The snapshots are thrust at us urgently, as if they were passports being shown at a border crossing, official proofs of national identity. Mostly, they are prosaic pictures of family members or houses. Sometimes a diploma will be offered up instead, or theater reviews clipped from newspapers or a membership card to a duck-hunting club. Later, other, more frightening, pictures will be shown, but they all serve the same function.
Khalil Bandib is a Berkeley-based, award-winning editorial cartoonist with a unique perspective. He critiques a myriad of topics, from racism and homophobia to foreign policy and the Patriot Act. Bandib was born in North Africa under a French colonist regime; he brings a non-Eurocentric perspective not typically visible in large corporate media.
Visible Distance / Second Sight is an art installation by Jennifer Bolande for DesertX. The temporary artwork can be found along the Gene Autry Trail near Vista Chino (33°50’41.70”N 116°30’21.02”W), where a series of consecutive billboards have been replaced by perfectly aligned photos of the landscapes they are blocking.
From the DesertX project page:
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, the Yippies (Youth International Party) nominated a pig for president, with the campaign pledge: “They nominate a president and he eats the people. We nominate a president and the people eat him.” This porcine political maneuver was the brainchild of sixties activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin.
Shortly after the events of 9/11, a group of NYC women came together in protest of the Bush Administration's use of the terror attacks to justify war. Seeking out a new form of political protest, the women decided to respond to what they believed were the absurd reactions of Bush by attaching paper maché missile "dicks" and demonstrating in public.
When people think of feminist protests of the 1960s, they most often think of bra burning at the Miss America pageant. This is super lame because bras weren’t even burned at that protest, just discarded into a trash can. It’s hard to imagine why this trope has persisted over the decades. Bras are an investment, so I have a hard time believing that any of my friends would willingly burn expensive (and sometimes really fun) garments.
From an article in BoredPanda:
"If you’ve ever felt like your voice and opinion doesn’t matter in the vast world, then Seth is here to prove you wrong. This New Yorker runs the ‘Dude With Sign’ Instagram account where he uploads photos of himself protesting the strangest, weirdest, most random things. And the best thing is, we can relate to most of what he’s written on his signs.
As the death toll from Israel’s attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip continues to rise, a guerrilla projection on May 13, 2021 illuminated a building in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood with messages of solidarity with Palestinians.
Police in Jamaica kill three people a week with impunity. But one woman, Shackelia Jackson, is determined to get justice for her murdered brother.
Shackelia Jackson’s email signature reads, “Broken, not Destroyed.” After her brother Nakiea was shot by police in 2014, Jackson has spent years fighting for justice for him and other victims of extra-judicial killings.
The Revolutionary Theatre project co-written, co-directed and acted by writers, artists and poets currently living, surviving and sometimes thriving in Single Room Occupancy Hotels aka poor people housing in the Bay Area.
Greenpeace released a video to spread the word that Nestle, the maker of Kit Kat, was using palm oil purchased from companies that are destroying the Indonesian rainforest and pushing orangutans towards extinction. The video, which features a guy opening a Kit Kat at work, pulling out an orangutan finger and taking a bite, shocked hundreds of thousands of viewers. The Greenpeace campaign against Nestle was a success.
The Great Wall of Los Angeles represents a minority perspective/p.o.v. of the history of the city. Judy Baca first began the mural in 1974 through SPARC at the rise of the Chicano movement. The project was a part of the community and completed by Baca, other local artists and local youth volunteers. This mural is effective in depicting the racial tension of the past, but maybe it would be enhanced by a prospective future.
At Souvenir Stands, Selling Tourists on Ending Stop-and-Search
By COREY KILGANNON
New York Times, City Blog, August 27, 2012
Last week, a 37-year-old artist from Oakland, Calif., named Aaron Gach joined the crowds of tourists swarming the sidewalk souvenir stands set up around the perimeter of Battery Park in Lower Manhattan.
While most people slept, a trio of artists and some helpers installed a bust of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Brooklyn on Monday April 6. They fused it to part of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, a memorial to Revolutionary War soldiers. By later that day, officials had removed the bust. But then a group called The Illuminator art collective replaced the missing bust with a hologram projection of Snowden.
The Overpass Light Brigade (Milwaukee, WI), has been working with Idle No More (WI) in order to give visibility to the cultural and environmental costs of opening up Northern Wisconsin to iron mining. The proposal will soon be voted on and likely passed by the conservative Wisconsin legislature which has been purchased by the Gogebic Mining Company.
The federal DREAM Act is back. This week Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the longtime champion of the bill, chaired the first ever Senate hearing on the narrow legalization effort that would allow a select population of undocumented youth a pathway toward citizenship.
With more than 48,000 panels and 94,000 names, the AIDS quilt is a constantly growing testament to the deadly toll the disease has taken on the world. At roughly 1.3 million square feet, it is so large that it can’t be displayed in its entirety in one place. Parts of it are currently on display at the National Mall, with volunteers constantly switching sections in and out.
It’s the summer of 1971 and tourists flock around one of Washington DC’s most famous hotspots – the Capitol steps. Journalist Art Goldberg recalls ‘a squad of soldiers moving through the space. They are grubby-looking troopers, clad in jungle fatigues. Jumping a low fence, they begin shouting at a group of tourists. “All right! Hold it! Hold it! Nobody move. Nobody move!” Their voices full of tension and anger. A man runs from the crowd.
Two weeks ago, the University released the final version of its diversity and inclusion action plan, which could not have been compiled without the exhaustive efforts of students throughout last semester.
"Writing Political Music in Today's World" I began studying composition with Fred Ho without knowing quite what I was getting myself into. I was 25 with a fresh graduate degree in composition under my belt, lost in that special way only millennial twenty-somethings get to be. I knew I wanted to write political works and, having met Fred twice before, I knew that he was the one who could help me do it.
Upon the release of the 1996 Maxis Inc. computer game SimCopter, the company discovered programmer Jacques Servin had secretly added scantily clad male CPUs to appear in the game and make out with the player character.
The Milk Truck is a combination of guerrilla theatre, activism and slapstick humour. When a woman finds herself in a situation where she is discouraged, harassed, or unwelcome to breastfeed her baby in public, she contacts The Milk Truck. The truck summons social media supporters and arrives to the location of the woman in need, providing her with a shelter for feeding her baby.
By James Gerken
An estimated 40,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. on Sunday for the Forward on Climate Rally on the National Mall. The rally preceded a march to the White House to urge President Barack Obama to take action against climate change and reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Keith Haring was an American artist and activist in 1980s New York, whose artwork raised awareness on social issues at the time. One the main awareness campaigns Haring participated on was AIDS awareness and activism.