The other night I went up to the Drawn & Quarterly bookstore on Bernard Street, in the vaguely trendy area of Mile End in Montreal. Amazingly got a seat right by the lectern, with a view of the screen, as below.
Drooker’s event was billed as a Workshop on Art and Activism, but it was more like a performance. He projected pages from his graphic novels, and his New Yorker covers, accompanying them with stories, and music from a banjo and mouth organ.
A good deal of it was focussed on the Occupy Wall Street movement, and also the refugees in Gaza. Note the word “wall,” which applies to the partitioning wall in Gaza, and also the name of the street in New York.
It was a mesmerizing evening. Afterwards, Drooker took a group down to visit the occupation here in Montreal, in Victoria Square, but I had to go home and feed the kitties. Still, I’m inspired to do a few more socially relevant things. He exhorted us to get off the internet, and make stencils and stickers, to get to the percent of people who don’t have a computer, and don’t use the internet.
Below, a couple of drawings of people at the event, including Kevin, who helped set it up.
Tags: Activism, current events, montreal, Pen & Ink, photos, sketches