DiY Art

"We are all capable of being our own entertainers and culture creators."
Hal Niedzviecki, from The Big Book of Pop Culture - a how-to guide for young artists

Niedzviecki, who edits a 'zine called Broken Pencil, wrote his book to encourage young people to write songs, make films or engage any of the arts simply for the joy of making things and sharing them.

He points out that not long ago people routinely entertained themselves by singing, dancing or storytelling. They made useful items that were beautiful as well as functional. They didn't compartmentalize Art-with-a-capital-A. If someone from the colonial period or the Middle Ages visited any American city today, he'd probably be puzzled about the way we figuratively lock creativity away in a mental cabinet as if it's something rare and breakable, to be brought out only for certain occasions. Or he'd wonder why so many of us now insist we're not creative or that we "can't" tell stories, make something with our hands or sing just for pleasure.

What Niedzviecki calls Independent Popular Culture (as opposed to the commercial kind) is all about reclaiming the universal drive to create, and every person's right to create & share our creations. Just because.