HALLOWASTED
Saturday, October 27
20 Auburn Avenue
10:00PM
$15.00 (suggested donation)
21+ (please provide appropriate ID)
Kitchen Distribution is rising from the dead for another infamous halloween party!
This time we aren't just celebrating the histories and heritage of our pagan ancestors, but trying to increase publicity and help support local Buffalo artist and professor Steve Kurtz, who is facing 20 years in prison after being accused of "bio-terrorism." Read below to understand just how absurd the grounds for trial are and how detrimental the verdict could be to every citizen's right to free speech.
Please come and gather with friends at this Buffalo tradition to celebrate freedom in the name of our friend Steve Kurtz. We urge anyone who feels they can support this cause to come to the party. This case impacts everyone of us. Without the efforts of thousands of people who have raised money to pay the legal bills and created the media surrounding this case, Steve Kurtz would probably be in jail today awaiting trial.
All the funds collected at the door this year will be donated to Steve through the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund.
ALL THE MONEY GOES TO DEFENDING STEVE KURTZ!
To learn more about the specifics of the trial please continue reading, or visit http://www.caedefensefund.org/overview.html
The legal nightmare of renowned scientist Dr. Robert Ferrell and artist and professor Dr. Steven Kurtz began in May 2004. Professor Kurtz and his late wife Hope were founding members of the internationally exhibited art and theater collective Critical Art Ensemble. Over the past decade cultural institutions worldwide have commissioned and hosted Critical Art Ensemble’s participatory theater projects that help the general public understand biotechnology and the many issues surrounding it. In May 2004 the Kurtzes were preparing a project examining genetically modified agriculture for the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, when Hope Kurtz died of heart failure. Detectives who responded to Professor Kurtz’s 911 call deemed the couple’s art suspicious, and called the FBI. Within hours the artist was illegally detained as a suspected "bioterrorist" as dozens of federal agents in Hazmat suits sifted through his work and impounded his computers, manuscripts, books, his cat, and even his wife’s body.
The government has pursued this case relentlessly for three and a half years, spending enormous amounts of public resources. Most significantly, the legal battle has exhausted the financial, emotional, and physical resources of Ferrell and Kurtz; as well as their families and supporters. The professional and personal lives of both defendants have suffered tremendously. A trial date has not yet been established.
The government is vigorously attempting to prosecute two defendants in a case where no one has been injured, and no one has been defrauded. The materials found in Dr. Kurtz's house were obtained legally and used safely by the artist. After 3 1/2 years of investigation and prosecution, the case still revolves around $256 worth of common science research materials that were used in art works by a highly visible and respected group of artists. These art works were commissioned and hosted by cultural institutions worldwide where they had been safely displayed in museums and galleries with absolutely no risk to the public. The Government has consistently framed this case as an issue of public safety, but the materials used by Critical Art Ensemble are widely available, can be purchased by anyone from High School science supply catalogs, and are regularly mailed.
A film about the case, Strange Culture—directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson and featuring Tilda Swinton (Chronicles of Narnia, Michael Clayton), Thomas Jay Ryan (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and Peter Coyote (E.T., Erin Brockovich)—has drawn widespread critical praise and public interest, with screenings in dozens of U.S. cities after its selection to open both the 2007 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival doc section. An October 1st screening of the film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City drew a crowd of 400 who stayed for an hour afterward for a discussion with Hershman Leeson, Professor Kurtz, and Tilda Swinton. Special Benefit screenings of the film in numerous cities have raised thousands of dollars to offset the two defendants’ escalating legal costs.
View the trailer for Strange Culture here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikNO1ANHIQs
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE VISIT:
http://www.caedefensefund.org