Day 8: Elisabeth Workman, Hundreds of Half-Naked Girls in a Time of Badness

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In her Closing Statement on 8 August 2012, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova condemned the "corporate political system" for which the church is proxy and defended Pussy Riot's occupation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior as a verdict on that system. A brilliant and extensive indictment, she invokes, among many other artists, writers, and Jesus, the OBERIU poet Alexander Vvedensky. "Pussy Riot are Vvedensky’s students and heirs," she says, "His principle of the bad rhyme is dear to us. He wrote, 'Occasionally, I think of two different rhymes, a good one and a bad one, and I always choose the bad one because it is always the right one.'"