Squatter Films

And there it was taped up on the light pole as I passed by on Avenue C. It is a sign of the past, a sign of resistance that you never see in today's gentrified, genocided East Village. It read "Squatter Films. Need a Home, Take one!". It is an ode to the days gone by when these signs were everywhere and squatters were everywhere. There is no squatter scene in this neighborhood anymore. It has been bought out and sold out. This is a sign for everything now lost and forgotten that the Lower East Side neighborhood once stood for. A sign that the neighborhood once fought against. Gentrification and impending Gentrification. It is an ode to the park that once had the horses running through it, the cows running round it, and the helicopters hoovering over it. It is an ode to the bandshell that stood as a symbol of freedom for all long torn down, lost and forgotten. Free that park, that park everywhere. Freedom and utopia a thing of the past. It is a sign that once meant the squatters are your neighbors who will not surrender their lands or homes and who will not disappear or cease to exist. And so this flyer goes on to read: As the dizzying process of rampant speculation and gentrification goes on, we travel back to the days of resistance and a culture of life and struggle here on the Lower East Side. Join us for some home movies about people who needed a home and took one! Squatting is about taking back life, taking back the land in the interests of justice, equality, peace, and love between neighbors, neighbors who share a common need for a home, a human right to a home, made real in the act of seizing one! Join us for a night of cinema which explores Lower East Side history, a legacy of resistance, through direct action, and a celebration of cultural liberation. Various guest speakers will be present. Sliding scale donation at the door. Squatters rights are human rights! Gentrification is Genocide. -Not Dead Yet-
And what does this have to do with a No Police State?

Saint Mark's Church
2nd Avenue @ 10th Street
Saturday Night, August 18
7-Midnight