi: An average of 170 people are killed each week in the USA’s gun-related deaths
(this figure takes non-drug war deaths into consideration as well)

68. Pedro reyes
Palas por pistolas
(pistols into spades) 2008
In 2008 Reyes collected
1,527 firearms
From the city of Culiacán,
a city plagued by drug
kingpins.

69. Pedro reyes
Palas por pistolas
(pistols into spades) 2008
1,527 pistolas 1,527 palas 1,527 árboles

70. Pedro reyes
Palas por pistolas
(pistols into spades) 2008
1. People bring a gun
2. 1 gun=a voucher for an electronic store
3. The weapons were steamrolled into a flat sheet (at a
military base)
4. The metal sheet is melted at a foundry
5. The metal is re-cast into shovels.
6. The shovels are assembled
7. The shovels are used to plan trees in public schools in
Culiacán

71. Pedro reyes
Palas por pistolas
(pistols into spades) 2008
“THIS ‘RITUAL’ HAS A PEDAGOGICAL
(educational) PURPOSE OF SHOWING HOW
AND AGENT OF DEATH CAN BECOME AN
AGENT OF LIFE.”

72. Pedro reyes
Studied architecture in
the 90’s
Started an
experiemental project
space called “Torre De
Los Vientos” from
1996-2002
 basically a
wacky space where
you could do fun and
odd projects

73. So…what happens to all the shovels?
Palas por pistolas
(pistols into spades)
People bring a gun
1 gun=a voucher for an electronic store
The weapons were steamrolled into a flat sheet (at a military base)
The melted at a foundry
And recast as shovels, which were used to plant trees in public schools in
Culiacán
PLANTED 1,527 TREES
Since then, the shovels get exhibited around the world and are continued to be
used to plan trees around the world.

74. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas
And the project continues!

75. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas

76. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas

77. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas

78. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas

79. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas
Katelyn: I thought it was really cool how all
the instruments came together. They made
really nice sounds.
Kunzang: It’s a good idea. Guns kill a lot of
kids, and this is giving people an opportunity
to turn in their weapons.
Prince: I would never think of people using
weapons to express ideas.
Sakin: people do this ALL THE TIME
in a bad way.
Ingrid: POSTIVE ideas.
Danisa: His art actually changes a
community. He’s not saying to get rid of guns,
he’s actually getting rid of them.

80. Pedro reyes
Imagine
Una proyecto en la Cuidad Juarez, con 6700 armas
Kellyah: It’s a cool way to get guns off the
street without turning them in or snitching.
Jaylin: I like this. He’s taking something
negative and making it positive.
Jen: This is inspirational. People are seeing
how you can use something harmful to create
something beautiful and they might feel the
need to do the same with other harmful things
around them.
Tenz:I think it’s like how a weapon doesn’t
have to be used to harm others. He turned it
around. It benefits everyone. Compared to
how when President Truman said how a
weapon is meant to be used.

81. DO IT NOW!
How can Living be art?
Moh: My friend Hugo Rojas uses moss to make art
Benz: Moss to make art is NOT socially engaged. But some S.E.
Artwork that is community based can be confused with other work,
like what doctors for communities.
Dak: I think of people just physically just “being” but I guess a living
thing can be used in art. But my daily life is not art.
Yeva: Living can be complete social engagement. This isn’t a specific
work of art…it’s an experience that you don’t know what the result is.
Tenz; like the Jackson Pollock quote “the best part of art is not the
finished piece but the steps it took to create that art.”
Marco: It’s about the process of it, not the end results.
Adrianna: It’s corny, but yeah. If art is supposed to be a collection of ideas
and concepts, then we are exactly that.

82. Meanwhile….at
42nd
street and 1st
ave…

83. Purposes of the united nations
How many nations participate?
What do they decide?
What do they DO???

84. the People’s united nations
(p)un
Over 200 ordinary people selected by Pedro Reyes and the
Queens Museum come together to represent the 193
nations of the UN, plus Palestine and The Holy See.

85. Pedro Reyes
(p)Un
The People’s United Nations 2013

86. (p)Un
The People’s United Nations
2013
This is an experimental
conference that seeks to
apply techniques and
resources from social
psychology, theater, art,
and conflict resolution to
geopolitics.
Unlike the real United Nations
(UN), where delegates are
appointed by states and are
career diplomats, the people’s
UN welcomes 193 regular
citizens who live in the
region and are connected by
family ties or by birth to the
nations represented at the
UN.

87. For the first iteration of this collaborative performance at the
Queens Museum in Queens, New York, the local performance
artist group Urban Bush Women were hired by Reyes to serve
as coordinators for activities and collaborators with the artist,
each representative, and the ideas discussed.

88. Urban
Bush
Women
“My mother and I did not have a good relationship
growing up; the only time we bonded was when she
did my hair.”
quote from a Hair Party
https://www.urbanbushwomen.org/

89. “Dance lies at the point at which
reflection and embodiment meet,
at which doing and anticipation are
intertwined.”
—Randy Martin, Critical Moves:
Dance Studies in Theory and Politics
https://www.urbanbushwomen.org/

90. Urban Bush
Women
UBW Dancers perform the Hot Comb
Blues at a Hair Party. This
performance, with humor, physicalized
the burn of a hot comb, the itch of a
perm, and the yanking and tugging of a
mother combing her daughter’s hair.
The performance evoked visceral
memories in hair party participants
and inspired them to tell stories about
their own “hair hell moments.” These
stories stimulated dialogue about what
people put themselves through to have
“good hair.” Further questioning led
the group to consider the social
pressures behind “good hair” and “bad
hair” and the origin of our values about
acceptable forms of beauty.
https://www.urbanbushwomen.org/

91. Pedro
Reyes
Over the course of a weekend, delegates
represent their countries in group
activities to grapple with a set of global
proposals that seem to have come from
the future, but which must be addressed
in the present. Although the proposals
are often presented using the language
of science fiction, yet they are nothing
but descriptions of the real issues at
stake today.
Reyes has stated that this is not a
model version or a critique of the
existing United Nations. “pUN focuses
on imagining a big encounter group. If
pUN is a naïve role-play game, it is
precisely the light-hearted spirit of play
that will allow its participants to engage
in subjects whose magnitude is
otherwise overwhelming.”
Oh hi,
it’s kozak.

92. Pedro Reyes
(p)Un
The People’s United Nations 2013

93. The Alien Auditor
(p)Un
The People’s United Nations 2013
Photo by Ramiro Chavez

94. The Alien
Auditor
What nation(s) would need to
consult with the Alien Auditor?
•DR and PR (just beef, bro.)
•Israel and Palestine (just history,
bro)
•Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, and….....GREAT
BRITAIN
•AMERICA AND PUERTO RICO
•Albania and Serbia
•US and Mexico (because trump’s
a phallus head)
•US and Russia
•North Korea and South Korea
•.
• .
• .
• .

95. The Alien
Auditor
What nation(s) would need to
consult with the Alien Auditor?
•Haiti and DR (because of
RACISM and Colonialism, etc)
•Israel and Palestine (because of
forgein intervention and territorial
disagreements)
•Ukraine and Russia
•Turkey and Israel
•Libya
•North and South Korea
•USA and Russia
•USA and Puerto Rico
•Pakistan, India, Bangladesh
and…....the UK
•.
• .
• .
• .

96. Wednesday…
….we become the
people’s United Nations.

97. What country(ies) would you be
qualified to represent at the
People’s United Nations?
What are two things that you would
make a priority to bring up?
What are three things that you wish you knew more about in
your country(ies)?
you must be connected by direct family ties or by birth to the
nations

98. .
.
.
.

99. .
.
.
.

100. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
Complaints choir
Videos!!

101. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
FROM
http://www.complaintschoir.org/doityourself.html
STEP 1 ﾐ Invite People to Complain
STEP 2 ﾐ Find the Right Musician
STEP 3 ﾐ Group the Complaints
STEP 4 ﾐ The First Choir Meeting: Making the Lyrics
STEP 5 ﾐ Making the Song
STEP 6 ﾐ Rehearsing
STEP 7 ﾐ Preparing the Grand Performance
STEP 8 ﾐ Go out and Sing your Complaints -
Together
STEP 9 ﾐ The Video

102. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
Complaints choir
Prince: I want this on Spotify.
Abdul: It’s sillier than the other work we’ve seen. They’re making
people’s complaints into a song…they’re not doing anything
about the complaints, though.
Aidan: If they came to NYC, the song would be five hours long.
The train, my timb’s are cooked, The chipotle workers are
stingy with the rice and beans, honey buns are too expensive,
specifically the one with icing is like a dollar. C’mon! I’m tired.
The weather is annoying. Inflation is making me pay more for
things.

103. Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver
Kochta-Kalleinen
Complaints choir
Videos AND RESPONSES!

105. TABLE 1
TABLE 4
TABLE 3
TABLE 5
TABLE 2
Choose ONE country
that you are qualified to
represent and set up
the table like this:

106. Activity 1
Group by continent
1. What is your connection to this country?
2. How did you come to associate yourself with
this place?
3. What’s a unique issue that your country faces?

107. Activity 2
Group by Number
HEGEMONY is an idea relating to power (dominance) ;
specifically who has it over another group or individual.
What hegemonic structures exist in your country?
How is power shown to the powerless?

108. Activity 2.5
WHAT IS A PROBLEM YOUR COUNTRY
STRUGGLING WITH?
CREATE A SARCASTIC OR JOKING
HEADLINE FOR THIS PROBLEM.
EXAMPLE:
Delegate from Syria: “Aleppo now a popular spot for war-torn
movie locations”

109. Activity 3
Finding someone new
(1 person)
Moving towards tomorrow
What are our next steps as we enter this global community?

110. Activity 4
Meeting with the Alien Auditor
Choose to meet with the auditor
before your peers, and address your
country’s issues.

111. Describe the benefits of this activity as a
working model.
What does this accomplish?
• Julio: I spoke to my classmates (cause I’m a boss like
that) and people get different viewpoints from different
countries.
• Sarah: You get to talk to your other peers about stuff you
normally wouldn’t talk about.
• Marco: Daniel and I sometimes talk about the
Israel/Palestine problem.
• Nita: I learned more than what I usually see on the news
or learn in school.
• Prince: I like to talk about stuff like this outside of school,
but that’s only because I have a lot of Nigerians friends.
We make fun of each other because of differences with
food. For like this food called jollof rice….The Nigerian
version is mad watery and soggy.
•

112. What are our next steps?
• Artan; I wish to become president of Albania.
• Nita: Whatcha gonna do in Albania???
• Artan: I’ll Make Albania Great (again)
• Arwynn: Use this knowledge to be more understanding of
where people come from.
• Destiny: I brought up some of the conversation from
yesterday, about how Bangladesh could be under water in
a few years (due to global warming, rising seas). And how
we should be more compassionate to their issues and help
them out more.

113. Describe the benefits of this activity as a
working model.
What does this accomplish?
• Tenz: I learned a lot about Jamaica from Azalea’s stories. She
was very knowledgable about the situations there.
• Kaylee: I liked the activity in general. I suck at history, but I did a
lot of research the night before, and I had a great conversation
about Nicaragua with Jen, It was eye opening.
• Tatiana:it gave me a chance to learn about other countries.
Learning about Bangladesh and the issues they’re facing. A lot of
things were similar with Greece.
• Gyaban: There’s the same political atmosphere with the same
groups of people trying to take over certain countries. There’s no
difference really. Corruption is everywhere!
• Kaylee: if we could just look at the similarities we could come up
with more solutions than if we only look at the differences.
• Jen: IT was nice to share problems with people. We don’t always
know about problems in other countries. It was nice to teach other
people about my country.

114. What are our next steps?
• Christian: For me, I don’t know what I could do. Start a
group? Start a socially engaged movement? Make banners?
Posters? Raise awareness about issues in Guyana and the
US control over the gold industry.
• Levy: If we knew what the next steps were we would have
done them 40 years ago. We know the solutions but not the
ones that people will cooperate with.
• National sovereignty (territorial disputes), resource crises.
• Tatiana: Swallow your pride, admit there’s a problem.
Nationalism works against real problem solving.
• Kellyah: The main thing to do is put the differences aside to
solve bigger issues.
• .