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I’d like to be an activist, but politics is so serious and depressing. I’d like to start a group of artistic activists — performance and visual artists who would use their talents to have fun and promote awareness and appreciation of suburban culture. Hey, I’m suburban, I can’t help it. That’s how I was raised. I’m tired of being ashamed of being from the Burbs and wishing I could be hip like the Inner Loopers. We can’t appreciate something we take for granted, so we need to promote awareness, poke fun, gently nudge the minds of our fellow burbans. Can we separate the wonderful gifts and priviledges of the suburban life from the tired cliches of blandness aassociated with it? Well. it’s *my* pipe dream…

suburban dissonance manifesto

celebrate suburbia
embrace the Multiplex, the Minimart
love the pot luck dinner, the Chinese Buffet
appreciate esplanades and jogging trails
hug a soccer mom

celebrate suburbia, but
don’t make it your world
don’t take the Master Plan too seriously
don’t sway to its rhythms

Instead, keep yourself a step off the beat.
Sing a little off key.
Create some dissonance.

Have a drum circle in a local park.

Get 50 people, all dressed alike,
go stand by the fountain at the mall.
When anyone asks you what group you’re with,
say you don’t know these people.

Put poetry and art on local bulletin boards.

Adopt a convenience store. Buy the clerks lunch.

Hop the local shuttle bus with your friends.
Ride for a few hours. Sing bus riding songs.
Bonus points if you sing in harmony.

Get some brooms and sweep through town. Literally.

Make fingerpaint murals. Invite passers-by to help.

Make people look twice.
Make people think
and laugh at themselves.

Give them something funny to share
over breadsticks at the Olive Garden.

Be peaceful. Be respectful. But be weird.
Get all the necessary permits, but don’t seek approval.

Let people stare. Make them wonder.
Cultivate funny looks.