Performance marathon to free all Genoa prisoners

ART IS NOT A CRIME

A PERFORMANCE MARATHON TO
DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST THE PUBLIX THEATRE CARAVAN
& RELEASE ALL GENOA/G8 ACTIVISTS FROM
ITALIAN JAILS

THURS. AUG. 23, 4pm-Midnight

Italian Consulate, 2590 Webster @ Broadway,SF
(6 blocks W. of Van Ness on Broadway)

Theater, dance, spoken word performance, including:
Dance Brigade, Samsara, Keith Hennessy, Art and
Revolution Street Theater Collective, Gravity Physical
Theater, Village Culture, Tango for Protest, Folk
This!, Body Cartography, Teli Carduci, Drew Dellinger,
Dan McCale aka John WTO, fire artists, DJ’s, and many,
many more.

Bring: art, music, theater, dance, words, friends...

At midnight we will sendoff the Bay Area Caravan to
Borderhack, a three day Festival near Tijuana to
"Delete the Border" (there is still space-bring a bag
if you want to go. info http://www.de-lete.tv/borderhack)

On Monday July 24, the Publix Theatre Caravan, an
international multimedia performance group, was
stopped and 25 performers (and their dog Pogo) were
arrested and beaten by Italian police near Genoa,
Italy. The group had performed at the G8 protests in
Genoa, as part of a European tour, using theater to
express their belief in ending internment and
deportations and creating a world with out borders or
nations. They were arrested in the wake of the brutal
police repression which resulted in at least one
death during the G8 Summit. The imprisoned group
included Bay Area activist Andy Stoffel, who has
worked locally with Reclaim Mayday, Food Not Bombs and
Reclaim the Streets. Publix Theater Caravan is a group
of artists, musicians, actors, independent media
workers and experimental theater activists from
Austria, US, Slovakia, Germany, Australia, and Sweden.
The group is accused of vandalism, endangering public
safety and being the core of the "black bloc," due to
the presence of stage props, a black bra and several
black T-shirts amongst their belongings.

All of the group were released last week as a result of international public pressure, but, but 19 of them still face charges and up to 15 years in prison. In addition, over twenty other activists remain in jail following the protests.

This is part of an escalation of repression against polical street theater and the anti-corporate globalization movement in North America and Europe— repression which continues even more severely in the Global South and in communities of color in the North.

Publix theatre info:
http://www.no-racism.net/nobordertour/index_uk.html

More info on local support: genoadefensesf [at] yahoo.com