Best. Party. Invitation. EVAR.

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Laurie Arbeiter is this tiny little dynamo of a woman, a serious peace activist who is one of the main forces behind a loose collective of (mostly) NYC based activists called The Critical Voice. The hallmark of their activism is a message delivered in stark black and white, bold statements and bold fonts.  

Laurie’s been arrested dozens of times. Shortly after I took this picture of her and Jenny Heinz at the “Not Really An Impeachment Hearing” on July 25th, a cop came up and threatened her with arrest because “he’d seen her before”. She was completely unflappable, “Yeah, whatever, it wouldn’t be the first time!” and just totally blew him off. Later she actually was one of the first people ejected from the hearing by John Conyers (following Cindy Sheehan) and arrested.

She and her organization have engaged in banner drops, protests and “March of the Dead” actions not just nationally but internationally.

One of their initiatives is the “WE WILL NOT BE SILENT” shirt. Printed in English, Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, Spanish and German, the shirts pay homage to a student resistance movement in Munich against the Nazis that was called “The White Rose”, which had this as their motto and is found as the concluding phrase on their fourth leaflet.

Wir schweigen nicht, wir sind Euer böses Gewissen;

die Weiße Rose läßt Euch keine Ruhe!

“We will not be silent, we are your bad conscience;

the White Rose will not leave you in peace!”

So today I get this screamingly funny invitation to a party they are throwing. I couldn’t stop giggling for fifteen minutes.