Foo Conner | |||||||
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 Foo at Randyland in February 2019 | |||||||
| Born | Andrew Conner September 8, 1985 | ||||||
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| Years active | 2001–present | ||||||
| Known for | Occupy Wall Street, Randyland | ||||||
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| Movement | Occupy | ||||||
| Father | Glenn Conner | ||||||
YouTube information | |||||||
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| Website | foo | ||||||
Foo Conner (born September 8, 1985) is an American activist, entrepreneur, and journalist. He is known for his work on Occupy Wall Street, Randyland, Social journalism, and as a YouTube personality. [3]
Foo Conner was born in Charleston, West Virginia. He grew up on a small subsistence farm right outside of the city in Mink Shoals, West Virginia. His father was a photojournalist for United Press International and taught Foo the craft at an early age. [3]
Although he has been called Foo since childhood, Conner officially changed his name to Foo in 2018. [4] Foo squats an otherwise abandoned house to advocate for housing rights. [3] [5] Touring bands often play there. [6] In February 2016, babies born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania were gifted prints of Foo's artwork. [7] Conner is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Carnegie Mellon University since 2020. [8]
Conner got his start producing free punk rock festivals at Skatopia. [9] The anti-authoritarian atmosphere of his events caught the attention of Rolling Stone. [10] Upon hearing the call to protest, he became a core organizer for Occupy Wall Street movement speaking out against Economic inequality. [11]
On the weekends he co-hosts the G3AR YouTube channel, where they build super hero gadgets and test them similar to the Mythbusters. The channel has amassed over 600,000 subscribers. [3] [5]
In 2015, Conner became the co-director of Randyland, an outsider art museum promoting happiness. [12] [13] Leaning on his skills as a photographer, he overhauled Randyland into a Selfie Museum. His curation was wildly applauded. The New York Times described it as, "an expression of joy and an extraordinary piece of public art." [14] Conner left the museum in February 2020. [15]
In 2011, Foo helped plan the Occupy movement online. [16] He would move to Zucotti Park in the fall. Though a leaderless movement, Conner would be recognized as a core organizer [17] and speak on behalf of the movement. [18] During his time at Occupy, Conner played rolls in the social media strategy and coordinate street protests. [11] Towards the end, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges told Conner, "a real activist would get into the news". Conner would use his experiences and that advice to go on to found Jekko, a news website covering current events and technology news. [5]
Foo is a prolific journalist covering upwards of five hundred events a year through social media. [3] [19] Conner's society photography is reminiscent of late American photographer Bill Cunningham who took candid photos and traveled to events by bicycle. [20] The uniqueness of the style has led other society columns to occasionally mention if Conner attends an event. [21] [22] In 2016, he was nominated for Blogger of the Year at Style Week Pittsburgh. [23] He is known for his gonzo journalism "activistartist-journalist" style. [24] His work aims for a neutral point of view. This applies to his technology commentary too, which he has been doing for over a decade. [25] [26] [27]
Pittsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the second-most populous city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, and the 68th-most populous city in the U.S., with a population of 302,971 as of the 2020 census. The city is located in southwestern Pennsylvania at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, which combine to form the Ohio River. It anchors the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, which had a population of 2.457 million residents and is the largest metro area in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U.S. Pittsburgh is the principal city of the greater Pittsburgh–Weirton–Steubenville combined statistical area which includes parts of Ohio and West Virginia.
Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1815, Allegheny is the oldest college in continuous existence under the same name west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Presidents' Athletic Conference and it is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The North Side is the region of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, located to the north of the Allegheny River and the Ohio River.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, also known as "the Trib", is the second-largest daily newspaper serving the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area of Western Pennsylvania. It transitioned to an all-digital format on December 1, 2016, but remains the second-largest daily in Pennsylvania, with nearly one million unique page views monthly. Founded on August 22, 1811, as the Greensburg Gazette and consolidated with several papers into the Greensburg Tribune-Review in 1889, the paper circulated only in the eastern suburban counties of Westmoreland and parts of Indiana and Fayette until May 1992, when it began serving all of the Greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area after a strike at the two Pittsburgh dailies, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Pittsburgh Press, deprived the city of a newspaper for several months.
Union Station, also known as Pennsylvania Station and commonly called Penn Station, is a historic train station in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was one of several passenger rail stations that served Pittsburgh during the 20th century; others included the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Station, the Baltimore and Ohio Station, and Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal, and it is the only surviving station in active use.
Central Northside is a neighborhood in the North Side of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It has a zip code of 15212, and has representation on Pittsburgh City Council by the council member for District 6. Originally known as "The Buena Vista Tract", it is densely filled with restored row houses, community gardens and tree lined streets and alleyways.
Lawrenceville is one of the largest neighborhood areas in Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located northeast of downtown, and like many of the city's riverfront neighborhoods, it has an industrial past. The city officially divides Lawrenceville into three neighborhoods, Upper Lawrenceville, Central Lawrenceville, and Lower Lawrenceville, but these distinctions have little practical effect. Accordingly, Lawrenceville is almost universally treated as a single large neighborhood.
The Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is part of a complex designed by H. H. Richardson. The buildings are considered among the finest examples of the Romanesque Revival style for which Richardson is well known.
The Pittsburgh City-County Building is the seat of government for the City of Pittsburgh, and houses both city and Allegheny County offices. It is located in Downtown Pittsburgh at 414 Grant Street. Built from 1915 to 1917 it is the third seat of government of Pittsburgh. Today the building is occupied mostly by Pittsburgh offices with Allegheny County located in adjacent county facilities. It also contains a courtroom used for the Pittsburgh sessions of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.
The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is a hands-on interactive children's museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is in the Allegheny Center neighborhood in Pittsburgh's Northside.
The Clemente Museum is an American museum honoring Roberto Clemente, the Major League Baseball right fielder of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Hall of Famer.
The O'Hara Student Center, formerly the Concordia Club, is a three-story, 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) building on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh on O'Hara Street in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is a contributing property to the Schenley Farms National Historic District and the City of Pittsburgh Oakland Civic Center Historic District. The building was acquired by the university in mid-December, 2009. and has since been renovated to house academic and student activity programs.
Pittsburgh Playhouse is Point Park University's performing arts center located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It houses three performance spaces and is home to The Rep, Point Park's resident professional theatre company, as well as three student companies—Conservatory Theatre Company, Conservatory Dance Company, and Playhouse Jr. The Conservatory Theatre Company offers five productions each year that are performed by undergraduate students at Point Park; each season consists of a mixture of established plays and musicals, as well as occasional new works.
Theater in Pittsburgh has existed professionally since the early 1800s and has continued to expand, having emerged as an important cultural force in the city over the past several decades.
McCandless Crossing is an open-air lifestyle center in McCandless, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles north of Pittsburgh. The $100 million development was completed in late 2016.
Randyland is an art museum in the North Side section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is widely regarded as one of America's most colorful public art landmarks. Randy Gilson is the founder of this museum, which showcases found object art.
City of Asylum is a nonprofit organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that helps writers exiled from their countries for their controversial writing.
Trundle Manor is a macabre art museum and oddity tourist trap in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded by artist couple and Anton and Rachel Miriello and houses their personal collection of cryptozoology, vintage taxidermy, and jarred specimens.
The Pittsburgh Reporter is an American online newspaper based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1939 as a weekly newspaper, it evolved into a daily online platform with a focusing on regional news and community issues.
Conner squats in an otherwise abandoned North Side house and bikes to about 600 events a year, shooting photos and writing for his website, Jekko
He has collected and preserved local culture;
Foo Conner, former event organizer for Skatopia...
Foo Conner, one of the core organizers, managed to leave before police encircled the camp. After meeting up with others at the office space, Conner helped direct the dispersing crowd to a common re-gathering area.
expression of joy and an extraordinary piece of public art.
Mr. Conner, the co-director of Randyland for the past four years, received the award
Foo Conner, who helped plan the initial Occupy Wall Street movement on the internet.
One of the leaders of the Occupy movement, the media consultant Foo Conner
Conner, an activistartist-journalist with punk-vagabond spirit
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