Great article in Sunday’s NYT about The UnConvention - and Dialog:City the UnConvention’s Denver counterpart - including this closing comment from artist Sharon Hayes:

“These conventions are one of the most active places where the two parties reach into the space of the cultural imagination, . . . And that is a place that we as artists have a claim to and also have a responsibility to be present to.”
–Sharon Hayes, in Julie Bloom, “Your (Nonpartisan) Message Here,” NYT, Aug. 18, 2008

Sharon Hayes’ Revolutionary Love 2: I Am Your Best Fantasy is being presented by Creative Time with the Walker Art Center and the UnConvention. Revolutionary Love 2: I Am Your Best Fantasy was a part of Democracy in America, a national public art initiative organized by Creative Time.

http://theunconvention.com

Join the UnConvention on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20072927723

The more I send out emails, hand out flyers and talk on the phone, the more apparent it becomes the the Republican National Convention is not a place for art weirdos.  We at the Liberty Parade, like rosey-cheeked cherubs, went out into our community to announce the creation of a “nonpartisan parade celebrating the idea of liberty!”   We figured we would have everyone from Art Shanty’s to Boy Scout troops busy cobbling together some sort of float for our parade. We would be the media darlings! A nice respite from all the serious news looming about billy clubs and blocked highways and the mighty Republican Dollars that were bound to flood in. 

Not so much. 

After two press releases to over 40 media outlets, not one peep of interest.  How is this possible? Could we not be news worthy? We figured that the mere feat of getting permits for all of Nicollet Mall and Loring Park would be news worthy enough, let alone that we were putting together a community based celebration! But the press wasn’t impressed. I REALLY knew something was wrong when a prominent, liberal radio station cancelled our upcoming interview with less than a days notice. Why didn’t they want us? It boiled down to the fact we weren’t towing the liberal party line. Damned from all sides?  How could this happen? Then we realized our mistake.

We were working on the assumption that “nonpartisan” means that you are being all inclusive, welcoming people from all parties to engage in work together!  We can hold hands and sing songs and work out the BIG problems!   This is not actually true. Being nonpartisan means that you have no friends. The Right looks at you, and does not see support. The Left looks at you, and doesn’t see support either. Being in this political limbo offers ambivalence to your cause at best, and anger and hostility at its ugliest. “How dare you throw a parade about Liberty! Who do you work for anyway??”

We have changed gears a bit now, replacing “nonpartican” with the words “big crazy”. After all, thats what were hoping Liberty Parade will become.  To help further clairify what Liberty Parade is (and isn’t) Here is a handy dandy little FAQ we put together.

=== Liberty Parade: The FAQ  ===

Q: Everyone wants to know: What the heck is Liberty Parade??

A:
It is a big weird parade in honor of LIBERTY!
It is a rolling art explosion!
It is a city wide art project!
It is a celebration!
It is PROOF that politics doesn’t have to suck!
It is FREE and for everyone
It is a way to laugh off all this serious political business that has befallen our town.

Q: Why are you doing this?
A: A bunch of us Minneapolis kids got together and decided we had to do something unique and cool to show the nation what Minneapolis is really about. We came up with the idea of having a CELEBRATION rather than a protest. A big, weird, loud, difficult to explain or imagine parade where everyone creates objects to honor the idea of Liberty, and rolls them down the street for all to admire. Then we thought it would be a good final measure to throw a big party in Loring Park with beer and bands and intellectuals and civic leaders. Then we can all hang out together and talk smart and feel politically active. Not bad, eh?

Q:Is Liberty Parade a protest?
A: No, Liberty Parade Is a celebration! It’s a good times thing.

Q: If you’re not a protest group, are you Republicans?
A: We are your friends and neighbors. I bet some of us will be Republicans. I am sure there will be every political stripe that Minneapolis has to offer! I think the official term for it is “nonpartisan”.

Q: Is this legal? Do you have permits?
A: You betcha! It only took us a year, but the nice folks downtown said we could have a parade, and we could even have a concert at Loring Park with beer and everything! Minneapolis rocks! The permits cost us about $11,000, which is a lot of money to just do something for the hell of it. Bottom line: Donate if you can!

Q: I have never heard of you guys before. Are you a political group?
A: We are: a graphic designer, a high school teacher, a photographer, a web developer, two Ph.D candidates, a restorative justice advocate, a stock broker and a university secretary. If we were a political group it would take us another decade to come up with a platform. One thing we have in common is the belief that people should be active, engaged and conscious when it comes to politics, although we feel removed and apathetic most of the time too.

Q: When does the concert start?
A: The concert in Loring Park will begin at the end of the parade, around 2:30 or 3pm.

Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff to President Bush, is now columnist for Newsweek. This week, he offers some tips on what he calls “the Dem’s knife fight”:

Conventions are elaborate made-for-TV productions. We live in a culture of the visual. Every moment and every event should be scripted. The media will complain about it, but think through what messages you want and when you want them. This script must be visually powerful and interesting enough to keep the cameras on your candidate and not somewhere else. Make the spectacle personal. The Al and Tipper Gore kiss, for instance, did him a lot of good. And be sure to provide fresh content all the time. In the era of cable TV, talk radio, the blogosphere and YouTube, someone is watching and talking all the time. If you’re not pressing content into all available channels, someone else will.

(emphasis added)

This is a confirmation of one of the core beliefs of the The UnConvention: the scripted nature of the conventions is meant to guide people into a particular narrative. At this point it seems likely the Republican Convention will be the rehearsed, scripted event, since the Republican Nominee is already known to be John McCain. (The Democratic Convention on the other hand, is anyone’s guess.)

The second point is that Rove points out that if the scripted convention doesn’t fill all the voids of media coverage, someone else will. And, of course, The UnConvention is hoping for a few voids that we will fill in a much more constructive way than a scripted convention could.