After attending the protests in Seattle, such as the Capitol Hill Organizing Protest at Cal Anderson Park, I decided to write up some reflections on the mass movement. From conversations on the protest, it became clear to me that people didn’t understand where the protest came from and where it was going.
That is, memory and imagination determined political understanding.
These reflections form a retrospective article published in the South Seattle Emerald, an early partner in our writer mentor program. “Reflecting on CHOP: Resistance Between Memory and Imagination” attempts to situate CHOP (originally CHAZ) in a line of protests dating back to before the 1999 WTO protest, such as to the taking of the Centro de la Raza in Beacon Hill in 1972.
Central to the article is the function of memory and imagination in mass political movements, exemplified in the role of art in protest: “The art was many things, but above all it was a refusal of politics as solemn, civil, and business-like.” Check out the article and spread some love to the South Seattle Emerald and friend of the collective Marcus Green, editor-in-chief.