Writing for Impact & Social Change
March 14, 2011
Girls' education, by Haki Elimu
World Comics, an all-volunteer NGO based in Finland, trains communities to create their comics, which are used to highlight social issues like women’s rights, education, and health.
The group leads workshops and holds exhibitions and offers free downloads of its guides and manuals for running your own workshop.
Read some sample grassroots comics from countries like Burundi, Pakistan, and Lebanon.
March 11, 2011
© JR
In 2010 he was awarded the TED2011 Prize, granting him a “wish” to change the world. Last week he revealed that wish: a global participatory art project called Inside Out.
It works like this: you take a B&W portrait, upload it to Inside Out’s website, and JR will send it back to you in poster form. Then it’s up to you to find the “right” wall.
The project encourages individual or group action. (You can even “donate a wall” to display art if photography’s not your thing).
JR believes a photo can change perceptions and turn around prejudices—he aims to change minds and “make the invisible visible.”
Inside Out is certainly the kind of project that gets people off their couches and engaging with the world. And in this current narcissistic culture it’s good to take the focus off ourselves.
And, by working on a scale usually reserved for advertising and billboards, JR’s project brings a little social action to photography.
But politically-minded art begs an outcome. Will Inside Out inspire people to follow-through and take real action, or is this another cool, “hip” exercise? Is the world ready for street art with a conscience?
Learn more at Inside Out Project.
March 7, 2011 2 Comments
http://www.zazzle.com/weaverphoto
WISCONSIN’S LONG TRADITION OF PROTEST AND PROGRESSIVE ACTION is once again producing loud and outspoken art, especially music.
Here are three of the many videos produced during the protests—the art of the protest song is alive and well in Wisconsin:
1. Imperial Walker by IfIHadAHiFi: The Wisconsin rock group goes right to the heart of the issue, in a full-on rock song about Governor Walker and his class war against the “Wisconsin rebels.” (And kudos, Wisconsin, for the Star Wars reference).
Listen to “Imperial Walker at the band’s site.
Here’s a making-of video:
2. Wisconsin “Budget Repair Bill” Protest by Matt Wisniewski: While not an original composition, this already-viral video is an inspiring look at the protestors in the Capitol Building set to the aptly-chosen “Rebellion (LIES)” by Arcade Fire:
3. Sam Frederick, “Scott Walker Protest Song” Thirteen-year old public school student Sam Frederick performed his song (which he wrote for his teachers) at the second rally held at the state capitol in February.
The song features the lyric, “We can’t let Scott Walker walk all over our land”:
March 3, 2011
MARCH IS WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH in the U.S., a reflection on the pioneers and leaders who paved the way for social change.
But how about celebrating women’s achievements everywhere, and how their efforts are changing the world today?
An international group of 54 disabled women activists appear in “Loud, Proud, & Passionate!”, a video created by Mobility International USA to raise awareness for women with disabilities worldwide.
The women—CEOs, teachers, engineers, political candidates, and writers—sign and sing in English, Arabic, and Spanish (video is captioned):
More on empowering women with disabilities. Here’s a list of global perspectives on women with disabilities.
February 18, 2011 1 Comment
U.S. Constitution © Pamela Vander Zwan 2009
What does this splintered state of mind mean for us when we need to tackle the “big issues,” like poverty, jobs, democracy, and human rights?
© Pamela Vander Zwan 2009
There’s no evidence in the pictures that anyone is held against her will or “oppressed.” Presumably you could just reach around and remove the blindfold.
So will we remove our blindfolds? How does sight equal awareness, and how does awareness lead to social change?
February 17, 2011
WHY SETTLE FOR ONE MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD when you can have two? A political movement-met-street theater in New York this week with not one, but two impersonators of the Iranian president.
The two “presidents” satirized the Iranian leader as part of Iran180, a campaign advocating for the Iranian government to do “a 180″ on human rights and nuclear policy.
The group’s been staging street events and protest theater as a way to say “yes to human rights, no to nuclear rights.” Here’s a video of the group’s protest outside the Iranian U.N. Mission in New York on February 14th:
Meanwhile, clashes between pro-democracy demonstrators and government continue in Tehran.
February 14, 2011 1 Comment
BRAZILIAN ARTIST CARLOS LATUFF is political cartoonist and advocate for Arab rights. His work primarily addresses the Palestinian cause and he spent three years drawing a cartoon blog about the war in Iraq.
Here’s his image on Egypt’s revolution, which highlights the role that Egypt’s young people played in deposing Mubarak:
Latuff is a prolific cartoonist who posts new cartoons every day. As the protests and uprisings continue to spread in the Middle East, he’s creating new images, like this one on Algeria:
More of Latuff’s work can be found here or follow him on Twitter.
February 10, 2011 1 Comment
THIS PIECE OF STREET ART depicting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared on a wall in a Sydney suburb:
As he fights extradition Assange is calling for a safe return to Australia. He addressed a public forum in Melbourne via prerecorded message on Friday. In addition to his own legal battle, Assange is also at the center of a debate on what constitutes online media and press freedom.
February 9, 2011 1 Comment
THE KHMER ROUGE EXECUTED THOUSANDS at the S-21 Prison in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, during Pol Pot’s genocidal regime. On the prison’s former grounds is the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide, which houses nearly 6,000 photos of prisoners who were murdered there between 1975-79. Nearly 2 million people in all died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
A recent visit to the museum inspired Dutch artist Peter Klashorst to make art from genocide. He created paintings based on the 6,000 surviving photos of Cambodians who were arrested, tortured and killed at S-21. Klashorst’s canvasses are two-meter high enlarged portraits of those photos.
The addition of color and the size of the portrait takes these faces out of the past and brings their memory into the present. As Klashorst told an interviewer, “When you see the thousands of faces in the museum, it’s as though you see friends, acquaintances and old lovers among the images.”
All the works by Klashorst can be viewed at his website.
February 7, 2011
Maimuna Galgano, NO, 2007, Pakistan.
Thirty-two international contemporary artists from 25 countries contribute photographs, video, and installations. The artist’s message is never obvious but always incisive, such as Maimuna Galgano’s piece, “NO,” where a simple dress form and wedding veil calls attention to the practice of bride burning.
Not all the pieces are about women as victims, however. In a video installation, Eva Sussman updates The Rape of the Sabine Women and shows how women can be a force for positive change; and Mona Hatoum’s work calls all women to stand up against violence:
Each section in the exhibition shows how violence is, unfortunately, still present in every aspect of women’s lives: as individuals, in domestic life, as part of their overall culture and community, and politically. But by interpreting this fact through art we can start to cut through our blindness and take action.
You can “walk through” a tour of exhibition at Art for Change’s website. For more information, visit the Chicago Cultural Center.
