To state or chant ‘BLACK LIFE’S MATTER’ is not to say other lives don’t matter, it’s a reminder that four hundred years and counting, black lives didn’t matter enough. Not during the dark era of slave trade and its horrors on the African, not after slavery ended and blacks were left holding the short end of the stick.
Gran Fury was an AIDS activist artist collective from New York City consisting of 11 members, all artists - but action, not art, was the aim of the collective. Gran Fury member Loring McAlpin described the collective's mass-market ambition to “...fight for attention as hard as Coca-Cola fights for attention.”
The Brat Summer movement can be directly traced back to the release of Charli XCX's album "Brat" in 2024. Known for her boundary-pushing pop sound and fierce persona, Charli XCX used "Brat" as a platform to explore themes of defiance, self-empowerment and the rejection of societal expectations.
Fang Si-Qi’s First Love Paradise, a 2017 novel by Taiwanese writer Lin Yi-han, has become one of the most haunting and politically charged literary works in the Chinese-speaking world. Although presented as fiction, the novel closely mirrors Lin’s own lived experience of being groomed and sexually abused by a private tutor during her adolescence.
You might think that pictures of dicks (usually unsolicited) aren’t particularly hard to come by on the internet. And most of those dick pics aren’t particularly expertly composed. But that’s not the case for Penile Papers, a new collection of phallic art curated by London-based artist Dominic Myatt.
Released as a single on 23 December 1966, Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Worth became the short-lived but talent-packed band’s biggest hit, reaching No.7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the spring of 1967.
In 1972, something unheard of happened on national television. An Asian American singer-songwriter duo was invited to perform on the widely-watched The Mike Douglas Show by guest hosts John Lennon and Yoko Ono. “They’re beautiful singers,” Lennon said in his introduction. “And they have a story to tell.”
In this article, author Caroline Choi highlights different grafiti artists and their stories. These artists use their talent to tell their stories, ones that might not get to be told otherwise. She goes into the history of grafiti, and how it ties into how rich and white the art world has become.
"WILD: Act I" is a film demonstrating the power of creativity in constraint. Using moving choreography performed by Elijah Lancaster and vivid imagery displayed on three walls in a mock cell, Jeremy McQueen gives voice to young Black and Brown men caught in the criminal 'justice' system.
The dramatic demonstration of people power on the streets, called the “Candlelight Revolution,” was sparked off by President Park’s abuse of power and corruption. She had shared classified information on state affairs with her close confidantes, including Ms.
The Harlem Festival of Culture not only pays homage to the past but also envisions a brighter future. It serves as a platform to showcase the rich diversity and dynamism of Harlem's artistic community, while also acting as a catalyst for social change and community empowerment. The festival boasts a lineup of artists from various genres and backgrounds, including jazz, soul, hip-hop, gospel, blues, rock, Latin, and Afrobeat.
In her curatorial project Making Way, Ruth Simbao brought together works that complicated the idea of globalization’s effect on African nations, especially the idea that the new phase would usher in an almost frictionless movement of labor and capital across borders. Works by artists like Athi-Patra Ruga reflected on questions of how bodies moved through settler colonialist spaces.
"100 Questions About Sex from Children" is an annual touring sex education exhibition founded and curated by Se A, a leading advocate of inclusive sex education in China. Since its launch in 2021, the exhibition has been held in major cities such as Shenzhen and Guiyang, with plans to expand into regions where sex education and gender awareness remain underdeveloped.
“Judy Chicago: Herstory” will span Judy Chicago’s sixty-year career to encompass the full breadth of the artist’s contributions across painting, sculpture, installation, drawing, textiles, photography, stained glass, needlework, and printmaking. Expanding the boundaries of a traditional museum survey, the exhibition will place six decades of Chicago’s work in dialogue with work by other women across centuries in a unique Fourth Floor installation.
Ali Ferzat, the daring political cartoonist from Syria, fearlessly wields his pen as a powerful weapon against oppressive regimes. His illustrations pierce through the fabric of authoritarianism, revealing the raw truth that lies beneath. Despite facing unimaginable brutality, Ferzat's indomitable spirit remains unyielding.
In November 2013, a group of 17 female students at Beijing Foreign Studies University sparked national debate when they staged a bold social media campaign in support of an upcoming performance of The Vagina Monologues, a feminist play by Eve Ensler.
Breaking the Silence: The Importance of Mustang
Eylem Atakav on how Mustang offers an important challenge to perceptions of gender and female sexuality in Turkey.
As Deniz Gamze Ergüven's acclaimed debut film Mustang screens at the ICA, Eylem Atakav discusses gender and female sexuality in Turkey, looking at the importance of film in making women's experiences visible and changing perceptions.
The Islamic Republic has always frowned upon dance but recently even a simple choreographed or ‘synchronized movement’ – as the regime calls it – has become an act of protest.
The Kurdish journalist and artist Zehra Doğan was freed yesterday after nearly three years in prison, Hyperallergic reports. Doğan first caught the attention of the Turkish authorities back in 2017 with a watercolor that depicted a Kurdish district after Turkish security forces set it on fire and largely destroyed it.
This is a prime example of the marriage of art and activism. The Silence = Death poster is simple but extremely powerful representation of the obstacles the AIDS movement was facing (suppression of gay people + their problems, lack of awareness surrounding the pandemic).
“My image was inspired by the #MeToo Revolution, my personal experiences with the male gaze and a healthy amount of frustration and repulsion. What I hope to convey in this image is the sense of verbal, physical and energetic male ownership that is placed on women in society.”
— Beata Kruszynski is a freelance illustrator and art teacher in Ontario, Canada.
A creative action against the introduction of mandatory immigration checks and upfront charging in the UK’s National Health Service, including a systematic social media campaign under the hashtag
Through their podcast, The Dance Union, Melanie Greene and J. Bouey have been confronting racism in the dance world, and highlighting the experiences of Black artists, since 2018. Their episodes cover a variety of topics and issues, ranging from mental health and sexual harassment to advocating for fair pay.
"University of Miami students, mostly male, walked a mile in red high heeled shoes. They are walking a mile in her shoes.
The mile long walk was in support of Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®, an international men’s march to stop rape, sexual assault and gender violence.
The organization, which says on Facebook that they were founded in 2001, has walks around the world.