Last night, the two recently freed members of Pussy Riot, Masha Alyokhina and Nadia Tolokonnikova, appeared on stage at Brooklyn's Barclays Center atAmnesty International's Bringing Human Rights Home Concert. They were introduced by Madonna. But hours prior to the concert, other, anonymous members of Pussy Riot emailed an open letter to supporters, and posted it on their Livejournal. The letter stated that Nadia and Masha are no longer part of Pussy Riot. (Both women have stated as much in interviews, as they refocus their efforts on prison reform).
"We are very pleased with Masha's and Nadia's release," the letter reads. "We are proudof their resistance against harsh trials that fell to their lot, andtheir determination by all means to continue the struggle that theyhad started during their stay in the colonies."
"Unfortunately for us," it continues, "they are being so carried away with theproblems in Russian prisons, that they completely forgot about theaspirations and ideals of our groupfeminism, separatistresistance, fight against authoritarianism and personality cult, allof which, as a matter of fact, was the cause for their unjustpunishment."
In the open letter, the anonymous members note that Nadia and Masha have refused to communicate with them. They expressed frustration with how the media has continued to refer to them as members of Pussy Riot, and said "the apotheosis of this misunderstanding" was last night's Amnesty International concert.It continued:
Moreover, instead of the names of Nadia and Masha, the poster of the [Amnesty International] event showed a man in a balaclava with electric guitar, under thename of Pussy Riot, while the organizers smartly called for people tobuy expensive tickets.All this is an extreme contradiction to the very principles of PussyRiot collective:We are all-female separatist collectiveno man can represent useither on a poster or in reality.We belong to leftist anti-capitalist ideologywe charge no fees forviewing our art-work, all our videos are distributed freely on theweb, the spectators to our performances are always spontaneous passersby, and we never sell tickets to our 'shows'.
Our performances are always 'illegal', staged only in unpredictablelocations and public places not designed for traditionalentertainment. The distribution of our clips is always through freeand unrestricted media channels.We are anonymous, because we act against any personality cult, againsthierarchies implied by appearance, age and other visible socialattributes. We cover our heads, because we oppose the very idea ofusing female face as a trademark for promoting any sort of goods orservices.
The mixing of the rebel feminist punk image with the image ofinstitutionalised defenders of prisoners' rights, is harmful for us ascollective, as well as it is harmful for the new role that Nadia andMasha have taken on.
The anonymous members nonetheless expressed gratitude and support of Nadia and Masha's new goals. "Yes, we lost two friends, two ideological fellow member, but the worldhas acquired two brave, interesting, controversial human rightsdefenders," the letter reads. "We appreciatetheir choice and sincerely wish them well in their new career."
The New York Times notes that last night, Nadia and Masha had no comment on the letter.
Watch Madonna's introduction of Masha Alyokhina and Nadia Tolokonnikovalast night:
Revisit Pussy Riot's 2012 performanceat Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral:
Source: http://pitchfork.com/news/53860-nadia-tolokonnikova-and-masha-alyokhina-no-longer-members-of-pussy-riot/
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