ARTivism Virginia

#TBT: Testify!🎤

Here's a blast from the past...

Four years ago this August, before "ARTivism Virginia" had emerged as the name to describe what we do, a series of community gatherings in Union Hill & Buckingham County called the #CircleOfProtection were working to support local and broad resistance to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and proposed Buckingham Compressor Station.

Two years later, ACP would be cancelled and the compressor station along with it. An $8B boondoggle abandoned by a consortium of companies worth >$200B. 

Now we're not saying that the Circle of Protection is the sole reason, of course, that Dominion & Duke decided to give up their scam (love, respect to everyone in the fight who brought their will & skill to kill ACP), but we would say that creating spaces of uplift and mutual support makes possible the kind of healthy affirmation, community & coalition building, solidarity & hope that we desperately need in times of struggle.

So it's in that spirit that we're looking forward to gathering this Saturday in Elliston-Lafayette, Montgomery County, VA for our first Circle of Protection: #SWVA. We're two days away & feelin' the love already. Join us, Pastor Ken Gray of Elliston, Indian Run Stringband, & MVP frontline community fighter Irene Leech as we lift each other up.

MVP, banking on any crooked political savior to escape its inevitable doom, threatens the communities, wild places, & future of everything along its 303-mile route. It's time for us to be together & declare in unity that we're not gonna let that happen – & we're gonna support one another as this fight continues.

So join us this Saturday, friends. Links in bio.

Pictured are ARTivism VA founder and OG Circle of Protection organizer Kay Ferguson, Chad Oba & Mindy Zlotnick of Friends of Buckingham County, VA, Floyd County artivist Mara Eve Robbins, environmental organizer/advocate/pipeline fighter Beth Roach, Augusta County ACP/MVP fighter Dave Copper (& a friend, hidden) at the Buckingham County building amplifying community testimony & speaking truth to power as DEQ permit hearings came to Buckingham, Aug 2018.

#StopMVP #AtlanticGhostPipeline #NoSacrificeZones #WEWILLWIN