Bees in Action

Browse sample photos of our picture-lectures and workshops in a startling variety of venues. This spring we had four separate groups touring in the Southeast, in the Midwest, in the Northeast (including Canada), and even in England!

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Bees Swarming this Spring!

We Bees are currently plotting our SPRING tour schedule, and we’d LOVE to collaborate with you to organize a Beehive presentation in your area. We had a record-breaking fall tour last year with over 200 picture-lectures and graphic workshops, and we are buzzing with excitement to keep up the momentum in the coming months!

From wide-spread hydro-fracking for natural gas and the continued coal exploration across the Abmericas, from the oil spill in the Gulf and Tar Sands development in Canada, the dire fight against fossil fuels has never been more evident on this continent. This spring, we have eager bees and powerful allies ready to swarm all over the Southeast, Northeast, Midwest and Gulf Coast, full of stories and graphics to share.

Plus, we are SUPER excited to announce a special collaborative tour with climate justice organizer Joshua Kahn Russell. Josh will be touring alongside in Appalachia and the Northeast offering additional organizing and social movement strategy workshops to groups and organizations throughout the Spring. And we have more awesome collaborations planned, so keep your ears perked!

YOU can help us cross-pollinate these struggles and communities by hosting the Bees this season; together let’s build this movement for climate justice!

If you are interested in collaborating, or if you know someone else who might be, please visit our TOUR PAGE (http://wwww.beehivecollective.org/booking)for complete workshop descriptions and information about hosting us at your school or venue. >
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Help KICKSTART the Beehive Collective's 10th Anniversary Print Run!

The BEEHIVE COLLECTIVE has launched a new KICKSTARTER campaign to reprint our full body of work- over a dozen graphic posters!

There's a new-fangled way of doing what Bees do best- fundraising poco-a-poco, little bit by little bit! Through Kickstarter we’ve made a sweet little VIDEO explaining what we do, and are offering lots of special treats to share.



Support the Beehive’s 10th Anniversary Print Run through Kickstarter…… and receive a special collection of limited edition, previously out-of-print, and brand new posters, all shipped direct to your doorstep!

Every lil’ donation makes a big difference; your pledge of $25, $50, or $100 can help us cover the $12,000 total cost of this effort. This will be our biggest, and most diverse, print run to date!

And whether or not you pledge, you can HELP US SPREAD THE WORD by telling your friends, your grandparents, your boss, your siblings, and everyone who’s connected to you on the internet about this kick-startin’ campaign…we need you to help this go viral! >
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SWARMING South, West, North and beyond after Appalachia Rising!

We bees just wrapped up an amazing week! We had two GIANT events to help us kick start our release tour of "The True Cost of Coal," the Common Ground Country Fair in Maine and Appalachia Rising- a mass mobilization against mountaintop removal coal mining in DC. Between the two events we shared our new work with thousands of people and have already distributed hundreds of posters!

What a powerful moment, to stand in the streets of DC with all of the friends, allies, community members and activists who are touched by the story of Mountaintop Removal. Over 100 folks were arrested demanding an end to the destruction, and that is only the beginning! Appalachia is still Rising and we are honored to be a part of this movement. Make sure to visit appalachiarising.org for photos and news stories about the event!

We will carry our part forward over the next few months. As we speak, four swarms of bees are traveling the country, keeping the momentum going for the largest tour in Beehive history! We already have 45 shows booked for October alone and more are in the works. Check out our tour pages to see if we are coming to a town near you!

http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/tour.htm

And please help spread the word to friends in the area!



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Join the Bees at Appalachia Rising! A Mass Moblization to end Mountaintop Removal mining!

Hello friends and allies,

As you know, we released our latest graphic, "The True Cost of Coal" this summer, and the timing could not be more apt, as we are approaching a historic moment in the anti-strip mining movement this month.

From September 25-27, activists and community members from Appalachia and supporters from all over the country will be converging on Washington DC at Appalachia Rising!- a mass mobilization to demand an end to all forms of strip mining! The event is being organized by a broad coalition of citizen, environmental, labor, faith and community groups and individuals who have joined together in one voice to demand an end to the destruction in Appalachia. This has not happened on this scale since 1978.

The weekend includes two full days of strategizing workshops, learning, featured speaker panels and discussions, cultural events, and entertainment. On Monday September 27, we will march, rally, and support individuals taking part in dignified non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal mining.

We bees are honored to be participating in this moment of movement history, and will be bringing "The True Cost of Coal" to the streets of DC at the end of this month to kick off our nation wide release tour of the graphic. We would like to invite you to be a part of this moment as well.

Weather you live close to DC or not, there are many ways you can support this effort! Here are some ways to plug in:

Register to attend Appalachia Rising - http://bit.ly/94qKJQ

Mobilize your community to Appalachia Rising- http://bit.ly/bzweZK

Donate to Appalachia Rising- http://bit.ly/aYUf4O

and of course, spread the word! Visit http://www.appalachiarising.org/ for more info!

Thank you so much for your support! And hope to see some of you in DC!

with honey and solidarity,
the bees

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Beehive in Seattle

We met tons of awesome folks at the Seattle Anarchist Bookfair and InArtsNW, a new artists' coop in Capitol Hill..... We found out that 40% of Washington State's electricity comes from a coal plant in Centralia, WA, that uses coal from strip mines in Montana and Wyoming's Powder River Basin. Oregon also gets 40% of its power from coal.

For more photos of West Coast tour, click here.





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West Coast Tour Underway!

The Beehive's West Coast Bike Tour is on the road! We are travelling by bicycle from Seattle to the San Francisco Bay Area with a portable fabric mural of "the True Cost of Coal," stopping along the way to do workshops and storytellings about mountain top removal coal mining, coal-fired electricity, climate change and the American Dream.

We will also be stopping along the way to eat blackberries.

To find a show happening near you, or to collaborate on organizing a show in your home town, check our tour page!

We will be landing in the SF Bay Area for the first week of October, then heading out again to tour a wider area of the West Coast by (*cough*) car.

We are very grateful to our superheros at Portland's Bike Farm collective for helping us get road-ready. They stayed late, they hooked us up with gear, they helped us with vehicle logistics, they saved our butts. Thank you, Bike Farm!

Take a gander at the photo album of our bike adventure! >
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JOYOUS NEWS! The BEEHIVE'S COAL POSTER has HATCHED!

THE TRUE COST OF COAL is finished, printed, and ready for you to enjoy!

It’s true! After 2 ½ years of discussions, feedback, eraser marks, sketches and rough drafts, THE TRUE COST OF COAL is DONE! And we can’t wait to share it with you!

It is hard to describe the mix of emotions we ‘lil bees are feeling after this final push. Somewhere between exuberance and exhaustion, all of it steeped in immeasurable gratitude to all the folks who have helped make this graphic possible. To all the powerful people and places in Appalachia who shared their stories and their struggles with us, to all the folks who have hosted shows and offered up their floors or couches, to everyone who has kicked down money to keep us going, to friends and family who have emotionally supported us through this rollercoaster of a project, and to everyone else who has touched or inspired this graphic in some way- thank you. No doubt, YOU all are what made this project possible!

Rather than us trying to describe this excitement and gratitude in words, please check it out for yourselves! Experience the full poster and read the narrative at the TRUE COST OF COAL page on our website (http://www.beehivecollective.org/english/coal.htm), and find behind-the-scenes studio shots in our Sketchbook .

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The Coal Graphic Blows Up for Detroit

The coal graphic, blown up to huge proportions for public display.... see the teeny tiny person holding up the edge of the banner at top center?

Next stop: the Allied Media Conference and the US Social Forum in Detroit.

If anyone is going to be in Detroit over the next few weeks, you can come and cross-pollinate with us! We're gonna be offering workshops, gallery shows, and outdoor storytellings in the following places:

Allied Media Conference:
Friday, June 18 @ 9am: Let's Draw! Kid's only drawing workshop
Friday, June 18 @ 2pm: Collaborative Mural Making workshop with Detroit Summer

*check out http://alliedmedia.org/ for more info on times and places!

USSF:

Monday, June 21st: Bees will be tabling all day and doing informal storytellings at Detroit River Days at the USSF cultural space. (http://www.detroitriverdays.com)

Thursday, June 24th @ 1pm: Collaborative Workshop with the Chiapas Support Committee on "Megaprojects and the
Militarization of Mexico" in Cobo Hall D2-09

Friday, June 25th @ 1pm: Graphics for the Commons:
Collaborative Graphic Design for Movement Building in Wayne
County Community College: 124

We will also be displaying graphics (including the recently finished True Costs of Coal poster!) as part the USSF's Official Art show at the Hart Plaza Gallery throughout the USSF

And of course we will be tabling all week at the USSF OUTSIDE in the Hart Plaza!

visit: http://www.ussf2010.org/ for more info!

Hope to see you in Detroit! >
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It's DONE!!!

It's been a marathon, but the "True Cost of Coal" poster is all wrapped up and ready to go to print. By the end of June, we'll start distributing paper posters and accompanying booklet to activists, educators, and other folks involved in coal field and climate justice struggles. We'll blow this image up into giant portable murals and tour the country, doing presentations and workshops about coal, climate change, and art activism.

Book us this fall for your community space, high school or college! >
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