In Park Slope, change doesn’t happen overnight — it happens over coffee.
A local art center is starting an “activist happy hour” where amateur agitators can drop in, lobby a little, and be out in time for yoga class.
“If you have 10 minutes you can come and do your thing,” said Hootenanny Art House owner and teacher Kira Smith.
The 15th Street music and craft hub is running one-hour sessions every Monday afternoon and evening where time-poor rabble-rousers will find petitions and postcards to sign, scripts to read off to lawmakers, and other resources for sticking it to The Man in under 60 minutes.
The weekly workshops are largely a reaction to Donald Trump’s presidency, but more specifically the many sad faces on parents who pass through Hootenanny’s doors to pick their kids up from classes, Smith said.
“We’ve seen everybody from sad to angry to really scared,” she said.
The first Monday, Jan. 30, will feature postcards related to women’s issues as a follow-up to the Women’s Marches that swept the country after Trump’s inauguration, which pussy-hatted participants can fill out and fire off to senators.
But each hour of people power will likely be geared towards a different cause based on current affairs and the materials they have at hand, Smith said — refugee advocates from the International Rescue Committee are supposed to drop by sometime in the near future, for instance.
The event is not all-inclusive, however — those supporting causes that don’t revolve around “peace, justice, and love” need not apply, Smith said.
“Yeah, no,” was all she would say when asked whether advocates for mass deportations of immigrants, oil pipelines, and pro-lifers would be welcomed at Hootenanny.
Activist Mondays at Hootenanny Art House [428 15th St. between Eighth Avenue and Prospect Park West in Park Slope, (718) 369–0528, www.hoote
