Ari’s Activism
Ari does a lot of stuff in the hopes that it will help save the world. She is a pacifist. Click here to learn more about her ethics.
For Social & Economic Justice
These are various projects and link lists Ari maintains in support of social and economic justice and empowerment:
- Free Box
- Recommended Reading for Activists
- Socialism photosharing group
- Budget housing links
- Non-profit Resources links
These are folks she has volunteered with:
- Share Tompkins, a mutual aid alternative to capitalism in Tompkins County (Ari can often be found volunteering at the welcome table at Share Tompkins events)
- Ithaca Freeskool, collectively-run, non-hierarchical, free community education (Ari served as an organizer from 2009 until mid-2011, and teaches free classes)
- freeDimensional, global network of folks supporting free expression and standing against censorship of artists who speak truth to power (in addition to freelancing for fD, Ari served as Director of Communications in 2009 and sometimes volunteers her design and technical skills to the organization)
- Socialist Party USA, striving to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control (Ari served as Secretary of the NYC Local in 2007 and has designed numerous posters, publications, t-shirts, and other materials for the Party)
- Elevate Difference, formerly Feminist Review (Ari was a volunteer reviewer 2007-2009)
- Indypendent (Ari was a volunteer illustrator 2007-2008)
Ari is a participant in the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC)’s Talking Circles on Race and Racism and is a supporter of the Talking Circles’ United Against Hate campaign. She has also participated in The Listening Workshop.
War is Over (If You Want It) poster – Ari wrote to Yoko Ono and received permission from her lawyer to reproduce and hang these!
Ari giving a button-making machine demo at a Share Tompkins Really Really Free Market at Southside Community Center:
Here’s Ari (far right) at the January 27th, 2007 March on Washington to End the Iraq War, organized by United for Peace and Justice, with (then-)fellow members of the Socialist Party USA. Fun fact: Ari and Shira hand-painted the “Jobs, Peace and Freedom” banner in this photo!
Ari getting ready to moderate a panel following a screening of Engendering Colonialism by Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, with the Socialist Party NYC Local, for International Women’s Day 2007:
For Non-Human Animals
A long-time animal lover who felt uneasy about the disconnect between her conscience and her actions, Ari went vegan in 1999, after interrogating two very patient and non-judgmental vegan friends, and reading a Vegan Outreach pamphlet she found in a coffeeshop. Since then she has read many books, volunteered for and brought two busloads of young people to visit Farm Sanctuary, hosted screenings and discussions of animal rights-related films, worked for PETA for a short period (which was educational and which showed her she has a very different approach to animal rights activism), and engaged in (ongoing) online and in-person advocacy supporting the personhood and rights of non-human animals. Here are some of her projects:
- Vegan Ithaca – blog, directory of local vegans and local vegan food, resources and readings lists, Facebook, Flickr group
- Ari’s vegan food photos on Flickr
- Animal Rights photosharing group
- Animal Rights Links
- Vegan Links
Ari introduces a screening and discussion of the animal rights film Earthlings, at the Socialist Party NYC Local’s office, in 2007:
Ari’s preparatory notes for “The Bottom Line: Global Capitalism and Animal Exploitation”, a panel she was in at NYU in 2007, organized by Students for Education on Animal Liberation (SEAL):
Past Projects
- Sid, Zora and Snow: Carnivores We Love (info about Ari’s vegan cat advocacy and why she abandoned it)
- Whatever happened to Ahimsa Ecovillage?
For the Environment
Ari participates in cooperative sustainability-oriented filmmaking in Ithaca, helping to make films with her community in an anti-hierarchical, ultra-low budget manner that she finds really empowering.
Right now she’s helping to promote, write, and art direct We Can’t Stop, a positive post-peak oil musical. She also made the website and is doing branding and outreach for Empowered, a feature-length documentary Shira is making with Suzanne McMannis, about renewable energy in Tompkins County, New York.
Ari working at the outreach ticket table with Lily at the premiere of Frac Attack: Dawn of the Watershed:
Ari has also done a great deal of volunteer technical and communications work for Shaleshock, a coalition of folks working to protect the Marcellus Shale from exploitative gas drilling. (Shira designed their logo!)
If you care about safe drinking water, please voice your opposition to fracking and similarly exploitative and unsafe practices. The time to switch to renewables is now!
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We believe that all struggles for social and environmental justice are interconnected. We strive to practice radical solidarity with humans, non-human animals and the environment. More...
