"Action is the antidote to despair."  ~ Joan Baez We continue to live in challenging times, on so many fronts. One way to rise up out of feelings of hopelessness is to take action on a cause you care about. We invite you to collaborate with Backbone on using props that get attention and results. Reach out and let us know your ideas! For inspiration, check out Recent Actions. Read on for some ways folks are taking action, using creative props and principled action: Biden + Chase: No Money for Fossil Fuels What kind of ancestors will we be, 7 generations from now?  That is the question organizers of the Pennsylvania-Delaware 180-mile Walk for Our Grandchildren & Mother Earth, asked. They used one of Backbone's inflatable pipelines for actions along the route, to call for an end to funding fossil fuel projects. Props like these can deliver visual interest to your action. Contact Backbone today to reserve Imagery. Continue reading

A powerful climate change documentary, THE RACE TO SAVE THE WORLD, illuminates the human stories in the fight for climate action. Rather than focusing on scary statistics and abstract predictions, the feature follows a range of environmental campaigners, of all ages, who are prepared to sacrifice everything in order to save the world.  Continue reading

We know it's been awhile since you last got an update. A lot has been happening, and we'll try and summarize it here! Backbone is featured in an award-winning documentary, just released on Earth Day. Buy a ticket/Watch: TheRaceToSaveTheWorld.com. Continue reading

Thank you for locking arms with Backbone as we rise up to help communities navigate this difficult year. We hope you will RSVP for this Saturday's 17th Birthday Celebration with awesome special guests, including YOU! Backbone HQ has been especially busy this last month, juggling action design, training, and getting visibility tools to progressive struggles across the US.  Here are some of the creative actions we've been part of in just the last 3 weeks: Continue reading

Continue reading

The trials of this extraordinary time have been many, yet this moment of anticipation and preparation feels more challenging than any before it. To me, the battle is not about candidates or an election - but the limits of hate and power of love. It is up to us to make sure that there actually is an arch in the American story that truly bends toward love and that is inseparable from justice.  Continue reading

Backbone is fortunate that the creative tools we provide to organizations and individuals fighting for a better future can be utilized safely and effectively, even during this time of pandemic.  We are even more committed to getting communities tooled up with CoViD-safe gear and supporting campaigns for essential workers, providing training to frontline works in using gear, scouting, and action planning.  Continue reading

We are at a critical moment in our history, with so many activists - young and old - flooding the streets. Because of the collective actions in towns and cities large and small around the country, we seem to be on the precipice of real, meaningful changes. It is important that we keep up the pressure! Thanks to your support, we are mobilizing our high visibility tools to be in solidarity with the calls to move away from a police, carceral state and toward a country where everyone in our communities is supported and respected.  And we are prioritizing training new people to utilize these different tactics in the streets and on the canvas of buildings and freeway overpasses. Continue reading

Backbone Campaign is bringing out our tools to support the Movement for Black Lives' call for systemic overhaul of our justice systems, as well as the call for Trump to resign.  Several of our teams across the US are heading out tonight for light projection and bannering.  Our fearless Solidarity Brigade leader and friend Phil Ateto rocked his light in unprecedented ways last night in DC, near the White House.  The video of him mixing projection with shining a light on snipers and cops on rooftops has gone viral. His projection onto the military truck in Lafayette Square and other projections - capturing the message of the protests - were lauded in the Washington Post.  Continue reading

Today, May Day, launches the beginning of an ongoing nationwide General Strike. Backbone projectionists went out this week to shine lights in solidarity with #GeneralStrike2020.  Our volunteer video editor with Maya Media is creating a video of the 8-city projection, and we'll be sending that out this weekend. Stay tuned! Strike organizers have identified 3 prongs: resistance through noncompliance (ie Don't Buy Anything; Refuse Rent to giant corporate landlords; Cancel Debt), mutual aid support networks, and building alternative systems in our communities rooted in cooperation, solidarity and participatory democracy. From growing food resilience to making masks for frontline workers to buying food from locally owned grocers, we have power when we work together.  Continue reading