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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Greg Cook <a
href="mailto:%5bmailto:gcook30@hotmail.com%5d">[mailto:gcook30@hotmail.com]</a><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Friday, September 02, 2011
5:42 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <a
href="mailto:gcook30@hotmail.com">gcook30@hotmail.com</a><br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> War
Anniversary Banner Project<br>
<br>
</span></font><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>Afghanistan</span></b></st1:place></st1:country-region><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'> War Tenth Anniversary Banner Project<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font></span></b>To mark the tenth anniversary of the beginning of our
war in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
on Oct. 7, I’d like to invite you to participate in a big public art project.
I’m asking dozens of people—including veterans, artists (also artist veterans),
poets, teachers, etc.—to create banners that speak about the decade of fighting
and to hang them from highway overpasses on Oct. 6. The aim of the project is
not a protest (though statements of protest are welcome) but to prompt
reflection on what it has meant for our country to be at war for 10 years. So
you’re welcome to say whatever you wish on your banner—fill it with homages,
protests, salutes, memorials, words, drawings, photos.<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font>I’ve selected highway overpasses as the venue because they are a
place that can reach hundreds of viewers, but they are also one of the places
where we have our public community discussions about our current wars via
banners supporting our troops or welcoming them home.<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font>If you have questions, please contact me,<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font>Greg Cook<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font>lead project organizer<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font><st1:place w:st="on">New England</st1:place> Journal of Aesthetic
Research<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font><a href="mailto:gcook30@hotmail.com">gcook30@hotmail.com</a><font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>781.388.2665<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Some requirements if you plan
on participating:<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<u1:p></u1:p></span></font></span></b>= Make a banner. Feel free to say
whatever you wish on it.<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= You’ll have to hang your banner yourself. (Some help with
hanging may be possible upon advance request.)<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Banners need to be hung before rush hour (by about 5 p.m.) on
Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, to (1) catch rush hour traffic and (2) so they can be
documented by reporters in daylight (sunset is around 6:15 that night).<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Attach banners to the inside of overpass fencing so that they
don’t come loose and drop onto traffic below.<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Photograph your banner hung from a highway overpass and e-mail
it to <a href="mailto:gcook30@hotmail.com">gcook30@hotmail.com</a> as soon as
possible after you hang it on Oct. 6. I’ll post it to a project website, with a
map rounding up all the banners. Include the name(s) of who made the banner and
exact location (what street? over what highway? town? state?).<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= All participants will be publicly named—with their real names.<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= As soon as possible, confirm whether you’ll be participating by
contacting Greg Cook (<a href="mailto:gcook30@hotmail.com">gcook30@hotmail.com</a>).
The more confirmed participants in advance, the more likely we’ll be able to
get press coverage.<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Indicate where you’d like to hang your banner(s). This will
help coordinate displays over major roadways. In particular, I’m interested in
displays around <st1:City w:st="on">Boston</st1:City> along Routes 90, 95, 93
and 128 and around <st1:City w:st="on">Providence</st1:City> and <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pawtucket</st1:place></st1:City> along Route 95.
But I also welcome displays at whatever highway overpasses you can get to.<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Note whether you are interested in speaking with reporters. If
so, please include e-mail and phone number I can share with reporters.<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Feel free to pass along this invite to participate to friends
locally—or elsewhere. I’d like to expand this project as widely as possible.
But please keep the project quiet, and secret from officialdom. Part of what
will make the project interesting is the surprise appearance of the many
banners.<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Suggestions:<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<u1:p></u1:p></span></font></span></b>= Old bed sheets make great, cheap
banners. Get bed sheets at your local thrift store.<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Fold over the sheet’s corners and sew them, creating loops that
can be used to tie them to overpass fencing.<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Host a banner painting party with friends.<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= Attach banners to overpass fencing with wire or rope. Cheap plastic
zip ties can easily come undone in the strong winds atop overpasses.<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Also<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font></span></b>= Reporters will be alerted in advance, but they must
agree not to report on the project until 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. (The
technical term is that reporters will be “embargoed” from reporting on the
project until that time.) The aim is to attract news coverage that night and
the following day, the actual anniversary of the start of the war.<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
</span></font>= What TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, websites and
blogs should I contact in your area seeking coverage? Do you have press
contacts that you’d like to share with me?<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font><b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Related event:<font color=navy><span
style='color:navy'><br>
<u1:p></u1:p></span></font></span></b>Greg Cook will curate two screenings of
videos from YouTube documenting the Afghanistan War on the 10<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of the beginning of the fighting. The free public screenings will
be at Montserrat College of Art’s Odd Fellows Building, room 201, 194 Cabot
St., Beverly, Massachusetts, at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, and at AS220, 115 Empire
St., Providence, Rhode Island, at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. Each screening
will be followed by a conversation with the audience. (If you’re interested in
hosting a screening yourself, I can provide you with a link to the YouTube
video collection.)<font color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font>The YouTube footage by American service men and women, as well as
the U.S. government, news outlets, and the Taliban, demonstrates how cell
phones, the Internet and other technologies have created what have been called
our first YouTube wars, allowing immediate connections between troops and loved
ones back home, as well as new ways for Americans and our enemies to
disseminate on-the-ground information directly from the war zone.<font
color=navy><span style='color:navy'><br>
<br>
</span></font>Videos show local soldiers leaving for Afghanistan, American
helmet-camera footage of a firefight, wounded Americans being evacuated by
helicopter, a soldier’s intimate video diary, Taliban fighters in action,
American soldiers blowing off steam by recording their own music video for Lady
Gaga’s song “Telephone” (which became a web sensation), and a soldier meeting
his son for the first time since getting back from Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p></p>
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