May 2010
JBbTC 8: Cienfuegos Press pt.3
Posted May 31, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's the last installment of the Cienfuegos/Costantini covers. Bits and pieces. This Tifft cover is one of the best in my opinion, the graphic is crisp and commanding, and the type treatment is clean and stays out of the way. (Too bad the book itself is almost unreadable!). Also here is one of Costantini's first covers for Cienfuegos, for Alexander Berkman's Russian Tragedy. Great book and stunning cover, the corpse of a Kronstadt soldier says it all. The Wilhelmshaven Revolt is another cover attributed to Jean Pierre Ducret, but has many of the hallmarks of Costantini, including the thick black outlines, folds in the clothing, and extra detail in the faces.
Caution!! Migrant Workers of Arizona (subtitle: By the Time I Wheatpaste Arizona)
Posted May 30, 2010 by nicolas_lampert
Dan S. Wang and I recently collaborated on a print to voice our opposition to the Arizona Immigration Bill SB-1070. Copies of the print are available here and most of the edition was mailed to Arizona where friends put them up in the streets.
Because I have roots in Arizona...
Posted May 28, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes
A Xicanita in the making, Arizona, 1982
My earliest memories of experiencing the Southern Border are of trips to the place where my dad grew up and where my tio Tony and tia Maria lived-Nogales. They lived on the Arizona side of the border but my uncle and my dad were born on the Mexico side. I remember my mom preparing me for our return trip back into the United States. Say "American Citizen, mija". I repeated the words and wondered why everyone in the car didn't do the same. It seemed easy enough. But the accents my mom, tia and tio spoke with would cause alarm even if they tried. They were racialized not only by their skin color but by the way they spoke so they always showed their "Green Cards" to prove they were "resident aliens".
Liberate Tate
Posted May 28, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
This is old news now, but hell, I'm busy and can't always get this stuff up as it happens! For those that haven't seen it, pretty interesting action last week at the Tate Modern in London related to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From the press release about the action:
Tate Modern was forced to close down parts of its No Soul For Sale tenth anniversary exhibition on Saturday (15 May) whilst it struggled to remove dozens of dead fish and oil-soaked birds hanging from huge black balloons let loose in the Turbine Hall.
Art activists from LIBERATE TATE, a growing network dedicated to ensuring the museum drop its sponsorship deal with BP (British Petroleum), infiltrated Tate Modern's Turbine Hall and released dozens of helium-filled black balloons with dead animals attached. Crowds of tourists and art lovers gathered to watch the balloons rise up in the air until they filled the ceiling of the Turbine Hall.
More info can be found HERE.
Posters in support of Arizona
Posted May 28, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Art & Politics
I arrived to Arizona on Sunday evening to do some work around the upcoming May 29th mega march. I came to lend support to National Day Laborer's Organizing Network (NDLON), and to assist the Trail of Dreams as they visited Arizona for the first time. Three weeks ago, the walkers of the Trail of Dreams finished their walk from Miami to D.C. But their journey is not over for them. They are in AZ because this state is ground zero for the failed immigration policy that is happening under the Obama administration, a time where we are witnessing increased detentions, deportations, and even deaths in the hands of ICE. I am grateful that I was invited as an artist. Its inspiring to me when organizations understand the very vital role that art and culture plays in social transformation. NDLON deserves great praise for the work they have done on AltoArizona.com, where they have activated artists, musicians and celebrities to speak out on behalf of human and civil rights.
I made this poster of one of the girls I photographed at the Mother's Day march. She was holding the sign over her head and it made me laugh for a moment because the sign was almost as tall as her. And then I realized that this girl, was learning about her own political voice at an early age. Not because of any fault of her own, but because she was growing up at a time when her family and community members are criminalized simply for wanting a better life. The words I used, "Undocumented. Unafraid" is a term that (I think) was born in the youth movement to get the DREAM Act passed.
Jim Finn Retrospective in NYC
Posted May 27, 2010 by jmacphee in Film & Video
My friend Jim Finn is having a retrospective of his amazing films at Anthology Film Archives in New York starting tonight! I love Jim's films, so I was really excited when he asked me to design the poster and postcards for the screenings (poster to the right). If you are in NYC, definitely go check out his films, a full schedule is available HERE. Jim's films are a giant blender full of science fiction, language lessons, Shakespeare, utopian modernism, and all the strange and fascinating things that can come from resisting capitalism.
BP Take Back Your Oil
Posted May 27, 2010 by k_c_
My pal Jonah threw this together a few weeks ago. Its scary and a shame that there is STILL oil leaking into the gulf. It appears ever more clear, "we" are our own undoing.
Code Pink and the Freedom Glory Project are holding a flash protest in NYC, tomorrow.
May 28, 2010
6-6:15pm,
at the BP Station
21 Houston St
NYC, NY
Brown and Proud t-shirt fundraiser for Puente
Posted May 27, 2010 by Jesus_Barraza in Art & Politics
"Brown and Proud" shirts now available from Liberation Ink. 50 % of the profits will go to Puente, a grassroots org in Arizona. Melanie Cervantes has donated her design to support this fundraising effort.
Art as a Weapon - Frans Seiwert and the Cologne Progressives
Posted May 26, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
I've been meaning to post this for awhile, it's a nice follow-up to Icky's post about Gerd Arntz. There's a great article on the Council Communist Archive website about Frans Seiwert and the Cologne Progressives, with more information about the politics and engagement of artists like Arntz, Siewert, and their peers in the 1920s and 30s, as well as info on their publication A bis Z. Check it out HERE: Art as a Weapon by Martyn Everett. Thanks to Jared over at Garage Collective for the tip.
Drawing All the Time: Week 30
Posted May 26, 2010 by colin_matthes
Here is a preview image of a piece I am working on in preparation for my upcoming exhibition with Nicolas Lampert at 58 Gallery in Jersey City. It is titled Plausible Inventions and opens June 11.
Cordyceps Mural in the Zapatista Community of Morelia, Chiapas.
Posted May 25, 2010 by santi
This last April we had the opportunity to get invited to do a mural at the Autonomous Zapatista Commuity of Caracol IV, Torbellino de Nuestras Palabras, Morelia, Chiapas. Two of us spent a week working hard literally from dawn until dusk everyday, and at nights we got to hang out and spend time with our Tzeltal friends, eat lots of beans, rice, tostadas, and habaneros. (The best food you could ever wish for.) This is a little story in pictures of the time we spent there.
Justseeds/TaringPadi Anti-LNG print
Posted May 24, 2010 by roger_peet in Art & Politics
Take a look at some of these photos of the printing session we had yesterday in rainy Portland. People came over to help jump up and down on the giant block, in the traditional Taring Padi manner... This print is part of a collaboration with the Indonesian print group Taring Padi, addressing issues of natural gas exploitation on both sides of the Pacific. Next up, the Northwest Natural shareholders meeting on the 27th!
JBbTC 7: Cienfuegos Press pt.2
Posted May 24, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's the second installment of Flavio Costantini covers for Cienfuegos Press. The five this week are a series of covers he did, each designed with the letter A (for Anarchy) as a central element. The first cover, Sabate, uses the A almost as an afterthought, and each cover further develops the idea, up through The End of Anarchism, which is simply genius in my opinion, with the A towering over the question mark, framing the setting sun.
Mihaly Biro
Posted May 24, 2010 by icky
(May Day 1919, Budapest)
I just found a book on Hungarian artist/designer Mihaly Biro. I don't read Magyar so I can only supply scant biographical details: he was born in 1886, went into exile in the US during WWII, and returned to Hungary after the war, where he died in 1948. He worked as a commercial illustrator and designer and was also tied to socialist movements in Hungary and Germany. He made beautiful work, done in a modern European style before the hegemony of constructivism/bauhaus and socialist realism on the left.
CPH Show in Quebec City
Posted May 22, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Our friend Fred at La Page Noire, the anarchist infoshop in Québec City, has hung a Celebrate People's History Poster exhibition at a local bar. Here's some photos.
Open City Syracuse, day 2!
Posted May 20, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Here's more images from the Open City project here in Syracuse! Please come on by! Make a print! Drink some coffee! Help us build!
Spectres of Liberty May 17-June 5 in Syracuse
Posted May 19, 2010 by dara_g in Justseeds Collective Projects
We (Olivia Robinson, Josh MacPhee, Joanna Spitzner, & Dara Greenwald) are doing a multi-faceted public art project in Syracuse, NY to engage ideas coming out of the cities' abolitionist past to current social conditions. Please forward this to people in the area.
The project has several components:
1. a storefront gallery workshop which is open every day from 12-6, (XL Project Space, 307 S. Clinton Street)
2. public discussions with local organizers and artists (see schedule below)
3. an outdoor multi-media installation on June 5th (at Lipe Sculpture Park)
PUBLIC PROGRAMS (all events are free & refreshments are served)
Pictures of our opening night event, Open Access, Open Art
more:
Drawing All the Time: Week 29
Posted May 19, 2010 by colin_matthes
This is a detail of the drawing I made as a submission to great project Tom Civil at Breakdown Press is working on. Click on the entry to see the full sized image.
Artist Lecture in Providence at AS220
Posted May 19, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 5:30pm-7pm Free
Colin Matthes Artist In Residence Presentation
Wednesday at 5:30 for no charge at all Justseeds artist and May AS220 Drawer/Inventor in Residence Colin Matthes will present his work of the past month. He'll be giving a slide talk of recent projects that include survival objects realized with scrappy materials, a carnival of War Fair, small "i" inventions (like the kind you might see on an infomercial), contemporary Potemkin villages, and surveillance camera birdhouses.
These are a few in progress studio photos of work at AS220
Born In A Cent CD Design and CD release
Posted May 18, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Awhile back I got an email out of the blue from the band Born In A Cent, a NY-based political punk band with folk overtones. They were putting out their new record, and asked me to do the cover. So I did! It was a fun project, and the CD is about to come out, at the end of this month. Below is the info about the CD release show, and also images of the cover design.
Born In A Cent
CD Release Show
Bushwick Music Studios, 55 Waterbury St., Brooklyn (L train to Montrose)
May 29, 2010
with Huasipungo, The Last Internationale, Wild Babies, and more TBA!
Women and Animals as Disposable Creatures
Posted May 17, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Posters & Prints
I have a new piece in the Justseeds Store. "MAQUILA" was originally developed for an exhibit, Rastros y Cronicas, at the National Museum of Mexican Art. The piece is about the murders of the women of Juarez, Mexico. The composition incorporates patterns from various monoprints and drawings I did. If you look closely you can see the grid in the background. They are placed inside a factory. The women figures in the piece are depicted as animals (bees, kangaroos), illustrating the manner in which women, like animals, are treated like commodities and exploited in the name of trade and profits. The women figures are positioned on an assembly line. Lately I have been experimenting with making posters that do not have words. Its a big challenge but it allows me to sort of be in an imaginary world.
You can purchase the print by clicking here
Madison Sign Project
Posted May 17, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
Recently, six "historical" signs that I created went up in Madison, Wisconsin through a project with the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The signs honor former spaces in the city that are no longer, but were pillars of underground music, queer culture, radical politics, D.I.Y. culture, and community organizing.
The signs will be up until the Fall and commemorate Mifflin Street Co-op, Whole Earth Co-op, Freedom House, Hotel Washington, Lysistrata Restaurant, and O’Cayz Corral. The last three spaces ended when fires destroyed their respective buildings - two by accident and one by arson (Lysistrata which was a radical space for feminist organizing in the late 70s/early 80s.)
The project itself was inspired by collectives and artists that I admire, particularly REPOhistory, the Howling Mob Society, and the Pocho Research Society, that have employed signage to draw attention to important community based histories through public art and street art.
JBbTC 6: Cienfuegos Press pt.1
Posted May 17, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
For years I've been a fan of the look and feel of the Cienfuegos Press books published by Stuart Christie in the UK in the late 1970s-early 1980s. I stumbled on a used copy of the Cienfuegos Anarchist Review #4 in a small bookshop in Washington DC back in 1993, and with its full color Flavio Costantini cover illustration I was hooked. I've since hunted down copies of most of the Cienfuegos publications. I'll start with the Costantini covers, and move on to the other books later on.
Here are the three Cienfuegos Anarchist Review's with Costantini covers, and you can see how issue #2 has just a simple spot illustration, but the full covers of #4 & #5 are dedicated to full color paintings of anarchist history. The cover of The Anarchists in London is quite nice with a simple dark brown monotone version of a painting and the title offset in red. The printing on The International Revolutionary Solidarity Movement cover is nice as well, with the black outline image of Bakunin sitting on top of the red newspaper headlines, maximizing the two color cover.
Justseeds press round-up
Posted May 15, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
We've gotten a couple more hits around the blogosphere:
1) Justseeds interviewed (long-format!) on Arrested Motion, read it HERE.
2) Paper Politics reviewed in-depth by Eric Triantifillou in the Brooklyn Rail, read it HERE.
3) Our brand new (and first!) book, Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas, is number one on AK Press' May Top 10 book list, check it out HERE.
In NYC Graffiti is a Crime
Posted May 15, 2010 by k_c_ in Street Art & Graffiti
The Black Dot Museum of Political Art
Posted May 14, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
This just in:
The Black Dot Museum of Political Art
David Lester and Jean Smith of the rock duo Mecca Normal co-curate a month-long, group art exhibit at Northern: The Olympia All Ages Project titled The Black Dot Museum: Political Artists From Vancouver—art by David Lester, Jean Smith, Brian Roche and Gord Hill.
Exhibition:
Saturday, May 1 - Friday, May 28, 2010
Northern: The Olympia All Ages Project
321 4th Ave, Olympia, WA
Gallery Hours: most Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. or by appointment gallery@NorthernOlympia.org
The Black Dot Museum of Political Art functions online with touring exhibits focused on political art and music.
The Black Dot Museum of Political Art on FaceBook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Black-Dot-Museum/10150141919340195
Northern Gallery
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Olympia-All-Ages-Project/119818901101
1500 miles to lose the fear of being Undocumented
Posted May 13, 2010 by Favianna_Rodriguez in In the News
"It took me 15 hundred miles to lose the fear of being undocumented." - Carlos Roa
Today Gaby Pacheco, Carlos Roa, Felipe Matos, and Juan Rodriguez, arrived in their hometown, Miami, after being away for almost five months on their 1500 mile journey called the Trail of DREAMs. On January 1, 2010, these four immigrant students from Miami set off to Washington, DC on foot! Their uplifting journey educated communities along the way about the contributions of immigrants to the United States and shone a spotlight on the pain caused by our country's broken immigration system. I was fortunate to help them run this campaign through my work at Presente.org, joining them on their walk during various times.
Trail of Dreams arriving to DC on April 28th. Picture from the NY Times - Read full story here
In DC, they showed up at the White House with other undocumented students, to demand that Obama take immediate action to stop the deportations of students like them. “Our dream is the opportunity to fully participate in and give back to the only country we know as home, and not live in constant fear that we will be sent away,” said Felipe Matos, one of the walkers “We have been waiting for years to speak up about our situation as immigrant students. President Obama, we cannot wait any longer!”
Drawing All the Time: Week 28
Posted May 12, 2010 by colin_matthes in Inspiration
This drawing is from 2007, titled Yesterday or Tomorrow.
RAZA! CULTURA, POLITICA Y TRADICION
Posted May 12, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes in Events
RAZA! CULTURA, POLITICA Y TRADICION
¡RAZA! CULTURA, POLÍTICA Y TRADICIÓN
May 15 Reception begins @ 7pm-11pm
$5 Suggested Donation
Featuring:
Carlos Francisco Jackson
Jesús Barraza
Malaquías Montoya
Melanie Cervantes
Xico González
Celebrate People's History in New Zealand!
Posted May 11, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Jared Davidson, designer of the Red Feds people's history poster and engine of the Garage Collective and Beyond Resistance has organized a Celebrate People's History poster show in New Zealand! Check it out:
Justseeds and Beyond Resistance are proud to present 'Celebrate People's History', an exhibition of over 50 international posters documenting radical moments in history.Since 1998 the Celebrate People's History Project has produced an amazing array of political posters by different artists from around the world, each highlighting a historical example of social struggle. Here in New Zealand for the first time is the complete series, celebrating important acts of resistance by both individuals and collective movements who have fought tirelessly for social justice. From the Spanish Revolution to feminist labour organisers, indigenous movements to environmental sustainability, protests against racism to the Korean Peasant's League — Celebrate People's History canvases global movements in collaboration with a global network of artists.
Alto Arizona Art Campaign
Posted May 11, 2010 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
There is a large gallery of some incredible designs, responding to the Arizona legislation SB 1070, over at Alto Arizona and in their Facebook page.
Arizona is on the verge of enacting the most anti-immigrant legislation the country has seen in a generation, SB 1070. This is a bill which apparently mandates racial profiling. This bill allows Arizona law enforcement stop and search any person that they have “probable suspicion” may be “illegal”. SB 1070 is quite literally intended to terrorize immigrant families and force “self deportation”.We are hopeful Governor Brewer will consult with her legal counsel, issue a veto, and spare Arizona the expense of defending an unconstitutional, unwise, and odious bill in federal courts. But we will not rely solely on hope. We urge all artists who are opponents of this bill to TAKE ACTION and create a IMAGE. The images will be used as part of our online viral campaign for ALTO ARIZONA. Selected images will eventually be published as prints to generate revenue for this campaign with consent of the artist.
Details:
Create an image that shows your opposition to SB 1070. Keep in mind the effect that this bill will have on immigrants if fully enforced.
Make sure to include the title of the bill in the work which is: “SB 1070”.
Send all submissions and questions to
orders (at) hechoconganas.com
Specifications:
Image size must be 18x24 inches with a 1/2 inch border all the way around.
The reason for these dimensions is because if in the future your image is chosen to be published the image is ready to go.
Jesus Barraza & Melanie Cervantes designs above.
JBbTC 5: Hebrew
Posted May 10, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Here's a nice clutch of book covers from Hebrew volumes. Even though I took Hebrew school for a couple years, I mostly read comic books, so I have no idea what these say. Please excuse anything politically offensive! (Oh, and excuse the blur on some of them, the photos were taken on a friends iphone...)
Swoon in Artnews
Posted May 10, 2010 by k_c_ in In the News
If you failed to pick up your April 2010 issue of Artnews you missed an article on Swoon. What you would also miss is that we have prints of hers available here on Justseeds.
With carnivalesque flotillas, portraits pasted on crumbling walls, and manic impromptu performances, Swoon invests public art with playfulness, tenderness, and grit by Ann Landi
The process of developing "Brown and Proud"
Posted May 10, 2010 by Melanie_Cervantes
Building of a Chicana Consciousness
As a senior in high school I vividly remember the movement that emerged in California to resist the racial profiling, xenophobia and nativism that Proposition 187 stirred in the state. Prop 187 was a 1994 ballot initiative designed make public servants such as teachers, bus drivers and doctors an act as an arm of the migra, asking for papers, in order to prohibit undocumented migrants from using health care, public education, and other social services in the Cali. At the time I lacked any concrete vehicles to really get involved in the organizing but remember the massive student walkouts to protest the attack on Raza communities. One of the most salient aspects of the resistance, to these attacks on communities of color, was the cultural affirmation we made visible every day through the music we listened to, clothes we wore, hairstyles and ways we identified...
Ain't Goin' Home Soon-Opens Today
Posted May 8, 2010 by k_c_
Here's some flicks that I took of Chris Stain & Leon Reid IV, before I jumped on the bus for NYC. The installation opens today, Saturday, May 8th. The deets on my post from yesterday.
Ain't Goin' Home Soon
Posted May 7, 2010 by k_c_
Chris Stain & Leon Reid IV have been working on Ain't Goin' Home Soon an installation that will open tomorrow at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, MD.
Saturday, May 8, 7-9pm
Creative Alliance at The Patterson
3134 Eastern Ave
Baltimore, MD
As every schoolchild knows, John Henry was a giant of a man, who wielded a 20 pound hammer as though it were nothing, and won an epic contest against a steam engine, only to die on the spot. Henry was a slave, or former slave, and the battle that cost him his life is said to have taken place in Talcott, West Virginia on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad. Built from found materials by Leon Reid IV, a statue of John Henry towers over this Main Gallery installation, amidst Hoovertown shacks made of wooden pallets and railroad ties made of cardboard. Giant stenciled murals by Chris Stain form a backdrop melding WPA-era social realism and urban graffiti, expanding on the themes of John Henry’s story—struggle and pride, race and dislocation in the face of technological and economic change. In this way, their installation serves as an ideal introduction to Urban/Appalachia, Creative Alliance’s series examining the long and complicated relationship between Baltimore and Appalachia, from past generations seeking work in city steel mills, to a generation today shipped to prisons in the mountains.
Justseeds Interview on Arrested Motion
Posted May 7, 2010 by k_c_ in Interviews
There is an interview some Justseeds members did awhile back with art blog, Arrested Motion. Check it out at: Arrested Motion:Justseeds Interview.
Justseeds are one of the leading and most prolific artist-run radical art collectives at work today and count an amazing array of artists such as Swoon, Chris Stain, Kevin Caplicki, Meredith Stern and Josh Macphee among their members. AM recently caught up with many of the members of Justseeds and asked them a stack of questions about life creating and distributing a huge amount socially aware art and running one of the finest art resistance blogs in the world. Take some time out to check out their answers and more info about their work...
GLAMARCHY
Posted May 7, 2010 by mary_tremonte in Events
This month's Operation Sappho has a queer self-defense, safety, and fabulousness bent, in response to our dear friend Veruca La Piranha getting gaybashed after a gay 80's danceparty I DJ-ed last weekend, and the amazing community response to the attack: within 9 hours, 200 people mobilized for a protest in front of the bar where the attack began. Queers and allies say: NO MORE!
Come out to Operation Sappho to create a vibrant safe space and connect to other queers to learn about new self-defense projects we are taking on.
monthly queer-lez gay danceparty
queer it up glitzburgh!
Call for Posters: Out of the Closet & Into the Street
Posted May 7, 2010 by jmacphee in Calls for Art
This just in:
Call for Posters!
Out of the Closet & Into the Street: Posters of LGBT Struggles & Celebration
July 3 - September 26, 2010
ONE Archives Gallery & Museum, West Hollywood, CA
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics is creating a new dynamic political poster exhibition documenting the ongoing struggles, and celebrating the victories of the local, national and international Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.
We are asking artists, organizations, and activists for donations of LGBT related posters, new and old, to assist CSPG staff in curating the most comprehensive contemporary exhibition possible.
collage of the week (30)
Posted May 6, 2010 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
food not bombs
To Print for the Revolution
Posted May 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
To Print for the Revolution: Celebrating Five Years of Eberhardt Press
Throughout the month of May print and design work from Eberhardt Press will be displayed at the Red and Black Café, a worker-owned vegan café in Southeast Portland, Oregon. Posters, propaganda, books, zines and other printed materials—which enliven and educate—will be exhibited. Additionally, copies of Eberhardt Press titles will be available for sale. To view the exhibit, donate and purchase titles please visit during the Café’s open hours—9am to 11pm, 7days a week.
The exhibit will run throughout the month of May. The Red and Black Cafe is at 400 SE 12 Ave @ Oak St. Portland
ABC No Rio Dinero
Posted May 6, 2010 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
The building we know and love as ABC No Rio in the Lower East Side of Manhattan is set to be demolished to make room for the new, improved, not-falling-apart ABC, which is going to be built over the next few years. It seems like a great time to look back on the history of ABC No Rio, and thankfully the full text and images of the classic, but out-of-print history of the space, ABC No Rio Dinero, is now online. ABC No Rio Dinero: The Story of a Lower East Side Art Gallery, Edited by Alan Moore and Marc Miller and published back in 1985 in available to read on thee site 98Bowery.com. Check out the book HERE.
Image: Exterior of ABC No Rio's Animals Living in Cities show with dog stencils by Anton Van Dalen, 1980. Photo by Anton Van Dalen
ATENCO: 4 Years and our prisoners are still captive
Posted May 5, 2010 by santi in In the News
This last 3rd and 4th of May was four years since the people in San Salvador Atenco were brutally repressed by the PFP police in Mexico. Here's a beautiful poster for the anniversary to not forget our prisoners nor the States crimes.
Welcome to Chicago
Posted May 5, 2010 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
Maybe it's the nearly 10 years I spent in the city of broad shoulders, but this just totally cracks me up. Ray Noland aka CRO, an artist in the Paper Politics book and show, has just produced this great poster Daley Riot, based on the recent quote by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley: "Welcome to America. Americans Kill Each Other." Per usual, Chicago exists in that netherworld between tears and laughter. Pick up a copy HERE.
Bicicletada Marco 2010
Posted May 5, 2010 by mary_tremonte
Check out this sweet video my friends in Vitoria, Espirito Santo, Brazil made of a recent night-time Critical Mass-style action they did in the city. Extra points if you speak Portuguese!
Bicicletada Março 2010 from Francisco Neto on Vimeo.
Heinrich Schultze: Photo-documentarian
Posted May 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
A couple weeks back at the NYC Anarchist Bookfair I was lucky to be able too meet Heinrich Schultze, a long-time activist photographer from Hamburg, Germany. He was displaying and selling prints of many of his amazing images at the fair, including documentation of the Oaxaca Uprising in 2006, Bolivian Indigenous struggles, and the Zapatistas. Beyond the struggles listed above, he's also got documentation of the anti-nuclear movement in Germany, Kurdistan, and the G-8 protests in 2007. He has a great website of his work, which can be seen HERE.
Photo: The Barricada de la Victoria in Oaxaca, Mexico, November 2006 (Heinrich Schultze).
Swoon in Zambia
Posted May 4, 2010 by jmacphee in Art & Politics
Recently Swoon, Matt Small, Mike Snell (of Black Rat Projects), and RJ Rushmore (of vandalog.com) traveled to Kabwe, Zambia to work with students at the Robert Shitima School. They were there thanks to Zamcog, an organization in Zambia creating sustainable change through education. The school is a non-denominational facility run by The Brothers of the Sacred Heart where orphans and children living in the shantytown of Makululu (one of the worlds largest slums) can get free k-9 schooling.
For three days, Matt Small and Swoon led workshops for all 200+ students at the school. Activities ranged from printmaking with lino-blocks to portrait painting to making collages with colored paper.
Justseeds Maydays Sale!!!
Posted May 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Justseeds Collective Projects
Justseeds is uprooting our physical plant from its' cookie-scented north Portland (Oregon) location and moving cross-country to Pittsburgh in mid-May. To commemorate this historic occasion (and in an attempt to lighten the load on the truck) we've decided to throw a sale: A MayDay sale! This is your chance to get your hands on all of the Justseeds art objects you've been coveting, covetously, for ten percent off.
For the first ten days of May (starting at midnight tonight!!), everyone that uses the coupon code "mayday" when placing their order on our site will get a ten percent discount on ANYTHING in the store...prints, books, zines, posters, postcards, everything. To use the coupon, place your order, and on the way to entering your billing information you'll be asked to enter a coupon code. Do so, and all of your art needs will summarily be met!
The coupon code expires on May 10. Also: make sure to share the coupon code with your friends, relatives, enemies, and random people on the street. Thanks, to all of you, from all of us at Justseeds, for continuing to support us, and look for thrilling prospects to emerge from our new Pittsburgh home!
JBbTC 4: Liberation Support Movement pt.3
Posted May 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Part 3 (and final part for now) of the covers of the Liberation Support Movement. This Sowing the First Harvest cover is quite nice, a striking block print (attributed to Yukari Ochiai) is printed in dark brown ink on a light yellow cover, with the simple sans serif orange type pulling it together.
Citizen Orson Welles and the International Association for the Protection of the Individual Against Officialdom
Posted May 3, 2010 by molly_fair in Art & Politics
A few weeks ago I attended the Orphan Film Symposium and was blown away by a screening of an episode of a series called The Orson Welles Sketch Book. Made for BBC television in 1955, Orson Welles’ Sketch Book was a series of six weekly fifteen-minute episodes in the form of intimate monologues augmented by Welles’ own illustrations from his sketchbook. I don't want to give it all away, but here Welles addresses the issues of racism, government surveillance, police brutality, and politics of border crossing and identification. His delivery and performance are incredible. Here it is in two parts:
Mexican Revolutionary Art for the 21st Century
Posted May 3, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
For the month of May, the Lucy Parsons Center in Boston is holding a Mexico film series and print sale: Mexican Revolutionary Art for the 21st Century
Beautiful, politically themed woodblock prints from the ASARO artist
collective from Oaxaca, Mexico, will be for sale at the Lucy Parsons Center for the month of May. ASARO (La Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca /
the Assembly of Revolutionary Artists of Oaxaca), is a collective of young Mexican artists responding to Mexico’s current political turmoil. ASARO’s remarkable woodblock prints continue Mexico’s long tradition of popular revolutionary art.
All proceeds of the sale of the prints will go to the ASARO collective in Oaxaca.
Wednesday May 5, 6:30pm
Boston Premier of the Zapatista film Corazón del Tiempo/ Heart of Time (2008) film shows at 7:15
Art Opening (with food & wine with donation) at 6:30
No Human Being is Illegal
Posted May 2, 2010 by k_c_ in Street Art & Graffiti
New Mural on top of the RDAC BX rooftop, painted by DASIC.
You can catch a good glimpse of it by taking the Bruckner Expressway through the South Bronx, look West!
Tear Down the Walls
Posted May 2, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
I just got this announcement for a prison activist event, and it's illustrated with a banner I made back in 1999 or 2000! Wild! If you're in the Bay Area, check this event out:
Tear Down the Walls
an evening of music and performance benefiting The Prison Activist Resource Center
Uptown Body and Fender
401 26th Street, Oakland, CA (between Broadway/Telegraph)
Saturday, May 8, 7pm - midnight
$10-1k suggested donation
Featuring: Angela Davis, Lisa Marie Alatorre of Critical Resistance, and Jack Bryson
Performances by: Citizen Marty Payne of the Caribbean Allstars, Elana Dykewomon—spoken word, Raks Africa—belly dancing, Mbele—cuban folklore ensemble, Sassy Crew!, Medea Sirkas—Synchronized Strutters, Drag King Sensations: Momma’s Boyz, O Zone and J~milli~on, Erica Benton—singer/songwriter, and dancing with DJ Ponyboy
First Nations United Statement Against SB 1070
Posted May 1, 2010 by k_c_
First Nations United Statement Against SB 1070
PRESS RELEASE
April 26, 2010
"While the power of the Europeans has continued, I see the other part of the Ghost Dance prophecy coming true today. So-called 'Hispanics,' with faces that sure look like Indians to me, are returning to repopulate North America. We cannot always speak to each other because we have learned the languages of different colonial powers. But these Indians have as much right to come and go on our land as the geese when they migrate north and south. No one would dare to ask them for their passports and visas as they cross man made borders.Instead of seeing 'Hispanics' as outsiders who do not belong here, we need to start seeing them as ancestors of the original inhabitants of these lands. They are the living fulfillment of the Ghost Dance prophecy."
-Chief Billy Redwing Tayac, Piscataway Nation
Kyle Goen Closing Party
Posted May 1, 2010 by jmacphee in Events
Kyle Goen, an artist in the Paper Politics book and show, has a closing party coming up on May 4th in NYC for his exhibition, The Voice That Arms Itself To Be Heard. Details below:
R.I.P. Keith "Guru" Elam
Posted May 1, 2010 by k_c_ in Inspiration
I have been a big fan of Guru, Gang Starr, and the Jazzmatazz albums and wanted to share some tribute shows I've been listening to over the last week.
Mister Cee's Guru Tribute
and
DJ Premier
On the graf tip check out this fresh tribute from Slovakia!
Translated blog post at: Guru Memorial Wall in Trnava
