Tag: Eric Garner
'[WATCH] Upright Citizens Brigade Parodies Sia's "Elastic Heart," Smears NYPD, Back-Turning Campaign
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'Eric Garner's Last Words Become Performance Piece
Amid the throng of protesters, the words “I can’t breathe” echoed through Grand Central Terminal Tuesday night, Dec. 9. The plea of Eric Garner, the black man who was recently killed by a white police officer in Staten Island, New York, was re-enacted by a group of performance artists in a rallying cry for justice. The speaker was Chazz Giovanni, a recent graduate of the acting program at SUNY Purchase. Giovanni recited all of Garner’s last worlds, which were recorded on video before his death in July after Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him into a chokehold. As Giovanni spoke Garner’s last words, dozens of dancers circled him, some beating on cookie tins as they chanted, "We can’t breath." Others broke into pairs to act out a simple, stylized move based on a chokehold. After each round of the monologue, the group fell to the ground, mimicking death.
