Dignidad Rebelde

Mama's Day Our Way

Sat, 12 May 2012 15:17:35 GMT

Forward Together recently invited me and over half a dozen other artist to create e-cards for Mama's Day. The goal was to create cards that addressed that gap that the greeting-card-industrial-complex left many of the people who have mothered us in. The project allowed me to reach deep into my heart and create pieces that honor the love and caregiving that don't feel appropriately addresssed through frilly laced declarations that are doused with flowers and cheesy stock sentiments.

The Strong Families Initiative is celebrating "Mama's Day" with a custom e-card tool that gives all mothers and families a chance to be visible. The site provides eighteen templates by artists likeKirby Platero, Nikki McClure, Micah Bizant, Veronica Bayetti Flores and myself that feature motherhood in all its diversity, with space for you to write a personalized message and email it to the mother of your choice.

West and East Coast Happenings this week: Undocunation and La Bracera

Wed, 02 May 2012 21:35:14 GMT

Culture Strike, the Center for New Community and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Present:

An evening of Visual Art, Posters, Prints and Pro-Migrant Graphics, Comedy, Music, Literary Readings and Short Films to Fight Anti-Immigrant Hate.

Read more about the event by clicking here: UNDOCUNATION

Jesus and I will be doing live screen printing with special images created just for this event. We will be giving away the prints once all the prints are dry and we will be signing these limited edition, hand made prints for the folks who get one. ONE per person. There will be a very limited number , about 75 of each, and we will be giving them out on a first come, first serve basis.

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I will be in New York for the closing reception if this exhibit which will take place on May 6th.

I don't often have the opportunity to travel to New York City so I hope my East Coast friends can make it to this event!

BRACERA CLOSING RITES ON 6TH MAY AFTERNOON

NEW YORK: May 6th, Sunday, 3:00 – 6:00 pm, will be the last day to view AF3IRM’s 2012 art exhibit La Bracera: Women and Work at the Yippie Museum, 9 Bleecker Street, Manhattan.

Friends and AF3IRM members will be present to savor the art work and create even more intense sisterhood and comradeship for this year’s gathering of women artists.

The Yippie Museum Café will be open for afternoon tea and coffee for La Bracera’s audience.

Buyers have snatched up more than half of the art work on exhibit. A few are still available and those interested are urged to contact the exhibit curators, Ms. Leilani Montes and/or Olivia Canlas, to make arrangements before La Bracera closes.

The exhibit opened on 21st April with a brilliant reception attended by 250 guests. Three DJs – DopeShoes, Sakir and AnaMated, all transnational musician/performers – spun the evening through. Wine and dumplings helped keep the guests’ energy up, while an altar created by Xicana/Colombian Karen Johana Lopez-Acero, which celebrated departed women, seemed to hold back a projected rainfall until the festivities were over.

More than a dozen organizations endorsed the exhibit which underscored the pivotal character of women’s work to society and the family.

The six transnational women artists highlighted by La Bracera are:

·         Melanie Cervantes (Xicana)
·         Donna Choi (Korean American)
·         Crystal Clarity (Nuyorican)
·         Madonna Davidoff (Filipina)
·         Samra Ghermay (Eritrean)
·         36Kolks (Jamaican/Jewish)

La Bracera is part of AF3IRM’s on-going campaign for justice for transnational labor, against trafficking and exploitation under the US government’s labor export program. Entire corporate departments are being subcontracted to labor recruiters/providers – which results in de-unionization, loss of job security, wage depression and the transfer of such costs as health benefits to the community. Many of these departments are staffed by women workers.

***The pieces on exhibit will be on sale!***

Part of the proceeds will go to enable AF3IRM NY to conduct its Purple Rose campaign against the outsourcing of entire departments in corporate operations – a tactic that depresses wages and de-unionizes the workplace and encourages trafficking. As the major share of the proceeds will go to the artists themselves, the exhibit is also a means of supporting transnational women artists in their creation of a culture representative of their life experiences.

Growing up In L.A. and becoming an artist; an interview

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:33:41 GMT

Melanie Cervantes, 17 years old

I recently spent time talking with artist, activist and guest columnist for San Francisco MOMA's Open Space Blog, Adrienne Skye Roberts.

Our coversation covered several topics including Occupy and the movement of the 99%, how I define collaboration and people's art and she even took me back to my days as a teenager, growing up in Los Angeles.

Here is a snippet from the interview where I talk about being seventeen riding in the homecoming parade the same day major youth protests errupt against California's anti-migrant Proposition 187:

The next flashpoint for me was when Prop 187 was on the ballot and Pete Wilson was governor of California. It was the same year I was running for homecoming queen—which really speaks to the big shifts in my life. I was in a poofy dress, in a car in the homecoming parade the same day there were walkouts in protest of Prop 187. I remember having this moment of dissonance. There were helicopters all over the area and students were trying to jump the fence but the metal had been greased so students couldn’t get out. Latino students understood what Prop 187 meant. It didn’t take a whole lot of agitation to get them to demonstrate.

To read the full interview click here: Toma Las Calles! Take It To The Streets! An interview with Melanie Cervantes of Dignidad Rebelde

Bay Area 2012 May Day Activities

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:21:44 GMT

Join us for The People's Street Festival

Celebrating International Workers' Day and the 99%

12 Noon, Gathering at Montgomery & Market, San Francisco Financial District

A day of Protest, Performance, Art & Culture

We will be reclaiming the financial district for the 99%! Celebrate historic and present day worker and immigrant community struggles through:

Street Theater • Participatory Flashmob Dance • Peoples' Assembly • Protest Art • Teach-ins • And more! Bring your own creativity!

On International Workers Day, join the Oakland Sin Fronteras' contingent in the

March for Immigrant Rights! :: Tuesday, May 1, 2012 ::

3:00pm: GATHER AT FRUITVALE BART PLAZA
3:30pm: ASSEMBLE ON INTERNATIONAL for opening rally & program
4:00pm: MARCH DOWN INTERNATIONAL BOULEVARD
5:30pm: ARRIVE 14TH & BROADWAY for a community rally with speakers and performers!

ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS:
Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Xican@ Moratorium Coalition, Anakbayan East Bay, Dignidad Rebelde
Eastside Cultural Center, Filipino Advocates for Justice, Alameda Labor AFL-CIO Council, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Hand in Hand National Domestic Employers Association, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Causa Justa;Just Cause, 67 Sueños, Young Workers United AYPAL, Youth Together, ACUDIR, La Raza Centro Legal/Day Laborers, Filipino Community Center, and more....

Why are we marching?
Oakland Sin Fronteras 2012 DEMANDS:

LEGALIZATION FOR ALL UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
SUPPORT WORKERS RIGHTS
Support immigrant workers’ campaigns to defend their rights. End workplace enforcement programs like raids and I-9 Audits (that has resulted in the firings of thousands of immigrant workers, at Pacific Steel, American Apparel, Chipotle,to name a few). Pass AB 889 the Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.

STOP THE DEPORTATION OF ALL IMMIGRANTS
End the continuing harassment, racial profiling, detention and deportation of immigrants. Nearly 400,000 immigrants have been deported from the U.S. in just the past year, which is about 45 people deported every hour.

STOP THE CRIMINALIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS
BY FEDERAL AND LOCAL POLICE
Stop government surveillance of immigrant communities by the Dept. of Homeland Security through enforcement programs like “Secure Communities”. Stop the local “gang injunctions” and 100 block initiatives that criminalize Black and Brown youth. Redirect resources toward the prevention of root causes of crime in our neighborhoods, such as chronic poverty and systemic racism.

END U.S. MILITARY AGGRESSION & OTHER POLICIES
THAT DISPLACE COMMUNITIES GLOBALLY
More than 200 million people have been forced to leave their country of origin because of war, environmental degradation and unequal trade policies. Stop U.S. military aggression and intervention in the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Africa and throughout the world. Stop policies like NAFTA, CAFTA and AFTA that force farmers off their land in Mexico and Central America, increases poverty and forces migration from underdeveloped countries globally. We want a stop to the use of U.S. taxpayer money to bail-out wall street and sustain policies of globalization which are responsible for pushing millions of U.S. families out of their homes and uprooting millions more globally.

DEFEND AND EXPAND ETHNIC STUDIES
Protect Ethnic Studies programs from attack in Arizona and throughout the country. We demand a stop to the book banning which is a violation of First Amendment rights. Ethnic Studies programs should be expanded to make educational curricula accurate and inclusive of all U.S. residents, and because it is a critical tool for ending institutionalized racism.

Speaking Engagements-Dignidad Rebelde in the Bay

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 21:38:05 GMT

SFAI Urban Studies, the Indigenous Arts Coalition, and Student Union Present

Indigenous Arts & Activism Lecture with Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza of Dignidad Rebelde.

Wednesday, April 25th, 7PM-10PM
San Francisco Art Institute Lecture Hall
800 Chestnut Street San Francisco, CA. 94133

Opening blessings by Point Arena Pomo Dancers 7:30pm.

Dignidad Rebelde is a graphic arts collaboration between Oakland-based artist-activists Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes. Grounded in Third World and Indigenous movements their visual work encompasses people's power to transform the conditions of fragmentation, displacement and loss of culture. Representing social movements through visual art means connecting struggles and seeking to inspire solidarity among communities worldwide.

Free food from Casa Latina Bakery!

Contact: drodriguez@artists.sfai.edu or 510-485-2612.
Workshop will follow during SFAI's Open Studios on April 28th 2-5pm with Native Youth Leaders and Undocumented Youth from 67 Sueños.

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Also, Saturday, April 28th at 9:30 AM-10:50AM

Melanie Cervantes will be speaking at the 22nd Annual California Studies Conference-How Democratic Is California".

"Popular Media Organizing: From Posters to Blogs" Lincoln Cushing, moderator and presenter; Melanie Cervantes (graphic artist and co-founder of Dignidad Rebelde), Keith Kamisugi (communications director, Equal Justice Society.

Other panels will include presentations on subjects such as:

A Century of Progressivism: The Mixed Legacy of 1911
The Underrepresented: People of Color in Electoral Politics
Government by Proposition: More Harm than Good?
It's All About the Money: The Corruptions of Public Finance
The Decline of Public Education and the Erosion of Democracy
Citizenship and its Discontents: Denial of Rights, from Japanese Internment to Anti-Terrorism
Where is the Popular Protest? Grassroots Activism in Hard Times
Popular Media Organizing: From Posters to the Blogisphere

CSA thanks the California Council for the Humanities for funding to support documentation of this event.

Registration $40 general, $20 students/low-income;
Early registration (by March 30) $35 general, $15 students/ low-income
Registration includes lunch and CSA membership, as well as guided tour of “All Of Us Or None: Social Justice Posters of the San Francisco Bay Area” exhibition by curator

Venue: Oakland Museum, Location: 1000 Oak Street, Oakland

End Mandatory Detention Poster Release

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 23:03:06 GMT

This month, marks the 15-year anniversary of the implementation of harsh immigration laws (including the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act) that have led to the detention and deportation of millions of immigrants. In order to help raise awareness about the impact mandatory detention is having on communities and society at large Detention Watch Network and Dignidad Rebelde have joined forces to create a graphic campaign to call attentionto this pressing issue. To help raise awareness about the impact of these laws on mandatory detention policy we are asking DWN members and allies to distribute the attached poster.

Link to downloadable 11 X 17 poster: http://www.dignidadrebelde.com/document/download/69

How to Spread the Word:

Make the poster your Facebook profile picture and send out via Twitter
Upload the poster to your website and blog
Send the poster or this email to your networks
Print the poster for distribution at May Day events - please contact sshah@detentionwatchnetwork.org if you need assistance

The poster features Nazry Mustakim and his wife Hope. Nazry, a 31-year-old green card holder from Singapore, was held in immigration detention for 10 months at the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall, Texas. Due to laws passed in 1996, Nazry’s prior drug conviction subjected him to mandatory detention, which meant that he could not be released on bond. After ten months of hardship and separation and unrelenting advocacy by Hope, his family and community, Nazry has been released from detention and is back home. However, Nazry's story is exemplary of the injustices immigrants face in detention daily. We must act now and raise awareness to repeal mandatory detention to stop unjust detentions.

For more about Nazry and Hope's story please click here.

To endorse the Dignity not Detention Campaign visit www.dignitynotdetention.org

Let Us Live. Let Us Love. Let Us Be.

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 17:30:30 GMT

We just finished this triptych that was commissioned by Stanford's Institute for Diversity in the Arts (IDA) for "Current Preoccupations (Palestine, Oakland, and Arizona)", one of their Occupy Art Classes. The triptych was a collaboration between Mark Gonzales and Dignidad Rebelde, the collaboration began with a conversation about the issues people are facing in these three places and from this Mark wrote a poem (which you can read below) which was then used as the inspiration for our piece.

PS. This piece wouldn't be possible without all the photos we used that came from these places and photographers in Arizona and Palestine...thanks Chandra Narcia, Diane Ovalle and Mizue Azeki (and of course Melanie's from Oakland).

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Too Short blasts heavy bass that hits heart like fist
on a sunny Oakland afternoon
amber soul children dress in black skin
& laugh from strollers at
conversations only they can understand.
When my lover & I have child
WE will smile at the way
infant hair laughs at gravity
all midnight colors & dancing curls.

“Baby boy, mija, bneya, I love you
who will learn to walk
go on little one
stretch them legs
Kanye & Jay’s life cray,
    your life crayola”

      I wonder the spaces you’ll wander
as you take your
First Steps.
   she wanders
across dreams and deserts
sandboxes Arizona attempted to turn prison
with color coded passports.
The state that once held the US record
for numbers of lynching has made learning
        about my father’s mother illegal.
Odd world that sets up barricades between children &
             their grandparents’ grave.
    Yet she we still be First Nations
mujer rocking leather sewed moccasins with sharkskin & pearl toes.

Turquoise earrings accent the diamond shapes
she buzzed into the left side of her hair.
She carries a bouquet of ancestors
and lays a flower at each of the Four Corners reservations.
She walks.
On family day they ride to town
a station wagon full of faces in dual grins
a rusted bent fender & Freddy fender
blanket sound across
velvet carpet upholstery
Nirvana in speakers
sacred sack
She laughs
as if was her
First Breath.

Inhale.
amidst oud
burnt like sage down the concrete
alleyway of Nablus.
Hebron settlers built towers of babel
On top garden of Eden
littering puss and urine
on dreams.
The stench of supremacy is putrid
amid a clean shaven face with soul as frigidly pale as their skin.

Dear young son still unborn
   how old will you be when they
First Tell
you freeze?
The age of your
First Funeral
too soon?

In Oaklandia, Arizona. Palestine
we drive between future & freeway intersections
arriving from roads
where yellow dashed traffic lines are
not street dividers but suggestions.
Where the streets have no names
    only markets
where they attempted to erase our tongues so we will
forget that we were here
    First
    ask the pilgrims about anchor babies
    and First Steps
    and
First Nations –
who are reLearning to walk
to wherever our dreams take us
and back home again.

My future son
I promise this is not the world you will inherit.

My future daughter
when you come through the birth canal,
your tongue will be tattooed genetic memory
with our people’s song
             like First Words:
       Let us live.
   Let us love.
Let us be.

- Mark Gonzales

Visit Mark's website here:www.wagebeauty.com

Fundraiser to Print Posters for the People

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:05:08 GMT

We are making plans to make screen print posters for "The 99% Take Over" at the Wells Fargo Annual Shareholder Meeting on April 24th.

Why Wells Fargo?

Wells Fargo profits at the cost of our communities:

•    America’s Biggest Tax Dodger – Hoarding billions of tax dollars that should be paying for public services and putting America back to work
•    Leads in Foreclosure – Continuing to foreclose on families in an economy it helped to ruin
•    Predatory Lender – Targeting those who can least afford it with exploitive mortgages and payday lending,especially low-income communities of color
•    Corrupting our Democracy – Protecting its profits by quadrupling spending on lobbying since the financial crisis began
•    Prison Profiteer – Profiting from increased incarceration by investing heavily in for-profit prison corporations and anti-immigrant legislation

As a small art collective Dignidad Rebelde works diligently to create work that translates people’s stories into art that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it. We have printed thousands of posters since we started –many of which have reached the streets as pickets signs, reached schools as tools for education and reached community organizations as reflections of unity and solidarity. We do this work as grassroots artists whose love for our communities and struggles drive our work every day. We do this work by reaching into our pockets to sustain and fund the work we do to make sure the people have access to this art.

We don't get grants or make big bucks from this work. We reach into our pockets and pull out what we can to keep this going. We do it because life is too short to live without justice and love and this method of making art for the people is the best way we know to help in the work. We believe we can be stronger and more responsive when we have the support from our communities... those communities who we, in turn, support with art and are asking for your help today.

Please make a donation to help us sustain the work of putting art into the people's hands.

$10 Buys twenty picket sticks

$25 Buys a quart of ink to print posters

$50 Buys 100 sheets of paper

$100 Buys 150, 11” x17” full color, union printed, offset posters

$250 Buys enough supplies to put 250 poster-picket signs into the hands of the people!

May Day Posters for Downloading

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 03:44:00 GMT

DOWNLOAD MAY DAY POSTER BY CLICKING HERE

I designed this poster for this years May Day festivities, to get the word out and make some cool giveaways...like printing a few hundred of these for the opening of the All Of Us Or None exhibit at the Oakland Museum. The next batch I print will be to give away to a local Bay Are organization to help with their organizing. But if you want to make a version for yourself you can download a PDF here from our website and print a copy for yourself and all your friends.