Posters

fierce pussy show at Printed Matter Inc.

Posted May 10, 2008 by molly_fair in Events

Printed Matter Inc.
195 Tenth Avenue, NYC
April 5–May 24, 2008

fierce pussy was a New York–based collective of queer women that emerged in 1991 from the ferment spawned by ACT UP. Promoting lesbian visibility and self-defined identity, fierce pussy helped politicize the urban landscape by wheat-pasting posters, distributing stickers and T-shirts, and "renaming" a number of New York streets after lesbian heroines.

Their low-tech aesthetic is exemplified by photocopied posters, which have been reissued in a book published by Printed Matter and are exhibited there above vitrines of related ephemera. Members' childhood snapshots are emblazoned with words like MUFFDIVER and DYKE; the phrase LESBIAN CHIC MY ASS is illustrated with a bathroom-stall-worthy rendering of an ass followed by the words FUCK 15 MINUTES OF FAME. WE DEMAND OUR CIVIL RIGHTS. NOW. Contemporaneous groups such as Queer Nation, Dyke Action Machine, and the aforementioned ACT UP pioneered an activist appropriation of the slick language of advertising, taking a cue from Situationist détournement and the work of Barbara Kruger. fierce pussy's posters share aesthetic kinship with the more punkish 1979 publication Durhing Durhing by Joseph Wolman (founder, with Guy Debord, of the Letterist International), in which random faces are overprinted with Marxist-inflected words.

This kind of contextualization, however, distances the work from the queer bodies that made it, and queer bodies are still not visible enough. Riding that wave of lesbian chic, The L Word now epitomizes self-defined lesbian (with little mention of gender-queer or trans) identity. fierce pussy's book, the most vital part of the exhibition, opens with reprints of three nearly twenty-year-old posters comprising a more diverse spectrum of identities, among them dyke, butch, pervert, femme, feminist, and queer. The pages are detachable and reconfigurable. Just add wheat paste. —Amoreen Armetta

New LA vs. War Prints

Posted May 1, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters

The great event and crew LA vs. War has some new prints for sale to help fund what they are up to. The one on top is by Brandy Flower, and the bottom one by Karen Fiorito. You can get these and a bunch of other great political prints from the Yo! What Happened to Peace? Depot.

Second Annual Mayday Political Print & Poster Art Show

Posted April 15, 2008 by jmacphee in Artwork Needed

Calling All Artists!
My friends in Troy are putting on a political print and poster show for Mayday, and you should send in your art! Check it out below:

Second Annual Mayday Political Print & Poster Art Show
A Benefit to Save the Sanctuary for Independent Media
Kismet Gallery, 71 Fourth Street, Troy, NY 12180

This year’s political poster art show is brought to you by the letter F…for freedom: the freedom to display controversial radical art and not be censored by small minded school administrators and petty politicians. Sadly, not everyone here in Troy seems to agree with that idea. This certainly became apparent to us at Kismet after Iraqi born digital artist Waffa Bilal’s video game, Virtual Jihadi, was censored at two art venues in the city. In the video, the artist casts himself as a suicide-bomber who, after learning of the real-life death of his brother in the war, is recruited by Al Qaeda to join the hunt for Bush. The exhibit was originally scheduled to be seen in a gallery at the RPI Arts Department, but administration officials caved into right-wing pressure to shut the exhibit down. The exhibit was then rescheduled to be shown at the Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy. A protest against both the exhibit’s opening and the Sanctuary was organized by the city’s Republican head of the department of public works (who oversees code enforcement). The day after the protested opening, city code officials contacted the Sanctuary to let them know that they were shutting down the Sanctuary for “ongoing code issues”, necessitating closing of the space and its exhibit.
In response to this urgent issue, Kismet Gallery is sponsoring its second annual Mayday Political Print and Poster Art Show. The event will feature some of the finest radical and socially conscious work from artists all around the country. Not only with this kick the corporate ass, but it will also be priced with working people in mind. This year, in light of recent events and in the sprit of Mayday and solidarity with our brothers and sisters at the Sanctuary, we would like to extend a red hand of support and mutual aid by making this year’s event a benefit to reopen the Sanctuary.

Read the rest of the entry »

Paper Politics in Corpus Christi, TX

Posted April 3, 2008 by jmacphee in Events

Paper Politics, the political print show I've been traveling around the continent has made it's way to Texas! K Space Contemporary opens Paper Politics on Saturday, April 5th.
The exhibit showcases print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. All the Justseeds artists are in the show, as well as 175 other artists from the US and around the world. An eclectic collection of work by artists who are primarily activists, as well as artists, whose work may not always be politically motivated, but who wanted to respond to the monumental trends and events of our times.

Opening: Saturday April 5th, 6-8 PM
Free Admission, Food & Drinks
On view April 5th-May 11th

Also:
Woodcut Printmaking Workshop with Paper Politics artist Mike Stephens
Saturday, April 12th, 10Am-1PM
$65 materials fee, call to reserve a space.

LA vs. WAR

Posted March 31, 2008 by jmacphee in Events

LA vs. WAR is a huge anti-war show going up in LA next week! It looks to be amazing, so if you are in the area, definitely check it out!

LA vs. WAR
April 10-13 2008
12 noon to 11pm

The Firehouse
710 S. Santa Fe Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90021
Downtown LA

LA vs WAR schedule:
Thursday, April 10, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Friday, April 11, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 12, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.

LA vs WAR highlights the travesty of a senseless war now going into its 6th year, giving LA artists a platform to exercise their freedom of speech. Hundreds of artists representing our diverse communities unite in delivering a universal message of peace and understanding, and offering resistance and opposition to the US government's war policies.

LA vs WAR highlights:

- Yo! What Happened to Peace?: posters on display from the international touring peace poster exhibition; live anti-war poster screen-printing demos
- Hit+Run: live t-shirt printing featuring custom artwork from the Hit+Run artist network
- Mark of the Beast: display of corporate-jammed logo spoofs
- Crewest Graffiti & Stencil Art Garden: graffiti artist network doing live graffiti and stencil painting
- Center for the Study of Political Graphics: anti-war themed display from America's premier political poster archives
- Artwork Exhibition: handmade creations by independent local artists
- Universal Peace Altar: a memorial to lives lost in the war created by Ofelia Esparza and Shrine
- Peace in Iraq Photo Project by Azul 213: audience participation photo project to promote peace
- Dublab: music selections created by DJs from the web radio collective
- Lost Film Fest hosted by VJ Scott Beibin: film and video celebration of culture jamming and illegal art
- Light installations and projections: interactive entertainment provided by Todd Lazer
AND MORE...

All ages are welcome and admission is free.

Free Tibet Demo in NYC & beyond

Posted March 24, 2008 by k_c_ in In the News

There have been a lot of activity around the current events in Tibet. A lot of actions focusing on the Olympics in China. One I came across today on the BBC newswire is about the disruption of the lighting of the torch in Greece.

Even a few months back at "Where Have You Been?"
one story focused on a trip and action at the base camp of Mt Everest.

Recently, in NYC, there were reports of some aggression outside of the Chinese Consulate on 42nd street, leaving injured people and broken glass. People are demanding a stop to the killing in Tibet and a boycott of the upcoming Olympics in China.

This past weekend in NYC, a march passed thru Union Square. Here's some flicks I was able to snatch of the posters and banners. The messaging was really clear in their images and chants, and was a very moving experience as the thousand or so demonstrators moved thru the Union Square Greenmarket.

Read the rest of the entry »

Oaxaca Resiste!: Print show in Madison, WI. March 27-April 6

Posted March 16, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Posters

If your in Madison, Wisconsin in late March, check out a show at the Common Wealth Gallery on the Oaxaca teachers strike uprising. The show features woodcut prints, stencil art posters, photos, and comics.

MARCH 27-APRIL 6, 2008

ASARO (Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca)
& Local Artists Ana Nimos • Steve Chapell • Lester Doré- Michael Duffy • Eric Hagstrom • Miguel Peña & Others

Sunday March 30 • 7-9 PM: Opening Reception
Music by Son Madunza

Tuesday April 1 • 7 PM : Mexican Revolutionary Graphic Art from Posada to the present Gallery Talk by Melanie Herzog, Professor of Art History, Edgewood College

Thursday April 3 • 7PM: New Jill Friedberg documentary Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad (A little bit of so much truth) on people’s takeover of Oaxacan media

Common Wealth Gallery • 100 S. Baldwin St. • Madison, Wisconsin

Gran Fury Interview

Posted March 1, 2008 by jmacphee in Street Art / Graffiti

My friend Sam just sent me this link from Queerty.com to an interesting interview with Avram Finkelstein, one of the members of Gran Fury. Gran Fury was a creative/graphic collective that produced a large amount of the more graphic art and design around the AIDS crisis in the late 80s and 90s, including the Silence=Death graphic, which I would argue is one of the most powerful political graphics of the last 50 years. Here's a quote:

AB: Do you think posters are effective today? There are posters and advertising on every space.

AF: I do - I mean, there was advertising then and that was part of the strategy: to intervene on the commercial space with a message that was not commercial. That’s why we chose postering. We decided against doing these flat-footed, didactic Marxist tomes with lots of text and instead chose to do high gloss posters. And, in fact, the design of the poster - we discussed it endlessly and decided to go with what we called “yuppie graphics” - fonts that were popular at the time, so it was deceptive and would draw an unsuspecting bystander into a very serious conversation. It had to work on two levels: you had to be able to see it and think about it as you were whisking by in a cab, but then it had to work on a street level.

Having said that, I don’t think it could ever work in this social landscape, no. I don’t think it would be possible. It’s not so much about having to compete on the media landscape as what public space is now, as opposed to public space then. Public spaces - although there are a lot of people who would argue against it - are largely new media. I don’t really think it’s about the streets. It’s about the internet."

I wish I could share his optimism about the internet. I think it is a powerful communications tool (which is why we are using it for things like this blog!), but it seems like folly to consider it the "new public space." The infrastructure (fiber-optic lines, traffic hubs, etc.) are in the hands of a very small number of corporations. It may be in their interest to allow for a fair amount of open communication and dialog now, but lets not forget their is nothing public about their ownership, it is completely private, with no real checks to even further consolidation.

That said, I enjoyed this interview immensely, only wishing it was longer and more in depth. I'd love to see a serious roundtable conversation between graphic artists involved in the AIDS struggle, and really hear about how they created the images, built the messaging, and assessed the efficacy of their designs.

Street art for the Democratic Party (?) 2008 is off to a rough start

Posted February 12, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Street Art / Graffiti

Critical thinking and dissent in street art is becoming as rare as politicians who reject corporate America, free trade, prisons, and the two-party system.

Recently, a Chicago art show, Go Tell Mama! has put up stencil work and posters endorsing Obama and Shepard Fairey has created yet another poster to waste more paper, enhance his name and enlighten us with his critique of propaganda images by creating propaganda images.

I am not sure what is more discouraging: the public acceptance of politicians, the massive costs that goes into election campaigns (for a detailed account, see: The Center for Responsive Politics), the culture of politicians as celebrities, street art marketed as hip, Shepard Fairey, or the sneaking suspicion that for the next 9 months, much of the nation will consume their energy on the election, get behind a candidate, and forget that change comes from the bottom up and building opposition movements that confront power.

Call for Entries/ Call for Show Hosts: The Art of Democracy

Posted February 12, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Artwork Needed

The Art of Democracy is a national coalition of art exhibitions (scheduled for the fall of 2008) that addresses the dire state of the political scene in the U.S.

Leading up to the November 2008 national elections, artists from around the country will be creating and exhibiting posters and prints that respond to the election, politics, and governmental policy. The Art of Democracy exhibition seeks to attract other individuals and artist organizations from around the nation to help amplify our messages of civil activism, reform, dissent, and protest.

This is not a single show but an affiliation of shows in numerous cities across the U.S.

To contribute your work to these shows, go to: www.artofdemocracy.org

Relevant contact information is provided for most shows.

Artwork by exhibitors can also be found on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art-of-democracy/

We encourage artist to put work up on the Flickr site and create posters. The posters will be exchanged with venues around the country. For more information, contact: info@artofdemocracy.org

Beehive Collective is Searching for New Worker Bees

Posted February 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Events

Just got this in the inbox, the Beehive Collective is looking for people to join their new campaigns:

In anticipation of our most exciting and busy year to date, featuring the launch of two new graphics campaigns, our swarm of eleven is in need of five more workers. We are currently seeking a few passionate and committed organizers, educators, and artists to join us full-time in Maine, at satellite Hive locations, and on the road, beginning as soon as possible.

Please pass this note on to others who might be interested!

Current Positions Available:

- Archivist/Documentarian (Mountaintop Removal Mining campaign)
- Graphics Campaign Coordinator (Mesoamerica Resiste)
- Education Coordinator (Mountaintop Removal Mining campaign)
- Illustration Collaborator (pen & ink, Mountaintop Removal Mining campaign)
- Distribution, Networking & “Pollination” Coordinator (core Hive position)

Detailed descriptions at www.beehivecollective.org

Read the rest of the entry »

SUMMONING A NEW QUEER REALITY

Posted January 28, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in Posters

Check out this amazing poster project that celebrates radical queer history. The posters were created by the Chicago group "Chances Dances" and each poster features a portrait, a quote from the person celebrated and a brief bio.

The Chances Dances website notes that “These masks portray a selection of radical queers and allies, some from the past and some from the present, some recognized and others hidden. We hope their lives and work will inspire current and future generations to SUMMON A NEW QUEER REALITY! We offer these masks as symbols of power through knowledge and community through history! Please pass it on!”

Posters can be downloaded at their site and include posters of:

* Pedro Almodóvar
* Gregg Araki
* James Baldwin
* Sadie Benning
* Claude Cahun
* Chrystos
* Jackie Curtis
* Angela Davis
* Vaginal Davis
* Divine
* Leslie Feinberg
* Michel Foucault
* Jean Genet
* Felix Gonzalez-Torres
* Audre Lorde
* Harvey Milk
* Cherríe Moraga
* Mimi Nguyen
* Adrienne Rich
* Marlon Riggs
* Sylvia Rivera
* Bayard Rustin
* Annie Sprinkle
* Sylvester
* Urvashi Vaid
* John Waters
* David Wojnarowicz

for more info: http://www.chancesdances.org/pride07/masks.html#_self

Check out Secret Door Projects!

Posted January 15, 2008 by meredith_stern in Posters

Hey folks!
Check out my friend Jean Cozzens and the website she is working on! She makes gorgeous prints and also has done some rad collaborative work- like building cardboard cities in galleries and libraries with children large and small!!!! http://www.secretdoorprojects.org/

Interview with Lincoln Cushing

Posted January 11, 2008 by jmacphee in Posters

A nice short interview with political poster archivist and artist Lincoln Cushing just popped up on the PLAZM magazine site. It's definitely worth the quick read, check it out here, and below is a short quote:

"It seems that you have been busy with research into Chinese political posters from the GPCR, and the survey of the archives of Inkworks Press, the worker-owned cooperative press in Berkeley. Are there any other historical poster movements that you've become interested in lately?

I’m interested in ALL of them lately, especially the connections between them and the gaps in scholarship. The sad fact is that we really know so little about these poster movements. Few people are aware of the numerous poster workshops that sprang up in the U.S. right after the 1970 National Guard murders at Kent State and Jackson State. Even “iconic” poster history is barely scratched – who knows that the art students who made the Paris 1968 posters were, in fact, screenprinting for the first time? They hadn’t been taught this technique in school, but it was the right medium for the moment. I didn’t know this until a colleague, Gene Marie Tempest, conducted some interviews with participants in 2007."

Lincoln also has his on site, Docs Populi, which has a huge collection of information and images on the history of political graphics, from Chinese and Cuban posters, to the cultural production of the labor movement, to the history of the use of the graphic fist in US political movements.

Swoon/Stain/Poloroid Kid Video

Posted January 10, 2008 by jmacphee in Events

A very cool little video about these kids recent show in Paris, check it out here.

A Response to OBEY Plagiarist

Posted December 14, 2007 by jmacphee in In the News

It's taken me a long time to get this together, but I wanted to throw my ideas into the discussion around the artwork/plagiarism of Shepard Fairey that has been spinning around the web. For those that might not know, Shepard Fairey is the creator of the "Andre the Giant has a Posse" sticker campaign, which became a long running series of "Obey Giant" posters. Mark Vallen, a Los Angeles-based artist (who created some of my favorite street posters from the early LA punk scene), recently published a long critique of Fairey on his blog, Art For A Change. What I'm writing here directly relates to Mark's piece, so if you haven't read it, give it a look here.

Mark's write-up came out of a long discussion that has been going on between a number of politically-motivated artists and archivists about Fairey's work. Throughout the whole process of discussion it has seemed clear that we have been coming from parallel but divergent positions, with different parts of the larger issues at hand being more or less important to each of us. Mark is clearly concerned with social and political potentials of ART, and believes Fairey's wholesale "theft" of historical images cheapens the potential for art to make change in the world. Lincoln Cushing, an artist, archivist and author who has been involved in the discussions, is very concerned with how plagiarism hurts efforts to empower our communities with their own revolutionary art history. However, he also supports strategic use of existing copyright law, and recently got Fairey to pay retroactive royalties on a t-shirt with Cuban artwork appropriated without credit. Favianna Rodriguez, also involved, has been particularly frustrated with Fairey's use of and profiting off of the art of people of color, and the images of the struggles of people of color, while he has had to pay none of the costs for having to live as a person of color in this society or world.

Read the rest of the entry »

"Reclaiming the F Word" Call for Entries!

Posted December 11, 2007 by meredith_stern in Artwork Needed

Here is a call for entries from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, located in Los Angeles, California.

"Reclaiming the F Word" Submissions Deadline: December 15, 2007

This show will open March 2008 at the Art Galleries, California State University, Northridge.

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is asking artists,
organizations, and activists for poster submissions for our upcoming exhibition
entitled Reclaiming the “F” Word--Posters on International Feminism. This
exhibition will feature posters about the ongoing struggle for women’s rights
showing us that feminism must not be treated like a dirty word.

http://www.politicalgraphics.org/pdf/Call%20for%20F%20Posters.pdf

Call for Submissions! War in Iraq!

Posted December 7, 2007 by meredith_stern in Artwork Needed

Call for Entries: Deadline January 12, 2008
"Experiencing the War in Iraq"

An Artist Curated, Multi-Media Exhibit of Art about the War in Iraq

(Following text is copied from the call for entries):
What does it mean to experience this war firsthand,
in combat, or as an Iraqi civilian? What does it mean to
experience it from a distance, or on television? How can we
in America reconnect to the reality of war? Are there shared
visions of peace despite cultural and religious differences? The
work will be selected on artistic merit and look to include as
many perspectives as possible, beyond politics.

Check out more details and download a submission form at the following link:

http://reconnectus.org/downloads/ReconnectUS_CFE_dataset_0001.pdf

Visions of Peace & Justice

Posted December 5, 2007 by nicolas_lampert in Books & Zines

Check out this great new book! “Visions of Peace & Justice is a full color book containing over 500 reproductions of political posters from the archives of Inkworks Press. Inkworks is a worker cooperative-union shop-green business in Berkeley, California started in 1974. During the 30+ years of Inkwork's history, the shop has functioned as a pillar of the progressive community in the Bay Area providing printing services including discounts and donations to social movements, community groups, and non-profits. This unique position has allowed Inkworks to accumulate a comprehensive and fascinating archive of beautiful political posters that have been printed on its presses compiled for the first time ever in this important historical document. Whether it's the American Indian Movement, Latin American Solidarity campaigns, Women's Liberation, community-based struggles against environmental racism, the current efforts to end the war in Iraq, or a broad range of other post-1960s US social movements, Visions of Peace & Justice records it all through the timeless powerful art of the poster.”

Featuring Essays By:
David Bacon, Lincoln Cushing, Angela Davis, Anuradha Mittal, Carol Wells, and more

Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History

Posted December 4, 2007 by meredith_stern in Events

Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History
Traveling Exhibit! Arriving in New York at CUNY Graduate Center
Opens: December 10th, 6:30 - Recital Hall

To read the article in it's entirety: http://www.friendlyagitate.net/category/art/

This text lifted directly from their website:
The SDS Comic Show, a traveling exhibit drawing upon the book Students for a Democratic Society: a Graphic History, will be open at the CUNY Graduate Center in December. Come see the exhibit and join us for a book signing and panel discussion for Students for a Democratic Society: a Graphic History, scripted by Harvey Pekar and others and edited by Paul Buhle, editor of the 1960s SDS magazine Radical America. Harvey Pekar, real-life star of the award-winning film and the book series American Splendor (and sometime Letterman Show guest), will deliver a talk on comics and politics, followed by a panel including Buhle, former SDS-NY regional officer, Weatherman Jeff Jones, and members of the New SDS.

Defend the SF8

Posted November 26, 2007 by jmacphee in Events

This friday in New York City there is a benefit event in support of the San Francisco 8. The SF8 are eight former Black Panther Party members and active supporters (now ages 56 to 72) who were arrested last January on charges related to the 1971 killing of a San Francisco police officer. Some of these men faced virtually identical charges almost 35 years ago—charges that were dropped after it was revealed that police torture had extracted the “confessions” used to justify the case.

Now the case is back on, based on the same flawed evidence. The judge has released the 6 bail-eligible defendants on bond, and I was able to see them speak in San Francisco a couple months ago at a benefit event put on for them by Freedom Archives and the San Francisco Print Collective that was also a book release event for Emory Douglas. The SF8 were incredibly humorous, humble, thoughtful and moving to a man, I was very impressed.

Of course I was not able to meet the 2 defendants who are not eligible for bail. They are political prisoners Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim. Both have already served more than 34 years in New York state prisons. This new case charges them again with actions for which they are already serving time.

Former Black Panther Minister of Information and propagandist Emory Douglas is one of many cultural workers that has done a lot to support the SF8. He has created a special poster to raise funds for them, it is intense (and it is the top image in this post). You can buy a silkscreened or offset printed version here and support the struggle.

Read the rest of the entry »

The Production Unit's The Long Distance Runner

Posted November 19, 2007 by jmacphee in Events

The Celebrate People's History posters are included in a new exhibition organized by The Production Unit called The Long Distance Runner. The show is at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning in Copenhagen, Denmark. If you are in Denmark, definitely check it out, they are deeply influenced by one of my favorite filmmakers, Peter Watkins.

Here's some info on the show from the curators:
The Production Unit is a network of artists from Sweden and Denmark working with narrative experiments, the construction of history and media critique. The exhibition at Den Frie Udstillingsbygning will be the first public presentation of their archive THE The Long Distance Runner, which includes both collaborative and individual projects as well as works by a number of other international artists. The show is part of Den Frie Udstillingsbygning’s focus on self-organisation and collectivism and gives an example of how a group of younger artists works collaboratively across languages and nationalities. The artists of The Production Unit are Petra Bauer, Nanna Debois Buhl, Kajsa Dahlberg, Sara Jordenö, Conny Karlsson, Runo Lagomarsino and Ditte Lyngkjær Pedersen.

The Long Distance Runner is comprised of projects, which in various ways discuss current political and cultural questions as well as historical events. The different parts constitute a series of discussions related to communities and publics with emphasis on questions concerning nationality, identity and language. The material varies in form covering video installations, poster projects, sound-based work, photography and various publications produced by the members of the group and artists as Josh MacPhee, Carlos Motta, Jenny Perlin, Hito Steyerl and Ylva Westerlund.

A central part of the presentation of The Long Distance Runner is Peter Watkins film La Commune from 1999. Through its’ controversial form the film challenges prevailing notions of documentary film experimenting with an unconventional way of discussing the historical event of the Paris Commune in 1871 and the relationship between subject, community and revolutionary action.

The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 5pm Thursday 10am to 9pm
Free guided tours Saturday and Sunday at 3pm

Den Frie Udstillingsbygning
Oslo Plads
DK-2100 København Ø
Tlf. +45 3312 2803
www.denfrie.dk

Art for a Democratic Society

Posted November 13, 2007 by jmacphee in Artwork Needed

Excited to see this in my inbox, the crew over at Not My Government are trying to put together a Bay Area project similar to the Street Art Workers:

In collaboration with Not My Government, Art for a Democratic Society announces an open call to all visual artists in the Bay Area interested in creating a social/political poster zine. Our goal is to get ten different artists to make one poster each, with the final product being ten 18"x24" posters, probably printed one color on newsprint.

Once we have the crew of artists together, we will all collectively decide the theme of the poster zine. Possible themes include: health care, war, police brutality, opposing the "new Jim Crow," etc. The process of poster design and printing can be done collectively or individually. A skill-share will be organized to help any or all of the artists involved in the project.

If interested please contact us at:
art4democraticsociety [at] earthlink.net
Please tell us your name, email, phone number, what days and times you would be available to meet, and a little about yourself - your background, interests, skills, etc. Artists at any level of experience are welcome.

SAW in the news

Posted November 11, 2007 by jmacphee in VR Projects

We live in a very, very strange world. The Street Art Workers have had a little blurb about them published in the Oct/Nov issue of the Indian edition of Elle Decor Magazine?!?!?

Check it out:

Breakdown's Nuclear Poster Series

Posted November 9, 2007 by jmacphee in Posters

Australian activist artists and designers extraordinaire Breakdown Press (Tom Civil & Lou Smith) have just released their 3rd political poster series, this one around nuclear power and waste. I was lucky enough to have one of my designs chosen, along with 16 other artists and designers. Breakdown prints thousands of newsprint booklets of their posters (similar to the Street Art Workers project) and then distroes them world-wide, as well as pastes them up on the streets. Check out Breakdown Press, and the new poster set here.

For those in Melbourne, check out the launch party on Tuesday November 13th at The Artery, 87-89 Moor St Fitzroy, from 6pm-8pm.

Europe Communique #5: Berlin

Posted October 29, 2007 by jmacphee in Political Art

Josh and I spent a short 4 days in Berlin. We went to this beautiful city primarily to look at the poster collection at the Papier Tiger Archiv. Papier Tiger is a political archive started in the early 80s, combining collections and papers from several squats and autonomous social movements. It settled in a building in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin. As we walked down the block to find Papier Tiger, there was one building completely covered in ivy and vines, this was obviously our spot. It was nice to visit an archive that originated out of the social/political movement and still kept strong symbiotic ties to it. It's in a few tall cozy rooms with floor to ceiling bookshelves with organizational folders categorized by large topics and sub-categorized down to the very specific (ie- feminism, 80s, Rote Zora group, documents). The staff was helpful and friendly (a nice change) and the place is open to browsing or research.
As I said Josh and I went to look at the posters and they are housed in a stack of flat files, also organized by movements (ie-squatting West Berlin, squatting east Berlin, feminism, int'l. solidarity S. America). A lot of posters and it was nice to be able to pull out a whole stack and dig through them. (Many of the posters have been cataloged in a recent book called: "vorwärts bis zum nieder mit: 30 Jahre Plakate unkontrollierter Bewegungen"). Papier Tiger is open to the public two days a week (Monday & Thursday from 2:30-6 PM, and they have a women's day on Friday. They are located at 25 Cuvrystrasse in Kreuzberg. for more info: http://archivtiger.de/).

On our way to the archive Josh and I wandered by a bookshop, Josh wanted to go in, I was a little hesitant as we both had our giant bags with us and that place looked crowded, thin rows between bookshelves but also giant piles of books all over the place. We did go in to Prometheus Antiquariat (Wrangelstraße 48, also in Kreuzberg), and it was a fortuitous piece of dumb luck, as it specializes in lefty books and also in art books, posters and prints. Generally the books in stacks off the floor weren't for sale and the books on the shelves were, and after an initial bit of skepticism the owner warmed up to us and gave us an amazing tour of collections in his shop. The prices were reasonable and we both walked out with a pile of books that was a fraction of the amount we would have gotten if we didn't have to lug around a bunch of shit in already over-burdened bags (and backs!).

Berlin (I think) is a beautiful city that we had a nice time walking around and exploring. As opposed to other cities we went to it seemed to spend very little on graffiti abatement so there was a ton of stencils and tags with a wide range in quality and interest (as expected). Also some pretty grand permission pieces, building sized murals that were pretty fucked up and psychedelic looking. I was particularly entranced by the sets of courtyards in buildings that had bike shops and children's theaters and playgrounds and gardens. Also the crows in Berlin were different then any other crows I've seen, larger and they had a little gray vest around their wings and heads. Quite handsome!

We went to the offices of image-shift and met founder Sandy Kaltenborn. Image-shift is a graphic design firm that has done work for social movements in Germany, work that is really striking and engaging. Applying in some ways the ideas of revolutionary creativity to graphic work, so the images are engaged are rigorous in ways that a lot of didactic work never is. We spent an afternoon discussing political graphics with Sandy and looking over a lot of the work he's done, and it was enlightening, critical and fun. Josh and I hope to translate some of his writing about political graphics into English and also to interview for a future book project.

We also hung out with two of the folks from Pony Pedro in their beautiful workshop space. Pony Pedro works mostly in silk-screen posters, but figures out ways to make them engage in the city, community and in public space in interventions that are both clever and gentle (sorry for the run-on sentence). We looked through a pile of their work including a recent book/poster project where kids from the primarily immigrant neighborhood that they work in went out and took pictures and then Pony Pedro blew up the images and made giant beautiful half-tone posters and a very handsome bound book. This is just the tip of the iceberg with their projects, well worth checking out, so check it: www.pony-pedro.de

The Pony Pedro-ers sent us up to the 'world famous Fleirscherei' which was a store front shop and silk-screen workshop up by where we were staying. Home of the 'No style crew fuckers' this was total art fuck mess of space (in the best way), they had cool prints, t shirts and homemade books for sale (including an awesome black book of berlin street artists, all silk-screened, and the variety and style in it was really cool and diverse). They were nice and let us peek around their extensive and cavernous back rooms and printing areas. Fleischerei: Torstrasse 116 (in the Mitte, right by the Rosenthaler Platz U-bahn stop)

OK, I think that's all from Berlin, more communiques coming soon!
-Icky

The Graphic Imperative

Posted October 23, 2007 by jmacphee in Events

For anyone in Los Angeles or planning to visit over the next couple months, it's well worth a trip to check out this political graphics exhibit:

THE GRAPHIC IMPERATIVE: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice & the Environment, 1965 to 2005
at the Luckman Gallery at Cal State L.A., October 27 – December 15, 2007

I got to see the show at Mass Art in Boston, and there is a lot of really great work that would otherwise be difficult to see, including posters by Tom Ungerer, Klaus Staeck, Ester Hernandez, the Guerilla Girls, Gran Fury, Felix Beltran and Lex Drewinski. I was excited to see all of the material together and think about half of the work is extremely strong. I was disappointed by the lack of context for the work, as much it comes from very specific political contexts but little of that is explained in the exhibition. By stripping the work from it's context, the exhibition sometimes feels simply like a shopping mall for designers to pick up the next hip, "authentic" style. It seems like some of that might be corrected with the discussion series they've planned to go along with the exhibit.

Read the rest of the entry »

Europe Communique #1: Ungdomshuset

Posted October 18, 2007 by jmacphee in Political Art

Icky and I are traveling around Europe and have been meeting with some great people and learning about some amazing art and activist projects. Here's our first missive about a struggle going on in Copenhagen:

While in Copenhagen we learned about a huge struggle going on now around the Ungdomshuset, which was the "youth house," a squatted community center for mostly punk and anarchist kids. As far as we understand, the city sold the building to a religious group who evicted them, which led to days of rioting back in the spring. Since they have torn the whole building down and are now trying to sell the land.

The location of the former squat is a sad blank spot in the landscape now, with both the building and the garden that were in the back completely destroyed and removed. The address of the building was 69 Jagtvej in the Nørrebro neighborhood, and now the entire city (and I mean the ENTIRE city) is covered with graffiti that says "69." The memory of Ungdomshuset is everywhere you look.

The kids came up with a plan to squat another building, and publicly advertised the date, time and place they would do it for months, having huge build up events almost every week, demonstrations of 5000 kids taking over different streets. One of the big things we noticed was that each event was advertised with tons of large scale posters, most full color and amazingly designed.

Finally last week came the announced day and something like 15,000 kids came from all over the country and occupied the building, and just sat down and refused to leave. It took the police hours to drag them out and after they finally did, the chief of police said the police would no longer fight the kids or deal with the kids, and it was a problem for the politicians, and they needed to solve it...so the movement forced a split between the cops and government, which seems pretty interesting...

Here is the Ungdomshushet website in English.

Paper Politics

Posted October 18, 2007 by jmacphee in Events

October 18 – November 17
Crossman Gallery
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Opening remarks by exhibiting artist Colin Matthes and reception: October 18th from 5-7 pm

Here's what the gallery has to say about the show:

This exhibit has been organized by Josh MacPhee and will showcase print art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in political conversation. The exhibit has been displayed in other venues across the country, but will be augmented by regional artists for the exhibit here. Because of its accessibility and reproducibility, activists have long used print art as a communication tool in struggles for freedom and social equality. The bold graphic qualities made possible by printmaking techniques are used to communicate with and educate broad audiences all over the world.

The hand-printed works in the show speak of matters that are vital to understanding the world today. Some of the subjects include opposition to war, solidarity with struggles around the world, destruction of the environment, corporate control, police brutality, homelessness, and gender inequalities.

Read the rest of the entry »

Printing Against the Grain

Posted October 9, 2007 by jmacphee in Events

Icky and Josh from Justseeds are heading to Europe, and have some events planned...If you happen to be in Copenhagen:

presentation in YNKB
LØRDAG 13 OKTOBER KL. 15/Saturday October 13, 2007, 3 pm:

Josh MacPhee
PRINTING AGAINST THE GRAIN
Activist printmaking from 1960s to now

In 1960’s, just as Andy Warhol was reinventing silkscreening as a fine art tool, printmaking was also being reinvented elsewhere for very different purposes. Activists, organizers, revolutionaries and political artists were using silkscreening, stencils, and block prints to create cheap, eye catching and easy to distribute political posters.

From French students and workers in 1968 to Chicano community workshops in the late 60’s to Italian and German Autonomists in the 70’s to Act Up in the 80’s, printmaking has taken a sweeping democratic turn in the last 40 years. This presentation shows over a hundred images and follows the political, social and aesthetic development of this activist printmaking.

Mexico's Walls Exclaim: "The revolution of the 21st Century will arise in Oaxaca"

Posted August 29, 2006 by in Posters

For decades, teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, have conducted strikes to demand educational reform from the federal and state government. Some of the teacher's demands include living wages, sanitary schools, text books, and more public school facilities. Historically, these strikes have lasted short periods of time and caused minimal or no disruption to the state's economy. The government, except for minor concessions, has been able to ignore the teacher's strikes and their demands

An independent journalist, referred to by the Mexico Solidarity Network as an "unidentified Chicano," reports:

May 15, 2006: It's National Teachers Day in Oaxaca. And the leadership of Oaxaca's 70,000 teachers representing Section 22 of the National Teachers Union declared that if there was no further movement in their negotiations with the government, then the following week "would see a state-wide strike by Oaxaca's school teachers" and that "This one will be different than all the previous strikes"...

May 22-24, 2006: 70,000 Oaxaqueño school teachers go on strike. And the first indications that this was to be a "different" kind of strike were immediately apparent in and around the city's historic centre. There, for the first time, the teachers, in the thousands, erected a tent and awning city, occupied day and night in the Zocalo and in the streets surrounding the Zocalo. It's a peaceful occupation of the city's center, but it is also immediately apparent that more teachers are coming into the occupied area on a daily basis. And these teachers are not just from the City of Oaxaca. They're swarming in from the outlying villages and towns in the Valley... (Mexico Solidarity Network Weekly News and Analysis, August 21-27, 2006)

The teacher's strike, their encampments, their independent media infrastructure, and their continuous mass mobilizations (marches reaching up to 300,000 people) have been perceived as a serious threat to Mexico's dominant political and economic order. In the early morning of June 14, 2006, the state attempted to crush the teacher's movement by launching an army of several thousand uniformed and plain clothed state and municipal police in an all out attack against the teachers. Police violently destroyed the encampments and scattered the teachers throughout the city.

Within two days, the teachers released the names and photos of 12 teachers and 3 students who were killed and/or disappeared during the attack. The government denies the charges. To date, it is confirmed that five union members have been shot and killed by police.

Since the June 14th attack, teachers and their sympathizers have taken the city center back. They have rebuilt their encampments, their radio stations, their newsletter circulation, and their barricades. The mass mobilizations continue and, following a police attack on independent radio stations, they have been complimented by another effective tactic, the occupation of main stream media centers. From here, the teachers have promoted their most recent and immediate demand, the resignation of Oaxaca Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.

Government repression also persists. Police continue to attack and kill members of the APPO, a recently formed network of organizations sympathetic to the teachers strike and dedicated to removing Governor Ortiz from power. On August 22, 2006, police attacked APPO members who were guarding commercial station La Ley 710, killing Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes, head of the education sector of the state Department of Public Works and an APPO sympathizer.

For more information check out these websites:

narconews.com (English)

Mexico Solidarity Network News and Analysis (English)

Indymedia, Mexico (Español)

Indymedia Mexico, Desalojo Oaxaca (Español)

Centro de Medios Libres, DF (Español)

Indymedia, Chiapas (Español)

To learn more about the historical context of Mexico's teachers movement, come to a special movie screening of Granito de Arena. August 31st, 8pm. Times Up!, 49 East Houston (bet. Mott and Mulberry)

Granito de Arena: Award-winning Seattle filmmaker, Jill Freidberg (This is What Democracy Looks Like, 2000), spent two years in southern Mexico documenting the efforts of over 100,000 teachers, parents, and students fighting to defend the country's public education system from the devastating impacts of economic globalization. Freidberg combines footage of strikes and direct actions with 25 years worth of never-before-seen archival images to deliver a compelling and unsettling story of resistance, repression, commitment, and solidarity.

The pictures in this post were taken by Sasha Hammad. Thank you to her.

New posters at Just Seeds

Posted July 1, 2006 by in Posters

Josh McPhee's radical art distribution project, Just Seeds has a whole host of new work available, including two new posters by members of Visual Resistance. Josh is a good friend of VR and we're excited to have a few of our own featured on Just Seeds. Big collaborative projects between VR and Just Seeds are in the works!

A different version of Kristine's Solidarity image is also available for $10 from us as a promotional poster for If They Come for You in the Morning, the July 27-28 art show we're planning to support our friend Daniel McGowan.

Here's the full June update from Just Seeds:

Another busy busy month at www.justseeds.org

This month there has been an explosion of new prints and posters!

I've personally produced two new prints for the site. First a large 5 color stencil entitled Free the Land. It's 23"x35" and on nice thick cardstock. Second, a reworking of an older image, Prisons Don't Work. This one is a two color stencil thats 21"x23".

I've also got a whole pile of other new pieces! First, two new silkscreened posters by the Montreal-based Anti-Capitalist Ass Pirates, Army of Lovers and Beast Infection. In addition, the two older prints of theirs, Out Against the War and Surveillance are back in stock. Pick 'em up before they're gone again!

Kristine Virsis (an associate of the New York City collective Visual Resistance) brings us her Solidarity print, a gorgeous 2 color silkscreen. All money from the sale of this print goes to the Daniel McGowan Defense Campaign to help Daniel, one of the activists caught up in the recent government witch hunt for radical environmental activists. More info can be found about Daniel's case here: http://www.supportdaniel.org

And last, but definitely not least, for the prints, we have a new Estacion Libre poster by Canek, also a member of Visual Resistance. This 3 color silkscreen helps benefit the Estacion Libre organization, which works to bring activists of color on solidarity trips to Chiapas.

We've got one new book this month, finally after months of trying, Lynd Ward's Gods' Man is available. Lynd Ward was an amazing american political printmaker, and is best known for his books without words. Sort of the american equivalent of Frans Masereel, Gods' Man was Ward's first novel without words, originally published in 1929. This is seminal stuff, get this and learn some political printmaking history!

Check all these out at www.justseeds.org/new

A Call for May Day Art

Posted April 19, 2006 by in Posters

Following the momentum of massive March 25th mobilizations, student walkouts, and April 10th's historic day of action for immigrant rights, comes the call for El Gran Paro Americano (The Great American Boycott). May 1st is a day for global action against upcoming anti-immigrant legislation and in favor of universal amnesty. Across the country, a broad network of immigrant rights groups, labor unions, workers associations, student groups, and collectives of all sorts have announced calls for a general strike, boycott, no sales or purchases, walkouts, marches, and actions in financial centers and at anti-immigrant corporations throughout the country. Groups throughout Latin America, such as Mujeres Creando and La Otra Campaña, have called for a boycott of all American products as well as actions in solidarity with the North American immigrants movement. Here is a selection from a call by a California based organization, ActionLA.org

On May 1, we are calling No Work, No School, No Sales, and No Buying, and also to have rallies around symbols of economic trade in your areas (stock exchanges, anti-immigrant corporations, etc.) to protest the anti-immigrant movements across the country.

We believe that increased enforcement is a step in the wrong direction and will only serve to facilitate more tragedies along the Mexican-U.S. border in terms of deaths and family separation. We will settle for nothing less than full amnesty and dignity for the millions of undocumented workers presently in the U.S.

Visual Resistance would like to offer our own call. A call for artwork to promote and support the actions of May 1st. We welcome art by organizations, collectives, or individuals. Whether you are a professional graphic designer, a fine artist, or just someone with a lot of heart and passion that needs expressing, please, SEND US YOUR ART! We will be posting submissions for free download on a separate and more permanent page. Our hope is that this archive of imagery will help contribute to an aesthetic expression of ideas and actions to stop government aggression against immigrant communities.

The graphic above, by schock at riseup d0t net

“El Otro Lado”: – People of Color in the U.S, the Zapatista Movement and Collective Struggles

Posted April 13, 2006 by in Posters

In 1994, the dawn of the North American Free Trade Agreement, indigenous peasants in Chiapas, Mexico took the world by storm by rising up in revolution. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN – Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional) emerged from the mountains and jungles to say “NO” to corporate globalization, neo-liberal colonialism, and the exploitation of indigenous people, women, the poor, and the oppressed. In 12 years, the EZLN has become a major voice in the international struggle against capitalism and neo-liberalism, and an inspiration and hope to struggles throughout the world.

Estacion Libre, a US based collective of People of Color, has been building with the Zapatista movement for over eight years. Through delegations to Zapatista communities, and a continued presence of a peoples space in Chiapas, hundreds of U.S. based community activists andorganizers from communities of color have visited, shared with, and learned from the Zapatista movement. These lessons are brought home - back to community struggles against gentrification, police brutality, incarceration, racism, sexism, homophobia, and economic exploition. By sharing tactics and dialogues with the Zapatistas, we strive to create sustainability throughout communities of resistance here in the U.S., with hopes that we can defeat the monster of capitalism and corporate globalization here, in the brain of the beast.

General Program

- Discussion on the Liberation Struggles of People of Color and intersections with the Zapatista Movement – (Ashanti Alston)

- Reflections on the Zapatista Movement, the Sixth Declaration, and What “Solidarity” Means for US – Estacion Libre (Mixpe, Olmeca, etc.)

- Arts and Activism workshops – (Spiritchild, Olmeca, Mixpe, etc.)

- Performance by Mental Notes and Olmeca

Tour Calendar

Tuesday, April 18th: Ashanti at Rethinking Solidarity, NYC, Brecht Forum, 7:30pm.

Thursday, April 20th: UMASS, Amherst.

Saturday, April 22nd: Philadelphia, LAVA (4134 Lancaster Ave.), 12 noon.

Saturday, April 22nd: Estacion Libre fundraiser in East Harlem, 9:30 pm.

Monday, April 24th: Smith College. Workshops at noon and 4pm. Performance at night.

Wednesday, April 26th: Rethinking Solidarity, NYC, Blue Stockings Bookstore, 7pm.

Thursday, April 27th: Brown University, Third World Center, Informal Lounge (68 Brown St.), 9pm -12am.

The first image above was created by Gina Szeto. The second image was created by Canek Pena-Vargas. Both are available to download and edit as needed to promote the tour.

Bios for Event Participants:

Ashanti

Ashanti Alston has devoted his life to struggling against racism and

oppression, and to building and participating in multigenerational,

multiracial, grassroots movements of resistance. Born in Plainfield, NJ in

1954, Ashanti saw and experienced what most black youth did then and still

see today: poor-quality housing, unemployment and lack of job

opportunities, and schools that squelched students’ desire to learn. He

became politicized at an early age and was one of the founding members of

the Plainfield, NJ chapter of the Black Panther Party. He was also a

member of the Black Liberation Army.

Through intensive studying with the Panthers, Ashanti began a career in

self-teaching, popular education, and grassroots organizing through direct

engagement with people about their experiences. He has continued this work

during the 12 years he spent as a political prisoner, and living in

Brooklyn in the years since his release. Through published writing, formal

teaching jobs, participation in conferences and lectures, and membership

in grassroots organizations, Ashanti has developed his scholarship and

shared his critical analysis with young and old organizers, activists, and

students around the country. He has spoken throughout North America on the

past, present, and future of liberation struggles and the role of

community.

Ashanti has served as the Northeast Regional Coordinator for Critical

Resistance, a national organization working for the abolition of the

prison-industrial complex. Currently, Ashanti is a member of Estacion

Libre, a National people of color collective inspired by and in dialogue

with the Zapatista movement of Chiapas Mexico. Ashanti is also a board

member for the Institute for Anarchist Studies. He authors the zine

Anarchist Panther.

Jo Anna Mixpe Ley

Poet, storyteller, popular educator, artist, dancer, spiritual advisor to

the stars, and revolutionary warrior – Mixpe has been a lecturer in

Chican@ Studies at UCLA, and a teacher of culturally empowering,

politically inspiring words and movements to young people throughout Los

Angeles and the Western Hemisphere. She is currently one of the

co-coordinators for Estacion Libre in Chiapas Mexico - whose objective is

to open a space of dialogue between people of color struggles in the U.S.

and the Zapatista communities.

In her time in Chiapas, Mixpe has covered the political situation through

written and radio commentary, documenting activities of the military and

policing during the “Red Alert.” She has built relationships with the

autonomous Zapatista communities and shared art, music, movement, and

struggles. Recently, Mixpe has served as a support for the Otra Campana of

the Zapatista movement, and has coordinated the first delegation between

U.S. based Women of Color activists and the revolutionary women of the

Zapatista movement.

Through her work, she struggles for continued solidarity with autonomous

communities, collectives, and minds. Her poetry and prose engages

narratives and oral histories of borders, the colonization and liberation

of bodies, always connected to the experiences of her communities and her

families. She can breakdown the intersection of racism, classism, sexism

and homophobia inside and outside of movements, without breaking you in

the process.

Olmeca

Artist, teacher, organizer, vagabond, traveler, and revolutionary - Olmeca

has been the co-coordinator of Estacion Libre in Chiapas, Mexico since May

2005. During his time in Chiapas, Olmeca worked with Zapatista communities

reporting on military and police incursions during the summer 2005 “Red

Alert,” teaching arts and skill sharing workshops, sharing the struggles

of People of Color in the US with Zapatista communities, and supporting

and observing the discussions around the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon

Jungle and the “Otra Campana” of the EZLN.

In the occupied territory of the United States, Olmeca is a driving force

in the fusion of music and community organizing. He worked to establish

APC – the Autonomous Peoples Collective – a collective of community

organizers. Artists, and musicians in East LA, and has engaged with

countless grassroots struggles for community liberation through his voice

and his music, including the Coalition of Imokalee Workers.

Olmeca is a 7-year veteran in the Los Angeles music scene. Olmeca's unique

lyrical style, bilingual rapping skills and unique song writing, has

gained the respect of his peers. He has rocked the mic with the legends of

the LA underground Hip-Hop scene (Freestyle Fellowship, Abstract Rude and

Living Legends) as well as the greats from the Latin Alternative scene,

(Roco from Maldita Vecindad, Fidel Nadal and others).

His redefining and all encompassing song writing skills contain a focused

and undaunted political and cultural message. This calls for the decoding

of genres in music and, with that, the media and the system all together.

Unwilling to separate art with politics, Olmeca has contributed to many

grassroots movements as a participant, organizer and artist. Because of

this, his music has come to be known as, “musica de los pobres or people’s

music.” Olmeca calls for the “niñ@s de la tierra” to not only become

critical of

the system, but also to begin the process of deconstruction through

reflection and action.

His album, Semillas Rebeldes will be released in March 2006 by Nomadic

Sound System.

Spiritchild

Spiritchild, a member of Escation Libre and the Movement in Motion Artists

and Activists Collective was born in Harlem and raised in The Bronx. He is

a founder of Mental Notes - a Hip-Hop Jam Band. Mental Notes has gained a

reputation as a new innovative sound throughout the New York City Night

Club Scene and has performed at such legendary venues as CBGBs, Knitting

Factory and Nuyorican Poets Café. For Spiritchild, Mental Notes is not

just a Hip-Hop Jam band that creates music, it is an outlet for political

expression.

During the Anti-War Movement that was re-ignited after September 11, 2001,

Spiritchild collaborated with artists, activists, and students to

establish Movement In Motion Arts Collective - a creative drive in the

struggle for peace, justice and social awareness. In the name of

information, Movement in Motion offers energy and rhythm to the global

peace movement. Prompted by the present threat to civil liberties, they

formulate creative spaces in NYC to share alternative news and information

and by supporting other networks of informed activists. They fight for our

constitutional right to rally and protest. Most importantly, they come out

to help like-minded people dance. Members of Movement in Motion have

traveled to Venezuela, India, Palestine, Mexico, and South Africa to build

music and movement with struggles around the globe.

Spiritchild has also been active in exposing and educating the youth

through Hip-Hop. As a youth educator, Spirichild has worked with kids

throughout New York, teaching them the fundamentals of music, writing and

how to Rap.

Borf Endorses Grad-Student Worker Union!

Posted November 25, 2005 by in Posters

Well, maybe not exactly. But he (borf) should!

Graduate student workers at NYU have been on strike for two weeks now. In 2002, NYU Graduate Assistants (TA's and RA's) were first in the nation to secure their right to unionize at a private university. Since then, Bush appointees to the National Labor Relations Board have reversed their decision to acknowledge grad-student workers' right to unionize. NYU is no longer obligated to recognize their union. Since the grad-student worker contract expired in August, NYU administrators have capitalized on this opportunity by spending thousands upon thousands of dollars to crush the three year old union.

Without a grad-student worker union, NYU's administration will have a blank check to implement unilateral decisions that affect TA and RA working conditions and undergraduate learning conditions whenever they want. Class sizes can increase, wages can decrease and health care can be cut without the university being held accountable to any kind of democratic process. This will solidify an already wide spread corporate model in universities around the country. For more information, check out this indepth analysis offered by proffessor Alan Sokal.

Graduate and undergraduate students are pissed and have taken their frustrations to the street. The poster above was designed by undergraduate photo students. It appropriates and subverts one of NYU's many advertising designs. The poster encourages students to call NYU President Sexton to demand he negotiate with the union now.

Here is another sticker, by a grad-student worker group called Nerds on Strike!

For more pictures visit NYU inc.'s photo archive.

For up to date information about the grad-student worker strike visit www.nyuinc.org

Benefit poster for Katrina victims

Posted September 12, 2005 by in Posters

From the Northland Poster Collective:

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina we have produced a poster (by Northland artist Ricardo Levins Morales) that seeks to capture the sadness and the anger that this moment calls forth. the poster will benefit relief efforts by way of the Southern Partners Fund. Based in Atlanta, the fund has relationships with grassroots groups throughout the region and is governed democratically. They are able to respond to needs as they arise in the full range of affected communities. Please take a look at this image and pass along word of it to others who may appreciate it.

Nothland is a great resource for posters and other political art, see Ricardo Levins Morales' Katrina memorial poster here. Remember too that you can contribute directly to grassroots organizations doing on-the-ground work with hurricane victimes here.

Call for Posters on Prison-Industrial Complex

Posted July 12, 2005 by in Posters

Brandon Bauer sent us a call from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics for poster art related to the prison-industrial complex. The CPSG is a great institution that documents and supports contemporary political artists and the exhibition they're planning sounds wonderful.

Check out the text of the call below, or download a PDF version here. And don't forget the other two great projects that are still seeking submissions: Street Art Workers and Josh MacPhee's Reproduce and Revolt!.

WANTED: Posters on the Prison Industrial Complex

The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) will premiere an exhibition on the Prison Industrial Complex at the Watts Towers Art Center, Spring 2006. CSPG is asking artists, organizations and activists for poster donations to help develop this exhibition.

We also are looking for artists to make posters for organizations doing prison work. The United States has the largest prison population in the world—over two million inmates. In California, 32 prisons house over 160,000 men and women at an annual cost of $6 billion. Since the 1970s, the rate of most serious crimes has dropped or remained stagnant, yet prisons have been filled at double capacity. People of color, the poor, the illiterate, the mentally ill, youth, and women are the primary occupants. One in three black men between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine will spend time in prison or jail. The majority of those entering prison are convicted on non-violent drug charges.

Under the California three-strikes laws, many prisoners are serving life sentences for petty theft convictions. In California, 80% of incoming prisoners are returning on parole violations. The number of women in U.S. prisons multiplied more than seven times between 1980 and 2003, from 13,400 to over 100,000. Valley State Prison for Women, in Chowchilla, California, holds over 3500 women—twice its capacity—and is the largest women’s prison in the world. This phenomenal growth is due to mandatory drug sentencing laws, conspiracy provisions, a dysfunctional parole system, inadequate legal representation, and huge profits made by the multinational corporations servicing the prisons.

The posters in CSPG’s prison exhibition will cover many of the critical issues surrounding this system of mass incarceration including: the death penalty, Three Strikes, racism, women’s right to self defense, access to education and health care, sweatshop labor, divestment, privatization,

torture, and re-entry into the community.

Posters should be submitted by January 30, 2006. Criteria for posters CSPG collects: 1). It must be produced in multiples such as silkscreen, offset, stencil, litho, digital output etc. 2). The poster must have overt political content. If you would like to create a poster for an organization doing prison work or to donate posters, please contact:

Center fo rthe Study of Political Graphics

8124 West Third Street, Suite 211

Los Angeles, CA

90048-4039

tel: 323.653.4662

fax: 323.653.6991

email: cspg@politicalgraphics.org

www.politicalgraphics.org

With more than 50,000 posters, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics has the largest collection of Post World War II graphics in the U.S. Through traveling exhibitions, online photo albums, internships, and volunteer opportunities CSPG actively shares this valuable resource with a broader public. CSPG is reclaiming the power of art to educate, agitate and inspire action.

Image at top from the Street Art Workers' 2002 campaign, Art vs. Prisons.

Street Art Workers: Call for Art

Posted June 14, 2005 by in Posters

We're kickin' off a new project with the Street Art Workers (SAW), a national collective of printmakers, stencil artists, graffiti writers and designers who use the streets for art and activism. The previous poster project themes were entitled, Whose Media?, Utopia / Dystopia, and Art vs. Prisons.

The call for this year's project is now up at streetartworkers.org/call:

SAW wants to look at how globalization has affected our lands and how people are fighting back. How has it affected land in the cities — especially housing? How has globalization impacted land and workers in the countryside with farming, mining, drilling, logging and other resource extraction? What are the connections between land struggles in the global south, indigenous nations and the industrialized north? What are some of the connections between the landless peasants movement of Brazil and the squatter movements of Europe and North America? What links together the struggle against dams in India, hydroelectric projects Canada and water privatization in Latin America and South Africa? How are farmers and campesinos resisting industrial agriculture, like biotechnology and GMOs (genetically modified foods), in the U.S., Mexico and India? What organizing strategies have worked and hich ones have failed?

These questions are a starting point. We want to see more questions from you and some hard-hitting answers. We want powerful ideas and inspirational art that we can broadcast directly to the streets in 2005.We want posters that build connections between international struggles and actual organized projects with high profile publicity.

We especially want to see multilingual submissions and work from the perspective of women, Third World communities and indigenous/First Nations. We suggest that artists collaborate with grassroots, social change organizations of their choosing to make posters. We want posters that are both imaginative and relevant to “on the ground” organizing around issues of land, housing and globalization. Working with an organization is not required, but it is encouraged.

The deadline is September 1, 2005 --- designs will be curated and printed in Winter 2005-6 and wheatpasted in Spring 2006. Full details on the submission process and specs for designs are available here. For more information, visit streetartworkers.org or email streetartworkers[at]gmail.com.

Stencilists take on Wal-Mart

Posted June 2, 2005 by in Posters

A group of activists hit Fayetteville, Arkansas with stencils, spraypaint, and posters to protest Wal-Mart's annual shareholders' meeting. The good news is that the posters look great, and the action made the local news. The bad news... they got caught:

Police said five men and one woman used glue early Wednesday to stick posters that criticized Wal-Mart on several campus buildings. One of the posters said "Everyday Low Wages," and the other said "I Will Eat Your Town and Smile."

Officers said the group also spray-painted anti-Wal-Mart slogans on campus. University police spokesman Gary Crain said he is used to seeing small problems in the past during the annual Wal-Mart shareholders meeting, as well as and during other events on campus.

An account from one of the arrested is on up on Austin Indymedia:

At approximately 4 in the morning, 2 nights before the Wal Mart Shareholders Convention, some associates and I were working on an art project around Bud Walton Arena, site of the upcoming Walmart Orgy. We were stopped by some “Walmart-Loss-Prevention Officers” and UAPD, who proceeded to question us about our activities, which might have included some wheatpasting and graffitti in Walmart territory....

As the UAPD made clear to me and my comrades, “if you are ever on the UA again, especially when Walmart is here, we will take you immediately to jail.” What good neighbors...Always.

Protests against Wal-Mart's shareholders' meeting are being coordinated by Against the Wal Coalition. Wal-Mart's labor practices --- notably sexual discrimination, union busting, and low wages --- and it's creeping threat to local communities are well documented.

See the news report about the action here. Wal-Mart Watch is the best place to start getting information on Wal-Mart; perhaps the most exciting activist project I found through their resources page is the Los Angeles Superstore Ordinance, and there are many more.

Great job to the people who made the posters --- next time, don't get caught!

New Celebrate People's History Posters

Posted April 21, 2005 by in Posters

4 new People's History Posters have been created by artists Aprille, Brandon Bauer, Beith Pucinella, and Swoon. Don't just hang them on your walls at home. If you're feeling motivated, make photocopies and put them up in public places. They look amazing lined up on construction walls.

Coke Kills!

Posted February 15, 2005 by in Posters

Dont Buy Coke! The largest Coca Cola union in Colombia has called for an international campaign against Coke to stop its violence against workers, which has included a half-dozen murders at one plant alone in the mid-1990’s. Reports of these crimes sparked a historic lawsuit against the Coca Cola Company and their Colombian bottler by the International Labor Rights Fund and the United Steelworkers of America on behalf of the Colombian union.

Coca-Cola has formally stated that the “Company does not anticipate supporting in any way any form of ‘independent fact-finding delegation to Colombia,’” and has even refused a preliminary meeting with the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), an objective monitoring group created by college and university administrations, students and labor rights experts.

There is also an intense struggle being faught by people in India against the Coca-Cola Company.

An independent media website called Inida Resource Center charges that Coca-Cola is guilty of:

- Causing Severe Water Shortages for Communities Across India

- Polluting Groundwater and Soil Around its Bottling Facilities

- Distributing its Toxic Waste as "Fertilizer" to Farmers

- Selling Drinks with Extremely High Levels of Pesticides

I downloaded the above photo from the Indian Resource Center photo page. The photo features anti-Coke demonstrators who clashed with police in Mehdiganj, India.

Currently, there are many local students working to get coke banned from their campuses and to get their school administrations to endorse an investigation by the WRC into the allegations of violence in Columbia.

Here are some visual resources (poster and flyer designs) that have been used to rally oposition against Coke. If you want to start organizing around this issue, or if you already have, please feel free to download these images or to send us images you've made yourself.

I got most of these images from www.cokewatch.org and www.killercoke.org. These websites are also a great way to find out updates on the anti-Coke campaign.