Laurie Anderson: A Short Talk About Art and Activism

Episode Description: In this rhizomatic assemblage of muses from the Artist, Activist, and Buddhist Laurie Anderson, we take a journey through some of Laurie’s past artistic social actions, her lessons, and observations. From her time spent in refugee camps, her life-changing experience with OCCUPY NYC, Women Taking Action, Breaking the Silence, and her time and lessons as an ex-pat. She observes that the US political sphere is in a terrain fighting over concepts we don’t truly understand. Similarly, the importance for her as an activist ‘…to view cities as towns…’, and to not identify the USA as a homogenous whole, but as a ‘…country of cities and areas,’. ‘Art…’, for Laurie, ‘…is not about making the world a better place, because with an agenda, art suffers… and is, therefore, ‘…not engaging.’ We must all be like Apollo, who turns his defeat of not having Daphne, into victory, by wearing the crown of laurels.