Arts + Action News

Kiilu Nyasha was loved and cherished around the world. She was a San Francisco-based journalist and former member of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Kiilu, 78, passed away on April 10. A memorial service is being organized by Kiilu’s close family and friends for Sunday, May 20. Beloved friends, family, comrades, and admirers of Kiilu are welcome to a community gathering that celebrates Kiilu’s life and principled pursuit of liberation for all oppressed peoples.

When members of the Bay Area group Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism (QUIT!) heard about the imprisonment of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi for slapping the Israeli soldier who had shot her cousin and was now invading her family’s home, they wanted to see her picture prominently displayed during January's Women’s Marches. QUIT! teamed up with artists from the queer arts collectives, Street Cred and Bay Area Art Queers Unleashing Power (BAAQUP), to create a powerful image that has now spread around the world.

A sticker carrying imagery encouraging violence against houseless people and drug addicted people was recently found on a crosswalk button in downtown Santa Cruz. The sticker reads "Street Cleaner: Santa Cruz Meth Head Cleansing Project – Santa Cruz" and is marked with the hashtag #131stickers. It depicts a silhouette of a skinny person wearing a backpack, with a cigarette in their mouth, an open hand stretched out, and a “Tweaker” flag hanging out of the backpack. Laid over the image of this person are the crosshairs of a telescopic rifle sight.

Uncolonized is a short documentary film about a native family who decided they would never enroll their two daughters in the public school system, choosing instead to homeschool them from birth. Chris is Potawatomi and Chasity is Navajo. Their daughters carry both of their parents' lineages in their blood, but also in their way of being. The film takes a critical look at the historical experiences of native children inside of the U.S. public education system and brings clarity to the decisions of the family to keep their daughters out of the public school system.

Chinga la Migra reports on an action against Francisco Cantú which took place on February 19 in San Francisco, and the cancellation of his event in Oakland the following day: After being shut down by comrades in Austin and forced to publicly admit he is against abolishing Border Patrol by comrades in New York, Cantú decided not to read from his book or discuss it as had been planned, and at the last minute, announced that he would only be signing books. A few minutes into the book signing a group of us disrupted it by reading prepared statements and handing out flyers, as well as free copies of No Wall They Can Build.

Tsunami Huerta shares a personal account of the February 3, 2018, San Francisco Two-Spirit PowWow: I'm being whisked to a PowWow. We zip along San Francisco's waterfront. I inhale the fresh sea air and hear seagulls squawking. The Two-Spirit PowWow, to over simplify, is a LGBTQ PowWow. LGBTQ fluidity may be new in a sense for we modern inhabitants of the U.S. these last few centuries, but not at all, for most, very ancient Indigenous cultures here! They/we, were accepted as an important, integral and sacred part of the community at large.

UPDATE: In sweeping act of deregulation, the FCC has voted to repeal Net Neutrality
Protests to save net neutrality burst upon the San Francisco Bay Area scene on December 7. The proposal at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to roll back Obama era rules would fundamentally change the internet by favoring carriers over internet content providers. In Palo Alto, a "March on Verizon" started in Lytton Plaza, where "Digital DNA", a sculpture inviting the viewer to question how technology can enslave us, is slated for removal because of its political message. Demonstrations on the national day of action targeted Verizon because FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a former Verizon lawyer.

On November 16, the Public Art Commission of Palo Alto voted unanimously to remove the artwork of Adriana Varella from the city’s public art collection. "Digital DNA", a seven foot tall egg shaped sculpture made of recycled circuit boards, imparts a political message—that technology generated by Silicon Valley has a far-reaching impact. It conveys that modern technology can enslave us, and reminds the viewer that technology is also used for warfare. In protest of the commission's decision, the artist has created a more than 5 foot wide collage titled "Censorship Committee of Palo Alto" that is currently on display at an art show about censorship in New York City.

On November 1, SubRosa turned nine years old. SubRosa is an anarchist community space run by a collective of committed volunteers from the Santa Cruz area, freely giving of their energy and time. Located on the south end of Pacific Avenue, it is one of few places in Santa Cruz that is not focused on commerce. SubRosa has books and zines you can't find anywhere else, as well as the Anarchist Lending Library. Meetings, film screenings, music shows, art exhibitions, privacy workshops, and the increasingly popular Really Really Free Market all take place at SubRosa.