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| Affiliation | Green |
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| Name | William C. "Reverend Billy" Talen |
| Address | 65 East 3 Street
New York, New York , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
00, 1953
(72 years)
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| Contributor | nystate63 |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Mar 19, 2013 04:54pm |
| Tags |
Dutch - Married - Straight -
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| Info | Bill Talen, also known as Reverend Billy, is a community leader and performance artist who has worked for more than a decade to keep New York City’s diverse neighborhoods healthy, safe, and vibrant. He has joined forces with communities and grassroots organizations across the world, promoting sustainability and economic justice, and defending public space, neighborhoods, self-determination, and the right to earn an honest, independent living.
With the First Amendment as his only license, Talen has boldly opposed the creep of chain stores like Starbucks and Wal-Mart into New York City neighborhoods, the privatization of public parks, as well as repressive labor practices and anti-labor initiatives, discretionary police enforcement, racial profiling, the destruction of community gardens, and the closure of low-income day care centers. In his own uniquely hilarious way, he has campaigned against gentrification, the displacement of long-time residents, small businesses, and development that destroys vibrant communities.
After witnessing the methodical eviction of long-standing neighborhood shops in Times Square and the transformation of the community into an open-air mall, Talen began preaching in the streets, starting outside the Disney Store, the anchor tenant of the so-called Time Square revitalization, an emblematic development model soon to be repeated in neighborhoods throughout the city. Talen called for economic diversity as early as 2000, arguing that a monolithic economy driven solely by Wall Street and corporate profits would ultimately collapse under its own weight. Talen has championed local business development, criticizing the globalized retail economy for its reliance on sweatshop labor, destructive resource extraction, and unsustainable distribution and disposal practices.
Talen’s work is inspired and informed by the lively social movements through which the United States has expressed its capacity for change: abolition, the suffragettes, labor and workers rights, the defeat of fascism, and the ongoing fight for racial and sexual equality. He and his colleagues work to renew and rejuvenate the redemptive power of social, ecological, and economic justice. His leadership has long captured the imaginations of people across the world.
Billy Talen is a folk hero in a time when most heroics are left to the caped crusaders of Hollywood. We call on New Yorkers to be the heroes they already are, to don their capes and work together to return New York City to its great promise. Join the rise of the 500 fabulous neighborhoods!
Talen is the author of two books, What Should I Do if Reverend Billy Is In My Store? (The New Press) and What Would Jesus Buy? (Public Affairs), and the subject of two full–length documentary films, What Would Jesus Buy?, produced by Morgan Spurlock, and Reverend Billy and The Church Of Stop Shopping Play Loud! With his partner, Savitri D, he leads and performs around the world with The Church of Life After Shopping, and is a frequent speaker at universities and conferences.
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