Anti-ICE Art & Media Possibilities by KTM

elguante — 2025-10-14 20:55:35 UTC

a group of poets could get together and brainstorm, cooler, catchier chants for the next protest.

elguante — 2025-10-14 20:56:50 UTC

a group of visual artists could collaborate on a design for a poster/yard-sign campaign that can allow neighbors to broadcast their values. Like the "all are welcome here" signs or the "in this house, we believe..." signs, but better.

elguante — 2025-10-14 21:00:25 UTC

Diss tracks aren't just for airing out grievances with other artists. A group of emcees and songwriters could compete to see who can write the most vicious, withering takedowns of ICE and their supporters.

As with all of these ideas, consider your own safety; a release could look like any other single, or maybe it's anonymous, or maybe it's live-show-only. Do what feels right.

elguante — 2025-10-14 21:05:04 UTC

ZINES: There's been a beautiful proliferation of know-your-rights zines and community defense tips zines. Let's keep making those, and let's also keep being creative.

Maybe it's a zine of a dozen poets all writing anti-ICE poems. Or a zine remix of a news article you think everyone should read. Or a zine sharing stories of successful community defense efforts.

elguante — 2025-10-14 21:22:23 UTC

If you're a stand-up comic, write a tight five about ICE. That isn't easy, of course, because what is happening right now isn't funny. But great comics rise to challenges like that—not by punching down at the people being terrorized, or by making light of the overall situation, but by punching up at those with power and authority: the balaclava-wearing losers who couldn't cut it as cops or soldiers or security guards, so are doing this instead.

elguante — 2025-10-14 21:44:09 UTC

I got my start as an activist during the post-9/11 Iraq war protests, and one thing I remember from those days is STREET THEATER, little skits that people would do, outdoors, whether during a march or not, that expressed some kind of important information or value. What might it mean for a small theater company to devote some time to developing this kind of content?

2025-10-14 22:00:15 UTC

The inflatable dinosaurs at the Portland protests were incredible

elguante — 2025-10-14 22:01:49 UTC

If you're in community with poets or songwriters or artists of any kind, do a real-life workshop or gathering based on this specific question. Sometimes, people are hungry to share ideas, but need an invitation.

elguante — 2025-10-14 22:16:57 UTC

Make a bunch of memes, put them in a folder, and see if a local activist group wants to use them. They might not, and that's okay; don't pressure them. But some orgs are happy to have more mission-aligned content to share.

2025-10-15 00:01:08 UTC

play art or music improv games to generate protest art together with friends. Play can help get people out of "freeze mode" and into being imaginative about what could change, as well as building camaraderie. Doing it as a casual game can also help folks practice giving and recieving feedback about framing in a low stakes setting, which are good skills and trust to have built together when it counts!

2025-10-15 03:49:22 UTC

AMERICA 2025: A USER’S GUIDE TO RESISTANCE (AFTER THE COMMERCIAL BREAK)

They will say
“freedom”
like it’s a brand name.
Like it comes pre-packaged with an anthem
and a pair of boots made overseas.

But you know better.
You’ve felt it
freedom isn’t surveillance with better marketing.
It isn’t red, white & blue flashbangs
disguised as parades.

They don’t teach you this in school,
because it doesn’t fit on a standardized test:
Democracy isn’t something you inherit.
It’s something you build.
And then rebuild.
And then defend with your whole damn chest.

So:

When they build walls at the border
high enough to scrape God’s face,
you leave your porch light on.
You bake extra bread.
You learn to say “welcome” in ten different languages
and mean it.

When they outlaw assembly,
you gather anyway.
In living rooms. In libraries.
On sidewalks thick with riot gear breath.

When they rewrite history,
you write it back.
On bathroom stalls.
On your grandmother’s voicemail.
In margins and street corners and cyphers.

There are no kings here.
Only mirrors.
Only questions like:
What kind of country would call itself free
but silence its own heartbeat?

Look—

Every school board meeting
is a revolution in miniature.
Every librarian who won’t pull the banned book
is a warrior.
Every sunflower planted in the shadow of a drone
is an act of refusal.

This is not a manual.
This is a mixtape for the days when it’s hard to remember
that kindness can be resistance too.
That the real anthem is how we hold each other
when no one is watching.

America is not a place.
It’s a verb.
So what are you doing
with your hands?

2025-10-15 16:05:39 UTC

While spending time with others, brainstorm ideas for games (board, card, or otherwise) that support values you hold:

What is the community-building and commons-promoting version of Monopoly?

What does "Risk" look like when the risk is real-world resistance against tyrannical government actions?

What if "Clue" was about identifying the interests behind far-right "grassroots" social media campaigns?

The point is not to actually create the games - though that could be a cool side-effect 😆 - but to use them as a focus for conversations around the world we want to live in, as well as calling out the many avenues the current system has used for propaganda.