We pause to thank Mother Nature and the graffiti gods for blessing New York with an embarrassment of riches this summer. Amidst the swirling skirts and thunder thighs and sins of youthful exuberance, we are counting the beat of the street and the creative spirit that runs wild with or without permission.
Movie recommendation: Summer of Soulis the inspirational movie of this season, placed in thecontext of 1969 and timeless in its cultural resonance to 2021.
It’s been a hammering of the psyche again this week, as national and international news fixates on unvaccinated Covid patients flooding hospitals everywhere. Few mention that the price of vaccinations is gently bumping upward; a new subscription you didn’t realize you bought into like Netflix. Need a booster?
The art on the streets is banging onward, though, with new kids bringing the jokes, and the feels. OGs are up as well, including some people who have been on the street since we went off the gold standard – 50 years ago this week.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Lucky Rabbit, Acne, Bastard Bot, Cern, Chris RWK, David Puck, Jason Naylor, Michael De Feo, Sac Six, The Daffodil Project, We The People, Acne, Bastard Bot, M, Praxis, A Very Nice, Say No Sleep, Damien Mitchell, Sonni, Bisco Smith, NYCM2, BK Foxx, 2MUCH, Hink, Smile.
If the popular response to this poster campaign is an indication, there will be many in the streets.
The “We the People” project with Street Artist and activist Shepard Fairey, Ernesto Yerena and Jessica Sobogal originally aimed to raise $60,000 on their Kickstarter page with the non-profit Amplifier Foundation.
They received 22 times their goal.
We The People: Defend Dignity
Shepard Fairey. We The People. (photograph by Arlene Mejorado)
The first words in the US Constitution and the majority of whom did not vote for the incoming president, “We The People” will appear in full page ads in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and USA Today,” according to Shepard Fairey in an interview yesterday.
We The People: Protect Each Other
Shepard Fairey. We The People. (photograph by Arlene Mejorado)
Rather than focusing on the visage of the new president, Donald Trump, as his iconic red, and blue “Hope” poster of then-candidate Barack Obama did, these new posters by Fairey and team feature communities that the conservative white right wing can’t bring themselves to treat equally – Native American, African American, Muslim, and Latinos.
The posters have been printed and distributed in the millions by now and you can download and print high resolution versions of them yourself below. You’ll also see that there are five new posters designed specifically for the Women’s March tomorrow in Washington, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and an estimated 616 other cities around the world that are also hosting marches called “sister marches”.
We The People: Are Greater Than Fear
Shepard Fairey. We The People. (photograph by Arlene Mejorado)
Jessica Sobogal “We the Indivisible” for the We the People Campaign.
Ernesto Yerena for the “We the People” Campaign
Below are a few posters from a growing roster of posters for the Women’s March on Washington. Check below for a button to download them.
Download Zip file of high res versions of “We the People” posters to print here:
Download Zip file of high res versions of “Women’s March” posters to print here:
From the Kickstarter Page
SHEPARD FAIREY is one of the most accomplished street artists in the world, and creator and founder of Obey Clothing and Obey Giant, first becoming known for his “Andre The Giant has a Posse” sticker campaign while at the Rhode Island School of Design. He became widely known during the 2008 presidential election for his Barak Obama “Hope” poster.
JESSICA SABOGAL is a first generation Colombian American muralist. Her art serves as a haven, a tribute, a creative outlet of adoration and exaltation for women with stories often untold. Her pieces possess a vision of female identity that is revolutionary and powerful, brave and beautiful. Most recently she has created a visual campaign entitled, “Women Are Perfect” which attempts to spread this simple but necessary notion worldwide.
ERNESTO YERENA is an artist living in Los Angeles. His art brings political concerns to light with subject matter that depicts cultural icons, rebels and everyday people voicing their stance against oppression. While Yerena identifies as Chicano he also strongly identifies as Native/Indigenous to this continent which is often seen in his work. Highly recognized for his activism, Yerena is the founder and curator of the Alto Arizona Art campaign (2010) as well as a founding member of the We Are Human campaign (2009).
THE AMPLIFIER FOUNDATION: Our non-profit is dedicated to amplifying the voices of grassroots movements through art and community engagement. We do this by funding collaborations between those movements and contemporary artists so that their messages can reach a wider audience. Our goal is to flip artists into activists and observers into participants.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
