Protestors at the last year’s march on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Photo by Rink.

Are you tired of marching in those boring demonstrations against the War in Iraq? Sure, it’s important to show our protest against “THE WAR TO END ALL PEACE,” but we’re more creative than that, aren’t we? Most of us are lovers, not fighters. So why not express ourselves more … well … expressively?!

A quickly assembled group of dance/performance artists is calling all humans to a poetic protest against war and torture for a life worth living on the 5th anniversary of the invasion, occupation, and destruction of Iraq. Artists (performance and otherwise) and those who love artists will gather on Wednesday, March 19 at 9 am at Sansome & Market Streets for ongoing actions (3 or 4) ending at noon. Stay as long as you can.

Organizers (anonymous folks who can’t stand this crap any more than you can) ask participants to wear all white, or as much white as you can. Bring a black hood. If you don’t have a black hood stashed away in your closet, organizers will have extras for everyone who wants them.

The basic action will be to freeze for five minutes in various locations. You have no doubt seen these awesome freeze exercises in train stations and other busy places, recorded on you-tube and sent through cyberspace to bazillions of viewers. But these were just entertaining acts of performance art. Imagine how such a strategy would work as an anti-war statement! Imagine the news media and bloggers eating it up!

Organizers say they are considering a few options - including stitching hearts together with red thread during the freeze, or a slow building crescendo that becomes a vocal siren. There will be other (non-artistic) anti-war actions taking place downtown. Via cell and text, artist protesters will be alerted if there are action spots to converge upon or avoid. This is not intended as an arrest action, although disrupting public spaces is not entirely risk-free.

You might want to periodically check with the great and mighty artist of artists $teven Ra$pa and his website at tt1.org to see if he knows of any more detailed plans as they develop. Tell everyone you know. At this point we do know that Keith Hennessy, Paige Sorvillo, & Jez Lee will help to facilitate, synthesize, and organize. All humans welcome. Photo and video artists are encouraged to document. Organizers hope to have you-tube videos online within 24 hours after the action.

Five years of killing. Five years of lies. Five years of torture. Five years of excessive profits to a select few. Five years of abusing the good intentions of US military. Five years of chaos, destabilization, and ruin. Five years of taking over Iraqi oil. Five years of state terror. Five years of religious extremism. Five years of lost rights, forced migration, and dead hopes. Five years of building military and government bases that will endure for the next 50 to 100 years. FIVE YEARS TOO MANY!!!