Breakfast of candidates

Rev Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir Rocked the Brooklyn Lyceum

So often I post events on this blog but can't make it to them. But last night I made a point of getting over to the Brooklyn Lyceum's Benefit for a Garden Grown from Katrina with mayoral candidate Rev Billy to find  out for myself what this Rev Billy thing is all about.

I know he's running for mayor on the Green Party ticket. And I've heard that he's an activist and performance artist with a powerful political message against war and consumerism.

Friends have told me that he's an amazing performer. And recently a friend said that they'd heard him on the Brian Lehrer Show and that he was incredible. Still, I didn't really know if it was schtick or the real thing.

The evening began with a screening of "Mama Sue's Garden," a very promising work-in-progress by documentary filmmaker Susan Hamovitch about a feisty and watchable woman in St. Bernard's Parish in New Orleans who is coming back from the devastation and loss of Hurricane Katrina by creating a community garden.

Then it was time for Rev Billy and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir and they rocked the house. The energy, the music, the humor of this group can not be understated.

And their message about democracy, consumerism and peace. A flyer that I got at the door states Rev Billy's reasons for running for mayor:

"It's called Democracy. My opponent Mike Bloomberg is buying his 3rd term, and now talks of a 4th. He's an old-fashioned strong man of the type we didn't think exicsted in America. His $300,000 a day keeps us consuming his little video performances about jobs, schools, the MATA or the Yankees—whatever ad is in rotation. But he is changing the subject The only issue is Democracy and all the other issue beomce importabot after we've talked out our facts and our positions in a democratic ways. That's because we are citizens, not consumer."

The Stop Shopping Gospel Choir was really at the heart of Rev Billy's Lyceum appearance. They are an all-ages choir comprised of a very appealing, talented and energetic group of people who make soaring gospel music. They make you want to clap along, sing, and stomp your feet. The music moves you to move as it moves you. And they're really fun to watch. As they say on the about page of rev Billy's website:

We are
moms, activists, cyclists, worshippers, pagans, bakers, park-lovers,
tech-geeks, tinkerers, campers, gardeners, nerds, actors, athletes,
executives, hairdressers, designers, angels, devlis, and more.
In between songs, Rev Billy delivered  his message of peace and his core belief  that our neighborhoods, commons, stoops, parks, streets
and libraries, are disappearing into the corporatized world of big
boxes and chain stores. This is from his website:

We like independent shops where you know the person behind the counter
or at least –you like them enough to share a story.We ask that local
activists who are defending themselves against supermalls, nuke plants,
gentrification – call us and we'll come and put on our "Fabulous
Worship!"

His sermon for the night was about his experience at an "unpermitted" peace march at the G20 in Pittsburgh. "The only permit we had was the First Amendment," he said and the choir then broke into a singing of those 35 words.

Rev Billy then resumed his story about a group of approximately 700 peace activists ("and some 30-40 kids who wanted to get arrested," he said), who were surrounded by what he called DarthRoboCopVaders, in special riot gear, who created a menacing wall around them.

These "inscrutable" walls (cops at a demonstration, big box stores in a smal town), says Rev Billy,  are creating a new theory of social control called emptiness. " Reflected in those LA sunglasses there is the power of emptiness."

He came away from the demonstration thinking that consumerism and militarism—and even activism—are the same thing as he felt the activists imitate the Robocops "because we felt their tension and we forgot that we were arguing for peace."

While in Pittsburg, Rev Billy said he saw something he wasn't supposed to see: behind a a van he saw a group of Robocops getting into their bullet proof vests. "Toto pulled away the curtain and there were the cops looking like local young people, not too beefy, getting into their armour. They were stepping into that attitude, that ektoskelatal thing. And I realized if they can put it on, it can be reversed."

He went on to say: "We can return to softness," he said. "That is possible. We can stay soft, complex, articulate, sensual and interesting. Not like that wall."

This is complex, thoughtful stuff and I was very impressed by his way of speaking and the things he had to say. He's interesting and surprising and nuanced and smart. He is a very appealing guy who is, at heart, a performer and an artist who has devised an incredible way to get his message across.

After the show, I ran into a fellow blogger on Fifth Avenue. He told me that he'd never seen Rev Billy.

"So is it schtick or is it real?" he asked.

"It's schtick and it's for real. It's very sincere schtick," I told him. But I know that's only part of the story. That's why I will be doing a Breakfast-of-Candidates interview with Rev Billy so we can really go behind the scenes and find out what makes him tick. Stay Tuned.