As the crowds converged at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at the steps of Sproul Plaza, there were no signs of anxiety or inklings of unfettered anger. Instead, there was music, art and a relaxed environment of visionary enterprise. As the University Gospel Chorus, led by director D. Mark Wilson, chanted songs of social justice, the congregation of students, faculty and fellow supporters of the Occupy Cal movement stood spellbound. It was a moment of collective joy and pointed politics which would come to reflect the broader tone of Tuesday’s protest as a movement characterized, as activist Amanda Armstrong stated, not by hostile aggravation but by “creative power.”
This was not the first time art, music and activism have merged with politics on Sproul Plaza. In 1964, Joan Baez provided a soundtrack of acoustic anthems to the Free Speech Movement while artists O’ Brien Thiele and Osha Neumann immortalized the conflict surrounding People’s Park with a memorial mural in 1969. On Tuesday, it became apparent not much had changed. A diverse array of provocative sculptures and paintings populated the scene alongside acoustic guitars, a capella groups and rock bands like Will Crum who came not only to play some tunes but to use music as a means for “people to reach out and talk about what bothers them.”
Artist Daniele Violi spoke of this same principle of creative expression as he stood by his sculpture — a vibrant red T-Rex lovingly (one hopes) papier-mached with copies of The Daily Cal. With a towering stature at over six-feet tall and a jagged steel frame, Violi says “it represents the inevitable extinction of the Board of Regents, the undemocratic education system and the ferocity of tactics.” His piece wasn’t the other dinosaur in sight though. A cardboard pterodactyl hung from the balcony of the Martin Luther King Jr. student union amid a myriad of works both materially varied and powerfully symbolic.
As protestors from Occupy Oakland joined the demonstration in the afternoon, prolific street artist Political Gridlock brought his screen printing equipment to print fresh posters with the slogan “Hella Occupy Cal.” Riffing off his pervasive “Hella Occupy Oakland” poster that has been spotted across Frank Ogawa (now dubbed Oscar Grant) Plaza, the poster’s busy designs encompass the broad spectrum of social struggles the movement represents. Students lined up to receive the posters as they were silk-screened on the spot.
Three paintings featuring evocative imagery of students, a lamenting Statue of Liberty and white crosses framed the steps of Sproul Hall as onlookers and participants of the protest surveyed the pieces with a curious and contemplative eye. A station of markers, paper and paints lie to the left with two pianos and a bookshelf to the right. This was more than a protest, it was an artistic colony where the best of Berkeley — its rich diversity, its ardent activism and its creative prowess — connected through the enduring agency of art.
Photos: Ashley Villanueva/Staff