The Black Panthers & Art and Social Change
By Darren Jean – Baptiste
The United States is home to many different communities from places all around the world, and with this diversity comes different backgrounds, and different stories of pride and struggles. Social change is also present within these communities, and along with that, social change comes with art in many different forms, posters, murals, and many other types are heavily used. The Black Panther Party of the sixties utilized art as much as they could, through posters, flyers, and symbolic images. The Black Panther Party chose the Black Panther as their symbol to signify freedom and strength. The art work below shows how the Black Panther contrasted the Rooster which has sharp ties to White Supremacy. The panther was a symbol of change and opposition to an oppressive country that held the Black Community down for hundreds of years. Through art work they were able to push Black Liberation in the United States and fight against their oppressors.
The Black Panthers used artwork posters to promote their ideals as well. The poster down below promotes the end of violence perpetrated on the Black community, especially by the hands of police, which was a very big issue in Black communities in Oakland, California. “An Attack Against One Is An Attack Against All”. This quote shows the unity that the Black Panthers represented, and “The Slaughter of Black People Must Be Stopped! By Any Means Necessary!” takes influence from Malcolm X and his iconic “By Any Means Necessary”. It was a call to the end of racial violence in the South, and all over the country.
The Black Panthers also used artwork to express their ideas and beliefs as well. During the 60s, the Vietnam War was a burning topic. Many believed that the war was not America’s business, and those who were being sent to fight for their lives were being sent to die in vain. Many came back with mental health issues, and devastating consequences. The Black Panther Party believed that the Vietnam War was also not Black people’s fight, and their fight was here dealing with the oppression and racism in their own home. It made the point which was, why are Black people fighting in a war that is not for them? Especially while being in a “battle against our own country”. The tears symbolized the pain felt by those in war. The helmet showed the reality that Black people faced in their own country. This was a similar opinion for many different social change groups, such as the Peace Movement which also had an opposition to the war.
The Black Panthers also used artwork to promote their political endeavors, such as Eldridge Cleaver. Symbols that represent peace, freedom, and strength were common artistic tools used by the party. The Panther represents the Black Liberation, and the dove as another form of freedom. When Black Panther Party leaders were arrested due to their work such as Huey Newton, artwork was also used to spread awareness in the form of a petition to see a Panthers release. They used artwork to rally support for their causes often.
The Black Panther Party also had different styles of artwork in order to promote the party and its goals. Such as these two Black children holding pictures of the Black experience in the United States. The poster is headed with the statement “For the young, the old, the poor and the Black, living in America is brutal.” The girl on the right holds a poster which asks for the end of Black Oppression and the oppression of all people of color in the United States. This piece of artwork is extremely important considering that the youth was most affected by the oppression that Black people and people of color faced in the United States. They are the future and the ones who will cause social change as they grow older. They feel and experience these things just as much as older people, and their pains and worries are valid .
The Black Panther Party, in its opposition to Police Brutality, used artwork to present this. The symbolization of a pig in American society is a filthy low animal. To make the connection to pigs and police men, was a strong one. It showed that the BPP viewed the police as such, in response to the constant oppression and brutality that they faced. The shotguns surrounding the pig represent the Black Panther Party, the shotgun was a common choice for the Party. It was a direct shot at the police and the injustice that constantly occurred. The poster reads “Out of Order” and “Community Control of Police”, stating that the current police is not effective enough, and that the BPP must step in to gain control over it, and correct it to make sure that the needs of the Black Community are being met. It’s also notable that Huey Newton and Bobby Seale also had run-ins with authority in Oakland which influenced this idea.
The Black Panther Party was a symbol of social change and Black Liberation at its finest, it was revolutionary and wasn’t afraid to spark flames in a country where Black struggles were undermined. The artwork shown goes hand in hand with social change, as the depictions enforced their views and ideals on numerous levels, such as the Vietnam War, and police brutality, which were huge topics of the time, and still are today. The BPP symbolized change on many levels, and was a genuine voice for Black America. Even though the political party is not as prominent as it once was, it’s ideals and truths hold relevance today and will continue to be.
Works Cited:
“The Women behind the Black Panther Party Logo.” Design Observer, https://designobserver.com/feature/the-women-behind-the-black-panther-party-logo/39755.
Mckinley, Angelica, and Giovanni Russonello. “Fifty Years Later, Black Panthers’ Art Still Resonates.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/16/arts/fifty-years-later-black-panthers-art-still-resonates.html.
Gedal, Anna, et al. “Black Panthers: Art and History.” Behind The Scenes, 21 July 2015, https://behindthescenes.nyhistory.org/black-panthers-art-history/.
“The Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, 23 Aug. 2020, https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/black-panther-party-challenging-police-and-promoting-social-change.
AIDS Awareness
John Navarria
AIDS Awareness is an event that raises awareness towards AIDS/HIV every year on April 10th. My goal is to spread more awareness by emphasizing projects made by thousands of people ranging from the AIDS memorial quilt, paintings, to online galleries dedicated to archiving artwork.
AIDS created a lot of stigma and discrimination towards LGBTQ people. Some believed that only certain individuals could get HIV and those who got it deserved it for being gay. These rumors kicked off in San Francisco during the 1980s. The first articles about the virus published by the CDC talked about how 5 previously healthy, young gay men had got it and unfortunately lost their lives to it. As a result of the article US gay rights movements were severely frowned upon. People began to become less comfortable around gay men specifically. Even the government at the time was devoted to funding resources for gay movements. With a new virus and increased amounts of tension between the LGBTQ community, something had to be done.
In this section, I’m going to be talking about the AIDS Memorial Quilt. We learned briefly about this topic in class but there is still a lot more to know. The project was started by Cleve Jones, a social activist, who dedicates his time to spreading positivity through artwork. Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana on October 11th, 1954. Jones first got into social rights movements when he was “adopted” by gay rights leader Harvey Milk. Jones had worked for Harvey Milk as an intern until he was assassinated in 1978. It was not until 1983 that Jones founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt. The idea of the quilt came to him during the candlelight march in remembrance of Harvey Milk and former Mayor George Moscone. At the march, people were writing names of those they lost to AIDS/HIV on signs. These signs were attached to the San Francisco Federal Building. Jones used what he saw that day as an inspiration.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt made its first appearance at the national mall in Washington DC on October 11th, 1987, at the same time as the National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights. At the time, the quilt had over 1900 panels and was the size of a football field! The first showing of the quilt lead to every name being read at all the future displays. Over 500,000 people had visited the quilt during its first showing. The textile art was so popular that the quilt toured over 20 cities. Over 9,000 volunteers helped the quilt be displayed across the country. Every city that was toured just made the quilt bigger and bigger. Towards the end of the first tour, the quilt was just over 6,000 separate panels. In November 1989 the quilt made its last stop at the National AIDS Memorial where it still resides In San Francisco. The project itself was made to stop the hate and social misconduct towards people affected by the virus. The quilt inspired so many more projects on over 5 different continents. As of recently a new project called “Call My Name” was started to remember black lives lost to AIDS. This project as well as the AIDS Memorial quilt can now be toured online in its website exhibit!
Another artist I will be talking about is Frank C. Moore. A lot of Moore’s artworks were focused on civil rights and environmental problems. What you may not know is that Moore himself was diagnosed with HIV in 1985. Following his diagnosis, Moore began creating artwork pursuing AIDS awareness and homosexuality. Later in 1988, Moore became a founding member of the program called “Visual AIDS” a project that utilizes art to fight against AIDS by preserving art and spreading awareness. The program continues to raise awareness to date. Shown below are some of Moore’s art as well as art from the Visual AIDS web gallery.
Although AIDS Awareness has influenced millions of people to actively work together and spread awareness through paintings, textile artwork, and online art galleries, we still do not have a proper vaccine for the virus. A ton of my intention and motivation to write about this issue came from the AIDS memorial quilt. This shows how much artwork can bring social issues to light. I have faith that in the upcoming years with the increasing numbers of the LGBTQ community that we can finally put a stop to the discrimination and hate caused by the virus.
Sources:
https://www.clevejones.com/ – Founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
https://www.aidsmemorial.org/quilt-history – History of the quilt.
https://www.aidsmemorial.org/virtual-quilt/virtual-quilt-black-history – Call My Name Movement.
https://visualaids.org/
https://www.davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2021/more-life/frank-moore
How Unit 3 Works
The last big assignment before the final exam is designed to be practice for the exam. Pretty neat, huh? Here’s how it works:
Just as with the final exam, you will read and study two essays. To make our all our lives a little easier, we are using two essays you already know well: James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t A Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How To Tame A Wild Tongue.”
Here are those links:
You read these. Again, yes. You TAKE NOTES. You MARK THE MOST IMPORTANT LINES.
On SUNDAY 11/28 at 12:01 am, the Unit 3 assignment will go live on Blackboard. It will be open until TUESDAY 11/30 at 11:59 pm.
During that time, you will go to Blackboard and open it. There will be three questions. You will choose ONE to answer in the form of an essay of approximately 500 words — think 5 paragraphs.
The thesis of your essay will be YOUR answer to the question, plus three facets you will explore further in order to make your point. Each of your three body paragraphs will explore one of those facets. And then you will have a conclusion that applies your ideas in a different way. Watch the video I’ll send later on this topic.
Here’s the thing: you HAVE TO QUOTE FROM BALDWIN AND ANZALDUA. Yes, AND. BOTH OF THEM. That’s a major requirement of the final exam and therefore of Unit 3. When you quote Anzaldua, you will use parenthetical citation to show the page number.
That’s the deal. I’ll grade it using the final exam rubric, so you get a sense of how that works.
DUE DATES
THE END IS NEAR. The end of the *semester.* Don’t freak out.
That said, there’s some things we need to plow through. Here’s how we are going to make it work:
All deadlines listed are 11:59 pm
FRIDAY 11/26 — Unit 2 Draft submitted via Blackboard
SUNDAY 11/28 – TUESDAY 11/30 Unit 3 live on Blackboard
THURSDAY 12/2 — Unit 2 Final POSTED ON OPEN LAB
11/29 Class = Final prep,
12/6 Class = Final prep, Unit 2 celebration
12/11 – 12/13 FINAL EXAM LIVE on BLACKBOARD
Unit 2 Proposal
Cult of Personality: Art and Propaganda in the DPRK By Angela La
For my Unit 2 thesis, I have chosen to dive into the world of graphics in the everyday life of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea). I would like to explore how artists express themselves despite the strict rules, and where to draw the line between art and propaganda, if that is even possible in a country like the DPRK. These propaganda posters serve as one of the main ways to communicate to the masses where internet access is severely restricted. To the outside world, it’s easy to see them as overly militaristic and anti-American, but there can also be a more nuanced message through art in a reclusive state.
Terms for research
Kim Jong Un
Pyongyang University of Fine Art
Art IS Propaganda in North Korea
Worker’s Party
Graphics from everyday life
Socialist realism
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/north-korea-propaganda-posters-design/index.html
https://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/north-korea-sun-mu-propaganda/
Unit 2 Proposal
For my unit 2 proposal, I’m diving into the movement “Stop Telling Women to Smile” by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. It’s a street art project that refers to addressing the gender based street harassment that happens everyday over various places, happening to countless women. The Project started here in New York, primarily in Brooklyn in the fall of 2012. To this day its still considered an on-going project to raise awareness to this world wide conflict.
The project consists of various portraits made by Fazlalizadeh, that have displayed various women that she has sat down with and talked with about their own experiences with harassment and how it has affected them to this day. She uses many buildings and structures as her displays for her works of art to show all kinds of people the ongoing problem that happens within our society. She also is seen using not only English but Spanish as well on her portraits to hopefully reach people from other walks of life and to have her project reach more and more people.
Lambkin, Kelly and Cortland, Suny. “2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change.” 15 Nov. 2017.
Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana “Stop Telling Women to Smile.”
Fabulize Magazine, Contributor. “It’s Important For Men to Understand That They Need To Stop Telling Women to Smile.” 11 April. 2016
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/its-important-for-men-to-stop-telling-women-to-smile_b_9655246
Confederate Statues
I find the removal of confederate statues very interesting. It is clear that the purpose of these statues were to promote ideals of white supremacy in the United States, other then to honor fallen soldiers of the war. This idea that these statues are meant for white supremacy is proved by the fact that the statues have become a gathering ground for white supremacist groups. Many of those opposed to the removal of the statues state that it is wiping away history. Though i think that this is a ignorant statement when it is clear that they stand for much more then that. But at the same time i feel that the removal of these statues do nothing for acknowledging Americas racist and violent past. Its very simple to remove statues, but that isn’t progress in dismantling white supremacy, and bigotry in this country. It is just a poor attempt to satisfy black and brown communities into believing that America is changing, when in reality it is not.
The confederate statues were built to honor those who wanted to keep Blacks as slaves, as inferior, and has less. I feel that there is no pride in this, only for white supremacy which has caused centuries of pain and trauma to Blacks in America. Removing the statues do not prevent police from killing young black men, nor does it solve the numerous flaws in our justice system. Most importantly, removing statues does not remove the mentality of racism which is deeply engrained in this country. If America is willing to remove the traces of White Supremacy, then it should be willing to review and acknowledge its true history of racism and reflect and work to change these issues.
I believe that Black and Brown communities are often handed false progression when it comes to changing the way that this country treats them. We are given street names in honor of Black and Brown figures, and we see all over the country the removal of racist statues, and we are given apologies and protests regarding our experiences. Though its important to look at the reality which is still, that Black and Brown people in America still are struggling because we are brought up in a country were we are viewed as less, and are treated unfairly based on the color of our skin. Though the removal of these statues is good, it is nothing compared to the real problems that this country has. It does nothing to change the current circumstances of Black and Brown people.
Stitched Together
By Ryan Smith
Watching these videos and reading these stories about these individuals is really heavy and really makes you be grateful for the modern medicine and advancements we have today. Ive always been aware of the AIDS pandemic and the history this country has with LGBTQ rights. It still shocks me that not too long ago it was a federal crime to be queer in this county. As some 30+ years has passed since this tragedy and the illegal precedent of being queer, it doesn’t seem we have made as much progress as a nation as we should have. It was only 7 years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same sex marriage, and legalizing all same sex marriages throughout the county.
Seeing these videos about how and why the quilt was made really opened my eyes on how such a deviating tragedy brought so many people together and make the worlds largest community arts project ever. It has 40,000+ individuals that lost their lives to this AIDS pandemic.
Back then there wasn’t much or if any information on sexual awareness and practicing safe sex. AIDS was something completely new back then and was at my understanding terrifying because no one knew anything about it and how to prevent it. Listening to these stories about how so many friends and family members were lost by the numbers and how much it would take its toll on you. The panels representing the size of a casket makes a bigger impact on the stories that want to be told, and these innocent lives will not be forgotten.
Why does it stand?
by Liz Cortes
What is the real history behind each conferate monument? According to W. Fitzhugh Brundage the massive standed up confederate memorials during the Jim Crow laws carried out slavery ideas and the white supremassive. It became in our days an offense for black community and american culture, putting in trial they preservation.
It reveals that those monuments were just measures that whites use for keep in south states the slavery laws and keep with that its benefits. consequenly I believe that standing confederate statues up don’t contribute to the nowdays society, and they could be used just for historical reports as Brundage mentioned “they will serve as historical artifacts rather than civic monuments.”(1). This is history but is not our actual identity and it should’t have any power to affect today generation.
We can’t change the past but we can learn from it, not only knocking the statues down also changing out mentality and stereotypes, as the New Orleands mayor Mitch Landrieu mentioned “this is not just about statues this is about attitudes”. then all the effort made will not be worth.
In addition is important to understand that we cannot continue setting up monuments without think about present and future, its meaning in a century later, and what those ideas will be joining the community.
Brundage, W. Fitzhugh “I’ve studied the history of Confederate memorials. Here’s what to do about them.” 18 August 2017,
(1) Maynar, Phil. “The Battle Over Confederate Statues”. theguardia.com, 22 August 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2017/aug/22/battle-over-confederate-statues-united-states-video-explainer
