Time To Listen

A Listening Tour Project of Occupy Pittsburgh

Our Proposal

We've raised our voices to encourage the 99%, maybe it's time to hear what they have to say back to us.

Who are we?

We are writers, photographers, filmmakers, artists and above all human beings. Many of us are connected to Occupy Pittsburgh, but more deeply, we are connected to our neighborhoods, our city, our world.

What do we want?

We want to listen to the stories and experiences of the people in our communities, to the 99%. And if people agree, we want to record and share and honor and spread what we hear.

Why do we want to do this?

If we are truly the 99%, then we must tell the stories of those 99%.

We believe that one way to diminish a people is to silence them, to pretend to the world that their story is not worth hearing, not worth knowing.

The top 1% have many ways of being heard, the rest of us almost none. Nearly every TV channel, radio station, newspaper, magazine and billboard in America is owned by 5 corporations. It’s no wonder then that people feel like nobody listens to them. The 1% make too much noise and drown out the rest of us. We intend to help remedy that.

Where are we going to do this?

In the neighborhoods, one community at a time. Working with partners in those communities we will set up events where people are invited to share their stories, and if they agree, to have their stories recorded.

When will we do this?

Repeatedly. These will not be one-time events. In the spirit of occupy, we will return again and again, for as long as people in any one community have stories to tell us. When that happens we will go to another community, and invite the friends we have made on our visit to come with us if they like.

How will we do this?

By working with the people in the community as much as possible. By contacting local community leaders for their guidance. By inviting local residents to help us, if they’re of a mind to - local residents like students who might like to capture the stories of their elders or community groups who know the best storytellers in their blocks.

What happens to the stories?

They get spread. We put then on the web - on Occupy Pittsburgh’s website, on this website, maybe others. They are printed in the Occupy Pittsburgh News and other publications (the City Paper has shown interest). They get put on YouTube, or on public access television or on one of the local public radio stations or they are put together into podcasts. We have many potential outlets available to us.

Is this worth our time?

History is nothing more than the story of what happened to us. And policy is decided based in part on our history. If the stories of the 99% are never heard, they never become part of our history and are totally ignored when public decisions are made. We mean to change that, in two important ways. We mean to change that with the people who speak and the people who listen.

By listening to people we honor them and remind them that they are what matters. That things like economies and governments and elections and infrastructures exist to serve them, and not the other way around.

By spreading what we hear so that others may hear it, we remind people everywhere, and especially people at the top, that all of us, each and every last one, is REAL. That when our systems fail, they hurt real people who are just like our own brothers and sisters, parents and children, just like ourselves. They ARE ourselves.

For myself, I believe listening, with full and genuine attention, is the most important and powerful thing we can do to bring justice to the world. We have two ears and only one mouth. We should use them in that proportion.