“When artists run for office”
Jul 15
Featured this issue: Kristina Wong (photo by Tom Fowler)
“As people who make art, we make democracy by making messages.”
Each month in the Artists for Democracy newsletter, we share actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy as well as legislation in the works. We also profile an artist whose work reflects democratic values.
ACTION ITEM
Run for office
If you’ve ever seen an elected official in action and thought, I could do better than that, then you should run for office. If you’ve ever seen a law passed and wished for a different outcome, you should run for office. Imagine your local government filled with artists as elected officials!
Politicians don’t come from outer space. They are people just like you and me who want to influence the rules we live by in a democratic society. As artist and local elected official Kristina Wong says below, our democracy makes more sense when you see it from the inside.
If you want to make sure we have a democracy for years to come, you should run for office.
You don’t need special skills to do it. If you’ve ever organized a party or had a conversation with another person about things that matter to you, then you have a base to build on. If you’re thinking about running, these how-to articles from NPR and Kiplinger are a great place to start.
There are all sorts of local and statewide offices you can run for. Many of them go uncontested year after year, election after election. Organizations are out there to help you get your campaign off the ground, with training, campaign support, and/or endorsements. Some are free while others are paid. Each focuses on a different group of people:
National Democratic Training Committee works with Democrats and Progressives
New American Leaders works with immigrants
Many groups work with women, including
Victory Institute works with LGBTQ leaders
Run for Something works with Gen-X and Millennials
If the idea of a political campaign seems overwhelming, there are other routes to government influence. Local governments often have boards and commissions to advise them on everything from urban design to disability policies to public transit. Members are generally appointed by an elected body, from a pool of volunteer applicants. You can even influence cultural policy! Across the US there are more than 4,500 local arts agencies, most of which have some kind of volunteer advisory body. These kinds of boards and commissions can be a great way to influence public policy.
They might also be the gateway drug to running for office.
This is a sign you should run for office (Source: SignOutfitters)
LEGISLATION YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
American Families Plan
Back in March, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law, pouring money into much-needed relief, child assistance, and vaccination programs. In May we told you about the American Jobs Plan (aka Infrastructure Bill) that’s still a work in progress.
The American Families Plan is the third in legislative series designed to kick-start the economy and support communities as we build our way out of the pandemic. The Families plan will guarantee free universal preschool and two years of free community college to all Americans, prepare new teachers and provide training to those already working, and offer support for child care and paid leave for parents. It will expand unemployment and tax credits for those still struggling to find jobs, and will close loopholes for the rich and make tax rates more fair.
It’s always a good time to contact your elected representatives and let them know what you think about pending legislation.
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
Kristina Wong
“Democracy is a constantly active chia pet with an endless need for sun and water.”
Performance artist Kristina Wong is best known for solo theater shows and culture jamming, using humor to explore difficult subjects and amplify marginalized experiences. When she was elected to the Wilshire Center Koreatown Sub-District 5 Neighborhood Council in Los Angeles in 2019, it was performance, but it was also very real.
Stepping into her role as an elected official, she quickly learned that she had to choose her battles, focusing on what she cares about and making decisions about what is important. She’s learned that “politicians are powerful, and yet they’re not.”
Wong calls them hall monitors, working in a structure that is often complicated and frustrating. “They’re supposed to be leaders, to inspire and direct us. But they get mired in stuff when they get into office.”
Becoming an elected official has been an ongoing civics lesson for Wong. She’s learned that the system of checks and balances our government is built on prevents officials from running off and doing crazy things. But it also means interminable meetings, strange jargon, limits on what any single official can do, and paperwork. “It only makes sense when you participate in it.”
Kristina Wong for Public Office (photo by Annie Lesser)
In early 2020, Wong launched the acclaimed Auntie Sewing Squad which grew into a national network of volunteers sewing masks for vulnerable communities. They sew masks as an active critique of a government that failed to respond to the pandemic. Primarily women, many of them women of color, these “aunties” have been intentional about making their labor and their politics visible.
“This is what an artist who can’t run an ensemble theatre does in a pandemic,” Wong says.
Her experiences with the Auntie Sewing Squad and as an elected official have led her to ask deeper questions about the role of nonprofits and government in addressing inequality and solving big problems. Why should volunteers have to take the shirts off their backs and cut off their bra straps to make masks when the government could have mailed a mask to every American? We could have had a comprehensive, national response to the pandemic, rather than a state-by-state patchwork.
“We are relying way too much on nonprofits to clean up the messes or holes that government has left behind.”
Wong recently amended her earlier artist statement, saying that, “artists might not want the responsibility of fixing the world… but cultural shifts propel social movements forward, ultimately being what will dismantle white supremacy.”
Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord (photo by Tom Fowler)
Wong believes artists have a critical role to play in shifting government policies by first shifting culture. She cites the long history of normalizing LGBTQ+ relationships in art, film, and television. This put pressure on courts and elected officials who began to change laws state by state. Ultimately the Supreme Court acted to legalize equal marriage.
“As people who make art, we make democracy by making messages. We live certain values. That ultimately shifts the culture of the country.”
The stage isn’t a neutral space, Wong says. In fact, the stage is everywhere. Politicians know this. They stage manage every public appearance, from eating pizza on the campaign trail to signing a bill into law. Artists can shift culture and pressure the hall monitors by taking their work out of the theater and into the community. Rather than keeping the artist separate from the audience, create a circle of relationships.
The work of building that circle, Wong says, is the work of building democracy.
Kristina Wong for Public Office Trailer (video and editing by LA Art Documents)
Visit Kristina Wong’s website for more information about her and upcoming events. You can also watch her campaign videos or visit the Auntie Sewing Squad.
“Act Now! For the People”
Jun 16
Featured this issue: Fabian Debora, seen here in front of his mural, El Poder de la Mujer
“Don’t be afraid to tell your truth.”
Each month in the Artists 4 Democracy newsletter, we share actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy as well as legislation in the works. We also profile an artist whose work reflects democratic values.
ACTION ITEM
Act Now! For the People
Back in April we told you about the For the People Act, a bill in Congress that would strengthen voting rights for all Americans. Since then, even more states have passed voter suppression bills that will make it harder for Americans—especially BIPOC Americans—to vote. Many are calling this wave of anti-voter laws “Jim Crow 2.”
The For the People Act would overturn many of these voter suppression laws while also making our voting systems more secure. It would reduce corruption by making politicians tell us where all their money comes from. (For details, read the Brennan Center’s deep analysis.)
Congress is expected to vote on the For the People Act very soon (perhaps within days), so it’s time right now for you to tell your Senators what you think. It will take less than 15 minutes.
Then take it to the next level! Get a group of friends together on zoom or in real life to make your calls. No matter where you live, your Senators need to hear from you today.
LEGISLATION YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
Ending qualified immunity
“Qualified immunity” is a legal concept that protects police from being held personally liable for violating a person’s civil rights. While in theory it’s meant to protect police who often have to make “split-second” decisions in dangerous situations, in reality it acts as a barrier to accountability and justice for victims of police violence.
The concept first appeared in 1871 as a way of protecting federal government employees fighting Ku Klux Klan violence in the wake of the Civil War. It was intended to prevent nuisance and other lawsuits against individuals who were simply doing their job.
Qualified immunity became judicial doctrine in the 1960s, when it began to be used to shield police officers from being held personally liable if they could say that they “acted in good faith" and could claim that they had "probable cause." Even in cases in which it is proven that a police officer violated a person’s civil rights, qualified immunity protects officers from being held to account. Even when police act recklessly or intentionally do harm, qualified immunity protects them from being held personally responsible for their actions.
Since the 1980s, the Supreme Court has strengthened this protection so much that many experts say it is nearly impossible to hold police officers accountable for misconduct and breaking the law.
(Like the technical details? Read more about qualified immunity at Cornell Law School, Congressional Research Service, and Lawfare.)
Qualified immunity is unpopular with Americans and opposed by people at all points on the political spectrum. The American Bar Association has described it as illogical, unjust, and fundamentally unlawful. The ACLU calls it a “get out of jail free” card. The conservative Cato Institute describes it as a “legal, practical and moral failure.” The Law Enforcement Action Partnership, made up of police, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials, and other law enforcement officials, wrote an open letter to Congress urging an end to qualified immunity.
Two bills have been introduced in Congress: the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act includes a provision for ending qualified immunity, and the Ending Qualified Immunity Act would eliminate it at the state and local level. But states aren’t waiting for the federal government to act. At least 25 states are considering legislation to reform or eliminate qualified immunity. Colorado, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have already passed some kind of limitation on its use.
What is your state legislature doing to address qualified immunity?
Mural of George Floyd by Eme Street Art in Mauerpark (Berlin, Germany), photo by Singlespeedfahrer at Wikimedia Commons
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
Fabian Debora
“Paint what you see, what you feel, and the rest will fall in place.”
For painter and muralist Fabian Debora, democracy should come from the same place art should: community. His work is filled with images, concepts, and colors drawn from the people he grew up with, lives with, and works with every day.
“For me, democracy is being able to stand in your truth and speak truth to power, to create betterment for our people.” It is about, “speaking on behalf of those who’ve been denied and disenfranchised.”
The child of immigrants from Mexico, Debora grew up in Boyle Heights, an unincorporated community east of the LA River that has been home to waves of immigrants and is today nearly 95 percent Latinx. While incomes are low and poverty is high compared to the rest of Los Angeles, Boyle Heights is rich with history and arts, the streets alive with small businesses and community life.
As Debora puts it, “You say it’s a gang-infested area. I say there’s culture there.”
Peeling Back the Concrete by Fabian Debora
While his talent for drawing was recognized early, Debora fell in with local gangs and addiction. He spent time in and out of youth detention and jail. It was Father Gregory Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, who intervened with a probation officer and set up an apprenticeship with Wayne Healy and David Botello, two artists who had emerged from the Chicano mural movement to create the acclaimed East Los Streetscrapers.
In all these people taking a chance on a young man with no direction, Debora sees democracy in action. “When we really invest in folks and not throw them away, that’s what democracy is.”
When politicians scapegoat immigrants and poor people, Debora says, they inflict pain and do very real harm, such as that which he himself experienced growing up. It creates confusion and trauma, even a loss of identity, when government policies deny rights to certain individuals because of where they were born or the color of their skin. Those policies, he says, are unfair and undemocratic.
He offers a better alternative: “The more we invest in people and see them as human, the better our country will be.”
Homegirl by Fabian Debora
Debora wants people in the community to walk past his murals and see themselves and their stories, and to be uplifted. “I always paint real people in my murals. It’s not just about the art, but about the people in the community.” He identifies individuals in the community and learns their stories before painting them.
“Don’t be afraid to tell your truth,” his mentors urged him, and he now passes this message on to others.
To build a better democracy, Debora says we need more leaders and politicians who come from the community. We also need allies in the administration who will listen to the people and bring their stories and experiences into government. Debora himself has taken up the mantle of leadership, visiting with elected officials in Washington, DC. His has been a lifetime of personal transformation, and he now strives to model what change can look like.
“I need to bring the next homeboy or homegirl into leadership. That is democracy, too.”
Brother Hood by Fabian Debora
Learn more about Fabian Debora and his work at fabiandebora.com. You can also watch the short documentary Fabian Debora: A Life for Art and read about the artist at KCET Artbound.
“Democracy is only as strong as we are collectively.”
On infrastructure and the common good
May 17
Featured this issue: Joel Tauber
Each month in the Artists 4 Democracy newsletter, we share actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy as well as legislation in the works. We also profile an artist whose work reflects democratic values.
ACTION ITEM
Paying your taxes is patriotic
When you ask Americans, “what does it mean to be a good citizen?” one of the top two answers might surprise you:
Voting in elections
Paying all the taxes you owe
In fact, Democrats and Republicans agree on this. Half of all Americans believe what they pay in taxes is about right, or even too little, considering what they get in return. People with higher incomes are more likely to think they pay too much, but there’s a growing chorus of millionaires who argue the super-rich should be made to pay higher taxes and the money used to reduce inequality, which would strengthen our democracy.
On top of that, we now have 40 years of evidence that the Republican Party’s beloved “trickle down” theory is nothing but magical thinking. The data show that tax cuts lead to economic declines and tax increases boost the economy. Which has to make you wonder, why are they still obsessed with cutting taxes? (And where do they get some of their crazier schemes to duck their civic responsibility?)
To be sure, nobody actually likes paying taxes. But people who respond to every government initiative to help Americans get back on their feet with the mantra, “Cut taxes!” are like little kids stamping their feet and whining about having to eat their vegetables.
They’re also trying to distract us from engaging in serious policy discussions about what government should spend its money on. Should we invest in schools or prisons, nurses or SWAT teams? If you care about the answer, don’t fall for the no-taxes smoke-and-mirror show. Get involved in the struggle to make sure your government spends its money on what matters to you.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” Whether you’re scrambling to file your taxes today or handled it weeks ago, take a moment to reflect on the fact that you’re doing your civic duty for the common good and for our democracy.
LEGISLATION YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
American Jobs Plan (aka “The Infrastructure Bill”)
If you’ve driven on pretty much any American road lately, you know it’s time for some serious repairs. If you’ve lived through wildfires, floods, or drought in recent years, or even if you’ve just seen images of starving polar bears on social media, you know we need to clean up our energy systems, and fast. It’s clear by now that health care and education are critical parts of our infrastructure and need shoring up. We also need to make sure everyone in our country has access to clean drinking water and high-speed broadband internet.
America has underinvested in infrastructure for years. As a result, our infrastructure quality has fallen to #16 in the world, putting us behind Switzerland, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. What investments we have made haven’t been shared equitably.
None of this is a secret or a surprise. Even that guy in Mar-a-Lago proposed spending $2 trillion on infrastructure, way back in March 2020. Now that Biden has proposed the American Jobs Plan that will invest—wait for it—$2 trillion in infrastructure, his political opponents are shouting about how we can’t afford it.
That’s ridiculous. Despite the economic impact of the pandemic, US gross domestic product in the first quarter of 2021 was more than $22 trillion dollars, which is even higher than it was in the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic.
Opposition to this bill is ridiculous for another reason: investment in infrastructure creates jobs, which boosts the overall economy. Research has found that every additional dollar invested in infrastructure creates $3.82 in economic growth. Construction and manufacturing pay middle class wages and most of those jobs don’t require a college degree, so these will be opportunities for many of the people who’ve been hardest hit by the growth of the information economy. Well-paid workers will buy durable goods and take their families out to ball games and museums, which will have a ripple effect of creating more jobs. It’s a virtuous cycle in which we all lift each other up.
Our economy will rebound after COVID-19. If we take a laissez-faire approach and leave it to the market, we could have another jobless recovery like the one we had after the Great Recession. Instead, this infrastructure bill will help ensure that the coming recovery creates good jobs that pay living wages. It will also invest in our future by investing in child care and education. It will spread these benefits equitably to communities across the country, rebuilding failing infrastructure to benefit all of us in the long term.
If you think the American Jobs Plan is a good idea, tell your friends and your representatives in Congress.
Pothole repair in Oakland, CA. Photo by Paul Chinn, The San Francisco Chronicle
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
Joel Tauber
“Democracy implies an understanding that we’re all intertwined with each other.”
Perhaps one of the most important lessons of 2020 is that the only way we will fix America’s problems is by working together. The racial justice movement broke through because so many people spoke their truth and so many took collective action for themselves and for others. COVID-19 infection rates are finally declining because people are getting vaccinated. Elections were won because large numbers of people made phone calls, sent texts, wrote postcards and letters, gave money, helped cure ballots, and voted.
For artist Joel Tauber, caring for each other and for the common good is central to democracy. Our mythological narratives that say freedom is about pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps alone belie the truth that no country, no system in the world, can survive without understanding our responsibilities to each other. For our society to function well we need doctors and teachers and people who build roads and bridges. We must help our neighbors, and we must engage with civic and political life.
“Democracy,” he says, “is only as strong as we are collectively.” When any one of us is suffering in a detention center, killed in the street by police, or goes hungry, this impacts all of us.
Joel Tauber, "SHARE" (photo direction: Joel Tauber, shot by Kristi Chan), from The Sharing Project
Every vote matters and every voice matters. For Tauber that is the starting point for democracy. If we want to build a better democracy, we need to make sure that everyone has enough to eat and quality health care, housing, and education. In a better democracy, we will care for those not just within our borders, but also those beyond. We will care for all inhabitants of the Earth, no matter their species.
These are issues Tauber has thought about and wrestled with most of his life. He spent 12 years studying Jewish philosophy and religion and had planned to become a doctor. Now an artist, filmmaker, and activist, his long reflection on ethics, environmentalism, and responsibility are still at the center of his work.
His projects include Sick-Amour, a heartbreaking celebration of a lonely, forlorn tree in the middle of a giant parking lot in front of the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA, and Border-Ball, a 40-day pilgrimage along the US-Mexico border during which he wore a red, white, and blue baseball uniform, played catch with people, and gathered their stories of life on the border.
Joel Tauber, The Sharing Project installation at the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, California State University Long Beach
But it is Tauber’s The Sharing Project that may be the most direct physical embodiment of his values. Through written stories, an art installation, and a 29-minute film, he explores the concept of sharing with his young son, Zeke, and in interviews with experts in the field. In the film, Tauber and his son visit a forgotten Socialist commune called Happyville in South Carolina where 50 Jews from New York lived and shared everything from 1905 to 1908.
As part of the installation, he invites visitors to bring something to share. The toys, canned goods, tools, and other objects people leave become a communal sculpture at the center of the space. At the end of the show they are invited to return and take an object from the sculpture to share with someone else.
Experiments like Happyville have been erased from history, he says, because they don’t fit our ideology as a nation. Walking through the area where these men and women lived their beliefs about sharing to the fullest, every day, Tauber felt a kinship with them and wanted to bring their story back into the light.
Artists have a special set of skills and tools that can be used for persuasion, which is both an opportunity and a responsibility. Look around yourself, Tauber says, and see what needs to be repaired or improved for the greater good, then create work that generates conversations and engages complex ethical issues. “My intent is to get people to think and facilitate action,” says Tauber. “These thoughts, conversations, and actions can lead to greater change.”
Sick-Amour can be seen on Kanopy; Border-Ball is screening May 17-20 at the Carmarthen Bay Film Festival in Wales. Learn more about Tauber’s work at his website: https://joeltauber.com.
Thanks for reading the Artists 4 Democracy Newsletter. Artists 4 Democracy promotes democratic and civic engagement by mobilizing artists to get involved in political action. Through voter registration drives, fundraisers, and events we seek to foster and protect our participatory democracy. In 2021, we’re focused on building a better American democracy, one centered on racial, social, and environmental justice.
“From images to action”
Artists can help strengthen voting rights for all Americans
Apr 15
Featured this issue: Anoka Faruqee
Each month in the Artists for Democracy newsletter, we share actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy as well as legislation in the works. We also profile an artist whose work reflects democratic values.
ACTION ITEM
“Take responsibility for the face of the world”
One of the history lessons Timothy Snyder offers in his 2017 guide to resisting authoritarianism, On Tyranny, is that each of us must take responsibility for the images we display in our daily lives. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow.
When people use symbols of hate—or look away when others display them—they feed the hate itself. They make it easier for others to act in hate.
An artist may work in light and color, or texture and weight, words or sounds or movement, but our fundamental task is to change the face of the world. We bring into being something that did not exist before. We choose signs and symbols, making meaning through our references.
Snyder explains why these choices matter:
“Life is political, not because the world cares about how you feel, but because the world reacts to what you do. The minor choices we make are themselves a kind of vote, making it more or less likely that free and fair elections will be held in the future. In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much.”
When you encounter symbols of hate, remove them. Set an example for others to do the same. And when choosing images in your life and your work, choose wisely.
LEGISLATION YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
For the People Act
Voter suppression is spreading like wildfire across state capitols. Georgia’s newest voting law puts up barriers to voting and gives power to the state legislature to meddle in the administration of local county elections. As of this writing, 47 states are moving forward on at least 361 voter suppression bills.
HR 1, the For the People Act, is a critical piece of legislation that will strengthen voting rights for all Americans. The bill would expand voting rights by setting new ground rules that every state must follow. Among other things, it would:
Expand voter registration and limit states from removing voters from voter rolls
Address problems created by Citizens United by requiring much greater disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending
Require states to establish independent redistricting commissions to help reduce gerrymandering of congressional districts
Require candidates for President and Vice President of the United States to release 10 years of tax returns to the public
For all the details, check out this excellent annotated guide to the bill from the nonpartisan Brennan Center. They say HR 1 will “transform our democracy by making it fairer, stronger, and more inclusive.”
The House passed HR 1 back in March. If you want your senator to take action, here’s the number to call.
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
2019P-07 (Circle), 2019, Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll, Acrylic on linen on panel, 33.75 x 33.75 inches.
Anoka Faruqee
“What democracy means to me is having a voice and having a say in your well-being.”
As the child of immigrants who voted in her first American election before her parents did, artist Anoka Faruqee has never taken democracy or her civil rights for granted. She understands citizenship as both a privilege and a responsibility. In 2020, she gave up the time she would have spent painting to volunteer with Walk the Walk, a group of ordinary Americans who raised more than $3.2 million for BIPOC-led grassroots organizations working in some of the hardest-hit communities in battleground states.
“I literally said to myself, defeating Donald Trump is more important than my painting.”
With the 2020 election in the rearview mirror, Faruqee is painting again, but she remains deeply concerned about the fragile state of our democracy. She’s not just talking about elections. The democracy she wants to build is a truly inclusive, just, and humane, multi-racial, multi-class, multi-gender society built on a common set of ideals. The process of building consensus on those ideals is both the promise and the challenge before us, she says. “How do we bring all voices into a conversation about our ideals so that like-minded people don’t splinter?”
The core tenets of democracy laid out in America’s founding documents are visionary, Faruqee says, but we have yet to achieve them. The American exceptionalism found in the disconnect between the phrase, All men are created equal, and the reality of settler colonialism, slavery, and theft of native lands is a form of supremacy. “We have an aspiration, but a compromised democracy,” she says. “It’s a work in progress.”
2019P-27 (Circle), 2019, Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll, Acrylic on linen on panel, 56.25 x 56.25 inches.
As an abstract painter, Faruqee is interested in systems and structures, and how structures create meaning. She approached her growing political activism the same way. “You have to understand the structure if you want to change it.” As she became engaged with Walk the Walk, she looked for places where she could contribute. She started small, but soon found herself attending one Zoom meeting after another. Eventually, she became a national co-leader.
You don’t have to give up a year of your art to help build a better democracy. Find the small actions you can take and fit them into your life in a way that makes sense.
If you don’t know where to begin, Faruqee says, start with your outrage. Is there an injustice in the world that’s driving you crazy? Find a group that’s working to fix it, and ask them how you can help.
Visual artists are good at presentation, paying attention to how things look and feel, and many grassroots groups don’t have a lot of communication resources. Many artists promote themselves online, and those skills are useful, too. Or maybe there’s something else you can contribute. But don’t fall into the trap of virtue signalling. Make sure your actions match your words and images. In other words, walk the walk.
2019P-07 (Circle), 2019, Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll, Acrylic on linen on panel, 33.75 x 33.75 inches.
Faruqee encourages artists to understand and honor the incredible creativity activists and community organizers bring to their work. She sees the two as having much in common. Both are driven by deep passions. Both can see something that doesn’t yet exist, whether that is an artwork or a more just society. Both have specialized skills they hone over many years to bring what they imagine into being.
Whatever cause you care about, someone has been working on it for years. Bring your skills and your humility to support them. Trust the people working on the ground and their expertise. Trust communities of color who are closest to and most invested in the issues.
Faruqee reminds us that making choices is a fundamental aspect of democracy. You have to know who’s on the ballot. You also have to decide how you will use your time and talents. “Democracy requires attention, knowing your values and how you want to act on them.”
You can learn more about Faruqee’s work in this video with David Driscoll and on her Medium page. Or visit her website, anokafaruqee.com.
“We stand together”
Supporting our immigrant neighbors
Mar 16
Featured this issue: Sandy Rodriguez / Photo by photo by Ana Venegas, courtesy of the LA Municipal Art Gallery
Each month in the Artists for Democracy newsletter, we share actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy as well as legislation in the works. We also profile an artist whose work reflects democratic values. This month, we focus on supporting our immigrant neighbors.
ACTION ITEM
Immigrants are welcome here
Immigrants in our communities have been hit hard by racism, xenophobia, the pandemic, and the rise of so-called “America first” policies that actually undermine our democracy. In 2020, Cassils and rafa esparza organized 80 artists to create In Plain Sight, an artwork “dedicated to the abolition of immigrant detention and the United States culture of incarceration.” Skytyping planes spelled out artist-generated messages in water vapor that were visible for miles, flying over detention facilities, immigration courts, borders, and historic sites.
The vapor evaporated quickly, but the messages live on in images and in the minds of people who saw them:
Even with a new administration in the White House, continued action is needed to support our immigrant neighbors. The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) has a special page dedicated to immigration and the arts because they believe, “Law is downstream from culture.” There is so much that artists can do:
—Organize an online arts community dialogue to foster a welcoming community.
—Be visible and public in your support for immigrants. Post, tweet, talk, phonebook, make art, and write to your elected officials to let them know that #ImmigrantsAreEssential. For inspiration, watch this A4DTV artist talk with Cruz and Olivia Ortiz sharing how they engage in democracy as artists and designers.
—Support artists from immigrant communities through projects like the Define American Immigrant Creative Fellowship, Immigrant Artist Program, and TeAda Productions.
—Find your nearest immigrant detention site.
Then look for more ways to engage on all of these TAKE ACTION pages:
The border crossed us by rafa esparza / Image from In Plain Sight)
LEGISLATION YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
Creating legal pathways to citizenship
In his first days in office, President Biden announced the US Citizenship Act. If passed, this legislation would create a pathway out of the shadows and into citizenship for undocumented people who’ve lived in America for years. It would also keep families intact, protect worker rights, strengthen immigration courts, and protect asylum seekers. Right now, it has almost no chance of passing in the Senate. Read a great analysis of the bill from the National Immigration Law Center.
The House of Representatives isn’t waiting, though. They’re likely to vote soon on two bills that already passed in the House in 2019 but weren’t taken up in the Senate. The American Dream and Promise Act will create paths to citizenship for Dreamers and people with temporary protected status. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act will create a path to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and fix the H-2A temporary agricultural work visa program.
None of these three bills is perfect, but each can help us make our democracy stronger by ensuring that everyone’s rights are protected.
ANOTHER ARTIST FOR DEMOCRACY
The border crossed us by rafa esparza / Image from In Plain Sight)
Sandy Rodriguez
“There is an authentic way of speaking your lived experience and truth that can appear in a physical object that also inspires change and action.”
For artist Sandy Rodriguez, the idea of democracy is straightforward: “Every person has a voice and vote. You can speak against injustice and demand change.”
That’s also what she does with her work, which is as aesthetically compelling as it is politically powerful. Her Codex Rodríguez–Mondragón is a collection of maps and specimen paintings about the intersections of history, social memory, contemporary politics, and cultural production. Using hand-processed colorants and mineral pigments made from materials she collects on plant walks in her local community, as well as sacred, ceremonial—and once outlawed—amate paper, she reclaims and reaffirms Indigenous artistic traditions of the Americas.
Mapa de los Child Detention Centers, Family Separations and other Atrocities, 2018, Sandy Rodriguez, hand-processed organic and mineral pigment watercolor on amate paper, 47.5 x 97 inches. Collection of the Artist.
Voice and access are critical to Rodriguez. “The way we define democracy evolves with each generation. It has the potential to be very powerful and amazing, provided that everyone has access. With such a large population of people caged and incarcerated, those voices are absent. That is not democracy.”
Rodriguez uses plant materials that situate each work within specific floristic provinces and also contain medicinal and healing properties. Her paintings are not simply a representation of place but are objects that embody their constituent parts. They contain records, documents, maps, and natural materials that reinterpret histories. Rodriguez presents them as a codex, offering a macro and micro view of humanity in relationship with land, time, and power.
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Mapa de Los Angeles For the 35 Angelinos who have been Killed by Police, 2018, Sandy Rodriguez, hand processed organic and mineral pigment watercolor on amate paper, 47.5 x 97 inches. Collection of the Artist. / Photo by J6 Creative
While the outcome of the election last November is a moment to celebrate, Rodriguez worries too many people are patting themselves on the back for a job well done when we should be pressing harder to close immigrant detention centers, especially those where children are still incarcerated. To build a better democracy, she says, we must keep holding our elected officials accountable. Her vision for a better democracy is one where voting in elections is as easy as voting on reality TV shows. Even after the pandemic is over, meetings of elected officials from city council to county commissions to state hearings should continue to be streamed so the public can speak and submit comments online. Access for all—not just those who can take the day off to attend a meeting—should be the goal.
Artists and art students have a special role to play. “When you’re talking about access and voice, there is an authentic way of speaking your lived experience and truth that can appear in a physical object that also inspires change and action.” By keeping issues that are critical to building a better today and tomorrow at the front of their minds and in daily conversations, cultural workers can use art for change, dialogue, and shaping new ways of engaging with one another.
You can see more of Rodriguez’s work currently on view at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and El Museo del Barrio, or read about her at Caltech and her website.