The Movement that Stopped a Highway
As you are here today, we invite you to help us build a wall of HOPE. To think about what this festival is founded on. We started this festival in a celebration of success, when a group of local activists, over many years WON and stopped a 6 lane highway extension from coming right through this very park you are standing in.
That’s right my friends, The Stop the Highway Movement WON. This may be one of the most profound local activism success stories you will hear about. One that won in the 11th hour, after years of organizing, protesting, lobbying and working to stop a highway that would have impacted our community in a very major way. The project had already begun to impact our community through demolition, easements and eminent domain.
The message of this festival is that of HOPE. It is a coming together of our community, across race, gender, class, age, faith, and all identity markers. We gather together to parade through our community. We invite many dozens of nonprofits to table or create a project to share. We look for partners like Wasted, Inside Out, Everyday People, Extinction Rebellion, Bikes not Bombs, Break the Chains, MetaMovements and Sustainable Swaps, to highlight our commitment to Climate Justice, Diversity, Cultural Representation.
We are going through a very challenging time in this country. One that is challenging our ability to find the HOPE we need to believe in a better world, to work together for that world. When we are working hard for change, through protests, lobbies, phone calls and postcards, voting and meeting and petitioning, sometimes it is so hard to believe that we can succeed.
And so this year we invite you to Believe with us. Know that we live in a city and a community that is working for that. We invite you to go back in time and read about the Stop the Highway Movement. And then to go forward and look at who we are today. All the ways in which we are partnering for climate justice. All the ways we are living our visions.
Come by the wall of Hope near Junk Percussion and get to know the people of Spontaneous Celebrations - the Community Cultural art center that organizes and hosts these festivals.
Add something Hopeful, something you are committed to working for and protecting, to our Wall of Hope. We are united together in this work for a better world. We All Belong.
INSIDE OUT
Inside Out has been documenting the founders, instigators and organizers at Spontaneous Celebrations, and will be featuring us at the festival as well as ALL of YOU! Go visit their photo booth truck next to the Moon Stage and add yourself to the collage!
After winning the TED Prize on March 2, 2011, the French-artist JR launched the Inside Out Project, in his first TED Talk. Using his own artistic practice as inspiration, this participatory platform helps individuals and communities to make a statement by displaying large-scale black and white portraits in public spaces. Through their “Actions,” communities around the world have sparked collaborations and conversations.
Over the past decade, more than 500,000 people spanning across 152 countries and territories have participated in the Inside Out Project. Thanks to participants' donations, the project has reached all the continents, with over 2,500 actions created. Actions have revolved around a range of topics: diversity, community, feminism, racism, climate change, education, children’s rights, and art are just a few of them. Posters are displayed in outdoor spaces that are visible to the public. These Group Action installations are documented and shared online.
