Activists! We have to take our message of political engagement to the people: at churches, parks, playgrounds, parades, rallies. Voting needs to be as tasty as barbecue, as demanding as gospel music, as necessary as a good haircut.
A good haircut is a spectator event...
For the last 23 years, the African American community has been throwing a father's day picnic in Milwaukee's elegant Sherman Park - an artifact of a bygone day when city planners were serious about public spaces. (Activists! Set up voter registration tables at this picnic, and every picnic like this!)
Karate kids: discipline and purpose through hard work and mentorship...
We were able to register a lot of people to vote, and that is significant. But simply being there is important as well. My political operative friends tell me that turn-out is all that matters. However, movements happen through constant conversation. Movements happen through visible representation. Movements happen through persistent presence. The micropolitical is not about instrumentality. It is about relationships and discourse. (Activists! Get out and talk with your friend. That is one more vote to count on.)
Mike Erdmann, community organizer and Playground Legend registering people to vote...
In between music that blasted basslines like a heart pump, a fast talking emcee sang the script of local events, gave props to friends and family, shouted the shout-outs to the kids in their karate dojo, warned us not to touch the gleaming lustrous vintage cars lining the park or we would be in some serious trouble, and reminded us to buy the T-Shirts commemorating the event. (Activists! Give away or sell some T-Shirts... the revolution will be worn!)
The smell of barbecued ribs sent a cloud of vague memories throughout the grove. God, that smell! Sweet, savory, primal grill... enough to moisten a dry mouth on a hot day and bring tears to a vegetarians' eyes. (Activists! Whenever you are able, include food. It works.)
It was a great party in an elegant park lined with massive maple trees. It was a generous party with free food, free haircuts, free friendships. It was a fun place to be on a summer sunny afternoon.
• • • • • • •
Today we had a table at a huge parking lot party put on annually by the Greater New Birth Ministries in the heart of Milwaukee's urban core. The Ministry has repurposed an entire derelict strip mall, and the party sprawled onto a vast asphalt parking lot that housed numerous pick-up basketball games. I watched Playground Legend Penny Sikora. He claimed basketball was his addiction, and better than alcohol. I pointed out that no one ever blew out their knees on a cocktail. But, man; that man can play ball!
Future alderman Penny Sikora enabling his basketball addiction...
And Penny is also going to run for a local alderman position in the next election cycle. For what it is worth, I am going to help him all I can. (Activists! Do this: find some smart people running for local elections and put your muscle behind them. The left is losing the battleground of granularity. We must reclaim the schoolboards, the village council, the county governance...)
Community and public service groups were in full force...
The mall/ministries served as staging for all kinds of community based organizations from job corps to literacy project to healthcare to recycling. We had our voter registration table nestled among the Boy Scouts' table and the book raffle. My favorite public service display of the day was the C.O.W, or "Cell On Wheels," a mobile real life jail cell that a couple of men developed to try to dissuade young peoples' drift into crime. Kids can go in and see exactly what jail is all about: the double bunk, the stainless urinal, the bars that shut behind you.
The Cell On Wheels delivering a powerful message through physical presence...
I went in, and it was powerful. Those cells are small! On the outside of the display is information about time sentences for various common crimes. It is a sobering display, and a great piece of interventionist sculpture that is even more powerful for not being framed as art. (Activists! How can we use our own wild creativity to get our ideas across? Can we sing it like the folks in Madison? Can we preach it like Reverend Billy? Can we parade it like the farmers with their wonderful tractors?)
Sitting inside is a very sobering experience...
When you register people to vote, you have to ask about residency. This brings up some hard conversations. I spoke today with a gentle couple having to move due to the loss of both jobs, a beautiful young mother with her little girl living in transitional housing - subject to budget cuts - and one step off the streets, a young man with the charisma and intelligence of a born leader but a new felony charge so he can't register, a retired woman in an apartment where the ceiling in her kitchen just crashed onto the floor due to water damage from above, wondering where she can move that might be better...
Stephanie Findley, head of the Black Caucus of the DPW, waiting to register voters...
There is no single solution to all these problems, but there is engagement. There is representation, which our system of government is supposed to guarantee. This is the fight to fight, and I choose the parks and parties, the people in public places.
On Monday, I'm buying 200 kazoos for a Speak Out Parade at a party we're throwing next Saturday in the Woodlands. I like the image of 200 kids and adults marching and humming their hearts out. Can the cicada collective be considered a tactical media event? Is kazoozism a valid form of political expression? Will our march around the block, our sidewalk soapbox, and our street "party with a purpose" get some people psyched up for the micropolitical?
I certainly hope so, and Penny, the Playground Legend who will be running for alderman, is counting on it. (Activists! Find these parties near you. Build relationships with other organizers and be there. Just be there. You'll figure out what needs to be done.)