Pussy Riot Pushes for Sochi Olympics Boycott

As the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi get underway, members of
the Russian female punk rock band Pussy Riot
urged Americans at an Amnesty International concert in New York
this week to tune out of Putin’s Olympic spectacle. 

Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina
spent 21 months in prison after being arrested for their 2012
performance at one of Moscow’s orthodox cathedrals. The pair have
been outspoken on Russia’s human rights abuses.

Reason TV’s Kennedy (now host of FBN’s The
Independents) sat down with James Panero, Managing Editor
of New Criterion to
discuss how bands like Pussy Riot are using the punk rock ethos to
fight against authoritarian regimes and advocate for change in
their home countries. 

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Original release date was October
10, 2012 and original writeup below the fold. 

“In the case, recently, of Ai WeiWei and Pussy Riot…what
differentiates this new form of political art? I realized that they
have a punk aesthetic,” says James Panero, Managing Editor of New
Criterion, to Reason TV’s Kennedy.

The protest art created by the Chinese artist and the all-female
Russian perforamnce art collective bear the idioms of punk as well
as it’s defiant anti-authoritarian streak, according to Panero. He
believes their art is “having a real effect” as the “conscience of
reform” against the authoritarian governments under which they
live.

About 4.33 minutes.

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Jim Epstein and
Fisher.

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