Jason Hu is a member of EmPower.

Brunonia went to Washington this past weekend, as students from the Rhode Island Student Climate Coalition (RISCC) participated in protests at the White House against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

The pipeline is set to bring tar sands from Canada down to Texas, Hannah LeBourgeois ’15 said, and opponents have criticized it as a setback in environmental sustainability as well as independence from fossil fuels. Go here to learn more about the proposed pipeline.

RISCC—which includes schools throughout Rhode Island, and whose Brown chapter is a member of EmPower—had collected student signatures on a large canvas which it carried at Washington.

Images courtesy Lolly Lim ’12 and Jacqueline Ho ’14.

Yesterday at 5 pm, in solidarity with Occupy movements all over the world, thousands of protestors met at Burnside Park next to Kennedy Plaza and proceeded to march around the city of Providence. Among them were a few dozen students from Brown University. With the help of the Providence police department, traffic was blocked off on certain roads so protestors could pass through. The march passed by Providence Place Mall, the State capital building, then ended up back at Burnside Park. People of all different ages, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds came together to show our country’s and our world’s leaders that people are fed up with the current political and financial system. The official occupation of Burnside Park began last night and will continue indefinitely.

(We apologize in advance for the blurriness of some of the photos, shit got a little nuts at times).  [Read more →]

The title pretty much says it all. At noon today, protesters on the main green were holding signs reading, “Rainbows Not Bodies” and handing out pamphlets with pictures of the Olsen twins, a cow, and a character from The Lion King on the inside. On the inside were lyrics from Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” and on the back were lyrics from Gnarls Barkley’s “Going On.”

Um. Anyone have any clue what this is all about? MCM project? Performance art? Insights very welcomed in the comments.

— Thea Aguiar

UPDATE: Roughly thirteen avant-garde idealists took to the Main Green Tuesday afternoon to exercise their freedom of speech, expressing dissatisfaction and anger about inaction and ineptitude in the ongoing battle against a variety of vague and fantastical causes, ranging from apathy to monarchy. Who were these young visionaries with such excellent taste in glitter makeup? They kept mum, but the exceptional quality of their screenprinted electric pink literature, as well as the words of an anonymous tipster, exposed them as RISD students. Performance art piece? Or well-directed jab at our progressive love for protesting? We’ll never know, but looks like we’ve got competition for the most outspokent institution on College Hill.

— Phoebe Neel