Direct Action: Three Excavators Scorched in Atlanta Forest

Alissa Azar
3 min readJun 11, 2021

In a classic display of arrogance, Blackhall Studios and the contractors they hired to clear cut sixty acres of forest did not believe that we were serious when we committed to frustrate any further attempts at developing “Michelle Obama Park.” Blackhall and the so-called City of Atlanta play the villains in the final chapter of the long and deliberately sanitized history of desecration of land stolen from the Muscogee People and used for chattel slavery, prison slavery, and immeasurable violence. The developers elected to move in three additional excavators to make up for their losses last month. This was a mistake. Consequently, we incinerated all three excavators, rendering them immobile and unusable. We are happy to report that the machinery we destroyed in our last visit remains in the same locations and states we left them in.

This Pride Month, as ever, soulless corporations have been busy bastardizing the rebellious spirit of queerness. These corporations demand a lot of things from us. Money out of our pockets, time away from our loved ones, data that they can spin into ads.. but of queers, corporations demand one thing above all: assimilation. To this end, corporate-controlled media provides a platform only to queer people that are complicit in or responsible for the repression of others. Thanks to this, lesbian police chiefs, gay politicians, bisexual soldiers, nonbinary Raytheon™ employees, and Rupaul (the much-adored patron saint of transphobia, toxicity, and fracking, in case you haven’t heard of him) are the media’s model for an acceptable queer.

We insist on walking another path. An overgrown path. A path covered in kudzu, mud, and branches. This path leads to queer liberation. It’s the path of faggots, trannies, and dykes, and it’s utterly incompatible with the expecations laid out by the Caitlyn Jenners, Erika Shields, and Absolut Vodkas of the world.

We don’t walk this path alone. We follow our trans grandparents, we stand with our bisexual siblings, and we know that every lesbian born long after we’re dead and part of the forest once again will fight to defend it with unmatched vehemence.

We recognize that this path leads directly through the vile entities that want to destroy the forest; that this path will lead to direct confrontations with the City of Atlanta and Blackhall Studios.

We believe these confrontations will come sooner rather than later.

We know that there’s only one way to carve livable space out of a world that cares more about shitty action films and carceral primacy than having breathable air and drinkable water. The only way is resistance.

We renew our undying commitment:

Any further attempts at destroying the Atlanta Forest will be met with similar response. This forest was here long before us, and it will be here long after.

We’ll see to that.

6/9/2021

(anonymous email submission)

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Alissa Azar

Independent and Gonzo journalists. @alissaazar on Twitter @r3volutiondaddy on Instagram