File spoon-archives/puptcrit.archive/puptcrit_2003/puptcrit.0305, message 58


Date: Sun, 18 May 2003 09:11:43 -0400
From: john bell <john_bell-AT-emerson.edu>
Subject: PUPT: Puppeteers Arrested - Again!



The Cycle Circus described below might be of great interest to puppeteers
in Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, West Virginia, and Washington
D.C.  The people involved include great puppeteers!  Let's hope our
government allows them to perform for our fellow citizens!

john bell
>PUPPETEERS ARRESTED =AD AGAIN!
>by Morgan FitzPatrick
>
>Friday, May 16th, 2003, St. Louis, Missouri:
>
>At 9:00 a.m. nine members of the Cycle Circus Across the Cornbelt were
>stopped by St. Louis police while riding through a park.
>
>=93They arrested us on the charge of =91operating a bicycle without a
>license=92,=94 says Ben Majchrzak, a puppeteer with the Cycle Circus.
>Majchrzak and the eight others were held in jail for eight hours without
>access to food, telephones or lawyers. The =93bike license=94 charge was later
>changed to a summons to appear in court for traffic violations.
>
>Several blocks away, eight more members of the Cycle Circus were
>fastidiously preparing for their upcoming month-long ride to Washington
>D.C. when police raided the building at 11:00 a.m. Residents and guests,
>including puppeteers, jugglers, and bike mechanics, were all arrested.
>=93They were charged with =91occupying a condemned building=92,=94 says Majchrzak,
>=93but that house is totally legal and legit.=94 The house, dubbed the
>Bolozone by its inhabitants, is home to several St. Louis activists. This
>Monday marks the start if the World Agricultural Forum, and activists from
>around the globe had traveled to St. Louis to organize a counter-conference.
>
>=93The Circus is not attending either of these conferences,=94 says Majchrzak.
>=93We=92re just here as a circus.=94 Police confiscated all of the Cycle Circus=92
>items, including notebooks, roadmaps, stilts, puppets, and an array of
>bicycles, ranging from highly functional road bikes and trailers, to
>eccentric velocipedes, gigantic tricycles, and seven-foot tall bikes.
>=93They say that we need some kind of proof of ownership, like a title or
>receipt, before we can get our bikes back.=94 Most of the Cycle Circus=92
>bikes are custom-built by the riders themselves and bear no such documentation.
>
>These preemptive strikes against artists come in the wake of many similar
>attacks, both nationally and internationally. In April of 2000, over 100
>puppets and flags were held hostage by Washington D.C. police during
>demonstrations against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
>Philadelphia police arrested 79 puppeteers, some imprisoned for two weeks,
>while city officials destroyed more than 300 giant puppets slated for
>demonstrations against the 2000 Republican Convention in August.  In July
>of 2001 an international caravan of artists were jailed en route to the G8
>protests in Genoa, Italy where one demonstrator was killed by police. The
>Cycle Circus is the latest artistic casualty of government harassment.
>=93They claim that they were searching for weapons of mass destruction,=94
>intones Majchrzak. =93Where have I heard that before? Our juggling pins and
>fire chains were pictured on the news alongside roofing tacks and a piece
>of toilet paper that some cop stuffed inside a bottle to make it look like
>a Molotov cocktail.=94
>
>Majchrzak, who began his career as a puppeteer with Chicago=92s Redmoon
>Theatre and has toured the Americas and Europe with Bread & Puppet, has
>high hopes. =93We are demanding the return of our bikes and the removal of
>all charges. When we leave St. Louis next week, we want a police escort
>and we are inviting other cyclists to ride with us =AD including bike cops.=94
>Majchrzak is also encouraging everyone to call St. Louis Chief of Police
>Joe Mokwa at (314) 444-5624. Two other lines to try are (314) 444-5555 and
>(314) 231-1212..
>
>For further information, check out:
>www.indymedia.org and www.stlouis.indymedia.org  for updates on what=92s
>happening
>www.biodev.org  to learn more about what=92s being discussed at these
>conferences and for news about the Bike Caravan.
>=85and DEFINITELY look at www.cyclecircus.org  - a most inspiring site
>dedicated to bicycle-based puppetry and activism.
>
>Assuming that they make it, here=92s the
>CYCLE CIRCUS ROUTE AND SCHEDULE:
>May 5-10 St. Louis, MO. Build and Mutate Machines of Glory and Wild
>Abandon with Dan Greene and Juanki
>May 11-18 Circus Construction and Rehearsal with the Flying Rutabagas
>May 16-19 World Agricultural Forum hosted by Monsanto (evil)
>May 19 St. Louis, MO. First *Circus* Show! and Dance Party (good)
>May 20 Depart St. Louis -Begin Caravan Across the Cornbelt
>May 21 (camp along Miss. River)
>May 22 Carbondale *Circus*
>May 23 (camp along Wabash river-many State Parks to choose)
>May 24 Evansville IN. *Circus*
>May 25 (camp west of Hoosier Nat. Forest/Ohio River)
>May 26 Louisville, KY *Circus*
>May 27 Louisville
>May 28 Depart Louisville (camp near Farmers Retreat, IN. or Friendship,
>IN. -actual names of towns along scenic route 62!)
>May 29 Cincinnati *Circus*
>May 30 Cincinnati *Circus*
>May 31 (camp on Lil. Miami Scenic River - good idea Adam)
>June 1 Yellow Springs *Circus* (lets make a push for bikers from Dayton
>and Springfield to meet us there!)
>June 2 Springfield, OH. *Circus*
>June 3 Columbus, OH *Circus*
>June 4 (camping near Logan, or south of there)
>June 5 Athens, OH *Circus*
>June 6 Marietta, OH *Circus*
>June 7 (after a beautiful ride along route 7 and the picteuresque Ohio
>river, camp somewhere near New Martinsville, WV)
>June 8 (the beginning of Operation: Enduring Uphill Battles - the ascent
>of the Appalacians along Route 7- parts follow railroad beds, making the
>climbs gradual and the turns subtle)
>June 9-12 Five Days of Climbing! No Schedule for circuses, we'll be busy
>laughing at our own sweaty insanity!!!)
>June 13 Morgantown!!! WV. *Circus*
>June 14 Rest in Morgantown, and, why not, *Circus*
>June 15-18 Four Days of Dissent!
>June 19 Wash. DC *Circus! Circus! Circus!* Food Fight vs. Biotech Industry
>Organization
>June 22 Bye Bye Picnic! or Bike Circus Summer!
>
>=85and hopefully some of them will be heading north to Baltimore and
>Philadelphia!
>
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