The Occuponics were on hand this past weekend to provide a musical soundtrack to OWS (Occupy Wall Street)’s 6 Month Anniversary, as shown in the following clips. Additionally, lyrics from The Occuponics’ Paul Stein’s song, “What We Believe Cannot Be Jailed,” were quoted in The Wall Street Journal of Monday in the article by reporters Jessica Ferger and Pervaiz Shallwani.
The Occuponics’ Stephen Carl Baldwin and Paul Stein perform at Liberty Square (AKA Zuccotti Park) on March 16, 2012, participating in COOLS (the Cultural Occupation of Liberty Square), a winter series of lunchtime performances and concerts whose purpose is to demonstrate that Zuccotti Park has not been abandoned and that Occupy Wall Street has not collapsed. Thanks to Robert K. Chin for making this recording. We are always glad to see Robert recording OWS, because he really know what he is doing!
The Occuponics Perform in a worldwide streamcast of The People Staged "Father$ of Lies." Photo credit: Stacy Lanyon.
The Occuponics performed with The People Staged this past Saturday night, providing music for an original play entitled “FATHER$ OF LIES.” The performance was streamed live to the world as part of the international broadcast ‘Low Lives: Occupy!’ on March 3, 2012. The music performed was “I Don’t Know But I’ve Been Told,” an original composition by the Occuponics’ Stephen Carl Baldwin.
This past Sunday, February 26th, Tompkins Square Park was reoccupied by Occupy Town Square, a series of “pop-up” occupations of public spaces that’s done a number of interesting “mobile occupations,” including actions at Washington Square Park and the West Park Presbyterian Church. The event included plenty of music, art, poetry, drama, crafts, and teach-ins, and The Occuponics were there. Here, Stephen C. Baldwin performs two Occuponics favorites, “I Don’t Know But I’ve Been Told/Occupy People Are Mighty Bold” and “Wall Street, Your Kingdom Must Come Down,” a song derived from an old gospel tune taught to us by Painless Parker (AKA Noam Berg). The accompanying female voice belongs to the polymath Allegra Culpepper, who has both performed at and documented the Occupy Wall Street movement for many months.
The Occuponics were proud to join musicians in the Catholic Workers Band (AKA “The Filthy Rotten System”) who greeted marchers who made a 12-mile pilgrimage from the Footbridge to Ellis Island in Liberty State Park to the Elizabeth Detention Center for the third Consecutive Year on Ash Wednesday, 2012. This center – run by a private, profit-making company, is filled with immigrants who are threatened with deportation, and one of the songs performed at this event was Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee.”
This annual event is archived on Facebook at the following link: http://www.facebook.com/events/119230314865597/
Ash Wednesday Pilgrimage from Ellis Island to Elizabeth Detention Center 2-22-12 : Arrival at EDC
Occuponics Jam With OWS Drum Circle – 1/29/12 Washington Square Park “Occupy Town Square”
The Almighty delivered splendid weather on Sunday, January 29th, 2012, when Occupy Town Square, an OWS (Occupy Wall Street) affinity group, produced a “pop-up occupation” in Washington Square Park. It was a beautiful afternoon that succeeded in re-establishing OWS as a powerful (albiet formerly dormant) force around the world.
The Occuponics continue to write and perform “on the spot,” improvisational Occupy Wall Street music and the group did its thing at The Peoples’ Stage (AKA The People Staged) and, earlier, before the valorous Daniel had gotten the People’s Stage banners up, with the splendid drum circle featured in this video, featuring Brendan Rooster Hunt, Saeed RB, John Eustor, and other members of the famous “Pulse” percussion cooperative, which gave OWS its heartbeat in late 2011.
We salute the OWS Drum Circle (AKA “Pulse”): these are valiant soldiers of rhythm who have given so much to Occupy Wall Street and have paid a price (three drummers were arrested on Saturday at Zuccotti Park (AKA Liberty Square). We hope these artists are released from jail soon. They were playing quietly and meant no harm to anybody.
Today’s WSP (Washington Square Park) Occupy Town Square event happened without arrests and was a beautiful model for future “pop-up” occupations that combine arts, culture, teach-ins, and be-ins for the public good.
We are grateful to The OWS Drum Circle Channel for uploading and distributing this video of the revitalized Occupy Wall Street (AKA OWS) drum circle.
An unpleasant, debilitating illness beset Occupy Wall Street (OWS) in the early weeks of January, 2012. Protesters returning from Washington DC may have brought the malady north after a mass demonstration there. Because many former Zuccotti Park campers now huddle, wandering nomads, in church shelters where disease easily spreads, an outbreak of what is being called the “Occu-Flu” has presented itself as the latest obstacle to OWS. Symptoms are centered in the stomach and this aggressive occupying microbe will seek out every available haven in the body.
The Occuponics recorded this brief Get Well ditty to express all those affected by the dreaded Occu-Flu.
The Occu-Flu By The Occuponics by Stephen Carl Baldwin
DON’T LET THE OCCU-FLU CHILL YA
Don’t let the Occu-Flu go chill ya
Cause the Occu-Flu can kill ya
You know the germ don’t give a damn about me and you
So if you go down to Zuccotti
Better take care of your body
We’ve got a long long way to go before we’re through
Don’t let the Occu-Flu go chill ya
Cause the Occu-Flu can kill ya
Don’t let the Occu-Flu go chill ya
Cause the Occu-Flu can kill ya