Last Saturday, December 17th, around 2:15pm I went with my friend Martin Bisi to Duarte Square, at the corner of Canal Street and 6th Avenue, to celebrate the three month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We expected Lou Reed there to give a music contribution around 2 pm but he didn’t show up, which wasn’t a big deal.

When we arrived there many people, about a couple of hundreds, had already gathered and were getting ready to occupy the park and the fenced-off parking lot next door belonging to the Trinity Episcopal Church which refused to let them use the land as a campsite. As usual music, chanting and art performances were an important part of the protest.

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Dates

Friday, January 6th & Saturday, January 7th

Passes

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November 2 – November 26, 2011

Reception: Thursday, November 3 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm with live performance by The Tehran-Dakar Brothers (Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi on sax and Sinan Gundogdu on oud from 7pm -7:30pm)

BROOKLYN, NY November 2011– A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Barbara Siegel’s exhibition entitled Arboretum, featuring wall installations and sculpture made between 2009 and 2011. The exhibition will be on view from November 2 to November 26, 2011, with a reception on Thursday, November 3 from 6pm to 9pm.

Dr. Waxman's Arboretum mixed media wall installation 2011 72" x 228" x 2"

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Text by Jim Hoey
Video by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

A quick visit to Wall Street these days reveals a lot: it’s business as usual around Zucotti, or Liberty Park, bankers and stockbrokers pass by unmolested on their way to the next meeting or power lunch, and 2 massive towers rise up from within a camp of construction workers at Ground Zero. But the camp in the public park is unlike anything Wall Street has seen for a long time, and this ragtag group of Occupy Wall Street protesters are still out en masse, trying to hunker down and keep up the momentum of their fight through the windy Fall and chilling Winter.

Here at this site, we’ve been covering the protests, and the music that’s been heard around it, for a few weeks now. Any protest against corruption, inequality and injustice is not easy to dismiss,  especially when it’s peaceful and has staying power, and it draws from all elements of society, as this one does.

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CNN iReporter Shaky Jones, on October 17, 2011 (Report 1) reporting from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, financial district. Two blocks north of Wall Street where the Occupy Wall Street movement is based and was founded on September 17, 2011.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

My friend and CNN iReporter Paul Richards aka Shaky Jones, on October 15, 2011 (Report 2) reporting from Times Square (NY) as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement (OWC). The below two videos are telling things which I also observed last Saturday. There is one thing I would like to point out, is that the OWC is not only a protest movement, but also a movement which wants to confirm with a loud physical voice that wrong doing has been happening for a long time. It’s about enough is enough. Do they know how  to correct all the misdoings? At this time no, but I think if this movement gets bigger and spreads through the whole country, somebody will come out and become a spokesman and leader of this movement.

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Text and video by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

Today, October 15th, was a special day for this movement: International Day of Action – Massive Global Uprising…here in NY city, in America and abroad (Italy, Japan, Canada, etc.). Read more about this unspoken revolution in http://www.occupywallstreet.com.

DooBeeDooBeeDoo was at Times Square in Manhattan when thousands of locals and tourists gathered to demonstrate their dissatisfaction about anything. Today our interest was to find out whether music was a positive force in this big rally. And YES it was! Music was everywhere. Either people were rapping slogans, singing folk songs, playing all kinds of instruments or even when discussing things, you could hear and feel music. – Personally I was very happy when I saw this sign (watch below video).

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Text and videos by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

I got up this morning at 5:10 am. Turned the TV on to find out what was happening with the Occupy Wall Street movement downtown  at Liberty Plaza or Zuccotti Park. This morning at 7am Mayor Bloomberg wanted to clean Zuccotti Park, and use a new set of rules (including no lying down and no sleeping bags) which were designed  to end the Occupation of Wall Street for good. NY Channel 1 reported that nothing important had happened. So I got the feeling there was no reason for me to hurry. To arrive at 7am sharp was good enough. I prepared breakfast for myself and my wife. When I finished brushing my teeth, charged my Iphone, got into my jeans…got on the 1 at 79th Street. Changed to the 3 at 72nd Street and arrived at Wall Street at 6:55am and 7am sharp,  I was finally there.

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Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

I was there this afternoon. What I saw was very interesting. I could see and feel that something important was happening. I was very happy to see and hear that music is an important element and force in this freedom movement.

Honestly the music I listened to wasn’t that great and expressive, but better to have music than none. I missed my own horn. Maybe next time when I go there I might play. Hope that some of the good NY musicians will come out and perform, and let people know that music could be a very strong energy to support the protesters in their fight and motivate non protesters to join this movement which still doesn’t have a name, not an elaborated goal and doesn’t have a leader representing this movement physically and intellectually.

Personally I don’t care about the no leadership. In fact, like in music, I am interested to watch how people at Liberty Plaza communicate with each other in the moment…like musicians they are improvising: composing in the moment and process. Listening to each others complaints and concerns. Trying to find the right language to speak to each other and find out the right way to resolve.

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