Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
Encyclopedia
The Church of Life After Shopping (formerly known as the Church of Stop Shopping) is an activist
performance
group based in New York City
, led by Reverend Billy, the stage name of Bill Talen. Using the form of a revival meeting
, on sidewalks and in chain stores, Reverend Billy and his gospel choir
exhort consumer
s to abandon the products
of large corporation
s and mass media
; the group also preaches a broader message of economic justice, environmental protection
, and anti-militarism, protesting sweatshop
s and the Iraq War. Though it continues its street theatre
activities, the Church has also appeared on stage and has toured internationally.
Bill Talen (born May 25, 1950) is a Dutch
-American Calvinist Minnesota
-born actor who moved to New York City
from San Francisco in the late 1990s, where he had originally created a character that was a hybrid of street preacher, arguably Elvis, and televangelist called Reverend Billy. This character was performed in various San Francisco alternative theater venues, where Talen had earned a considerable reputation as both a performer and a producer (Life On The Water theater, the Solo Mio Festival, Writers Who Act, etc.) In New York, Talen began appearing as Reverend Billy on street corners in Times Square
, near the recently opened Disney
Store. Times Square had recently begun its transformation from a seedy but lively center of small-time and sometimes illicit commerce—and also of New York theatre
—to a more gentrified
and tourist
-friendly venue for large companies like Disney and big-budget stage productions like The Lion King
. Whereas other street preachers chose Times Square because of its reputation for sin
, Reverend Billy's sermons focused on the evils of consumerism and advertising
—represented especially by Disney and Mickey Mouse
—and on what Talen saw as the loss of neighborhood spirit and cultural authenticity in Rudolph Giuliani's New York.
Talen's chief collaborator in developing the Reverend Billy character was the Reverend Sidney Lanier. A cousin of Tennessee Williams
with an interest in avant-garde
theater, Lanier was then the vicar of St. Clement's, an Episcopal church in Hell's Kitchen
that doubled as a theatrical space, where Talen was working as house manager. Lanier encouraged Talen, who was suspicious of religious figures after rejecting the conservative Protestantism
of his youth, to study radical theologians
and performers; of these, Talen credits Elaine Pagels
and Lenny Bruce
as particularly strong influences. Though Talen does not call himself a Christian
, he says that Reverend Billy is not a parody of a preacher, but a real preacher; he describes his church's spiritual message as "put the Odd back in God."
Each year, Reverend Billy and his choir attend and perform at the Burning Man
festival in Nevada.
The Church of Stop Shopping is a non-profit organization
that includes Talen, theatrical director Savitri Durkee (who is married to Talen), a 34-member choir, and an 8-piece band.
The Starbucks
coffeehouse chain became another frequent target of the Church's actions, due to perceptions of its displacement of local small businesses, unfair labor practices including union busting
, and its role in creating what Talen calls a "fake Bohemia
".
On Christmas Day 2005, Reverend Billy and his choir performed an action at Disneyland. He led the choir down Main Street, U.S.A.
singing anti-Disney and anti-shopping songs. After ignoring requests from park security to cease, an on-site Anaheim Police officer attempted to intercede and was ignored. Reverend Billy was then arrested for trespassing and resisting an officer; his choir left peacefully after that.
Reverend Billy and his choir traveled to Washington, D.C. in March 2007 to participate in an action against the war in Iraq, "Don't Buy Bush's War," organized by Code Pink
Women for Peace, where they roamed the halls of the U.S. Congress preaching and singing their anti-war message. No arrests were made.
The cross-country journey that Reverend Billy and his choir made in the month prior to Christmas 2005, culminating in his arrest at Disneyland, is depicted in a documentary
, titled What Would Jesus Buy?
produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock
. The film was screened at the Silverdocs
international film festival in June 2007.
What Would Jesus Buy? is also the title of Reverend Billy's book, subtitled "Fabulous Prayers in the Face of the Shopocalypse," released in March 2007. The anti-consumerism
message in the film has hindered its widespread distribution: in an interview published by Reuters
, film director Rob VanAlkemade claimed that "major distributors have backed away because Wal-Mart
pushes half of their DVDs."
On June 29, 2007, Billy was arrested on charges of harassment in Union Square
, Manhattan
while reciting the First Amendment
to police officers through a megaphone, during the monthly bike ride Critical Mass
. On July 2, 2007, Billy revisited the scene of his arrest, accompanied by a choir who sang a hymn version of the amendment.
On July 7 and 8, 2007, Billy hosted an international conference in Iceland organized by the non-profit organization Saving Iceland
to protest heavy industry in Iceland and around the world.
On July 4, 2008, he met with members of the Granny Peace Brigade and Code Pink with special guest Lawyer Norman Siegel
at Strawberry Fields
to recite the Bill of Rights.
On September 7, 2008, the group was on hand in Coney Island to perform the Last Rites for Astroland
. The theme park was a cause they had rallied behind all year causing them to be nominated King Neptune and Queen Mermaid of the Mermaid Parade.
On September 18, 2008 Billy was arrested again in Union Square Park, NYC (although the last charges against him were dropped by the NYPD for an arrest at the very same spot). This time the group was protesting Harvest in the Square an event sponsored by Danny Meyer and the Union Square Partnership a non-profit organization that has its eyes on the Union Square historical pavilion to be developed as a restaurant. Groups fighting to keep the park public alongside the Reverend are Union Square Not For Sale and the Union Square Community Coalition.
Billy and the choir finished up 2008 with tours of the San Francisco area, a stop on the traveling lecture series, Democracy In America, and another trip to Iceland. During the time of year when they orchestrate their part in Buy Nothing Day
, like protesting at Macy's, the group was presented with the shocking news of the death of Wal-Mart employee, Jdimytai Damour. That day the group spoke about his death and the pregnant woman who lost her child in the event at Union Square Park for their Dance Your Debt Away event. Billy released an official statement to the press. The following Sunday the group traveled to the Long Island Wal-Mart where the worker died and held a candlelight vigil. Billy appeared on Fox News and Savitri D. later appeared on Democracy Now to discuss the event.
The Choir celebrated the release of their latest album, The Shopocalypse, and will hold three holiday performances in New York City and have added an Hour of Power live Sunday webcast to their programming and have also have a Dish Network
TV show in the works.
On March 1, 2009, Reverend Billy announced in Union Square Park that he is running for Mayor of New York City on the Green Party
ticket.
On May 31, 2009, Reverend Billy and his choir joined a procession through the East End of London
alongside the Space Hijackers
and Rhythms of Resistance
. After first appearing in the Spitalfields Starbucks, the Metropolitan Police
temporarily shut down the Starbucks outlet nearby on Whitechapel High Street after being informed the group would be heading there.
On September 24, 2009, at the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
Reverend Billy spoke out to a crowd of reporters and protesters at Arsenal Park.
Talen, as Reverend Billy, delivered a speech to members of the Occupy Wall Street
movement in Zuccotti park in New York, October 25, 2011.
. In early 2010, Talen and several members of the choir traveled to Coal River Valley, West Virginia. There they met with local activists and gathered mud and dirt from mountains that had been exploded in the area, which they brought back to New York City and used in several direct actions targeting the ATM lobbies of Chase Bank
, at the time the world's largest financier of mountaintop removal.
Reverend Billy and Choir have since performed in West Virginia, and are now focused on Union Bank of Switzerland and their policies on MTR.
The group is currently performing its "Church of Earthalujah" show, which further expounds on its environmental and spiritual themes, on a weekly basis in Manhattan's East Village
.
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
performance
Performance 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...
group based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, led by Reverend Billy, the stage name of Bill Talen. Using the form of a revival meeting
Revival meeting
A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held in order to inspire active members of a church body, to raise funds and to gain new converts...
, on sidewalks and in chain stores, Reverend Billy and his gospel choir
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
exhort consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
s to abandon the products
Anti-consumerism
Anti-consumerism refers to the socio-political movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions...
of large corporation
Corporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s and mass media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
; the group also preaches a broader message of economic justice, environmental protection
Environmental protection
Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and our technology the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently...
, and anti-militarism, protesting sweatshop
Sweatshop
Sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for any working environment considered to be unacceptably difficult or dangerous. Sweatshop workers often work long hours for very low pay, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage. Child labour laws may be violated. Sweatshops may have...
s and the Iraq War. Though it continues its street theatre
Street theatre
Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves and street corners. They are especially seen in outdoor spaces where there are...
activities, the Church has also appeared on stage and has toured internationally.
Origin of Reverend Billy
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
-American Calvinist Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
-born actor who moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from San Francisco in the late 1990s, where he had originally created a character that was a hybrid of street preacher, arguably Elvis, and televangelist called Reverend Billy. This character was performed in various San Francisco alternative theater venues, where Talen had earned a considerable reputation as both a performer and a producer (Life On The Water theater, the Solo Mio Festival, Writers Who Act, etc.) In New York, Talen began appearing as Reverend Billy on street corners 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...
, near the recently opened Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
Store. Times Square had recently begun its transformation from a seedy but lively center of small-time and sometimes illicit commerce—and also of New York theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
—to a more gentrified
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
and tourist
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
-friendly venue for large companies like Disney and big-budget stage productions like The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
. Whereas other street preachers chose Times Square because of its reputation for sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
, Reverend Billy's sermons focused on the evils of consumerism and advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
—represented especially by Disney and Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
—and on what Talen saw as the loss of neighborhood spirit and cultural authenticity in Rudolph Giuliani's New York.
Talen's chief collaborator in developing the Reverend Billy character was the Reverend Sidney Lanier. A cousin of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
with an interest in avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
theater, Lanier was then the vicar of St. Clement's, an Episcopal church in Hell's Kitchen
Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
Hell's Kitchen, also known as Clinton and Midtown West, is a neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City between 34th Street and 59th Street, from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River....
that doubled as a theatrical space, where Talen was working as house manager. Lanier encouraged Talen, who was suspicious of religious figures after rejecting the conservative Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
of his youth, to study radical theologians
Radical orthodoxy
Radical Orthodoxy is Christian theological and philosophical school of thought which makes use of postmodern philosophy to reject the paradigm of modernity...
and performers; of these, Talen credits Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels
Elaine Pagels, née Hiesey , is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is best known for her studies and writing on the Gnostic Gospels...
and Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
as particularly strong influences. Though Talen does not call himself a Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, he says that Reverend Billy is not a parody of a preacher, but a real preacher; he describes his church's spiritual message as "put the Odd back in God."
Each year, Reverend Billy and his choir attend and perform at the Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
festival in Nevada.
The Church of Stop Shopping is a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that includes Talen, theatrical director Savitri Durkee (who is married to Talen), a 34-member choir, and an 8-piece band.
Activism
After beginning as a solo performer, Reverend Billy soon acquired a loose organization that assisted in his in-store actions. These were originally centered around the Disney Store. In one early action, Talen and his associates pretended to be shopping at the store and talking on non-functional cell phones, carrying on increasingly loud conversations about the evils of Disney and its products; once the ruse was discovered, Reverend Billy began preaching to the actual consumers until the police removed him from the store.The Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
coffeehouse chain became another frequent target of the Church's actions, due to perceptions of its displacement of local small businesses, unfair labor practices including union busting
Union busting
Union busting is a wide range of activities undertaken by employers, their proxies, and governments, which attempt to prevent the formation or expansion of trade unions...
, and its role in creating what Talen calls a "fake Bohemia
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
".
On Christmas Day 2005, Reverend Billy and his choir performed an action at Disneyland. He led the choir down Main Street, U.S.A.
Main Street, U.S.A.
Main Street, U.S.A. is the first "themed land" inside the main entrance of the many 'Magic Kingdom'-style parks run by The Walt Disney Company around the world....
singing anti-Disney and anti-shopping songs. After ignoring requests from park security to cease, an on-site Anaheim Police officer attempted to intercede and was ignored. Reverend Billy was then arrested for trespassing and resisting an officer; his choir left peacefully after that.
Reverend Billy and his choir traveled to Washington, D.C. in March 2007 to participate in an action against the war in Iraq, "Don't Buy Bush's War," organized by Code Pink
Code Pink
Code Pink: Women for Peace is an anti-war group that is mainly composed of women. It has regional offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and many more chapters in the U.S. as well as several in other countries...
Women for Peace, where they roamed the halls of the U.S. Congress preaching and singing their anti-war message. No arrests were made.
The cross-country journey that Reverend Billy and his choir made in the month prior to Christmas 2005, culminating in his arrest at Disneyland, is depicted in a documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, titled What Would Jesus Buy?
What Would Jesus Buy?
What Would Jesus Buy? is 2007 a documentary film produced by Morgan Spurlock and directed by Rob VanAlkemade. The title is a play on the phrase "What would Jesus do?" The film debuted on the festival circuit on March 11, 2007, at the South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas...
produced by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Spurlock
Morgan Valentine Spurlock is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and journalist best known for the documentary film Super Size Me...
. The film was screened at the Silverdocs
Silverdocs
AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland near Washington, D.C.. Started in 2003, the festival is held for eight days in June at...
international film festival in June 2007.
Anti-consumerism
Anti-consumerism refers to the socio-political movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions...
message in the film has hindered its widespread distribution: in an interview published by Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, film director Rob VanAlkemade claimed that "major distributors have backed away because Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
pushes half of their DVDs."
On June 29, 2007, Billy was arrested on charges of harassment in Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
, 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...
while reciting the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
to police officers through a megaphone, during the monthly bike ride Critical Mass
Critical Mass
Critical Mass is a cycling event typically held on the last Friday of every month in over 300 cities around the world. The ride was originally founded in 1992 in San Francisco. The purpose of Critical Mass is not usually formalized beyond the direct action of meeting at a set location and time and...
. On July 2, 2007, Billy revisited the scene of his arrest, accompanied by a choir who sang a hymn version of the amendment.
On July 7 and 8, 2007, Billy hosted an international conference in Iceland organized by the non-profit organization Saving Iceland
Saving Iceland
Saving Iceland describe themselves as "a network of people of different nationalities, who do not intend to stand by passively and watch the Icelandic government in league with foreign corporations slowly kill the natural beauty of Iceland." They have been highly critical of the aluminum industry...
to protest heavy industry in Iceland and around the world.
On July 4, 2008, he met with members of the Granny Peace Brigade and Code Pink with special guest Lawyer Norman Siegel
Norman Siegel
Norman Siegel was the director of the New York Civil Liberties Union , New York's leading civil rights organization, under the umbrella of the nationwide American Civil Liberties Union...
at Strawberry Fields
Strawberry Fields
Strawberry Fields may refer to:* "Strawberry Fields Forever", a song by the Beatles* Strawberry Field, the orphanage in Liverpool that inspired the Beatles song* Strawberry Fields , the John Lennon memorial in Central Park, New York....
to recite the Bill of Rights.
On September 7, 2008, the group was on hand in Coney Island to perform the Last Rites for Astroland
Astroland
Astroland was a amusement park in Coney Island first opened in 1962. It was located at 1000 Surf Avenue on the boardwalk...
. The theme park was a cause they had rallied behind all year causing them to be nominated King Neptune and Queen Mermaid of the Mermaid Parade.
On September 18, 2008 Billy was arrested again in Union Square Park, NYC (although the last charges against him were dropped by the NYPD for an arrest at the very same spot). This time the group was protesting Harvest in the Square an event sponsored by Danny Meyer and the Union Square Partnership a non-profit organization that has its eyes on the Union Square historical pavilion to be developed as a restaurant. Groups fighting to keep the park public alongside the Reverend are Union Square Not For Sale and the Union Square Community Coalition.
Billy and the choir finished up 2008 with tours of the San Francisco area, a stop on the traveling lecture series, Democracy In America, and another trip to Iceland. During the time of year when they orchestrate their part in 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...
, like protesting at Macy's, the group was presented with the shocking news of the death of Wal-Mart employee, Jdimytai Damour. That day the group spoke about his death and the pregnant woman who lost her child in the event at Union Square Park for their Dance Your Debt Away event. Billy released an official statement to the press. The following Sunday the group traveled to the Long Island Wal-Mart where the worker died and held a candlelight vigil. Billy appeared on Fox News and Savitri D. later appeared on Democracy Now to discuss the event.
The Choir celebrated the release of their latest album, The Shopocalypse, and will hold three holiday performances in New York City and have added an Hour of Power live Sunday webcast to their programming and have also have a Dish Network
Dish Network
Dish Network Corporation is the second largest pay TV provider in the United States, providing direct broadcast satellite service—including satellite television, audio programming, and interactive television services—to 14.337 million commercial and residential customers in the United States. Dish...
TV show in the works.
On March 1, 2009, Reverend Billy announced in Union Square Park that he is running for Mayor of New York City on the Green Party
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
ticket.
On May 31, 2009, Reverend Billy and his choir joined a procession through the East End of London
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
alongside the Space Hijackers
Space Hijackers
The Space Hijackers is a group originating in the United Kingdom that defines itself as "an international band of anarchitects who battle to save our streets, towns and cities from the evils of urban planners, architects, multinationals and other hoodlums"...
and Rhythms of Resistance
Rhythms of resistance
Rhythms of Resistance, sometimes abbreviated to RoR, is a network of percussion bands that play at demonstrations and direct actions that fall within the broad definition of 'anti-capitalist'...
. After first appearing in the Spitalfields Starbucks, the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
temporarily shut down the Starbucks outlet nearby on Whitechapel High Street after being informed the group would be heading there.
On September 24, 2009, at the 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
The 2009 G-20 Pittsburgh Summit was the third meeting of the G-20 heads of state in discussion of financial markets and the world economy.The G-20 is the premier forum for discussing, planning and monitoring international economiccooperation....
Reverend Billy spoke out to a crowd of reporters and protesters at Arsenal Park.
Talen, as Reverend Billy, delivered a speech to members of the Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district...
movement in Zuccotti park in New York, October 25, 2011.
The Church of Earthalujah
After Reverend Billy's run for mayor of New York City ended in November of 2009, the group turned its attention to what they see as the imminent threat of climate change and environmental disaster. Linking consumerism to the global climate crisis, the group joined the growing movement in Appalachia to end mountaintop removalMountaintop removal
Mountaintop removal mining is a form of surface mining that requires the removal of the summit or summit ridge of a mountain in order to permit easier access to the coal seams...
. In early 2010, Talen and several members of the choir traveled to Coal River Valley, West Virginia. There they met with local activists and gathered mud and dirt from mountains that had been exploded in the area, which they brought back to New York City and used in several direct actions targeting the ATM lobbies of Chase Bank
Chase (bank)
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is a national bank that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of financial services firm JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000...
, at the time the world's largest financier of mountaintop removal.
Reverend Billy and Choir have since performed in West Virginia, and are now focused on Union Bank of Switzerland and their policies on MTR.
The group is currently performing its "Church of Earthalujah" show, which further expounds on its environmental and spiritual themes, on a weekly basis in Manhattan's East 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...
.
Crazy Shopping
In 2009, Henk van der Meyden and Monica Strotmann, owners of the Dutch theatre group Stardust, paid Talen $25,000 for the rights to several songs and his characters name. The group put on Crazy Shopping, a Dutch play with a character similar to Reverend Billy.Films
- Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, 2002 documentary by Dietmar PostDietmar PostDietmar Post is a film director, producer and owner of a film and music label.- Biography :Dietmar Post worked as an off set printer before studying Theatre and Film Studies and Spanish Language at Free University in Berlin and at Complutense University in Madrid. In 1995 he obtained his master's...
and Lucia PalaciosLucia PalaciosLucía Palacios is a film director, producer and owner of a film and music label.- Biography :Lucía Palacios studied Cinema Studies at Complutense University in Madrid. In 1995 she obtained her master's degree. Between 1996–2003 she lived and worked in New York. It was in New York where she worked...
, produced by Play Loud! ProductionsPlay Loud! Productionsplay loud! productions is a Berlin-based film production company and film and music label, founded in 1997 in New York by filmmakers Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios... - Preacher With An Unknown God], 2005 documentary by Rob VanAlkemade, received Honorable Mention in Short Filmmaking at the Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film FestivalThe Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
- What Would Jesus Buy?What Would Jesus Buy?What Would Jesus Buy? is 2007 a documentary film produced by Morgan Spurlock and directed by Rob VanAlkemade. The title is a play on the phrase "What would Jesus do?" The film debuted on the festival circuit on March 11, 2007, at the South By Southwest conference in Austin, Texas...
, 2007 feature-length documentary by Rob VanAlkemade
External links
- Official Web site
- Reverend Billy Preaches on Shopocolypse Tour of the Country in transcript, audio and video format
- Reverend Billy Wants You To Stop Shopping October 2007 interview
- "Stay Away from the mall, say Hallelujah!" article in Money magazine suggesting Reverend Billy's message is good advice for consumers
- "Shopper, Repent!" posting by Reverend Billy on Society of Mutual Autopsy blog excerpted from Reverend Billy's own book What Should I Do if Reverend Billy Is in My Store?
- The Reluctant Religion of Reverend Billy article about Reverend Billy on AlterNet
- Radio: Bio of Reverend Billy from Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
magazine - Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping first feature documentary film about Reverend Billy (watch trailer to DVD)
- Beware the Shopocalypse: An Interview with Reverend Billy from InDigest Magazine
- White, Rebecca. "Backed by Green Party, Comic Pastor Runs for Mayor," The New York Times, Monday, March 2, 2009.