In Louis Armstrong’s study in the Queens home he shared with his fourth wife, Lucille, bookshelves were filled with reel-to-reel recordings he made as a sort of audio diary. Those tapes and his letters — read by the rapper Nas — lay the foundation for the director Sacha Jenkins’s documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues.”
Based in Minnesota, Morales creates prints and posters that address environmental and social justice issues. His art is used in grassroots movements, combining vivid imagery with messages of resistance and hope.
This month marks ten years since the start of the Syrian Civil War, an ongoing conflict that has cruelly cut the lives of hundreds of thousands short, and irrevocably changed the course of millions more. An estimated 5.6 million have fled the country over the past decade, mostly to the neighbouring countries of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, with many settling in camps they’ve since to come to call their permanent homes.
The US-Mexico border wall has become a battleground for political theater, but also various artistic interventions. One of these outstanding artworks is the pink seesaws. They went viral after they were installed by the two creative architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello. Between the erect giant steel posts of the border fence lie small gaps a couple of inches apart. It is this space where they installed the seesaws.
El Anatsui, a visionary originally from Ghana, blends discarded materials into breathtaking sculptures that, in themselves, advocate for change and prompt us to reimagine our relationship with the environment.
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.
Established in 2015 in the Tennōzu neighborhood of Tokyo, and attracting industry professionals and art enthusiasts from both Japan and abroad, PIGMENT TOKYO has emerged as an art supply store specializing in the materials and tools used in traditional Japanese painting, such as mineral pigments, washi paper, and brushes. However, it’s more than just a store.
Republic of Moldova – “Before the war, Eva was a happy, carefree little girl, a first-grader full of joy who loved going to school, practicing taekwondo and drawing,” Olga recalls. Determined for her six-year-old daughter to have a joyful, stable childhood, Olga did all she could to help Eva thrive.
The Fundred Dollar Bill Project, initiated by artist Mel Chin, is a collaborative art project aimed at raising awareness and mobilizing action against the environmental and health threat of lead contamination. It encourages individuals to create their own unique interpretations of $100 bills, symbolizing the value of human lives and the need for a lead-free future.
Gender equality charity Women of the World (WOW) is launching a one-day festival of activism that invites people from all generations, genders and backgrounds to take part in conversations around sexual violence.
Haiti is a conservative society where Roman Catholicism shapes many of its social norms. Patriarchal norms, says Haitian feminist Pascale Solages, co-founder and general coordinator of feminist organization Nègès Mawon, have informed its strict views on abortion. In Haiti, women can’t legally access voluntary abortions. Doctors can’t perform them unless the woman’s life is in danger.
Vem Pra Rua is a nonpartisan, democratic, and pluralist movement that emerged in response to society’s fight for a better Brazil. Brazilians of all regions, social classes, and ages began mobilizing at the end of 2014—building on the 2013 marches that protested corruption, inequality, and other socio-economic and political problems.
In conjunction with the GUTS world tour, Olivia has launched Olivia Rodrido’s Fund 4 Good, a global initiative committed to building an equitable and just future for all women, girls and people seeking reproductive health freedom.
A portion of the proceeds from all ticket sales at the GUTS world tour will go towards the Fund 4 Good.
K-pop fans and users of TikTok claimed tickets to Donald Trump’s Saturday night rally in Tulsa then did not use them, as part of a coordinated effort which helped to leave hundreds of seats empty in a 19,000-capacity venue.
For some, October 14, 1968, was a clarion call to the future.
On that day, a group of 12 black students at UC Santa Barbara, tired of the unequal treatment and passive-aggressive racism they received as Black athletes — and as members of the campus community at large — barricaded themselves in the university’s North Hall.
Hate hunting? Want to do something creative to protect wildlife and affect positive change? The Hunter's Poppet is a witch-craftivism intervention, free to use and share. A 'poppet' is a ritual object made to represent a human figure, charged with a specific intention. This set of instructions with images guides you in making your own poppet to place safely in an outdoor area.
Almost all of Rivera's art told a story, many of which depicted Mexican society, the Mexican Revolution, or reflected his own personal social and political beliefs, and In the Arsenal is no different. The woman on the right side of this painting in Tina Modotti, an Italian photographer and revolutionary political activist, who is holding ammunition for Julio Antonio Mella, a founder of the internationalized Cuban communist party.
A TYPICAL EPISODE of Journal Rappé begins with Senegalese rapper Makhtar “Xuman” Fall dressed in a suit and seated behind a news desk. At first glance, the show looks like an ordinary newscast. But then Xuman (pronounced human) launches into his intro, rapping in French instead of talking. “Welcome! Make yourself comfortable. These are the news for you. Some good ones and bad ones too. But they’re all news for you.”
ICE [Immigration & Customs Enforecement] is now heavily recruiting, in part with offers of a $50,000 signing bonus. ICE has run roughshod over the Constitution, targeting people via racial profiling, failing to give people their constitutional rights of due process, and whisking them off to prisons abroad.
SAO PAULO, May 16 (Reuters) - At one of Latin America's largest commuter bus terminals in Brazil's gritty downtown Sao Paulo, 84-year-old Rerizenil de Paula Santos waits on a bus decorated with neon lights and bright graffiti amid the hustle and bustle of rush hour.
In 1987 with AIDS deaths in the thousands and government policy still criminally indifferent, activists formed ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) with the purpose of turning grief and fear into rage and action.
HEFEI, China (AP) — Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people gathered Thursday near a state funeral home in Beijing as China’s former second-ranking leader, Li Keqiang, was put to rest, while a steady stream of mourners showed their respects at the ex-premier’s childhood home in central China.
Li, who was China’s top economic official for a decade, died last Friday of a heart attack at age 68.
#ChallengeAccepted, also known as the Challenge Accepted campaign, is an Instagram tagged challenge as well as an awareness campaign on empowering women involving sharing posts of black-and-white selfies.
from "Laugh, O Revolution: Humor in the Egyptian Uprising" by Anna Louie Sussman, in 2011.
Revolutions can be messy. They can be tragic. As long as the Internet is working, they can be tweeted. And, as Egyptians demonstrated during their 18 days of protest, they can also be funny.
It was 1967, and sentiment against the Vietnam War was in the air nationwide. The counterculture was flourishing on the heels of the Summer of Love. Organizers from Mobe — the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam — initially called for a massive march on Washington.