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Leslie Dreyer (born 1978) is US-born artist, organizer and educator who creates tactical art, media spectacles and unsanctioned public installations in collaboration with social justice organizations fighting for a right to the city and an equitable future. She has designed tactical art and creative direct action strategies that have been featured in The Guardian[1], BBC[2], CNBC, ABC[3], Mother Jones[4], AP[5], Hyperallergic[6], Huffington Post[7], The Nation[8], and the SF Bay Guardian, Glenn Beck's Fox News show[9], and other outlets. She currently organizes with the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition and Coalition on Homelessness, focusing on global real estate speculation, hyper-gentrification and the tech industry's impact on housing and inequality. Her collaborative interventions lift up the voices of those most impacted, and intersections between housing, labor, race and gender justice.

Education

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Dreyer earned a BFA in Studio Art at University of Texas Austin, and an MFA in 2015 from UC Berkeley

Career and work

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Dreyer lectures and organizes workshops focused on housing justice, techno-capitalism, surveillance and displacement, tactical performance, creative direct action, and media strategies rooted in on-the-ground movement work. She has appeared at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, California College of the Arts, San Francisco Arts Institute, The Art Institute of California, University of Texas Austin, and many community spaces. In 2016 her work was included in Take This Hammer: Art + Media Activism from the Bay Area at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.[10][11]

Awards

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  • 2018 SF Arts Commission Grant
  • 2016 and 2018 UC Berkeley American Cultures Engaged Scholarship Artist in Residence.
  • 2015-16 East Bay Fund for Artists Grant for Boom: The Art of Resistance gallery show[12], Oakland, CA
  • 2014 The Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Arts Award, SF Bay Area, CA
  • 2014 The Eisner Prize for Art Practice, UC Berkeley, CA

Work with US Uncut

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Dreyer designed several actions with members of US Uncut's San Francisco chapter, drawing attention to corporate tax avoidance and cuts to social spending.

Just before Tax Day in 2011, Dreyer, US Uncut and The Yes Men collaborated on a fake General Electric press release that led to an Associated Press article beginning with, "Facing criticism over the amount of taxes it pays, General Electric announced it will repay its entire $3.2 billion tax refund to the US Treasury on April 18."[13]

Two days later, US Uncut SF and Dreyer, with The Ruckus Society and Brass Liberation Orchestra (BLO), staged a flashmob at Bank of America that drew the ire of rightwing commentator Glenn Beck.[9]

The same year, Dreyer and US Uncut SF used colorful costumes and QR Codes at Apple Inc's San Francisco World Wide Developer's Conference to protest the company's tax dodging.[14]

Anti-Gentrification & ​Anti-Displacement Interventions

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San Francisco activists protest privately-owned shuttle buses that transport workers for tech companies such as Google from their homes in San Francisco and Oakland to corporate campuses in Silicon Valley.

In 2013, as part of Heart of the City Collective, Dreyer designed a San Francisco street intervention that interrupted a private "tech bus" using public bus stops. Tech buses are a fast-growing network of private shuttles that ferry tech workers to Silicon Valley, and are linked to rent increases in neighborhoods they serve[15]. The action resulted in over a hundred articles in local and international media[16] and set off a series of tech bus blockades led by both Heart of the City and other grassroots groups. On April Fools Day in 2014, a few hours before a key city hearing on a proposal to charge tech shuttles to use public bus stops, Dreyer's Gmuni: Free Luxury Free Market Free for All blocked a bus with a hoaxed opening for a Google program to allow the public to ride private shuttles for free.[17]

In 2015, Dreyer along with Housing Rights Committee of SF, Coalition on Homelessness, Causa Justa/Just Cause, California Nurses Association, SF Tenant's Union, Plaza 16, and Brass Liberation Orchestra filled AirBnB's San Francisco headquarters with balloons, banners, music and free pizza a day ahead of citywide voting on a proposition to restrict short-term rental properties.[18][19]

In 2016, Dreyer worked with San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition, Coalition on Homelessness and others to transform the site of a burned-out affordable housing complex into an art installation[20], public performance[21] and protest march[22] calling attention to the housing crisis and campaigning against realtor-backed voter initiatives supporting further gentrification.

In 2018, Dreyer and the Coalition on Homelessness won an SF Arts Commission Grant for Stolen Belonging, an initiative to archive and spotlight personal items stolen and trashed by SF Police Department and City workers during their ongoing homeless sweeps.

References

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  1. ^ Booth, Kwan (2015-11-02). "Protesters occupy Airbnb HQ ahead of housing affordability vote". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  2. ^ "Murdoch speech is heckled in US". BBC News. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  3. ^ "News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch heckled during speech in San Francisco". ABC7 San Francisco. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  4. ^ "Google bus protest the most San Francisco thing ever". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  5. ^ "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-11-14. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  6. ^ "Extending a Local Legacy, Bay Area Artists and Media Activists Fight for Social Justice". Hyperallergic. 2016-07-13. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  7. ^ Graves, Lucia (2011-02-28). "Liberal Tea Party? U.S. Uncut Disrupts Service At Bank Of America". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  8. ^ Kilkenny, Allison. "GOP Spreads Corporate Tax Disinformation, America Fights Back | The Nation". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  9. ^ a b SickTwistedFreaks (2011-04-20), 4, retrieved 2018-11-21
  10. ^ "'Take This Hammer' Reveals Power of Art and Activism at YBCA". KQED. 2016-03-22. Retrieved 2018-11-22.
  11. ^ "Extending a Local Legacy, Bay Area Artists and Media Activists Fight for Social Justice". Hyperallergic. 2016-07-13. Retrieved 2018-11-22.
  12. ^ "Boom: The Art of Resistance at Random Parts". DAILY SERVING. Retrieved 2018-11-22.
  13. ^ "Associated Press falls for "Yes Men"-linked GE hoax". Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  14. ^ rleisher. "iUncut: Taking on Apple's Tax Dodge". YES! Magazine. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  15. ^ McElroy, Erin. "Tech Bus Stops and No-Fault Evictions - Anti-Eviction Mapping Project". www.antievictionmappingproject.net. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  16. ^ "Press". HEART OF THE CITY. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  17. ^ "Google bus blocked by dancing protesters in S.F. Mission District". The Technology Chronicles. 2014-04-01. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  18. ^ Booth, Kwan (2015-11-02). "Protesters occupy Airbnb HQ ahead of housing affordability vote". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  19. ^ Lien, Tracey. "Everything you need to know about San Francisco's Airbnb ballot measure". latimes.com. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  20. ^ "Site of a Mission Fire Becomes a Political Art Site - Mission Local". Mission Local. 2016-11-05. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  21. ^ "Mission: Artists, poets and community organizers march against anti-housing props | 48 hills". 48 hills. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
  22. ^ "Mission Street Blocked as Protesters March Against Housing Props - Mission Local". Mission Local. 2016-11-04. Retrieved 2018-11-21.
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