Occupy Wall Street NYC 10-9-11 Part 2

Here's the second part in a series  of photos I took at Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan on October 9th, 2011--day 25 of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Since these photos were taken, T-shirts related to the movement have become more popular, with over 1,500 designs now being sold on the website CafePress.

Occupy Wall Street NYC 10-9-11 Part 1

I took these pictures on day 25 of the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City. Many hundreds of protestors crowded together in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan's financial district to express their dissatisfaction with U.S. economic inequality, unemployment, and corporate greed. T-shirts specifically addressing the Occupy Wall Street protest were being printed on the premises using silkscreens and were distributed for free (with a requests for donations). Other protestors hand-wrote slogans with markers directly on their T-shirts, similar to the myriad protest signs on display.

Stewart Colbert DC Rally, 10-30-10, Part 3

I took these photos at the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," hosted by Comedy Central stars Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on October 30th, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The shirts shown here express sentiments which are all more or less in line with the comedians' speeches given at the rally; they call for moderation, bipartisanship, civil discourse and the elimination of fear-baiting in politics. While not everyone's T-shirt at the event echoed the positions voiced onstage by Stewart, these examples suggest that his message of "restoring sanity" to Washington was indeed picked up enthusiastically by at least a certain portion of the crowd.

Stewart Colbert DC Rally, 10-30-10, Part 2

I took these photos at the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," hosted by Comedy Central stars Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on October 30th, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The T-shirts shown in these pictures demonstrate the wide variety of political expressions which were made by crowd members at the rally. Although the event was not officially intended to address any specific political issue or policy debate, many attendees took the opportunity to publicly advocate their views on a host of issues, including U.S.-Muslim relations, LGBT rights, marijuana legalization, abortion rights, and the presidency of Barack Obama. This is the second part of a series.

Stewart Colbert DC Rally, 10-30-10, Part 1

I took these photos at the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," hosted by Comedy Central stars Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on October 30th, 2010. The rally took place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the same site where Fox News star Glenn Beck held his Rally to Restore Honor a few months earlier (for pictures of this event, please see this site's archive). The Comedy Central event was widely seen to be response--or more accurately a parody--of Beck's D.C. rally. While Jon Stewart's speech at the rally called for tolerance and lauded political moderates, many in the crowd wore T-shirts which more directly assailed Glenn Beck, the Tea Party, George W. Bush, and Republicans in general. This is the first part of a series.

Obama Philadelphia Rally, 10-10-10, Part 2

I took these photos at a rally held in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, around a month before the 2010 midterm elections. President Obama gave a speech intended to rally his fellow Democrats for Pennsylvania-area races. On hand was senatorial candidate Joe Sestak and gubernatorial candidate Dan Onorato; both ended up losing their races on November 2nd. The T-shirts shown here address a variety of issues, including health care, environmentalism, gay rights, marijuana legalization, and the African-American civil rights struggle.