A Bristol Space Invaders Benefit
At No. 28 Portland Square on Friday 22/10/10

7pm start, £4 (no one turned away through lack of funds), smoke free and all-ages

everyone welcome


Evan Greer is a radical genderqueer singer/songwriter, parent, and community organizer based in Boston. (S)he writes and performs high-energy acoustic songs that inspire hope, build community, and incite resistance! On the road over 100 days a year performing and facilitating interactive workshops for all ages that connect many struggles for justice and liberation, Evan’sprimary goal is to directly support grassroots movements with music and education, and also to generate funds for local struggles in the communities (s)he visits.

Billy Salisbury, a.k.a. The Undercover Hippy, is definitely not your average singer songwriter. His music brings together folk guitar, soulful vocals, infectious reggae rhythms, and the lyrical wordplay of a hip-hop mc. Political without preaching, his songs deliver a positive message that is hard to ignore.

Dr. Spin, purveyor of hyper-active mind boiling poems and bouncing intensity, displays an octopus-like reach through the Bristol underground appearing in The Suit Burners, Anarco Folko, Circus of Invention, and alongside Ratface and Clayton Blizzard. Here though is your chance to catch his distilled yet perennially murky solo act. Possibly with friends.

Bristol Space Invaders are a diverse bunch of enraged creatives, DIY tinkers and thinkers, dreamers and schemers drawn together by common threads but mostly by our indignation at the impending grip of corporate expansion on our city. By that we mean the privatization of social space (aka if you havnt paid you can fuk-off), the plague of yuppy flats and identikit supermarkets, the marriage of local council to business interests and the rising rents and house prices that come as a result of all this and make our own neighbourhoods sterile, boring and out of reach for all but a privileged elite who come to displace us.

We are aware of the social division in our city and refuse to be evicted or deported from the centre because we do not fit a certain income bracket or pertain to the correct market segment. And we recognize that the changes we see in Bristol are part of global processes but that does not mean we are powerless to resist them – because we too form part a global process.

SO WHAT??

Rather than hold a protest to ask others to change things for us, we believe in the confrontational reclaiming of social space – taking spaces back with our hands rather than lobbying, paying or praying for others to do it for us… we are creative and work as a collective be it making art, taking housing, holding workshops, discussions, talks, films, food/swap-shops, music, info-stalls, performances & open mic nights to name but the tips of icebergs. We are non hierarchical – we don’t follow leaders – and make decisions, openly and as a group, we reject prejudice and racism in all its forms.

If any of that strikes a chord with you – or simply sounds like fun – join us We welcome your input, criticism, ideas, apprehensions and vision.

ORGANIZE YOUR RAGE – CREATE YOUR REALITY

bristolspaceivaders.wordpress.com