Hello beautiful humans!
Obviously I, as an anarchist and student of history, don't actually put any stock into the 4th of July, or any of the other American Mythology, but it sure is nice to see so many great freedom-oriented events being planned for that day, especially since most of the country will still be locked in their houses.
Since the Coronavirus is pretty clearly a smoke-screen for the huge amount of economic redistribution we've seen over the last few months, along with increasing totalitarian surveillance & control across the planet... No, I'm not worried about being in a group of people - and I don't think you should be either. Feel free to scroll back through my blog to find some of my coverage of the 2020 Plandemic.
Here's where I will be, and the two events my friends are putting on - in Portland & Denver.
Where I'll Be: The 49th Annual Rainbow Gathering
For those of you new to my blog, The Rainbow Gathering is where I've been spending my 4th of July, and the week(s) around it, since 2015. If you've never heard of the Gathering, feel free to check out my in-depth write up on it. To put it extremely simply, the Gathering is basically a fully decentralized, FREE (in every sense), city that forms in the woods for a few weeks at a time. The BIG one, which started in 1972, happens from July 1-7 every year in a different National Forest, but there are 100s of Gatherings around the planet every year.
Rainbow is basically the best example you can find in the "industrial world" of what a truly mutualist/communist society functions like - without any money, hierarchy, "authority," tickets to get in, stages, or any kind of corporation behind it.
People just show up, and be themselves. Whether you want to cook food, offer medical help, dig shitters, clean up trash, offer classes & workshops, wander the forest, play music, or just sit next to the fire - Rainbow has got you covered.
Part of the consensus around this year's Gathering was to keep the directions "word-of-mouth" so I won't be sharing them here. I will say that the Gathering is in Idaho, and if you're interested you can leave an email address here, or reach out to me on Telegram (kennyskitchen) or Discord (kennyskitchen#9057)
Colorado: Unite The People
July 4th @ Civic Center Park - Denver, CO
I can't tell you a lot of details about this one, because it's being kept under wraps a bit. I can say that there will be TONS of amazing music, wonderful humans, looking like some great weather, and this is the perfect way to connect with @WeAreChange-CO, if you haven't already plugged in with them.
WRCC is a Denver/Boulder area decentralized organization, focused on creating & promoting independent journalism, conscious revolutionary music, and everything else that nourishes and feeds the movement!
From the event description:
UNITE THE PEOPLE
In America, we are supposed to be of, by, and for the People.
We stand UNITED, re-declaring our independence from a system that has forgotten who's in charge in this land. We stand United against police brutality, racism, hatred and division. We stand United against government lock downs, forced vaccinations and tracking.
Come celebrate and stand together for Truth, Love and Freedom as we stand UNITED with all our brothers and sisters.
FOOD ** FUN ** MUSIC
Portland: Hip-Hop Stands Up
July 4th @ The Portland "Justice Center"
The first of these events was held on June 12th (video here), at the height of the protests & riots. Now that they've had some more time to put something really professional together, I'm thinking this will probably be the West Coast's premier hip-hop show of 2020.
This event will be featuring music from, among others, the legendary Mic Crenshaw, and it sounds like Hive's very own @Elamental will be dropping some bars as well! Not a ton of details available now, but you can follow along on their FB page & GoFundMe.
What is this "4th of July" thing you are talking about?
And what does it have to do with "independence"?
Mostly i try to ignore it.
Seeing the fireworks, without a car is pretty much impossible.
Ride your bicycle in the dark? With tons of cars driving around?
And this year, there will be lots of bears roaming around looking to pester people about wearing face coverings and not getting to close to anyone... people on bicycles will probably stand out even more.
It will probably be put into the category of things i no longer do
such as fly commercial airlines.
The 4th of July is the peak of the Rainbow Gathering - when we all stay in silence from sunrise until noon (in whatever a prayer for world peace looks like for you), breaking that silence with a huge Ohm together at noon. After that it all explodes into dancing, music, merriment, and food.
Other than that, I think it's a liquor & dollar-store-trash sales holiday, like most of the rest :-P
For much of my young life I liked the 4th of July (mostly for the cover it gave our homemade explosives), then MANY years of just being annoyed with the drunkenness & statist BS. Once I discovered Rainbow, that day literally became one of the high points of my year :-)
Good to see ya; hope you are well!
I heard about this about three or four years ago from a homeless guy passing through town. I took it to be a gay pride event because of the name.
I would love to know more
Hi there!
The full name is something like The 49th Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family of Living Light, if that helps capture it a little bit better. The ways that I describe it generally depend on the person, and how much they know about festival culture, anarchist theory, etc...
It's a huge, temporary, light-on-the-land (little to no petro/electricity around), fully decentralized, completely free (no $, no tickets, no company, no employees, no rules besides respect for sovereignty/consent - and basic rules everyone agrees to regarding conflict resolution & group decision-making) city that forms in the woods. The first one (1972) was has repeated ever since from July 1-7 (actually the ~8 weeks or more around that), and there are over 100 regionals, locals, internationals, and such each year, all operating through spontaneous order and conscious manifestation.
Another way of putting it is the title of my presentation/booklet: The Rainbow Gathering: Five Decades of Beta-Testing Anarchist Society
If you've got any particular questions, I'm happy to answer them.
Thanks for dropping in :-)
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