Body Autonomy / Liberation Ride

PRESS ADVISORY: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Body Autonomy / Liberation Ride
in Solidarity with Clinic Defense and World Naked Bike Ride

 “Body autonomy means hands off our bodies,” declare activists. “Exercise your rights! Love your body, ride your bike!”

Contacts:

Benjamin Shepard – 917 586 7952

What: A two part clothing-optional bike ride calling for the state, police, and the Church to keep their hands off our bodies. 

Saturday June 9^th, 2012

Part One Starts: 8:15 AM

Where: 43rd Street & 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn

Body autonomy ride joins the Brooklyn Pro-Choice Network, the Rude Mechanical Orchestra and the Church Ladies for Choice at a prayer vigil of Bishop DiMarzio and the Helpers of God's Precious Infants ("HOGPI") to let them know: “YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE”
Part Two Starts: Gathering 5:30 PM

Where: Grand Ferry Park on the Brooklyn Waterfront. Ride departs at 6:30 PM

New York, NY (June 9th, 2012) –Saturday, June 9th, Time’s Up!, a direct action environmental group, will call attention to the need for free autonomous bodies, safe from interference from the state, cars, police or the moralists.

“From mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds to stop and frisk policing to the hyper restrictions on our right to gather together in public space, our bodies have been under assault,” declares Times Up! volunteer Ellen Levin.  “Fight back and have some fun with body autonomy.”

“Clinic defense in the morning and support for the World Naked Bike ride in the afternoon, June 9^th will be a day to celebrate liberation of our bodies and minds,” notes Times Up! volunteer Benjamin Shepard.

A joyous and liberating protest aimed at reducing the dangers posed to our world and our bodies by automobiles and oil dependence! The ride takes place in solidarity with the World Naked Bike Ride, in its 10th year internationally, with rides happening across the Northern Hemisphere on this date.  While the ride is clothing optional, many will be clothed yet still ready to celebrate body autonomy in any way they see fit.  Feel free to come as dressed or bare as you dare. Creative costuming is also highly encouraged. Body painting and bike decoration will start at 5:30 PM, with the ride departing no later than 6:30pm. Activists will provide a know your rights training and teach-inn on consent.  Be sure to bring lights, bells, a sense of humor , a positive attitude, and respect for all riders. 

The ride is endorsed by the OWS Bike Coalition.

“The cops ripped off my clothes, that’s why I’m riding naked,” declares Cara of the OWS bike coalition, who will join the ride. 

“I can’t afford clothes,” notes Audrey Hephburn of the OWS Bike Coalition.  “We’ve got nothing to hide.  Come and stop and frisk us.” 

The body autonomy ride is established to critique the over policing of public space and the social imagination.  Riders are encouraged to participate in the June 17^th March to End Stop and Frisk action as well as the drag march on June 22.

Reclaim your body! Reclaim your streets! Reclaim your planet! Ride your bike!  The Body Autonomy Ride is a safer space for all bodies to ride free of harassment or pollutants in the physical or mental environment. To participate each rider is asked to respect that the liberation of bodies requires freedom, autonomy, and justice for all. This begins with joy and commitment to self determination for all. 

For more on Times Up’s Safer Spaces Policy, see:
http://times-up.org/index.php?page=safer-spaces-policy

For scenes from Previous Rides:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlJKt8Etu64

TIMES UP! is a non-profit environmental group that has been using educational outreach and direct action for the last 25 years to promote a more sustainable, less toxic city. 

www.times-up.org