Un-Conventional Heroes:
An Evening of Performance Honoring Courageous Resisters
On August 26th, the Artists Network of Refuse & Resist! will present "Un-Conventional Heroes: An Evening of Performance Honoring Courageous Resisters" at NYU's Skirball Theater Center. Recipients include Aaron Lebowitz, a high school student in Darby, Montana who resisted a resolution to make creationism part of the public school curriculum, and Juanita Young, a leader of the movement against police brutality in New York City.
For more than a decade Refuse and Resist! has been presenting awards to individuals, groups, and communities that engage in remarkable acts of resistance. Courageous Resisters like those who will be recognized in August put their reputations, their jobs and even their lives on the line. Given the current climate of war and repression, in which resistance itself is under attack, their refusal to remain silent is a source of extraordinary inspiration.
On August 26 some of the country's most distinguished artists including Kathleen Chalfant, Reg E. Gaines, Andre Gregory, and Denis O’Hare will come together at NYU's Skirball Theater Center to perform in honor of the resisters. The honorees include (list in formation):
Bretton Barber, when administrators at his Dearborn, Michigan high school demanded he take off his Bush is an “International Terrorist” t-shirt he refused.
Michael Berg, the father of Nick Berg, the US contractor who was beheaded in Iraq on video. Michael immediately responded to his son’s tragic death by demanding an end to all of the violence in Iraq and around the world.
Mitchell Crooks videotaped the LAPD police beating Donovan Jackson, a 16-year-old
black man in 2002. Mitchell defied the police and the right-wing media who
viciously came after him with a warrant from a misdemeanor offense five
years earlier.
Bill Keys, a school board member in Madison, Wisconsin, who refused to enforce
a state law that made it mandatory for students to recite the Pledge of
Allegiance
Aaron Lebowitz, a high school student in Darby, Montana who led students and adults to fight against a school-board-supported resolution to teach creationism as part of the public school curriculum.
Camilo Mejia is the first Iraqi War veteran to refuse further military service. He is currently serving the maximum penalty of one year in prison for desertion.
Dave Meserve, the city council member who sponsored the Arcata, California ordinance that makes voluntarily cooperation with unconstitutional investigations or arrests under the Patriot Act a crime punishable by $57.
Toni Smith, a basketball player at Manhattanville College who, in the months leading up to the war on Iraq, turned her back on the US flag during the singing of the national anthem. She continued to do so before each game in the face of threats and protests.
Juanita Young, the mother of Malcolm Ferguson (murdered by the NYPD in 2000), who continues to be a leader in the movement against police brutality despite threats and brutalization by the police.
We honor these remarkable people for their courage and refusal to be intimidated. In these times, they are truly unconventional heroes.
Sponsors include the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers
Guild/NYU Chapter, Bread and Roses 1199/SEIU, Artists Against the War, and
the initiators of the Not in Our Name statement.