The Factory Hog Farm Puppet Show is a short play about “corporate personhood,” and the resulting reduction in rights for actual people.  Specifically, the play centers around the “Community Rights” movement, which has arisen in the U.S. as local municipalities in nine states have passed ordinances or ballot initiatives that strip corporations of their “personhood rights.” This authentic democratic action usually is driven by an imminent, highly unwelcome environmental impact like a pipeline, factory farm, fracking, or water extraction. The public currently does NOT have the legal right to say “no” to these harms. That’s because when corporations have rights, flesh-and-blood people aren’t able to govern ourselves as we see fit.

Deb Schanilec is the author of The Factory Hog Farm Puppet Show, a short play that explains these concepts in story and participatory format.

The Puppet Show has been performed at Patrick’s Cabaret, on KFAI’s Wave Project, and with various groups of activists. Join Deb for a group reading of the play–no theater experience necessary! Just curiosity and a few attendees who can/want to read from a provided script. A Q/A session will follow with Betsy Barnum, a local Community Rights activist, to learn more about the extent to which corporate interests affect your day-to-day lives and how the Community Rights movement is working to change that, in communities across the country.