remembering who we are event write up

My partner in crime, Lindsay Starbuck, has written an amazing blog about Saturday's event, feturing really nice photos.

It can be read here: http://andsomeplyers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/remembering-who-we-are-event_27.html

remembering who we are event london, photos

Remembering Who We Are event, 26/1/13

 

To celebrate the closing of the Shape & Situate exhibition at Space Station Sixty-Five gallery in London, myself and Lindsay Draws organised an event, gathering together a heap of art depicting and educating on social-and-political history, alongside amazing social justice/creative resistance art projects and film documentation. Some of the work shown is featured in these photos.

All the info about the day's events can be found at: http://remember-who-u-are.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/updates-to-remembering-who-we-are.html

My photos aren't the best, so keep your eyes on the Space Station Sixty-Five website, and Caged Bird Club blog for further photos and documentation; they're likely to have documented things in a less-rushed manner, and captured some of the atmosphere.

The day featured contributions from: Peter Willis, Edd Baldry, Justseeds, Caged Bird Club (Matthew and Lindsay), Lindsay Starbuck, Melanie Maddison, David Lester, Fly, Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring, Favianna Rodriguez, Melanie Cervantes, Jesus Barazza, Margareta Kern, Mary Tremonte, Occuprint, Rhythms of Resistance samba band, and all the contributors to Shape & Situate zine.

p.s. All these photos were taking before the doors opened to the public - a huge amount of people came and shared the day with us, you just can't see them on these shots!! Huge thanks to everybody who attended, it was such a great day; thank you for your questions, participation, attention, and enthusiasm for all the work.

Extra special thanks to Rachael, Jo, Rachel and Joe at SS65.

Photo set can be viewed at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151199687996073.439208.610521072&type=1&l=dc89846ff7

the beautiful resistance

So many amazing social justice/creative resistance art projects and film documentation is coming out at the moment. Here's another, that we made reference to at yesterday's 'Remembering Who We Are' event in London...



The Beautiful Resistance

Filmed over the course of a year and a half in seven different cities, The Beautiful Resistance is the story of four Latino artists and how they've used their work to fight Arizona's immigration laws and change the perceptions of Latinos in America.

Watch at: http://vimeo.com/57627513

anthology of real-life accounts by women campaigners

From my inbox:



Fwd: Calling women campaigners (or friends of!)

contact: helena AT warmlight DOT co DOT uk

Dear friend,

I have been commissioned, along with Angharad Penrhyn Jones, to produce an anthology of real-life accounts by women campaigners.

These are stories and experiences that need recording and preserving. They will be compiled in an anthology, edited by Angharad Penrhyn Jones and Helena Earnshaw, and published by Honno, Welsh Women's Press, in 2014. We are trying to locate a variety of real life experiences by women from across the UK who have been involved in an inspirational campaign or action.

I hope that you might be either interested in sharing your experience, or passing this message on to others you know.

Love and thanks,
Helena


Calling women campaigners
Campaigning Voices
Honno Welsh Women's Press are looking for real-life accounts from women across the UK who have taken part in an inspirational action or campaign – local, national or international. These stories will be compiled in an anthology and published in 2014 by Honno Press.

Whether you occupied a tree at Newbury, walked to Greenham, stood up against discrimination or helped save a hospital, we would love to hear from you. We would also love to hear your recommendations of other women whose stories you believe should be included.

What inspired you to get involved? What was your experience of the campaign/action? How did it affect you and your family? And how did it change you? Some stories will take the form of personal essays; others will be based on interviews. So if you are not a confident writer, but you have a powerful story to tell, please get in touch.

We need a one-page summary describing the kind of campaign you were involved in, where it took place (and where you are from), the year(s) it took place and your email address. We are happy to preserve your anonymity. Let us know if you would prefer to be interviewed.

Please submit your summary to submissions@honno.co.uk by 31st March 2013.

Editors: Angharad Penrhyn Jones (campaigner, film-maker and writer) and Helena Earnshaw (former editor at OneWorld.net, writer for Big Issue Cymru and involved in McSpotlight and peace campaigns in Wales.)

Honno Welsh Women's Press was founded in 1986 by a group of women who felt that Welsh women needed a voice. The start up money was raised through crowd funding, with contributions from over 400 women across Wales. Honno has published more than a hundred titles, including twenty-eight anthologies of Welsh women's writing.

Full details at: http://www.honno.co.uk/campaignsubmissions.php

migration now

So many amazing social justice/creative resistance art projects coming out at the moment. Here's another from my inbox...


MIGRATION NOW!

A limited-edition portfolio of handmade prints addressing migrant issues from Justseeds & CultureStrike.
The Migration Now portfolio is finished! 37 prints by amazing artists from all over North America, addressing migrant issues- featuring El Mac, Imin Yeh, Lalo Alcaraz, and many others as well as the work of artists from Justseeds and Culture Strike! Check it out here:

http://migrationnow.com/

A limited-edition portfolio of handmade prints addressing migrant issues from Justseeds & CultureStrike.

Migration is a phenomenon, not a problem, something that simply is. The right to migrate and to move freely is our human right. When societies restrict or choke off the movements of their citizens, they end up doing the work of a dam- they generate power and control floods, but in doing so they destroy life and wreck the surrounding space.

We want to re-imagine migration as an inevitability, as a social practice that is not to be prevented but to be related to, like weather. All migration starts with social relationships. When people move, they are going either towards their families or communities, or more often, away from them. They move to help their relatives, or support them by leaving. People migrate because their homes stifle them, because those homes become burdens they need to shed in order to have full lives. They move in search of opportunity, or to escape their past, or to simply survive. They move because of lies they are told and that they come to believe, and they move to fulfil the most beautiful and fragile of dreams. Migration is fundamentally about our right to move freely across planet Earth, in search of our fullest and best selves.

Check out the project website for more information about the project and the artists involved.

37 handmade 12" x 18" prints in heavyweight printed paper cover

migration is beautiful

We'll be showing this documentary, with Favianna's permission, as part of the Remembering Who We Are event on January 26th at SS65. But for those that can't make it, please consider watching this really important video series about the role of art in migration issues and social justice.

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PART 1: http://bit.ly/WKNLlt
PART 2: http://bit.ly/TPUopR
PART 3: http://bit.ly/10n5jMN




Documentary Web Series "Voice of Art” Releases Episode, "Migration is Beautiful", highlighting the growing movement of artists, designers, performers and musicians working for migrant justice, featuring Activist and Artist Favianna Rodriguez

Also Features Actor and Activist Rosario Dawson and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Undocumented Activist Jose Antonio Vargas

Episode a part of weekly series that airs on Pharrell Williams' i am OTHER YouTube Channeland produced by Black Dog Films

Watch here:http://bit.ly/10ujZtH

 

Los Angeles, CA. – Voice of Art, a powerful new documentary series on Pharrell Williams’ i am Other YouTube Channel, is releasing a three part series episode featuring Artist and Activist Favianna Rodriguez, Actor and Activist Rosario Dawson and Pulitzer Prize Winning Author Undocumented Activist Jose Antonio Vargas. The episode focuses on artists-activists using online and offline art and activism to bring about definitive changes to immigration policy and perceptions of immigrants.

Most recently, the definitive role of Latino and other artists in US politics was highlighted in recent elections in which both Presidential candidates were forced to respond to artist and activist concerns around immigration, as Latino voters in particular exercised unprecedented power and influence.

The episode features Favianna Rodriguez, a leading voice in the movement of artists facing down the tide of anti-immigrant hatred, and follows her to the front lines of the immigration battle in Tucson, Arizona and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, where Rodriguez joins undocumented activists from the historic No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice, risking arrest, and other abuse from authorities.

Alongside rappers, emcees, street artists, painters, poets and performers, Rodriguez launched a historic cultural campaign turning the monarch butterfly into an iconic symbol of the immigrant rights movement and of the beauty and dignity of migrants and their journeys.

Other notable voices in the piece include Pulitzer-prize winning author, Jose Antonio Vargas; UndocuQueer artivist, Julio Salgado; both of who were featured on TIME Magazine’s June 2012 Cover Story. Tucson Attorney and Human Rights Activist, Isabel Garcia; Writer and Presente.org co-founder, Roberto Lovato, and Emcee, and Jasiri X.

Additionally, I am OTHER is calling on viewers to upload photos of butterflies to Facebook tagging i am OTHER’s page and using the #migrationisbeautiful hashtag. The first 100 people will personally receive one of Favianna’s iconic butterfly stickers.

 

ABOUT FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ

Favianna is transnational interdisciplinary artist and cultural organizer that works for social change. A recent instructor at Stanford University, her art and online organizing projects deal with migration, global politics, economic disparity, patriarchy, and interdependence. Rodriguez lectures globally on the power ofart, cultural organizing and technology to inspire social change, and she also leads art workshops at universities around the country. In 2011, she co-founded CultureStrike, a national organization that works to engage artists in migrant rights. In 2009 she cofounded Presente.org, a national online organizing network dedicated to the political empowerment of Latino communities.

 

ABOUT VOICE OF ART

Voice of Art (VOA) is a video documentary series following the work of artists as they work towards transformation and social justice in their communities. VOA’s 30 minute episodes introduce artists, discuss the socio-political issues of their choice, and show their creative expressions – street art, graffiti, street theater, art interventions, etc. – on the chosen theme. Voice of Art has filmed artists in Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland, New York City, Tucson and Charlotte.Themes covered to date have been the battle for visual expression in public space, the military industrial complex, corporate malfeasance, police brutality, immigration reform & the pro-migrant movement, and the California fight to label genetically modified foods. The show is created by ZS Grant and John Carr.

 

Connect Online:

Blog:Voatv.org

FB: facebook.com/voatv

 

ABOUT BLACK DOG FILMS

Black Dog Films represents some of the most creative and established directorial talent in both the US and UK, and has produced exceptional content spanning music videos, art, photography, fashion, and advertising since its inception in 1991 by Jake Scott.

Connect:

Site:www.blackdogfilms.com

FB: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Dog-Films/112922132056838?fref=ts

 

ABOUT CULTURESTRIKE

CultureStrike seeks to support the national and global arts movement around immigration. It is a network of artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, and other culturalworkers who want to fight anti-immigrant hate by amplifying the stories of migrants and creating counter-narratives about migration. CultureStrike commissions, publishes, and broadcasts new art, writing and media, featuring a wide range of literature, art and ideas in its online magazine of culture and politics.

FB: Facebook.com/CultureStrike

Twitter: Twitter.com/CultureStrike

f word blog on disability benefits and work capability

Such important conversation: http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2013/01/get_an_imaginar


Petition online here: https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

Updates to Remembering Who We Are

Updated news on the 'Remembering Who We Are' event, on Saturday January 26th at Space Station Sixty Five:


Schedule (check back before the date to make sure there's no changes):

1pm - Doors open
1:15 - Videos from members of the Justseeds artist cooperative (Mary Tremonte, Melanie Cervantes, Jesus Barraza and Favianna Rodriguez)
2:15 - Peter Willis' artist talk about the Great Anarchists project
3.15 - Screening of two short films from the 'Strike 1984' project + Q&A with artist Margareta Kern
4:15 - Melanie Maddison's artist talk about the Shape and Situate: Posters of Inspirational Women zine project
4.30 - Lindsay Starbuck's artist talk about her work as street artist Pivo and with the Caged Bird Club
5:00 - Edd Baldry's artist talk about his radical illustration work
5:30 - Live performance by Rhythms of Resistance
6pm - Doors shut

- - - - - -


Remembering Who We Are: Exploring artistic and creative sociopolitical memory, and art in social change movements




Saturday 26th January 2013

www.spacestationsixtyfive.com Space Station Sixty Five, 373 Kennington Road, London, SE11 4PS

1pm-6pm


A day of presentations, exhibitions, a resource archive, video screenings, artist talks, discussions, participatory zine-making, and more.

I've been working on planning this event with the ever lovely Lindsay Starbuck.



To mark the closing day of the Posters of Inspirational European Women: Taken from the zine Shape & Situate'
exhibition, (featuring every poster ever made for the zine project - all 97 of them!) Space Station Sixty Five will be hosting a collection of resources from other sociopolitical art, poster, zine and publication projects for everyone to explore.

Inspirational work will be featured, displayed, exhibited and screened. This includes artefacts and art from projects such as: Celebrate People’s History, Occuprint, Inspired Agitators, Dead Feminists, Peops, Great Anarchists, The Life & Times of Butch Dykes, Shape & Situate, Caged Bird Club, Firebrands: Portraits of the Americas, plus many more. Other work that is not tangibly in the gallery will be shown electronically as part of presentations by various artists.



Also happening throughout the day:




Lindsay Starbuck and Melanie Maddison will give a short talk/discussion about the role, importance, and act of creative sociopolitical history projects with reference to their own work:
Caged Bird Club
and
Shape & Situate: Posters Of Inspirational European Women’



It will touch on:

 · Remembering and celebrating individual’s lives and actions via creative/art projects;

· How individual’s lives have been mis/represented in our communities via conventional history;

· Moving away from a reliance on the existence (or non-existence) of mainstream dominant written narratives about 'history';

· Memory as a political tool; and

 · Using art to inspire others to join us in creating change in the world.


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We will be showing clips from socially engaged artists who use their art practice to incite change, whose art can be viewed as activism, and/or whose art engages with the politics of memory and socio-political history.



This will include videos showing the artwork, practices and processes of:

- Melanie Cervantes, and her work with Jesus Barraza creating art within and for the Occupy movement and Dignidad Rebelde



- Mary Tremonte, and her work with Justseeds visual resistance artists co-operative



- Fly, and her work with the PEOPs project


///

Video on Favianna Rodriguez, and the role of her work in migration issues (www.favianna.com)

We will be showing a "Voice of Art” documentary; Episode, "Migration is Beautiful", highlighting the growing movement of artists, designers, performers and musicians working for migrant justice, featuring Activist and Artist Favianna Rodriguez. (Produced by Black Dog Films)
The episode focuses on artists-activists using online and offline art and activism to bring about definitive changes to immigration policy and perceptions of immigrants.
Most recently, the definitive role of Latino and other artists in US politics was highlighted in recent elections in which both Presidential candidates were forced to respond to artist and activist concerns around immigration, as Latino voters in particular exercised unprecedented power and influence.
The episode features Favianna Rodriguez, a leading voice in the movement of artists facing down the tide of anti-immigrant hatred, and follows her to the front lines of the immigration battle in Tucson, Arizona and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, where Rodriguez joins undocumented activists from the historic No Papers No Fear Ride for Justice, risking arrest, and other abuse from authorities.
Alongside rappers, emcees, street artists, painters, poets and performers, Rodriguez launched a historic cultural campaign turning the monarch butterfly into an iconic symbol of the immigrant rights movement and of the beauty and dignity of migrants and their journeys.

 ABOUT FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ: Favianna is transnational interdisciplinary artist and cultural organizer that works for social change. A recent instructor at Stanford University, her art and online organizing projects deal with migration, global politics, economic disparity, patriarchy, and interdependence. Rodriguez lectures globally on the power of art, cultural organizing and technology to inspire social change. In 2011, she co-founded CultureStrike, a national organization that works to engage artists in migrant rights. In 2009 she cofounded Presente.org, a national online organizing network dedicated to the political empowerment of Latino communities.

///

We are proud to say that the walls of Space Station Sixty Five will be filled with a display of dozens of posters from the Celebrate People’s History project, spanning a wide range of historical moments. 

We will also be displaying all the posters from the limited edition Occuprint portfolio.


///



Edd Baldry – exhibition of Edd’s artwork, and giving a talk/starting a discussion about his work.


///



Peter Willis displaying work from his ‘Great Anarchists’ project, and giving a short talk about the zine project.


///



Margareta Kern will be screening ‘Side by Side Women Organise’, and ‘Solidarity in Action’, films that are part of her 'Strike 1984' project.
This will be followed by a discussion of the films, and about what it means to screen them now with such deep cuts to the public funds and ideological cuts to what public and commons is.


 ‘Side by Side Women Organise’, by The Other Side Video Collective with the Nottingham Women’s Support Group, Nottingham, 1985, 44 min., VHS colour transfered to DVD.

 ‘Solidarity in Action’, by Birmingham Trade Union Resource Centre, 1984, 5 min. VHS colour transfered to DVD.

 The screening focuses on women’s activism and self-organising into a national movement during the miners’ strike in 1984/85. It includes the videos made as part of the Campaign Tape Project, which involved a network of community and activist groups working together with independent film and video workshops in the making of documentary and campaign videos in support of the miners’ strike.

 “Side by Side Women Organise, documents a way in which many women in mining communities became aware of class and sexual politics and organised themselves into a national movement Women against Pit Closures. It shows the parallels they drew between their struggle and the struggles of other oppressed peoples both here and internationally, and with the many struggles of previous generations of women, often hidden in history.” (The Other Side)

 ‘Solidarity in Action!’ is short, five-minute video showing the practicalities and the importance of the food collections that numerous women's groups have been organizing, in support of the Miners’ strike. It is made by Birmingham Trades Council Women's Group.

 Screened with the kind permission of the North-East Film & Television Archive.
 Part of ‘strike1984’ an experimental artist-led research project by Margareta Kern, funded by Leverhulme Trust and Durham University, where Kern is currently artist-in-residence.



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We will have an inviting creative space for people to contribute to the zine, Remembering Who We Are’, a zine looking at our own individual intersections with politics and action. The zine seeks to capture unique stories of formative events or influential people in our lives. We want to hear, see and share examples of moments that have shaped or are shaping people's political values and have made them into who they are today. 

We will be seeking contributions throughout the day, come visit the zine-making clubhouse designed by members of the Caged Bird Club for everyone to get creative and work on contributions.


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Space will be provided for people to initiate and participate in discussions autonomously; we welcome anyone to propose their own discussions and invite others to take part. This will be an opportunity for people to respond to what they are seeing and hearing on the day, and to shape further discussion, creativity, scheming and collaboration.

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The day will close with a performance by Rhythms of Resistance playing Samba to protest and dance to!



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For a full schedule and up to date running order, sign up to the Facebook event page. Or, you can email rememberingzine@gmail.com for updates.



Poster by: Lindsay Starbuck

Head to her blog for a free downloadable poster!