Arts Culture Beat: Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir

Columbia Journalism

Listen in as ArtsCultureBeat talks with spitfire actor, writer, and producer Reverend Billy Talen of Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir and Choir member and activist Dragonfly (aka Miss Justice Jester). For nearly two decades, performance artist Reverend Billy has staged protests in the style of Evangelical sermons passionately agitating against wide-ranging sins such environmental exploitation, commercialism, and police brutality. He's been an NYC mayoral candidate, the subject of the documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?," and he's been arrested more than 70 times, most recently at a Black Lives Matter protest at Grand Central Terminal. He's joined by Dragonfly , longtime Choir member and activist, a leader in the Ferguson protests. Her hug of a Ferguson riot cop in front of the police station, which was a mutual hug, was seen by many millions, picked up by AP, "New Yorker." Now, just before the launch of Reverend Billy's “Faster, Monsanto! Die! Die!” world tour, Reverned Billy and Dragonfly talk to ArtsCultureBeat’s Vanessa Quirk and Yashica Dutt about activism, acting, and the blurry line between playing and becoming a character.