There is a large Filipino community in the Bay Area that organizes and fights for better workers’ rights and educating youth of color. There are groups within this community that address these issues through hip-hop.
Kiwi Illafonte, 40, is a Bay Area political rapper who talks about social issues in his music.
“Social change is at the center of my universe,” Illafonte said.
Oakland-based artist-activists Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza teamed up to form Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration working for social change. They believe that art can be an empowering reflection of
community struggles, dreams and visions, and following principles of
Xicanisma and Zapatismo, create work that translates people’s stories
From the two shores of the Mediterranean, Zoukak theatre company and cultural association (Beirut) and Center for cultural decontamination CZKD (Belgrade) collaborates by sharing their experiences and knowledge in working within sociopolitical contexts in the field of art and culture.
UndocuNation, a performance and visual art conglomeration, took place this past Friday at International House. The Center for Race and Gender at Berkeley, CultureStr/ke, and the Theater and Dance Performance Studies department here at UC Berkeley helped put on the show specifically for Berkeley students. The show’s main focus was on the complex issues of undocumented immigration, and what that can mean for students especially.