Activism

COMMENTARY: Artworks Capturing Political Chaos Rejected by Billboard Companies

People For the American Way will use billboards and social media to bring the censored artwork to Georgia voters and to people around the country who care about the issues that are at stake in this year’s elections.

Published

1 year ago

November 4, 2022

Oakland Post

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book "Never Forget Our People Were Always Free" will be published by Harper Collins in January 2023.

By Ben Jealous

Art can be a powerful tool for social change. Sometimes that threatens people in power.

Right now, some of America’s greatest artists are contributing their time and creative talents to remind voters in Georgia what is at stake in this year’s elections. And a couple of national billboard companies are refusing to let People For the American Way share some of those images with voters.

The Georgia billboards are part of a multimedia campaign to remind voters—especially Black men—why Republican candidates Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker are the wrong choices in this election. Georgia is ground zero for attacks on our democracy by MAGA extremists with agendas calculated to stop progress.

The billboard campaign is designed to expose hard truths to voters in a way that makes these attacks real—and motivates people to vote. “As artists, we can create art that addresses the ills of systems that devastate the fabric of our families, our communities, and our nation,” says renowned multimedia artist Carrie Mae Weems. “Artistic expression can inspire people to channel their energy into voting for a better future for everyone.”

The billboard campaign is also part of a broader long-term project to engage artists in making political and social change. As a longtime civil rights leader, I know that there is a long lineage of artists whose music, poetry, spoken word, and visual arts have helped energize our great social justice movements.

Weems and other artists participating in this campaign have taken their place in that honorable history. They include Victoria Cassinova, Shepard Fairey, Alyson Shotz, Deborah Kass, and Cleon Peterson.

Shotz, whose art depicts the attack on the U.S. Capitol by people trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power after Trump lost the 2020 election, notes that art played a crucial role in the national mobilization to defeat fascism in the 1940s. “Now this task is upon us again, to fight the power of authoritarians and conspiracists, racists and nativists and fear-mongers,” she says. “It falls to us, We the People, to save democracy, through our actions, through our art, through our votes.”

Art can speak to our hearts. That’s part of its power to provoke thought, emotion, and action. And that is why censorship is often a weapon wielded by those who fear art’s motivating power.

“The personal and political chaos in our world is a direct result of the violence against human beings in the name of power,” says Peterson, whose art installations depicting white supremacist gun violence and attacks on reproductive choice were rejected by billboard owners. “The art for these billboards depicts the rawness and the terror of those struggles and I hope it’s enough to move the people of Georgia to action in this midterm election.”

Kass contributed an installation that includes the faces of five far-right Supreme Court justices—a clear reminder that the courts and all the rights that depend on a fair and independent judiciary to uphold them—are at stake in this election.

There is no doubt that art expressing the harsh realities people face in their daily lives can be jarring. But that is no reason to turn away.

“There’s a short line between the intense reactions to the art depictions and the urgency that we carry to the ballot box,” says my colleague Svante Myrick, executive director of People For the American Way. “If this artwork offends you, wait to see what happens if you don’t vote.”

Ben Jealous serves as president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. A New York Times best-selling author, his next book “Never Forget Our People Were Always Free” will be published by Harper Collins in January 2023.

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WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

23 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

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Activism

Oakland’s ‘Green the Church,’ Others, Host a Climate Revival

On April 20, Oakland’s Green The Church California (GTC) and the Center For Food, Faith and Justice will celebrate Earth Day and present a Climate Revival event titled “Growing Healthy Communities From Soil To The Soul” at McGee Avenue Baptist Church at 1640 Stuart St, Berkeley, CA. The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

The revival will take place at McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley on April 20. Courtesy image.

Growing Healthy Communities from Soil to the Soul in Berkeley

By Y’Anad Burrell

The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

The keynote speaker is Rev. Danté R. Quick, PhD, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. Quick is well known in the Bay Area, having served for more than 10 years as pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Vallejo, CA.

Green The Church, founded in 2010 by Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr., and headquartered in Oakland, helps galvanize Black churches and their local communities and leaders to address issues critical to populations historically disengaged from conversations around pollution and health, climate change, and sustainability and energy efficiency.

The organization collaborates with major environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, and is committed to “creation justice”—care and justice for God’s people and the planet—and building the Beloved Community.

Environmental justice has long been a pressing concern for communities of color who bear the brunt of pollution and ecological degradation. Climate change exacerbates these issues, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities. Recognizing this urgency, Black churches across the country are taking action.

With deep roots in the African American community and its commitment to social justice, the Black Church has become an essential advocate for sustainable practices and policies.

Over the past 14 years, in a powerful collaboration with significant environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, GTC has created a cadre of Black churches engaging in the environmental justice, climate, and sustainability movement.

GTC presently works with more than 1,000 pastors and congregations across the U.S., and groups in the Bahamas, Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK, showing that we can make a difference together.

The partnership between environmental justice advocates and the Black Church extends beyond individual congregations. Green The Church provides resources and support for faith communities seeking to address climate change and promote environmental justice.

Through collaboration, initiatives such as energy efficiency programs, solar installations, and environmental education have been implemented in Black churches nationwide. These efforts reduce the carbon footprint and save money on energy bills, benefiting the congregations and their communities.

The involvement of the Black Church in the fight against climate change is not just a participation, it’s a powerful message that galvanizes action across communities.

By integrating environmental justice into their ministry, Black churches are demonstrating that addressing climate change is not only a matter of science but also of social and moral responsibility, inspiring change at a grassroots level.

For more information, go to: www.greenthechurch.org.