You're invited! Calling all musicians, buskers, artists, circus clowns, flag corps, mimes, puppeteers, regular folks, irregular folks, cats, dogs, baboons, dancers, lovers of music, Every-Damned-Body!

Sunday, May 5th at 6pm, we will show our support for all the good folks that make New Orleans great!

The Free The Music parade will bring free music to the streets of the Jazz Fest neighborhood to raise awareness about the city's ridiculous crackdown on live music venues and musicians.

You don't need to buy a ticket.

You don't need a corporate sponsor.

Just come out Sunday, May 5, 6pm and be ready to play music and dance in the streets.

Costumes encouraged.

The Bywater Rising Protest/ Second Line in support of live music venues, musicians, buskers, artists, DJs was great. We decided we wouldn't stop there.

RSVP on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/232432533555103/

NOTE: This has nothing to do with Jon Bon Jovi.

The second week of Justice Fest will last from Thursday, May 2 - Sunday, May 5.

2013 Celebrate justice and music at the location formerly known as the Sacred Shrine of Jon Bon Jovi.

Justice is not dead. Lady Justice has merely been taken hostage. And when there is no justice, there will be no peace.

We do not support the fact that Shell Oil is a corporate sponsor of Jazz Fest. We love NOLA music and culture but not Shell Oil.

We do not support Mayor Landrieu’s crackdown on live music venues, musicians, buskers, artists, and performers. We will resist the ridiculous citations residents living near Jazz Fest have received for having Yard Sales or "transient vending."

We do not forget Guadalupe.

And we hate Clean Zones!

We welcome you to bring info related to Social Justice Issues to this location during Jazz Fest.

In addition to Free Aqua Net Hairspray, the shrine will offer information about different Social Justice issues in New Orleans.

Please feel free to stop by during festival hours and be ready for some creative demonstrations.

Justice Fest Events - You can RSVP on the individual Facebook event pages if you like!

We might add more events or have spontaneous events. Some activities are ongoing, so stop by any time during Jazz Fest.

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Friday May 3 DIY Stencil Party 2:00pm until 8:00pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/374830725968708/

Let's stencil! We have some great stencils and spray paint and will stencil anything you bring! Or, bring your own stencils and we can swap designs.

Want to learn how to make stencils? Have stencil skills to share? The more the merrier! We have spray paint! If you can, bring your own exacto blade!

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Saturday May 4 9:00 to 11 pm
Let’s send 100 postcards to political prisoners - Mail to the Jail

https://www.facebook.com/events/158326777669320/

Let's get 100 postcards to send to political prisoners. Bring an original handmade postcard (handmade is ideal, but if you want to bring one you didn't make, that's okay), or come and make a postcard at Justice Fest.

We'd love to get a photo gallery of all the postcards and then mail them to political prisoners.

We'll have addresses and info on political prisoners so you can learn about their different circumstances, but check out Op Pen Pal http://oppenpal.wordpress.com/mailing-list/  and Mail to the Jail if you have a specific political prisoner you know you'd like to write to. http://mailtothejail.org/ 

We'll also have fun prizes for original hand made postcards!

You can just drop off your postcard on the way to Jazz Fest, or spend some time making postcards and learning about different political prisoners!

We'll be showing short films about various prisoners on the porch!
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May 4 - May 5 Chalk Party
https://www.facebook.com/events/543195785731834/

Let's make the sidewalks and streets around the Jazz Fest area beautiful before Sunday's Free The Music Parade!

Feel free to stop by Justice Fest for chalk ideas and some chalk, or just get out there and CHALK THE WORLD!

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May 5 Sunday - Face Painting Party 2pm - 5:30pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/118444485020416/

Come get your face painted in time to march in the Free The Music Parade! HERE: https://www.facebook.com/events/232432533555103/

We have face paint, and if you have your own face painting kit and skills, feel free to come by, set up, and accept donations.

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Free The Music Parade 6- 8pm May 5
https://www.facebook.com/events/232432533555103/

Calling all musicians, buskers, artists, circus clowns, flag corps, dancers, lovers of music!

Free The Music parade will bring free music to the streets of the Jazz Fest neighborhood.

You don't need to buy a ticket.

You don't need a corporate sponsor.

Just come out Sunday, May 5, 6pm and be ready to play music and dance in the streets.

Costumes encouraged.

The Bywater Rising Protest/ Second Line in support of live music venues, musicians, buskers, artists, DJs was great. We decided we wouldn't stop there.

DISCLAIMER
NOTE: These events are not sponsored by Shell Oil or Jon Bon Jovi, Bon Jovi, or in any way connected to them except some of them will be taking place at a location that holds the remnants of a Shrine devoted to Jon Bon Jovi that small affair made years ago.

It's been a busy Mardi Gras season at Occupy The Stage.

On January 19, Occupy The Stage rolled in krewedelusion - the parade that follows Krewe du Vieux, which kicks of Mardi Gras.

Our Krewe "Guise of Fawkes" made a "You can't jail an idea" float to show solidarity with  imprisoned hactivists and Free Anons.

We were thrilled to receive donations of flags and stickers from Hammond Support Network and Blastedrat to use as throws during the parade. Along with our own handmade throws (voodoo dolls, chalk with Chalkupy instructions, and buttons we made with our button machine), these stickers made our parade great, and we hope to have raised awareness about Jeremy Hammond's unfair bail denial and the prison sentence he is facing.

Check out our full write-up and the photo set below!

The Super Bowl's presence in New Orleans changed the parade schedule, so we had a whole weekend to focus on OpSuperBowl, which involved winning an ACLU lawsuit against Mayor Landrieu and the City of New Orleans. 

We won the right to carry signs and banners that did not contain 60% NFL branding.  

See Our Press Release! and The Gambit Weekly's Update "ACLU reaches agreement with city on Clean Zone lawsuit" for details. 

It didn't end there. We spent the week leading up to the Super Bowl conducting outreach about the NFL's non-profit status and the negative effect the Super Bowl had on local businesses and New Orleans taxi drivers (for full coverage of small_affair's citizen journalism, see her blog Whose Streets. 

Full text from slide show is available here!

Occupy The Stage met at 3pm in Jackson Square on Super Bowl Sunday and held a creative procession to celebrate our First Amendment right to free speech show solidarity with local artists, vendors, and workers.  A female Jesus led a procession of monks who chanted while holding wooden hand-painted signs bearing slogans that included "Thou Shalt Not Create a Police State" and "Honor The Small Businesses." Our slideshow and video are below.

This was a wonderful day, and we enjoyed the local artists' enthusiasm for our performance. 

Our antics did not go unnoticed by the FBI's Joint Task Force. When the power went out in the Super Dome, police radio scanners mentioned that the FBI was monitoring Occupy NOLA members.

AUDIO: at 18:26 mark dispatcher says FBI monitoring “Occupy NOLA” movement during Super Dome outage.

Occupy The Stage's Mardi Gras Krewe -  Guise of Fawkes - rolled with the Society of Saint Anne on Mardi Gras Day (February 12).

Our Free Anons float included paper hearts people could use to write Valentines to mail to political prisoners as part of #OpValentine! We've collected and addressed the Valentines and will be sending Mardi Gras love to political prisoners. 

See our Mardi Gras Day slideshow below!

It's been a busy few weeks, and we are really grateful to all of our online and on ground supporters.

Happy Valentine's Day!

~ OTS

We just learned about this parade from the Gulf Future Facebook page! Expect us!

Date: Saturday, August 4, 2012 at 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Location: Bayou St. John, under the trees at Orleans and Moss St. with a parade at 12:15 pm down Bayou St. John to the Bayou Beer Garden, 326 North Jefferson Davis Parkway, New Orleans, LA 70119.

Hands Across the Sand is a national day of unity where people are coming together to raise awareness about the consequences of offshore drilling. At noon, members of the community will join hands in solidarity to protect the Gulf of Mexico from unsafe oil and gas drilling and promote a clean energy economy for the Coast.

Folks are encouraged to walk, bike, kayak or canoe to get there without using oil. Bring an instrument or noise maker for the parade.


Sponsoring organizations: Gulf Restoration Network, Gulf Future, Sierra Club, Global Green, VAYLA and Louisiana Bucket Brigade

www.handsacrossthesand.org