Reverend Billy
Reverend Billy (born May 25, 1950 in Minnesota ) is a stage name of the American actor , activist and action artist William C. Talen. He lives in New York .
Fictional character
Talen, who grew up in a Calvinist , Dutch-American home in Minnesota, developed the fictional character Reverend Billy in the 1990s, somewhere between a revival preacher and a socially critical activist . Since then he has been bringing his messages critical of consumption to the people in the guise of a street preacher. His fictional character was inspired by the encounter with the episcopal vicar Syndey Lanier, a cousin of the writer Tennessee Williams . As a pseudo street preacher, he first appeared in New York's Times Square in the mid-1990s . He is accompanied during his performances by the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir .
Church of Life After Shopping
He founded the collective Reverend Billy & The Church of Life After Shopping , formerly Church of Stop Shopping , as a pseudo-church critical of consumption. Prominent members include Joan Baez , Kurt Vonnegut, and Amy Goodman . The “creed” of the “church” calls for refusal to consume , nature conservation , the gift economy , local economy , participatory democracy and pacifism as well as for the preservation of common goods such as community gardens and public spaces .
activism
His protests are directed against multinational corporations such as Disney , GAP , Nike or Starbucks, but also against political decisions such as the Second Iraq War or gentrification measures . He uses the practice of culture jamming and criticizes the commercialization of institutionalized religions and the quasi-religious features of capitalism and the advertising industry . He sees himself in an intellectual affinity with Walter Benjamin (see in particular his fragment Capitalism as Religion ) and the dramas by Bertolt Brecht and Dario Fo . In 2009 he ran for the Green Party for Mayor of New York.
Movies
- 2002: Reverend Billy & the Church of Stop Shopping , Documentation by Dietmar Post & Lucia Palacios , Play Loud! Productions .
- 2005: Preacher with an Unknown God , short documentary by Rob VanAlkemade. (Honorary Mention at the Sundance Film Festival )
- 2007: What Would Jesus Buy? , Documentation by Rob VanAlkemade.
Web links
- Official website
- Fool, saint, troublemaker? Matthias Fersterer on Reverend Billy in Oya , 03/2010
Individual references, comments
- ↑ http://www.playloud.org/pressreverendpdf/USA/RevBillypress80pags.pdf ( Memento from January 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Reverend Billy & The Church of Earthalujah!
- ^ Reverend Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Reverend Billy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Talen, Bill (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American actor, activist, and action artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 25, 1950 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Minnesota , USA |