Overview Brad Newsham is a travel writer and self-taught organizer who has spent 20 years staging human banner events on Ocean Beach, where thousands of people lie in the sand to spell out a political message, photographed from above, with music instead of speeches and dancing instead of marching. No staff. No permission required. Just people creating something beautiful together. This conversation is proof of concept for what People in Common is trying to do: inspire people to joyful collective action. Action Opportunities Attend — RSVP at mobilize.us/indivisiblesf/event/953531 Create your own banner — Templates, tips, and instructions at humanbanner-sf.com/backyard-banner Donate to Human Banner-SF — Venmo @Brad-Newsham (code 8294) or PO Box 31006, San Francisco, CA 94131 Browse 20 years of banners — humanbanner-sf.com/our-history-of-banners. Then share it with someone who says protests don't work. Key Takeaways You Can Do This Brad Newsham has no nonprofit status, no institutional backing, no paid staff. He is a travel writer who in 2006 was sitting at a kitchen table with his daughter, saw Google Earth for the first time, and was literally lifted out of his chair by a vision: big letters on Ocean Beach, the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, a thousand people lying in the sand. He spent 10 weeks working out the logistics, paid the first $3,500 out of his savings, and 20 years later has staged 37 banners with as many as 7,000 people each time. The lesson is that you could be Brad. When a union board voted down a proposal he believed in, Brad vowed that if he ever cared that much about something again, he would design it so he didn't need anyone's permission. Now he inspires thousands, no permission required. Joy Is the Strategy Brad designed events he would personally want to attend, with art, music, costumes, and families welcome. The result: people don't want to leave. 20 years on, participants keep aerial postcards from early events on their walls. "This is so much fun. People don't want to go home. The music is basically a demand from our participants now." The Wilderness Years Are Real Brad received a death threat that kept him off the beach for six months. Two banners during the Biden years got zero media coverage. He went three and a half years without a single event and believed the chapter was over. Then his co-organizer Travis texted him one word: "Beachable?" 14 banners later, 9,000 are on his email list. Lesson: it is okay to pause. The Model Is Replicable by Design A San Diego organizer saw a photo of a 2017 RESIST! banner, cold-emailed Brad, and got grid instructions in return. 500 people showed up in San Diego. Santa Cruz organized their own after April 2026. Walnut Creek. Washington D.C. His ‘Backyard Banner’ concept brings the model down to 10 people in a backyard with a selfie stick. Brad actively helps people start their own wherever they are - this could be you! You need: 10 people, a flat surface, a way to photograph from above You do not need: a beach, 1,000 people, a permit, a budget, or anyone's permission "Given this country we all love, who gets an excused absence?... I feel so much better being engaged than I did in the brief times that I've sat on the sidelines and just wished this would all go away." What It Feels Like Connectivity is the point. Standing in a letter with strangers, passing a message down the line, waiting for a drone, laughing while lying flat on cold sand. Brad walked hand in hand with a man dressed as Mr. Rogers through a crowd of 5,000 people. He describes standing on the seawall watching 40 or 50 volunteers running the event without him needing to direct any of it, and feeling something he didn't have words for. That is the thing collective action can do. "I swear I heard this 50 times from other people before I let these words come out of my mouth: people have called us the face of the resistance."
