Brad Will
Encyclopedia
Bradley Roland Will was an American
activist, videographer
and amateur journalist
affiliated with Indymedia. On October 27, 2006 during a labor dispute
in the Mexican
city of Oaxaca
, Will suffered two gunshot wounds that resulted in his death.
Will was born in Evanston, Illinois
, and raised in the affluent community of Kenilworth, Illinois
. He attended New Trier High School
, graduating in 1988 and went on to attend Allegheny College
in Meadville, Pennsylvania
, where he earned a B.A.
in English
. Beginning in the summer of 1991, he was a regular attendee at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the summer writing program of Naropa University
and was a teaching assistant to Peter Lamborn Wilson
(a.k.a. Hakim Bey). In 1995, after spending time at Dreamtime Village
in southwest Wisconsin
. He later moved to Manhattan
where he squatted
on the Lower East Side
before moving to Williamsburg
, Brooklyn
.
piece designed to mock the Colorado socially conservative Christian
community and protest a proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution which sought to limit gay rights. Will, (who was heterosexual), was married to an gay
man in a ceremony conducted by Peter Lamborn Wilson
, a Universal Life Church
-ordained minister. The mock ceremony included a procession of their wedding party in drag
, parading in front of a Promise Keepers
event in Boulder
.
While in New York City, Will became involved in the squatters movement of the Lower East Side
and in what has become known as freeganism
, an effort to live outside the mainstream economic grid by means that includes collecting and eating food discarded by stores and food manufacturers. He also fought the removal of community gardens, including the Chico Mendez Mural Garden
on the Lower East Side, named after Brazilian activist Chico Mendes
. Will was an active participant in protests across the country, usually for various social justice
and human rights
causes, and was involved with environmental
movements such as Earth First!
and the Fall Creek Tree Village in the Willamette National Forest
outside Eugene, Oregon
.
Will gained some notoriety for his efforts to prevent New York City from demolishing a squat on Fifth Street in the Lower East Side. When construction crews arrived at the building to begin taking it down, he stood atop the roof waving his arms. His efforts stalled the demolition, but the city eventually leveled the building, which housed a café, a meeting place and a performance space. Will later talked about the building in a program produced by Paper Tiger Television
called "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive".
Will was a proponent of anti-corporate media and he hosted his own program on Steal This Radio, a Lower East Side-based pirate radio
station.
In 1998, he and partner Hazel spoke at the Ecosaloon, a weekly activism forum held on Tuesday evenings at the Wetlands Preserve nightclub. Their presentation connected the struggle to defend the forests of the Pacific Northwest with the fight against the gentrification of Manhattan's Lower East Side. After helping organizing Buy Nothing Day
and a Reclaim the Streets
protest in Times Square
, Will traveled to Seattle for the 1999 WTO protests
, and was a long-standing participant in the New York City Direct Action Network (DAN) and New York Independent Media Center (IMC). In August 2001 he joined participants for a roving exploration of usable food in Tribeca garbage accompanied by a TV crew from PBS's Life 360. In his latter years, Will began recording documentary videos, releasing them on the internet through the Indymedia network of websites. During the summer of 2006, Will continued videotaping demonstrations, including a June 15 protest at the Mexican Consulate in response to a police incursion into a teacher's plantón (encampment). On June 29, he video-recorded and helped organize a protest against Victoria's Secret
at the Manhattan Mall
in response to the resources used to print the high volume of mail-order catalogs the company sent to its customers. He also shot a street theater performance by the group A for Anarchy, organized in response to the release of the film V for Vendetta. At the time of his death, he was working on a documentary about folk punk
music.
Will attended a protest in Prague
against the International Monetary Fund
Summit. He later traveled through South America
while participating in anti-globalization
Ecuador
, Argentina
and Chiapas
, and Brazil
.
, Will had arrived in Oaxaca in early October 2006 in order to document and film the teachers' strike. On October 27, he was videotaping near a barricade erected by pro-strike protesters when he was shot twice. He died while being carried away from the area. Along with Will, two protesters – Esteban Zurita López and teacher Emilio Alonso Fabián – were also killed. Several others were injured.
During a news conference on October 29, 2006, Oaxaca mayor
Manuel Martínez said that four men, all local public officials, were being detained in connection with the shooting.
written "to honor the memory" of Will and support "the Oaxacan people's efforts to establish a popular government that recognizes local traditions and values," was signed by numerous academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky
, David Graeber
, Naomi Klein
, Michael Moore
, Arundhati Roy
, Starhawk
and Howard Zinn
.
sent an open letter on October 30 to the Mexican attorney general
calling on the federal government to launch an official investigation into Will's death. The statement also mentioned that David Vega Vera, special independent prosecutor, had begun gathering information and facts related to the case.
On November 11 and 12, 2006, Friends of Brad Will organized a gathering in New York City to commemorate Will's life. The event included a memorial service at St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
attended by 250 people, as well as speeches and concerts. Outside the church was an array of freegan food as well as a pile of Will's personal possessions, from which attendees were urged to take. It was followed by a procession through the EEast Village
described by The Villager
as "jubilant and rowdy", which culminated in marchers breaking into the former CHARAS/El Bohio - inside which they cavorted, scrawled graffiti
, twirled a fire bolas
and cycled - for about 20 minutes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
activist, videographer
Videographer
Strictly speaking, a videographer is a person who works in the field of videography, video production — recording moving images and sound on video tape, disk, other electro-mechanical device. News broadcasting relies heavily on live television where videographers engage in electronic news...
and amateur journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
affiliated with Indymedia. On October 27, 2006 during a labor dispute
2006 Oaxaca protests
The Mexican state of Oaxaca was embroiled in a conflict that lasted more than seven months and resulted in at least seventeen deaths and the occupation of the capital city of Oaxaca by the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca . The conflict emerged in May 2006 with the police responding to a...
in the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
city of Oaxaca
Oaxaca, Oaxaca
The city and municipality of Oaxaca de Juárez, or simply Oaxaca, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of the same name . It is located in the Centro District in the Central Valleys region of the state, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre at the base of the Cerro del Fortín...
, Will suffered two gunshot wounds that resulted in his death.
Early life
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
, and raised in the affluent community of Kenilworth, Illinois
Kenilworth, Illinois
Kenilworth is a village in Cook County, Illinois, north of downtown Chicago. It is the newest of the nine suburban North Shore communities bordering Lake Michigan, and is the only one developed as a planned community...
. He attended New Trier High School
New Trier High School
New Trier High School is a public four-year high school , with its major campus located in Winnetka, Illinois, USA, and a second campus in Northfield, Illinois, with freshman classes and district administration...
, graduating in 1988 and went on to attend Allegheny College
Allegheny College
Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the town of Meadville. Founded in 1815, the college has about 2,100 undergraduate students.-Early history:...
in Meadville, Pennsylvania
Meadville, Pennsylvania
Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city is generally considered part of the Pittsburgh Tri-State and is within 40 miles of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the first permanent settlement in northwest Pennsylvania...
, where he earned a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
. Beginning in the summer of 1991, he was a regular attendee at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the summer writing program of Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
and was a teaching assistant to Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson , is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone , based, in part, on a historical review of pirate utopias...
(a.k.a. Hakim Bey). In 1995, after spending time at Dreamtime Village
Dreamtime Village
Dreamtime Village is an intentional community in West Lima, Wisconsin, United States, whose residents participate in various permaculture, hypermedia, and sustainability projects. Dreamtime was founded in 1990 by Madison artists mIEKAL aND and Lyx Ish....
in southwest Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
. He later moved to Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
where he squatted
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
on the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
before moving to Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north, Bedford-Stuyvesant to the south, Bushwick to the east and the East River to the west. The neighborhood is part of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The neighborhood is served by the NYPD's 90th ...
, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
.
U.S.
At Naropa, Will participated in a satirical performance artPerformance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
piece designed to mock the Colorado socially conservative Christian
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
community and protest a proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution which sought to limit gay rights. Will, (who was heterosexual), was married to an gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
man in a ceremony conducted by Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson
Peter Lamborn Wilson , is an American political writer, essayist, and poet, known for first proposing the concept of the Temporary Autonomous Zone , based, in part, on a historical review of pirate utopias...
, a Universal Life Church
Universal Life Church
The Universal Life Church is a religious organization that offers anyone semi-immediate ordination as a ULC minister free of charge. The organization states that anyone can become a minister immediately, without having to go through the pre-ordination process required by other religious faiths...
-ordained minister. The mock ceremony included a procession of their wedding party in drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
, parading in front of a Promise Keepers
Promise Keepers
Promise Keepers is an international conservative Christian organization for men. While it originated in the United States, it is now world-wide...
event in Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
.
While in New York City, Will became involved in the squatters movement of the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
and in what has become known as freeganism
Freeganism
Freeganism is the practice of reclaiming and eating food that has been discarded. One third of the world's food is wasted —in shops, restaurants, farms, factories and homes—and freegans aim to expose and protest against this, arguing that it contributes to environmental degradation, resource...
, an effort to live outside the mainstream economic grid by means that includes collecting and eating food discarded by stores and food manufacturers. He also fought the removal of community gardens, including the Chico Mendez Mural Garden
Chico Mendez Mural Garden
The Chico Mendez Mural Garden was a community garden located on the Lower East Side of New York City. Named after Brazilian environmentalist and activist Chico Mendes, the garden was demolished on December 31, 1997.-History:...
on the Lower East Side, named after Brazilian activist Chico Mendes
Chico Mendes
Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes , was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples...
. Will was an active participant in protests across the country, usually for various social justice
Social justice
Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
and human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
causes, and was involved with environmental
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
movements such as Earth First!
Earth First!
Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....
and the Fall Creek Tree Village in the Willamette National Forest
Willamette National Forest
The Willamette National Forest is a National Forest located in the central portion of the Cascade Range of US state of Oregon.It comprises 1,675,407 acres making it one of the largest national forests. Over 380,000 acres are designated wilderness which include seven major mountain peaks...
outside Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
.
Will gained some notoriety for his efforts to prevent New York City from demolishing a squat on Fifth Street in the Lower East Side. When construction crews arrived at the building to begin taking it down, he stood atop the roof waving his arms. His efforts stalled the demolition, but the city eventually leveled the building, which housed a café, a meeting place and a performance space. Will later talked about the building in a program produced by Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television is an open media collective dedicated to raising media literacy and challenging corporate control over broadcast medium. Based in New York City, Paper Tiger was founded in 1981....
called "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive".
Will was a proponent of anti-corporate media and he hosted his own program on Steal This Radio, a Lower East Side-based pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
station.
In 1998, he and partner Hazel spoke at the Ecosaloon, a weekly activism forum held on Tuesday evenings at the Wetlands Preserve nightclub. Their presentation connected the struggle to defend the forests of the Pacific Northwest with the fight against the gentrification of Manhattan's Lower East Side. After helping organizing Buy Nothing Day
Buy Nothing Day
thumb|Buy Nothing Day demonstration in [[San Francisco]], November 2000Buy Nothing Day ' is an international day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. Typically celebrated the Friday after American Thanksgiving in North America and the following day internationally, in 2011...
and a Reclaim the Streets
Reclaim the Streets
Reclaim The Streets is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.-Protests:Reclaim The...
protest in Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, Will traveled to Seattle for the 1999 WTO protests
WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity
Protest activity surrounding the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations, occurred on November 30, 1999 , when the World Trade Organization convened at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington,...
, and was a long-standing participant in the New York City Direct Action Network (DAN) and New York Independent Media Center (IMC). In August 2001 he joined participants for a roving exploration of usable food in Tribeca garbage accompanied by a TV crew from PBS's Life 360. In his latter years, Will began recording documentary videos, releasing them on the internet through the Indymedia network of websites. During the summer of 2006, Will continued videotaping demonstrations, including a June 15 protest at the Mexican Consulate in response to a police incursion into a teacher's plantón (encampment). On June 29, he video-recorded and helped organize a protest against Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret
Victoria's Secret is an American retailer of women's wear, lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest segment of publicly-traded Limited Brands with sales of over US$5 billion and an operating income of $1 billion in 2006...
at the Manhattan Mall
Manhattan Mall
The Manhattan Mall, one of the few traditional indoor malls in New York City, is located at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue. There are entrances to the 34th Street – Herald Square subway station and the 33rd Street PATH station, on the second basement level.This mall is a high-traffic shopping venue...
in response to the resources used to print the high volume of mail-order catalogs the company sent to its customers. He also shot a street theater performance by the group A for Anarchy, organized in response to the release of the film V for Vendetta. At the time of his death, he was working on a documentary about folk punk
Folk punk
Folk punk , is a fusion of folk music and punk rock. It was pioneered in the late 1970s and early 1980s by The Pogues in Britain and Violent Femmes in America. Folk punk achieved some mainstream success in that decade...
music.
International
In 2000, while visiting the Czech RepublicCzech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
Will attended a protest in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
against the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
Summit. He later traveled through South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
while participating in anti-globalization
Anti-globalization
Criticism of globalization is skepticism of the claimed benefits of the globalization of capitalism. Many of these views are held by the anti-globalization movement however other groups also are critical of the policies of globalization....
Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
Death
Traveling under a tourist visaVisa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
, Will had arrived in Oaxaca in early October 2006 in order to document and film the teachers' strike. On October 27, he was videotaping near a barricade erected by pro-strike protesters when he was shot twice. He died while being carried away from the area. Along with Will, two protesters – Esteban Zurita López and teacher Emilio Alonso Fabián – were also killed. Several others were injured.
During a news conference on October 29, 2006, Oaxaca mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Manuel Martínez said that four men, all local public officials, were being detained in connection with the shooting.
Reaction
An open letterOpen letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
written "to honor the memory" of Will and support "the Oaxacan people's efforts to establish a popular government that recognizes local traditions and values," was signed by numerous academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, David Graeber
David Graeber
David Rolfe Graeber is an American anthropologist and anarchist who currently holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his...
, Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
, Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
, Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays...
, Starhawk
Starhawk
Starhawk is an American writer and activist. She is well known as a theorist of Paganism, and is one of the foremost popular voices of ecofeminism. She is a columnist for Beliefnet.com and On Faith, the Newsweek/Washington Post online forum on religion...
and Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
.
Federal Police mobilized
Later on the day of the shooting, the Oaxaca airport was closed to commercial flights as the Federal Preventative Police arrived to reestablish government control of the city. The army was also mobilized to provide intelligence support to the police, but not to engage directly with protesters. APPO representatives declared their intention to resist the government's armed response the crisis and by the beginning of November, violent clashes continued between protesters and police. The government claimed that the Federal Police that entered Oaxaca were unarmed.Demonstrations at Mexican consulates
On October 30, more than 200 protesters convened outside the Mexican consulate in New York City to deplore the killing of Will and others and to demand an end to the violence. The protest was organized by the grassroots group named in his honor, The Friends of Brad Will.Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect JournalistsCommittee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
sent an open letter on October 30 to the Mexican attorney general
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
calling on the federal government to launch an official investigation into Will's death. The statement also mentioned that David Vega Vera, special independent prosecutor, had begun gathering information and facts related to the case.
Commemoration and memorial
St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is located at 131 East 10th Street, at the intersection of Stuyvesant Streets and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City...
attended by 250 people, as well as speeches and concerts. Outside the church was an array of freegan food as well as a pile of Will's personal possessions, from which attendees were urged to take. It was followed by a procession through the EEast Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
described by The Villager
The Villager
The Villager is a weekly newspaper serving Downtown Manhattan. It was founded in 1933 by Walter and Isabel Bryan. In 2001, 2004 and 2005, The Villager won the Stuart Dorman Award, honoring New York State's best weekly newspaper, in the New York Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest.The...
as "jubilant and rowdy", which culminated in marchers breaking into the former CHARAS/El Bohio - inside which they cavorted, scrawled graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
, twirled a fire bolas
Bolas
Bolas are a throwing weapon superficially similar to the surujin, made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs...
and cycled - for about 20 minutes.
External links
- Anarchist Superstar: The Revolutionary Who Filmed His Own Murder, from Rolling Stone: Issue 1044 Jan. 24, 2008.
- Obituary, from The Chicago Tribune.
- Friends of Brad Will, activist group created in his name.
- One More Martyr in a Dirty War: The Life and Death of Brad Will, by Matthew Power, Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 2007
- Brad Will 1970-2006, a friend's tribute.
- Remembering Brad Will, Kate Crane, Brooklyn Rail
- Memoriam and tribute from American poet Lisa JarnotLisa JarnotLisa Jarnot is an American poet and translator. She has published several volumes of poetry. She is an anti-war activist, works as a horticulturalist and lives in Sunnyside, Queens.-Bibliography :*The Fall of Orpheus, Shuffaloff Press, 1993....
, October 28, 2006. - Memorial and Convergence more information from Lisa Jarnot on the Brad Will memorial at the Poetry Project, including a schedule of events.
- Fragments of a Shattered Hope, essay by Brad Will on the squatter movement in Sohno, BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
(reprint of an article that appeared in Boog City, Issue 24, April 2005). - Brad Will interview, El Libertario, February 2006 (Spanish)
- BradWill.org: website set up by Will family
- Brad Will Foundation
Video
- Brad Will's footage from Oaxaca including his final tape. 8 minute edited piece
- Brad Will's last video footage, 2006 Oaxaca teachers' strike, includes interviews with protesters and the shooting (16:32, mp4 format). Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
by-nc-sa license. Torrents available from indytorrents.org. - Brad Will's last video footage, 2006 Oaxaca teachers' strike @ YouTube
- Brad Will In His Own Words, archival Footage of Will discussing the importance of community media and the struggle against NYC demolition of a lower east side squat (via Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
) - Brad Will 1970-2006, friends remember Indymedia journalist and activist killed in Oaxaca (via Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
) - Friends of Brad Will Shut Down the Mexican Consulate, Includes footage of Brad singing, and of arrests at Friends of Brad Will demonstration. (via Not An Alternative)