In December, there was an event that took place on Chicago's RedLine around 4pm. The participants were asked to wear a red item of clothing. The event was organized to be a form of protest. #TrainTakeOver, also referred to by some as occupy the RedLine. Taking over the redline was done in protest of recent events like the Eric Garner case and other high-profile incidents where police officers who killed unarmed black men and were not charged for it, and in support of campaigns like #cantbreath. Because Chicago has seen an increasing number of protests (like Charge Genocide) and the train take-over rode on that momentum. It was done specifically to protest police brutality, racism, and injustice. In the promotion of the event, people were asked to not only attend but also to participate, preferably through a performing art medium. There were a lot of performers such as singers, musicians, spoken word poets, and some people reading short story narratives. There were also a lot of photographers and videographers documenting the event, I was one of those.
To show what was going on, I've made a little compilation of some of the performances that were going on. I think the idea of using public spaces like the train is something we should do more often, I think the use of public spaces to transmit messages is not done enough, maybe by corporations for advertisement, but not by movements.
I look forward to seeing how this event is followed up on. Recently, I think I saw another posting of the event, a train take over part 2 sorta thing. I'm thinking of maybe trying to get the courage to be one of the performers but maybe not. I also don't really feel like I could because despite having some knowledge on the events that have been making people make protests like this one, I don't feel like I know enough.
