Yoko Ono showed up in stylish and stylized basement of the Ace Hotel this morning to give an award the LennonOno grant for Peace to Pussy Riot, the imprisoned Russian punk band.
“I thank Pussy Riot for standing firmly for freedom of expression and making all women proud,” said Ms. Ono, enunciating the band’s name in her signature clipped tone. The grant is awarded every two years as a tribute Ms. Ono’s late husband, John Lennon. Read More
Eastern Europe’s most famous band outside of Gogol Bordello (and Eugene Hütz met the rest of his crew in the LES, so there you go) Pussy Riot is still dealing with the fallout from the sentencing of three members to two years in prison for “hooliganism.” But while Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich cool their heels in jail, the other nine members of the punk art collective have worked out a deal to speed along an e-book with Feminist Press. Read More
Fearing the same prosecution as their band mates, the remaining 12 members of Russia’s Pussy Riot are running scared. Some of them literally.
Ever since three of the punk performance artists–Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Maria Alyokhina– were sentenced to two years in a penal colony for singing a satirical hymn about Vladmir Putin in a Moscow cathedral, the rest of the 15-woman collective have been keeping a low profile as the Moscow police comb the streets in search.
But two of them made a break for it: Rumor has it a couple members escaped Russia in disguise, and are seeking asylum in a safer country. How do we know that? Well, how do we know anything these days? They wrote an update on Twitter. Read More
“Let our sisters go! Let our sisters go!” about 25 protestors in support of Pussy Riot chanted as they walked east on 91st st. toward the Russian Consulate on the east side of Central Park this morning at 10 a.m.
The Observer was waiting on the otherwise peaceful Upper East Side block as approximately 25 people cloaked in colorful masks and capes marched to the front of the consulate after the announcement of a guilty verdict and 2-year prison sentence being dealt to the feminist rock band. We witnessed the protestors’ songs and arrests at the consulate (six in total, a number confirmed by an NYPD spokesperson), their peaceful march down Madison Avenue and their closing rally in Times Square. See it all in the slideshow. Read More
The New York Times finally resolves its ‘Pussy’ issues, a Gawker writer gets a book deal inked, a media outlet’s social media presence gets feisty, and more. Here are your Friday Power Lunch Media Briefs: Read More
At least three protesters have been arrested this morning at a demonstration at the Russian Consulate in Manhattan, according to an Observer reporter at the scene. Pictures of the arrests, like the one above, quickly appeared on Twitter. The demonstration was part of a day of protests planned in support of three members of the Read More
According to the New York Times and other sources, three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot have been found guilty of hooliganism. Sentencing is expected later today. Each woman was sentenced to two years in prison by a Moscow judge.
Here in New York, after last night’s solidarity reading at the Ace Hotel, featuring Chloë Sevigny and others, a “morning musical masquerade protest party” is planned. Read More
Last night, on the eve of a verdict that will decide the fate of the incarcerated members of the Russian punk rock band Pussy Riot, an array of musicians, artists, activists and feminists amassed at the Ace Hotel to hear the words of the imprisoned Maria Alyekhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnokova and Yekaterina Samutsevich. Letters from prison, lyrics to their songs and the women’s opening and closing statements from the trial were read aloud by a collaborative force made up of Riot Grrrls, a sexual limit pusher, a poet, an artist, a transgendered avant-garde cabaret singer and one Chloë Sevigny.
The members of the politically motivated group have been in a pre-trial detention center since March after a guerrilla performance inside the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in which they were only able to execute a 40 second rendition of their song “Our Lady, Chase Putin Out” before getting escorted out by security guards. The women could be facing a three-year prison sentence for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Pussy Riot adamantly denies any malice to Catholicism; they maintain they were only making an artistic political statement. Over the past month, support for Pussy Riot has poured in from the likes of Madonna, Paul McCartney and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Peaches has released a tribute song, all proceeds will go to the band’s legal fees.
Karen Finley, performance artist and one of the most animated readers of the night gave The Observer her stance on the trial: “There’s a history of the church being a place for prayer but also for speaking one’s mind. Yes, we’re using these larger-than-life statements, but that’s part of the art and the expression.” Read More
In Pitchfork’s serious-minded look at the Russian band Pussy Riot (whose supporters in their legal battle against the amassed forces of Vladimir Putin will be protesting tonight), riot grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna admits to an idiosyncratic view of 1990s TV. When describing the process by which Russian authorities took legal recourse Read More
In February, a punk riot band from Russia with the very late-90s name Pussy Riot were arrested when they desecrated one of the most powerful cathedrals in Moscow. The trio infuriated the Orthodox Church by staging a “prayer” of profanity-laced, anti-Putin sentiment. The three women were charged with “hooliganism” (which is a thing), and have yet to be released on bail.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich could be looking at anywhere from 3-7 years of jail time, even though President Putin himself said that he did not agree with the severity of the sentence.
The whole tale is long and sordid, and as much about Russia’s own hooliganism over its citizens as it is about censorship, but hey look over here Madonna’s shown up! Read More
