Russian punk-political activists Pussy Riot are in Boston this Friday night for a speaking gig at the Wilbur Theatre, and we have two tickets to give away. To enter, email tickets@vanyaland.com with PUSSY RIOT in the subject line, and we’ll select four winners at random by 11am Friday, good for a +1 to tomorrow night’s event.
The conversation is in partnership with Boston Pride, and Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will be introduced by Joyce Linehan, the city of Boston’s chief of policy who also opened Vanyaland’s Kathleen Hanna lecture at the Wilbur back in April.
In August 2012, Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were sentenced to two years in prison after protesting the policies of Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Their story captured headlines around the world. Last September, they launched the independent news outlet MediaZona, a watchdog agency that focuses on Russia’s courts, law enforcement, and prison system.
Earlier this year, Pussy Riot released their first English-language song, “I Can’t Breathe,” dedicated to New Yorker Eric Garner, who died after a police offer put him in a chokehold.
“Our first English song is dedicated to those who can no longer breathe,” the duo told the Guardian. “To Eric Garner and to all who suffer from state terror — killed, choked, perished because of war and police violence — to political prisoners and those on the streets fighting for change. We all have to protest for those who are silent, and we have to protest for each other, no matter the geography, no matter the borders. ‘I can’t breathe’ — these are the last words of Eric Garner. Those words are his, but we hope they can also stand for us and for many around the world, for all who can’t breathe because authorities act with impunity and feel invincible and above the law in using power to humiliate, intimidate, hurt, kill and oppress. We’ve known, on our own skin, what police brutality feels like, and we can’t be silent on this issue.”
Watch the video below:
