On Friday 11th and Saturday 12th of March, Trinity was bustling with people geared up for the Activist Festival, a two-day festival, which focused on the theme “turning theory into action”, aimed to engage young activists and equip them with tools to deal with issues such as housing and LGBT rights. The event was run by Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) in collaboration with the Phil, the Science Gallery and the Graduates Students’ Union.
Speaking to The University Times, TCDSU President, Lynn Ruane, who organised the festival, said that activism to her means “seeing something that needs to be changed and acting on it with the hope of a more stable society”. The aim of the festival was to “bridge the gap” between students who are interested in activism and those actually working in activism in the community. She organised it with the aim to give the students the resources they need to put their own ideas into action. Ruane said she was inspired to create the festival when she realised “how much human capital is available at college” and that she wanted to find a medium to harness the idealism that students bring when they first come to college.
The festival kicked off on Friday evening at the Science Gallery, where the Paccar Theatre was crowded with people for a talk on “Art and Activism: Agents of Change.” Zack Denfeld, founder of The Center for Genomic Gastronomy as well as CoClimate, which is an artist-led think tank that “builds essential questions about climate change”, hosted the event. He was joined by Oron Catts, the Director of SymbioticA in the University of Western Australia, and Austin Stewart, an artist and academic at Ohio State University. His latest project, “Second Livestock”, creates a virtual reality for battery-farmed chickens which succinctly draws parallels between how we treat animals and ourselves and is currently part of an exhibit in the Science Gallery. Artist Emily Robyn Archer, a graduate of the Incubator Programme with the School for Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, also joined the panel.
The turnout was positive, and the audience seemed to contain people from many different areas, with artists and activists from the community making an appearance as well as Trinity students. Denfeld started off the evening by introducing the guests and touching briefly on the “tension between the words art and activism” and that “freedom to say what you feel can be at stake”. This resonated with the other artists as it’s an issue that often comes into play in the world of art. All three artists discussed their work, the common trends being community and environment. Stewart said that he “likes to make work that is a starter point for conversation”, which was made clear by the end of the evening by the number of questions directed towards him. The three artists discussed how they make the link with environmental issues and public art installations. Ultimately, with the aim to reach out to a larger audience, Stewart stressed the importance of taking art out of the gallery for it to make some social change saying “people don’t think they have the speciality to engage in certain talks and that’s why I take my work out of the gallery”.
My first stop on Saturday morning was the talk about the refugee crisis entitled “Slactivism to Activism: Human Displacement and the Refugee Crisis”. The talk was given by Dr Fintan Sheerin and Prof Gillian Wiley. Both clearly have a passion for activist issues such as human trafficking and the refugee crisis. They focussed on the dehumanisation of refugees in the modern age with Wiley stating that we live in a “fortress europe” where “borders have opened easily for trade and capital but are much more restrictive for people”. WIley then discussed the often biased portrayal of refugees in the media that attempts to paint migrants as a threat. Touching on the lack of action by European governments by presenting facts that one often does not see, Lebanon has taken in one million refugees from Syria, with their total population being just four million while Europe has taken only one million refugees with their total population being over 500 million.
Dr Sheerin spoke with a passion that made the room tense. He focused on slactivism as on online culture where people think that signing petitions is strong enough to make a change, aptly stating that “it’s about waking up to the world you live in”. He spoke on the role language has to play in dehumanising refugee, referring to those who help move refugees out of dangerous areas as human traffickers. Sheerin had been to Calais and Greece and saw refugees struggling across the shores: “I saw women giving birth on the beaches as they came ashore, I saw so many lives lost.” The talk then moved into workshop mode as we split up into groups to try find practical solutions to the problem, discussing ways to help integrate refugees and lobbying the government to accept more into Ireland. As I left this talk full of passion, it was clear that most people present wanted to change how we’re dealing with the refugee crisis. It’s fair to say that generating empathy for those affected and focusing on educating people plays a huge part in inspiring change. Sheeran left us with a particularly poignant point: “All you can do is be with them, cry with them, be human beings with them.” It’s worth pointing out that a talk focused around giving refugees a voice will be held on March 30th in the Art’s Block’s Edmund Burke theatre.
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Jónína Leósdóttir were the keynote speakers of the festival and also one of the most highly anticipated events as they were both being awarded the gold medal of honorary patronage from the Phil. Sigurðardóttir was the first female Prime Minister of Iceland and, along with her wife, Leósdóttir, she has travelled the world advocating for issues facing the queer community. Speaking to The University Times, Ludivine Rebet, President of the Phil said that activism to her means “walking the walk” and so was most looking forward to hearing these two women speak about what they have done for activism. This talk was light-hearted, even if it dealt with serious issues. Sigurðardóttir split her speech into three parts: the situation in Iceland when she was Prime Minister, gender equality in politics and LGBT rights. Stating that the majority of positions in politics are held by men she joked: “I must admit, I don’t think they’ve done an especially good job”. The laugh that erupted made me feel that she was mirroring a lot of people’s thoughts. Sigurðardóttir spoke modestly of her achievements, one of which being the introduction of a paternity leave in Iceland, and also briefly of her personal life with her wife. Leósdóttir spoke next about her history with Sigurðardóttir. She told the heartwarming story of how she came up with the title of her book, Jóhanna and I. Saying that she had to keep their relationship a secret and it was “a relief to finally be able to say ‘Jóhanna and I’”.
The “Environmental Justice and Activism in Community” talk was led by Prof Anthony Staines. He gave hands-on advice on how to bring about change in your community. The aim of this workshop was to get us thinking and to put those thoughts into action. This tied in perfectly with what Ruane told us she wanted to come out of the festival: “A greater sense of what to do and how to network”. Staines worked through a case study with us and asked: How would we start? What will we need? Whom will we need? What strategies would we use? He said that “community is more powerful than the individual”, which was a trend that persisted throughout the festival. This concept was was also more than evident by the progress the group had made by the end. This talk was followed by “Promoting peace, Human Rights and Neutrality” by John Lannon. Lannon’s work is centred mostly on keeping the american military out of Shannon airport. He runs the Shannon Watch website and holds monthly peace vigils at the airport. He spoke about young people having passion about these topics but not actually putting it into action. In fact, he is one of the youngest members of the group and made a plea “for younger people to get involved”.
Hozier’s visit with the Phil was, unsurprisingly, the event with the largest attendance of the weekend. One of Ruane’s hopes for the festival was to show that activism is not only about “rallies and marches” and that “arts, theatre and music can also instigate change”. With that said, it was a pleasure to hear Hozier speak about how he uses politics in his music. Hozier often uses music video’s to deal with difficult issues, his most recent being the Cherry Wine music video which deals with domestic violence. When asked if there is a responsibility for musicians to be political he said “whether consciously or not, music has a political undertone. Whether it’s Robin Thicke saying ‘You’re a good girl,I know you want it.’ It’s still political.” In response to what he thinks young people who feel they don’t have power to change should do he said that “it starts with the feeling of ownership of our own society.” Hozier came across as such a normal everyday person, which I found quite uplifting. As a student, we can use whatever our talents may be in order to be activists. Despite Hozier’s incredible success, his fondness of Trinity was made clear.
The festival ended last night with a performance by Seo Linn, a band that performs pop songs through Irish. Ruane told us that her biggest hope for the festival is “to see students leaving on Saturday full of hope and a willingness to make a change”. I can’t speak for everyone, but the hum of discussion and energy that I saw as I left on Saturday tells me the festival was a success.
