Intro

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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[Music]

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i’m wondering given

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how

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obvious it is that you question

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categories and you question our

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assumptions about the way

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everything

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is defined or understood what did you

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think when

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you received the invitation to

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participate in something that we were

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calling um a feminist art field school

Feminist Art Field School

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you had me at

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all of the words but you had me at field

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school because

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one of the things that i

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have been able to do that i feel very

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fortunate to have been able to do is

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defend the lab

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you know 18 to 20 years studying

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activist history and i used to do a

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community radio show called resistance

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on the sound dial where i interviewed

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artists and activists i did that show

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for 17 years and you know got to

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engage with so many incredible folks

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like artists like octavia butler

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activist lecture gina buyer and you know

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you know artists like ursula record like

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just really engage with artists and

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activists who were doing this kind of

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radical work you know i just feel very

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thankful for the chance to have been

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able to sort of study

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and learn about activist history yet

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there’s this incredible poster series

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that comes out of just these which is

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the print making collaborative and

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cooperative that’s

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across turtle island and they have um

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sort of an activist poster series and i

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have several of the ones that they have

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about the different field schools that

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sprung up in you know the 50s and the

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60s and 70s as a way of uh teaching

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communities in particular ways you know

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in ways that they weren’t learning in

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the traditional school system as a

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subversion so the idea of a field school

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is very appealing to me as an activist

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because i’ve seen the revolutionary

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potential of what a field school can do

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and then when you bring in

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the idea of in

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you know imbuing it with feminist uh

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politic and

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um

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and art

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and art right and art and to be able to

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bring all of those things together it

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feels very uh very revolutionary you

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know and i think that

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we’re in a moment uh when you

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asked me initially

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we were in the beginning of uh the

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uprisings you know the uprisings hadn’t

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really begun yet of of that summer that

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would fall a couple of months later

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and very quickly it became apparent that

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we were in a revolution you know because

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revolution is not a one-time event but a

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process and we are in the middle of a

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revolutionary moment so

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now is the moment for those principles

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of each one teach one which grows out of

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black revolutionary thought you know now

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is the moment for

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field schools now is the moment for

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feminist research now is a moment to

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dedicate ourselves to learning and

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knowledge together

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because

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literally everything is at stake in this

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moment

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thank you you know thinking about

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capturing and recording and remembering

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i’m returning to um a sentence that you

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offered early in our conversation about

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things being beautiful in order to be

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catalytic

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and so i was wondering if

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you

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might

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reflect on the role of beauty in social

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movement building

Activist Portraits

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yeah i mean

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one of the things i’ll talk about is the

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activist portrait series that i’ve been

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drawing you know because it was just

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this opportunity for me to

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show

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this outpouring of love

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to these activists right you know in

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that moment of reverie where they’re you

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know talking about love or they’re

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talking about change and uh and i get to

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draw them

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you know as

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as their beautiful whole selves you know

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and part of why i do that is because

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there was the reaction

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to using a super realist

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approach an aesthetic

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and

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capturing someone in the middle of a

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movement or in the middle of speech and

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drawing it at that large scale i’ve

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experienced it creates a response in the

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viewer where they want to get to know

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the person better

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which is fundamentally if that could be

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a good outcome of this project that is

Support

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so

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that would be such a wonderful outcome

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that we want to care about these

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activists more that we want to make sure

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that they survive that we want to get to

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know them we want to support them that

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we want to engage with them you know so

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using these drawings as a way of

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ensuring a connectivity and a support

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for these organizers seems uh really

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essential

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and so doing it through

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beautiful drawings kind of draw you in

Banners

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and you’re like oh come look for the

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drawing and then stay for the activism

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and like learn about this person and

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find out more about them and want to

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know

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um you know that’s really a big thing

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and i think that with

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you know our activist aesthetics you

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know the ways that like i’m so in love

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with banners you know i’m just so in

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love with banners i just think about

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them

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i they’re such an underestimated tool of

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the revolution because of course we use

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them

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to

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set the stage we use them to block

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traffic we use them to literally hide

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people when the police come in so that

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people can kind of get behind them and

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get away we use them in all of these

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beautiful ways and it’s that moment

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where the artist has finished making the

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banner they’ve dropped the banner off or

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they’ve you know shown up in the morning

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with the banner and we’re setting up for

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the press conference we’re setting up

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for the rally and the banner gets

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unfurled and everybody is just like oh

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