Last week I had the pleasure of witnessing a panel discussion at the Rush Arts Gallery moderated by Julie Ashcraft, who is currently curating an exhibition entitled The Grand Cypher: Hip Hop, Iran & Syria. You can see the multi-media exhibit through May 24th, but I decided to take in the works of art and poetry last week in order to listen to a riveting conversation about the nature of hip hop within a global context, the opening of which you can view for yourself. In addition to acclaimed independent rapper Immortal Technique and New York attorney Jenny Poupa Marashi, who was born in Iran, there were two artists who participated in the panel via Livestream, Ehsan Ziya (Atour)-who hosted the first hip hop podcast in the nation of Iran-and Francis A. Willey, a composer and artist known not only for an iconic image appropriated by freedom activists in the Middle East but for an innovative, less toxic method of processing photographs. 

What struck me about this event was the way it embodied was the transcendent nature of art. Many of the artists whose works were displayed in this exhibition had experienced indescribable hardships-including war and imprisonment-in order to have their voices heard. The fact that they are able to recognize the importance of art-and how essential it is to life-in the face of threats to their own livelihood and security demonstrates its universality to the human condition. In a society where artists clamor for subsidies from unwilling taxpayers, it was refreshing to experience artwork which was created  at great personal sacrifice, often in defiance of government censorship.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the panel discussion was a debate over the role of the hip hop community in fostering public debate over critical domestic and foreign policy issues. Immortal Technique-the Peruvian-born, Harlem raised rap artist Felipe Andres Coronel-was arguably the ideal person to address this subject, being at the forefront of independent, conscious hip hop. Even though I was familiar with some of his views prior to this discussion, I was nonetheless wowed by the breadth of knowledge on display by Coronel, whose commentary ranged over the role the Sykes-Picot Agreement played in the current, sanguinary problems in the Levant, to the extent of white slavery within an empire of oppression dominated by Arab-Muslim armies of conquest in the past. Regardless of what you think of his personal political philosophy, it’s difficult to argue that Immortal Technique brings a sagacity and historical knowledge to his work that is sadly lacking  in the contemporary rap world.

Ehsan Ziya, his Iranian counterpart, contributed his own fascinating observations to this discussion, which also delved into the necessity of maintaining creative and financial control over the work you produce. As an artist in an Islamic theocracy which exercises complete control over what artistic expression and information is allowed to be consumed by the general public, he experiences life very differently than artists living in North America or Europe. The plight of  those seeking to create independent cinema, music and art within Iran is well known in the west, however very few people are aware of the struggles of the underground rap scene. One of the chief obstacles rappers like Ziya must overcome is the Catch-22 facing musicians who seek to turn their passion into a vocation. Namely, that in order to monetize their art these rap artists need to be widely known among the Iranian public, but once they become well known, the authorities rapidly crush them.

Even though he is not explicitly political, Ziya faces persecution because of the incipient threat that any large group of individuals-even those who merely share a common interest in a particular musical genre-pose in the wake of the Green Revolution. Unsurprisingly, artists who do not challenge the existing political status quo-even in an oblique manner-receive the full support of the regime-a point validated by the approval of a rap LP devoted to the devastating 2003 earthquake in Bam, which was produced by a group of musicians who had the full-throated endorsement of the IRI and its state institutions. The chasm that exists between those artists who are unencumbered by the desire to please authority-and as a result, are persecuted by the powers that be-and those who insist upon kowtowing to power, was thrown into stark relief by The Grand Cypher.

Therefore, I highly recommend visiting this exhibition, which will be on display through next week.

Update: Our good friend Pamela Hall has more photo and video coverage of the event on her fantastic website, The Silent Majority No More. I highly recommend checking it out for yourself.

The police presence at the anti-voter verification rally that took place in Manhattan this weekend was pretty substantial, although it still wasn’t quite as large as the security perimeter established around the diminished Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti Park. In addition to the NYPD officers, there were also a series of minders brought in by the SEIU and other unions to corral unscripted protesters.

Not that there were that many unscripted messages being presented. The overriding theme seemed to be a manichaean vision that voting rights were under assault by a ruthless cabal of Koch brother-bankrolled institutions and Republican elected officials intent on disenfranchising minorities. The biblical analogy seen below was not anomalous in this regard.

Opposition against more stringent requirements of voters-who in New York are merely required to sign their names to the voting rolls in order to cast a ballot-was the central theme of this demonstration. The laws being denounced ranged from a constitutional amendment in Mississippi that would require the production of a photo ID at the polls, to LD 1376, an overturned Maine law that prohibited same day voter registration and casting absentee ballots two days prior to the election.

There were a few demonstrators with American flags…very few.

The second-largest contingent of protesters, aside from those bussed in by the NAACP, was comprised of various labor unions from New York State and the surrounding Tri-State Area.

One of the more popular signs focused on the living wage bill being debated by the New York City Council that would mandate a higher pay scale for workers on projects subsidized by the City, although the actual impact of the proposed law is subject to intense dispute.

The chief sponsor of the march was the health workers local of the Service Employees International Union, which spent 28 million dollars in 2008 in order to elect Barack Obama to the presidency and will probably spend even more on the President’s reelection.

One of the largest unions in the country, and another huge funder and bloc of votes of President Obama, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees-part of the AFL-CIO-was also there in force.

Even a North American union had a few supporters among the crowd.

I’m not sure what conceivable interest ham radio operators have in the administation of U.S. election law, but they were in attendance as well.

The Civil Service Employees Association, a New York based local of AFSCME which wields enormous influence on state politics, was also a participant in the march to the United Nations.

As was the Professional Staff Congress, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers which represents staff at the City University Of New York. Like most of its counterparts at the rally, the PSC was part of the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti.

The fact that organized labor is becoming synonymous with public sector workers was reflected in the composition of the protest march. In addition AFSCME and the PSC, the Organization of Staff Analysts, which represents workers employed by New York City, was also present.

The Jewish Labor Committee, a secular, left wing 501(c)3 that coordinates with Big Labor, also had representatives participating in the anti-Koch march.

Interestingly enough, there was also an environmental activist group fighting against natural gas development and harnassing natural resources for domestic energy consumption. While it might seem strange to see a group created by radical environmentalist and anti-industrialist Bill McKibben yoking itself to a union-heavy demonstration, apparently there is a history behind this alliance. The inherent tension between backers of projects like the Keystone Pipeline and vociferous opponents of any American energy development has been noted by others.

There were also anti-war groups pounding the pavement. Although there was no ostensible link between the themes of the march and their cause, I have yet to see a demonstration in the past decade in which they did not participate, regardless of the cause being promoted.

Those from the Occupy Wall Street movement were perhaps more in sync with the motivations of the organizers, trumpeting the theme of wealth redistribution and denouncing the Koch brothers for assorted political and philanthropic activities they took issue with.

The anti-capitalist message was a popular one.

Including yet another denunciation of Citizens United, a Supreme Court decision that struck down unconstitutional speech restrictions placed upon labor unions, corporations, and political activists by McCain-Feingold. This is a theme that has particular resonance in liberal quarters, as this piece in Slate by Dahlia Lithwick illustrates.

The protestors did not stint on their enmity, which was almost universally directed at Republicans and those perceived to be helping the GOP, including the libertarian Koch brothers.

Notwithstanding the OWS contingent, the sectarian and radical nature of some of the organizations included in the roster of participants was hard to deny. The Peoples Organization for Progess, a Newark-based group that supports reparations extracted from white Americans to atone for slavery, rigid racial quotas, and confiscatory tax rates-and has been supportive of former Democratic congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney-had a sizable contingent taking part in the demonstration.

It’s difficult to see how “ending racism” and discriminating against racial groups different from your own can be logically reconciled, but I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

The Party of Socialism and Liberation-see if you can spot the oxymoron in that phrase-which is an offshoot of the Worker’s World Party did nothing to add to the luster of this march’s presentation.

Of course, The Militant-a publication of the Socialist Workers Party-was frequently on display.

Local socialist organizations, such as the new left Citizen Action of New York were also there.

On the other hand, this was priceless:

Unfortunately, the graybeard did not seem to recognize the cognitive dissonance inherent in attending a voting rights rally wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the image of someone not exactly known for his love of participatory democracy or election rules. Then again, who needs free elections when you can choose between socialism or being killed?

Who knew that Muncie, Indiana’s favorite orange, cartoon tabby was a liberal?

And what would a left wing march in New York City be without percussion instruments?

One of the benefits of going to these sorts of events is that you meet interesting characters. Like this fellow here, who apparently couldn’t locate his 2011 New Year’s novelty glasses in time for the demonstration.

Message overload:

I’m not quite certain what the purpose of the horns are, other than to display more buttons. Personally, my favorite is the Mobs Mabley button, although I’m not sure what possible relevance it has to the Koch brothers or state election statutes.

As the march was getting under way it came in sight of this amiable fellow, a restaurant worker who decided to make his own political statement with which I will conclude this photo-essay. Pepe the Bull is for the People! At least, that’s the portion of the hand-scrawled sign that I could make out-those of you who can come up with a better translation are free to provide it in the comments section below. Whatever the significance, it made just as much sense as the Garfield button-plus, he should be given points for his improvisational ability.

“Martyrs” — That was one of the many signs on display during an NAACP and SEIU-sponsored rally that took place this weekend  in opposition to David and Charles Koch, CEO and Executive Vice-President, respectively, of Koch Industries and universal left wing hobgoblins. The ostensible reason for the demonstration was the brothers’ contributions to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a coalition of conservative state legislators which has become an object of antipathy for liberal political activists at publications like The Nation and groups like Common Cause, People for the American Way, NAACP, and dozens of others-many of which were present at this anti-Koch rally on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

For full coverage and many more pictures, read more after the jump.

This press conference/march intended to draw an analogy between the explicitly discriminatory laws in place in the American South during the Jim Crow era and what the left views as “racist” laws intended to verify the eligibility of voters casting ballots in national and local elections. Hence, the employment of symbolism hoping to evoke thoughts of the worst civil rights abuses of this nation’s past, including the murders of Congress of Racial Equality workers Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney. One of the signs crafted with this purpose in mind used a photograph that came to symbolize the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike.

One of the main themes the organizers of this demonstration emphasized was the alleged oppressiveness of voting ID requirements, which they repeatedly attempted to compare to discriminatory poll taxes levied against black citizens in large swathes of the American South prior to the enactment of the 24th Amendment to the Constitution.

Leaving aside the hyperbolic nature of this campaign, it’s not an especially convincing argument, especially since none of the voter identification laws-either proposed or enacted-would require voters to pay anything in order to obtain a proper ID, should they not already have one. Jay Nordlinger dissected some of the more spurious arguments posited in opposition to these laws in a National Review article published several years ago. Honestly, the opinions of skeptics in this regard don’t seem to be especially important to the organizations behind the anti-voter ID crusade, because the aim is to energize Democratic, left wing voters who view any such laws with absolute derision. So it shouldn’t have surprised anyone that local Democratic officeholders, such as ethics paragons John Liu  and Charles Rangel, were in attendance.

Also present was the current president of the New York State NAACP, Hazel Dukes. An opponent of charter schools and friend of the United Federation of Teachers-another enthusiastic backer of this event-Dukes is probably best remembered for her troubled tenure at the head of New York City’s Off-Track Betting, which was marked by corruption, racism and incompetence.

Apparently, none of that was enough to dissuade John Liu from giving Ms. Dukes a hearty embrace. I’m not sure if she used her pet name for Comptroller Liu, although the two share a troubling laxity with regard to overseeing their employees and abiding by seemingly prosaic ethical standards so they doubtless found many ripe topics for conversation.

Harlem Congressman Charlie Rangel was also there, completing the sound stewardship of public funds by NY Democrats trifecta.

One of the chief sponsors of this rally was Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, which sent one of its representatives to the rally. No one seemed to note the irony of a rally against “racist laws” being endorsed by an organization largely responsible for instigating the climate that led to the massacre at Freddy’s Fashion Mart. Apparently, the political power Sharpton wields within the Democratic Party today outweighs any concerns about his dubious past.

One of the fliers distributed at the press conference that preceded the march highlighted the states which had enacted some form of voter identification and verification. The speaker below tried to emphasize the purported threat to voting rights these laws presented to putatively disenfranchised minorities.

Anthony Romero, the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, tried to emphasize that this was not a “partisan” event, but in reality…

The impression of an Obama reelection pep rally was palpable.

Bob Edgar, the CEO of Common Cause-a left wing 501(c)3 which lobbies for unconstitutional things like McCain-Feingold-was another one of the featured speakers at Saturday’s press conference. The absurdity of an organization that opposes the First Amendment denouncing constitutionally protected things like lobbying for more rigorous voter ID laws was lost on most of the crowd.

Although there were very few Muslims that came to the anti-Koch rally, our old friend Talib Abdur-Rashid was given a prime speaking slot to denounce what perceives to be attacks on minority voting rights.

One of the largest contingents at the event-which attracted several hundred people-was formed by the United Federation of Teachers. The president of the UFT, Michael Mulgrew, gave a speech attempting to draw a parallel between the Occupy Wall Street Movement and events like this anti-Koch rally. Both share common goals-and until recently, lockers.

Although the signs are new:

The demonstration included an unwieldy grab bag of leftist special interest groups, including the National Organization of Woman. NOW president Terry O’Neill  attempted to link new voters laws to attempts by pro-life legislatures to restrict access to abortion.

There were also representatives of Hispanic advocacy groups, which shouldn’t be surprising considering the continued national discussion over how-or, if you’re the Obama administration, whether-to enforce immigration law.

The open borders lobby, although considerably smaller than the group of union activists and NAACP workers, was an eager participant in the subsequent march to the United Nations.

Our good friends from the Minkwon Center:

Something tells me that the sign below isn’t entirely accurate.

But perhaps the most ubiquitous presence at this rally was supporters of the NAACP. President and CEO Benjamin Jealous gave the standard speech, not markedly different from any of his colleagues.

For what it’s worth, the organization did do a competent job of organizing local affiliates of the national organization:

There was one seemingly valid argument to be found at this event, notwithstanding the reservations expressed above. The question of whether convicted felons should be stripped of the franchise in perpetuity-and what classes of felonies should be subject to this penalty-is a necessary debate, especially with the increasing growth of federal criminal penalties that attach themselves to crimes that were never before within the purview of the federal government. While most people would find the thought of Charles Manson or Mumia Abu-Jamal casting a ballot deeply troubling, to say the least, I doubt that there would be many objections to restoring the rights of individuals who have been rejoined society after committing a nonviolent offense many years before. However, that is a far cry from demanding that convicted criminals be reenfranchised en masse.

One of the main motifs of this march, and the movement in general, harkens back to the height of the Civil Rights Era in the 1960s. Because there are very few actual victims of laws intended to thwart voting by illegal aliens and felons-and the cause of allowing people prohibited from voting back into the electoral process is not nationally popular-using vivid images of iconic victims of civil rights violations is necessary. And although well-designed, they’re probably not persuasive to the extent hoped for by their creators. Then again, these signs are not necessarily aimed at convincing undecided voters but rather energizing those who already subscribe to this very dubious analogy.

Several of the demonstrators did appear to be old enough to have participated in actual civil rights struggles…

Although those who were not at least had some knowledge of the aims of the civil rights movement and its leaders, such as Chief Counsel to the NAACP and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

However, there was still a sizable number of people there simply to voice their anger at the Koch brothers, attempting-with limited success-to tie this demonstration into the Occupy Wall Street movement.

As well as local struggles between organized labor and municipalities in other parts of the country:

Apparently this quip wasn’t self-evident. At least, to the person holding aloft a sign spelling out the Koch family name phonetically.

Tomorrow, more pictures from the Two Minutes Hate.