I watched a Youtube video by the African American Policy Forum #SayHerName: The Mothers of the Movement, which featured a short series of clips from interviews of the mothers and grandmothers of Black women murdered by police. It was moving seeing these women speak about their personal connections with the women killed and hear how the #SayHerName…[Read more]

In the process of doing my final project I got really curious about what other art has emerged during and been inspired by the Black Lives Matter Movement. I stumbled upon Nina Chanel Abney, a black woman artists based in NY, in an article titled “</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The most powerful art from the #BlackLivesMatter movement, t…[Read more]

I chose the album cover, Stankonia by Outkast because it seems to have a political message but the songs it consists of are not overtly political. I think this album, as an art piece, reflects Black musicians complex relationship with race, America, music, identity and hip hop. The album cover which shows Big Boi and Andre 3000 in color over the…[Read more]

The photo I chose was a screenshot I took of a video of Porsha Olayiwola reciting her poem called “Angry Black Woman.” During her performance she humanizes and contextualizes the angry Black woman stereotype. She is “pissed the fuck off” for many valid reasons, but this is not the only emotion she feels and she should not be demonized for express…[Read more]

I found this photo of demonstrators in Havana, Cuba in May 1971 while looking at an article titled “The Anti-Vietnam War Movement in 39 Photos” by Savannah Cox. It reminded me that anti-war protests were  happening internationally, not just in America or Vietnam, but beyond. A photo of three Black Cuban women holding a sign saying, “Yankis fuera…[Read more]

I saw a post on Instagram by @defendboyleheights, an account and collective dedicated to resisting gentrification in Boyle Heights, about how Metro bike share is a mode of gentrification which is a form of white and affluent invasion of non-white, poor space. I think Boyle Heights is a prime example of something Elijah Anderson discussed,…[Read more]

I decided to share two photos of Mari Copeny, Little Miss Flint, a now 11 year old activist in Flint, Michigan that began her activist work at the age of 8, when the Flint water crisis began in 2014. She wrote a letter to Obama expressing the dire conditions Flint residents, including Flint children like herself, had to deal with. This letter…[Read more]

Donald Trump, on October 23, tweeted accusing Puerto Rico’s politicians on trying to use the hurricane relief money to pay off debts. He did not cite where he got his information or provide any evidence, but these claims are now shaping his politics toward Puerto Rico. He just announced that he doesn’t want the US government to give Puerto Ric…[Read more]

I found an interactive pollution map of LA by the Los Angeles Times that provides a detailed account of the environmental impact index of every area. It is clear that communities of color, surrounded by freeways, are impacted the most. These poor, communities of color are painted red, indicating they are burdened with being exposed to the most…[Read more]

This week I chose a comic that is a visual representation of how ridiculous it is that the US government pretends to not have the resources to give reparations to black people for their long history of racism, particularly slavery and exploitation. The effects of this deeply racist history are still present and the US still benefits from it.…[Read more]

The image I chose is of a 1939 “residential security” map of Los Angeles, color-coding and ranking neighborhoods based off (racist) notions of desirability according to the HOLC at that time. I chose this image because I was curious about the history of redlining in the place I was born and raised. It’s interesting to see how things have changed o…[Read more]

I chose a photograph from Zig Jackson’s (aka Rising Buffalo) series called Entering Zig’s Reservation. This Untitled photo taken in 1998 showed Zig’s dark humor while reflecting on issues of tourism, land rights, sovereignty, and tribal traditions. I wanted a photograph that showed Native American’s relationships with land and addressed land ri…[Read more]