This occupation blog is a special assignment, outside of regular San Francisco theater coverage. I've been seeing a lot of themes in San Francisco Bay Area theater about social upheaval, civil rights and human rights activism and I see these themes playing out in real life.
Occupy Cal this warm, sunny autumn afternoon occupies tents after the five thousand plus occupiers partied to three in the morning last night at Sproul Hall, with no police intervention other than a few saying the occupiers had to leave but doing nothing.
Slideshow at left, plus pictorial on the artists here: Occupy Cal raises paintings, sculptures.
Today, yesterday’s almost festive, creative and peaceful feeling continued emanating through the plaza as musicians played, vegans served free vegan food such as Tofurky, folks walked their dogs and two couples danced salsa in front of a four young policemen who were quietly snapping pictures of the plaza with their iPhones.
A few buses remained open and ready to take occupiers to the march on UC Regents at the state building at 455 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco. The bus driver said they had been ready on Bancroft with the chartered bus by 9:45 a.m. The rally start was noon at Justin Herman Plaza with the People’s Assembly for Public Education at four p.m.
I arrived around eleven thirty on my bicycle and by one or so when I left the plaza had become much busier and livelier with more art installations arriving and painters painting walls of tile-size pieces in a mosaic on them. Lots of media with microphones, cameras and videocameras.
Cardboard became a tent with occupants inside under an oak tree at Sproul Hall, it’s occupier peaking out through a porthole at the top.
Cardboard became a flying phoenix hung below the red Occupy banner.
More protest messages appeared on cardboard signs.
If you can’t pay my rent, give me back my tent.
Bubbles not batons.
No tuition inflation without representation.
Someday the poor will have nothing to eat but the rich.
The band on the steps with the accordian and trombone chanted rhymically, Shut it Down and We are the 99%.
Revo, who has his name spelled out on his knuckles in black marker, worked at the table for creating signs. Crayons and playdough stood on an ironing board along with flyers.
He said he’s a community college student in anthropology and wants to transfer to Cal. He sees the occupation as solidarity with humanity. He studies how we have evolved with our collective consciousness. He saw me taking notes and said, everybody should have a notebook.
The UC police apprehended Revo last week. They had a single, yellow tent erected. Police in the early morning when there aren’t many around and protestors are tired, moved in. An officer Revo described as pugnacious charged the tent and tackled it. Revo grabbed a corner of it and hung on but three officers wrenched it loose and took Revo too. Revo said this morning they slammed him with resisting arrest but he has evidence he just went along. He asked me to help him attach his new poster to the frame, Free Speech.
Another young man on a bicycle and wearing a gas mask said there’s a midnight law, where the police can remove anybody who is not a student. He said after fifty or sixty hours, some of the protestors were exhausted and went home to their dorm rooms. Last night things kept going to about three or three thirty when they started to trickle out. He asked to be identified by his Chinese name, Luk Kai Ming. He said the gas mask came from a friend who works at Chevron, courtesy of Chevron Corporation.
He also pointed out one of the student leaders now curled on the steps and sleeping with her hands over her eyes to shield her face from the sun. The band played loud and clear next to her. She had been cooking yesterday and giving out food.
Meanwhile Tiffany, a super senior and French major, worked in the tent frame made of branches with fabric strips. She slept in the frame and got three hours of sleep last night, waking up at 7:30 with the noise. Cleaning and cops talking. She said last night she and the occupiers formed a cuddle huddle or puddle inside the frame to keep warm. They mean to promote positive feelings. Part of that would be security, as she said from time to time she got nervous when she heard cops talking but she didn’t get nervous that much. It was peaceful.
Nearby Katie, a Freshman molecular and cell biology major, painted a panel in one of the walls.
Rascal the German Shephard got a treat from his person nearby. Chihuahuas in Raiders t-shirts relaxed on the grass with their owner Juan. Mr. and Mrs., said Juan. Chata and Ace. They seemed quite interested in the aroma on my fingers from the free Tofurky and vegan sausage I just ate by toothpick, as it was lunchtime.
Here are pictures and stories from the past few days.
For the story, click here: http://www.examiner.com/theater-in-san-francisco/occupy-cal-rallying-today-for-accessible-education-and-end-to-violence-and-debt
For more information: bit.ly/OccupyCal
ReclaimUC.blogspot.org
BerkeleyCuts.org
email: OccupiedCalJournal@gmail.com
Here's a new website where student debtors may post pictures of themselves with one sign saying how much they borrowed and the other saying how much they owe. The site creator also is part of the documentary The Default Movie, www.TheDefaultMovie.com.
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