Our Work

EVENTSJOIN OUR LIST

We oppose the mono-culture in the broadest terms: consumerism, militarism and capitalism’s attack on nature. We focus our energy on hyper local issues and global ones, and they often intersect.  We often work in coalition but we also approach things alone and very much on our own terms. We confront and contend with racism and economic inequality within our own community and organize with the understanding that both are at the heart of nearly every issue. We work for the Earth.

Music

Stop Shopping

Earth Justice

Podcast

Video

Glyphosate  Maps

Radical Lunch

Community Activism

MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES

Stop killing Black People. Stop Systemic Racism. End the Carcereal State. Reparations Now. 

EARTH RIOT

We confront the abuse of the Earth. We believe it must stop. We often travel to contested sites, pipelines, mountain top removal blast areas, proposed plants and power stations, sites of extreme pollution and  perform and protest in those spaces. We collaborate with many kinds of groups to mitigate the impact of corporations and overconsumption on the Earth, including its inhabitants, and especially those most affected by pollution and climate change, Black Indigenous People of Color. 

RADICAL LUNCH

Radical Lunch is a weekly Climate Crisis intervention, usually in New York City. It is a high reward / low risk action in corporate space and you are invited to join. Contact radlunch@revbilly.com

LOVE NO BORDER

We are opposed to the cruel and unusual immigration policies of all governments. We are deeply committed to freedom of movement,  the liberation of Migrants and Open Borders.   

NYC GLYHPOSATE BAN

 We have been working to ban glyphosate in NYC parks and public spaces. The bill INTRO 1524 is currently moving its way through New York City Council.

SAVE EAST RIVER PARK

The East River Park is a 20 acre stretch of public space on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as part of a flood mitigation plan the City of New York will level the park and build a concrete flood wall, killing more than 1000 mature trees in the process. 

 COMMUNITY 

The Church of Stop Shopping is a radical performance community, our most treasured and critical work is the work of our community. How do we communicate, how do we talk, how do we listen? How do we help each other? How do we help each other help others? How do we inspire each other and together become more radical, more resilient and more generous in the world.

WORK
BOOKS

 

What Should I do if Reverend Billy Is In My Store? ( The New Press 2005)

What Would Jesus Buy (Public Affairs 2007)

The Reverend Billy Project (University of Michigan Press 2011)

The End Of the World (O/R 2015)

The Earth Wants you (City Lights Press 2017)

RECORDING PROJECTS

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir 2005

The Shopcalypse 2009

The Declaration of the Occupation 2011

The Earth Wants YOU!  2015

The Earth Wants YOU Radio Hour

BUY & DOWNLOAD at BANDCAMP 

50% discount code stopshopping

LISTEN at SOUNDCLOUD

 

PERFORMANCE

We perform in all kinds of situations. This is a selection of venues, residencies and significant events.

40 weeks of the First Amendment at  Ground Zero 2004

The Church of Stop Shopping at Burning Man 2003-2014

St Marks in the Bowery Residents 2003-2007

Theatre 80 Weekly Church Service 2010-2011

Rebel Content tour with Neil Young 2015

Fiery Eagles of Justice

Writing in Trump Tower

Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater residents 2015-2020

Radical Lunch

FESTIVALS (select)  Adelaide Fringe, Athens Festival, Spektakel, Donau, Sterischer Herbst, Edinburg Fringe, Forest Fringe, Truth is Concret, The Influencers, hotDocs, FIERCE, Latitude, Celebrate Brooklyn!, NYC Fringe, Live Ideas NY, Burning Man, Secret Garden Party, Sundance,  Bioneers, Silver Docs, Brooklyn Folk Festival, World Social Forum, Encuentro!

VENUES & INSTITUTIONS ( select) ICA London, ICP NYC,  Creative Time, Haus der Kulture Welt, St John of the Divine, RedCat, The Castro Theater, Cafe Voltaire , NYU, The New School, Harvard, Cal Arts, USF, UC Santa Cruz, UC San Diego, University of Michigan, Yale, Wheaton,  Conway Hall…..

MEDIA PROJECTS

 

Preacher With an Unknown God 2004

Short film by Rob Van Alkemades 

What Would Jesus Buy 2007

full length documentary by directed by Rob VanAlkemades, porduced by Morgan Spurlock and Savitri D

The Last Televangelist episodes and excerpts

30 minute episodes and excerpts 

Reverend Billy’s Freakstorms 

short video sermons

The Earth Wants You Radio & Podcast  ARCHIVE  

many episodes from 2016-2019

Reverend Billy Radio

current broadcast released on tuesday nights. Please Subscribe! 

AWARDS

Obie Award

Alpert Award in the Arts

Edwin Booth Award in Theater CUNY

Historic District Lions Award

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Honorary Degree

PAST CAMPAIGNS

First Amendment in Ground Zero

Union Square

Walmart out of New York

Stop Starbucks

Victoria’s Secret Catalog Campiagn

Robo Bees Stop Neo-Nicitinoids, Save the Honeybee!

Black Lives Matter ( ongoing)

Standing Rock

Stop Mountain Removal, Mountain in My Lobby

Monsanto is the Devil

Occupy Wall Street

Community Gardens

IN THE MEDIA

In No Particular order

  1. Burke, Monte (April 21, 2011). “Reverend Billy and His Crusade Against Consumerism”. Forbes. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  2.  Moynihan, Colin (June 14, 2017). “The Activists Who Are Staging Protest in Trump Tower”. The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  3.  Kalb, Jonathan (February 27, 2000). “The Downtown Gospel According to Reverend Billy”. The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2017.
  4. Jacobs, Harrison (February 4, 2015). “The craziest thing about this legendary singing, anti-corporate preacher is that he isn’t real”. Business Insider. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  5.  Kasperkevic, Jana (November 27, 2015). “The Church of Stop Shopping doesn’t pull punches on its return to New York”. The Guardian. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  6. “The Reluctant Religion of Reverend Billy”. Alternet. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  7. Solomon, Alisa (March 14, 2000). “Never Can Say Good Buy”. The Village Voice. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  8. Perucci, Tony (2009). “What the Fuck is That?: The Poetics of Ruptural Performance”. Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies. 5.3: 1–18.
  9. Dee, Jonathan (August 22, 2004). “Reverend Billy’s Unholy War”. The New York Times Magazine.
  10.  Kolbert, Elizabeth (May 19, 2014). “Buzzkill”. The New Yorker. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  11.  Josh, Godfrey (March 17, 2000). “Reviews: Reverend Billy”. Theater Mania. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  12.  “The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts”. The Herb Alpert Awards.
  13.  “Booth Award, Previous Award Recipients”. The Graduate Center, CUNY
  14. Bunge, Jacob (October 15, 2016). “If Monsanto Loses Its Name, What Will Its Haters Have Left to Hate?”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
  15. Ehren, Christine (December 16, 2000). “Merry Christmas, Rev. Billy: Performance Preacher Hosts Poe Service Dec. 16”. Playbill. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  16. Post, Dietmar; Palacios, Lucía (2002). “Reverend Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping”. playloud!.
  17. Ganahl, Jane (April 24, 2004). “He’s a preacher — of sorts — who has found his calling: rooting out the evils of consumerism, block by entertaining block”. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  18.  Hartocollis, Anemona (September 26, 2007). “A Street Performer Crusades for the First Amendment”. The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  19. Wilensky-Lanford, Ethan (July 1, 2007). “A Pretend Preacher, a Real Arrest and a Debate About Free Speech”. The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  20. Macedo, Edber; Fang, Jimmy; Le, Thomas; Ong, Paul M. (July 1, 2014). “Impact of Big Businesses in Chinatown”. UCLA Case Studies. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
  21.  Heller, ZP (May 25, 2011). “Spilling the Beans About Starbucks’ Union-Busting Tactics”. HuffPost. Retrieved November 12, 2017.
  22. “Storm in a coffee cup: Starbucks vs Ethiopia”. The Economist. November 30, 2006. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  23.  Talen, Bill (April 1, 2005). “What Should I Do if Reverend Billy is in My Store”. New York Press.
  24.  Vidal, John (November 25, 2013). “Reverend Billy faces year in prison for JP Morgan Chase toad protest”. The Guardian. Retrieved April 23, 2018.
  25. Vidal, John (July 19, 2011). “Reverend Billy leads exorcism of BP’s ‘evil spirit’ from Tate Modern”. The Guardian. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  26. Forde, Kaelyn (June 2, 2014). “Taking off from Harvard Yard: Flight of the RoboBees”. Al Jazeera. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  27. Rossignol, Derrick (July 3, 2015). “Fellow Monsanto Opponent Reverend Billy to Open for Neil Young in NYC”. Diffuser. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  28. Hamm, Theodore (December 2, 2016). “A Performance Troupe Takes on Immigration, Monsanto, and Standing Rock”. Hyperallergenic. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  29.  “STATE’S MOTION IN LIMINE, AND/OR FOR 5.104(A) RULING” (PDF). January 2, 2017. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  30. Talen, Billy (January 24, 2017). “On Monsanto and the First Amendment”. Al Jazeera. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  31.  Sharpe, Jill (May 31, 2002). “Culture Jam: Hijacking Commercial Culture”. IMDb. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  32.  2006 Sundance Film Festival Announces Awards for Documentary and Dramatic Films in Independent Film and World Cinema Competitions (PDF)
  33.  “The Last Televangelist: Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping”. TV Guide. 2013. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
  34.  Kern, Laura (November 16, 2007). “The Gospel of Stop Shopping”. The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2018..
  35.  Music News Desk (March 4, 2016). “Activists Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir Announce ‘The Earth Wants YOU!‘“. Broadway World. Retrieved April 30, 2018.

Consumerism creates patterns of forgetfulness and remembrance, so that we remember things to buy and forget things not to buy. – Reverend Billy