Friday August 17, 17 Frost Theatre of the Arts (Williamsburg, Bklyn) and Saturday August 18, the Brecht Forum (Greenwich Village).

The 2012 edition of The Dissident Arts Festival will feature a wide array of artists of conscience rang ing from radical jazz musicians to protest singers to experimental artists and everything in between . Featured performers include legends of Free Jazz and World Music Karl Berger and Ingrid Sertso. An other special feature will be a screening of Metro polis with live improvised accompaniment. The Fest ival is a showcase of cultural workers and serves as a bridge between the arts and the progressive a ctivist community. We feature a great span of just what 'protest' art is: radical avant ga rde Jazz, topical Song, dissentful Poetry, revo lutionary New Music, social justice Film and Thea tre, Post-Punk dissidence, World sounds, progre ssive Cabaret of social change.

Now, in the midst of right-wing fear-mongering and teabag h ysteria, progressive artists speak out for social justice. The Dissident Arts Festival, now in its seventh year, is a platform for cultural workers to sing, recite, improvise, act and orate agai nst war and inequity and in honor of the struggle of workers and the globally oppressed. Event organ izer John Pietaro, a cultural and labor organizer who performs music as a percussionist and vocalis t and as is contributing writer to progressive pub lications, is proud to present the Dissident Arts Festival in conjunction this year with both the B recht Forum and 17 Frost Theatre of the Arts.

Originally based in upstate New York, the Festival began life as ‘the Dissident Folk Fe stival’ in 2006. Its primary goal was the e stablishment of an annual showcase of progressive protest music, poetry and performance art--perhap s the only such fest in the nation. But this Festi val has always sought to bring together a wide variety of sounds and styles, bending rules and infu sing all of the arts with the strongest, most pro gressive activism. Among our past performers and s peakers have been actor/raconteur Malachy McCourt , folk legend Pete Seeger, poet Louis Reyes River a, labor leader Henry Foner, folksinger Bev Grant, radical Hip Hop ensemble ReadNex Poetry Squad and filmmaker Kevin Keating (“Giuliani Time ”), and representatives of radical labor organizations. We presented tributes to Woody Guthr ie, Paul Robeson, Bertolt Brecht and Phil Ochs a long the way. The Festival has also offered a voice to progressive political candidates, particular ly those of independent parties.

As of 2010, the Dissident Arts Festival became added to the Brecht Forum's notable cultural program. The Brecht Forum was established decades ago as a center of Left education and culture in Greenwich Village. And now we have become a 2-day, 2-borough event wi th the affiliation of 17 Frost Theatre of the Arts , an independent radical gallery and performance space in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL SCHEDULE
http://brechtforum.org/dissident-arts-schedule-2012

http://www.DissidentArts.com