James Powderly, a Brooklyn NY-based artist, has been arrested in Beijing along with 8 others who were working with Students for Free Tibet. An Associated Press article said, “Beijing police said Thursday it had handed out 10-day detention terms to six foreigners believed by an overseas activist group to be pro-Tibet campaigners involved in Olympic protests this week.”
Before that information little was known of Powderly whereabouts aside from a text message sent out from one of the eight jailed saying they were being held since 3am Monday.
It was said that after a number of hours in jail 3 of the eight were released. Among the 5 Americans still in custody were Brian Conley and Jeffrey Rae two video bloggers.
Powderly’s wife, Michele, has said that her husband had invented a small, battery powered laser stencil that would be able to throw a beam of light 30 feet into the air. His goal was to spell out “Free Tibet” in a building near Tianamen Square. She has been contacting her elected officials and the State Department to find out more information on his arrest.
Since the world has turned its attention to China during the Olympic Games protests have been stymied. There are many protest areas around the games where “official protests” can be held, but China has refused any permits.
Powderly, is founder of Graffiti Research Lab, which is dedicated to outfitting graffiti artists with open source tools technologies for urban communications. Although little details are available, Powderly was said to be using the GRL’s “Green Lantern” shown at left to display a message for the Students For Free Tibet.