Category: street art

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By: Ryan Smith

From day to day out, women are being told to smile and look a “certain way” to appease men for their self-worth. But these opinions that men have about women are nothing but objective and disrespectful to the fullest. You see it happen on the streets, subways, stores and virtually anywhere people are interacting. This has been an ongoing issue that’s seen a worldwide pandemic within social change. 

This brings me to a brilliant social street artist by the name of Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. This movement started here in the ever-growing city of Brooklyn, New York in 2012. You’ll see portraits put up around various locations in the city of actual women that have been interviewed for this project with quotes such as “MY WORTH EXTENDS FAR BEYOND MY BODY”, “I AM NOT HERE FOR YOU” and “YO MEREZCO SER RESPETADA” which translates to “I Deserve To Be Respected”. By making her work in multiple languages she’s able to reach a larger audience of the general public and therefore get her voice out there. Behind each of these portraits has a larger story and their own experiences that each woman holds near to themselves. They shared what it’s like to have these daily experiences with harassment and how daunting it can take a toll on oneself.

After starting only 10 years ago this ever-growing social change has reached far-off places around our earth. These brave women’s stories are being told in New York, Berlin, France, Canada, Mexico, Trinidad, and the UK. It wasn’t until 2015, that Fazlalizadeh took this project to Mexico, making it international. It was the first step into bringing this movement worldwide and expanding her voice to the ends of the earth. Two years later she brought Stop Telling Women to Smile to her home state of Oklahoma, which is a primarily Republican state in wake of the 2016 election of Trump. The text read “America is black. It is Native. It wears hijab. It is Spanish speaking tongue. It is migrant. It is a woman. Has been here. And it’s not going anywhere.” That piece being in a republican state spoke volumes and raised an uproar, but she stuck to her guns and stood her ground. Her tenacity didn’t stop there, she brought in another groundbreaking movement in 2020 where her murals portraying exquisite portraits of Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Tony McDade, and Nina pop in New York City. These portraits raised awareness addressing Racial and Transphobic violence happening today. 

That just goes to show how many social issues there are and how it affects so many people from so many different walks of life. It shines a spotlight on the fact that no matter where you reside, the similarities of harassment are jarring enough for women to all resonate with and have similar stories. There are countless individuals, including myself that have the utmost respect for Fazlalizadeh and the dedication it took for her to get her voice out there and help so many other women voice their opinion on what’s been happening. 

As the project is titled “Stop Telling Women To Smile”, it goes far beyond just that, but furthermore, it dives into the fact that just because a woman might wear a specific outfit that doesn’t give any man or person the right to an invitation to them or any unjust opinion. Women should be to wear and do anything in this world that they so do please without the constant harassment from men who seem to believe they have a right to voice their own opinion when in fact they should know their place and show these women the respect that they so rightfully deserve. From having countless women as friends, I’ve heard stories about how just walking from the train station to work here in New York City, they would get unnecessarily cat-called from men. The amount of disrespect and harassment that these women must feel daily is downright horrific and heartbreaking. No one should have to endure such an uncomfortable feeling when they are simply trying to go about their day. 

This movement not only shines a light upon this worldwide pandemic amongst women but also hopefully a step in the right direction as an entire society in the fact that we owe it to ourselves to treat women with more dignity and respect regardless of the circumstance. As men, we truly don’t understand the pain these women endure and have to face when out in public but what we can do is stand up for what’s right and lift women and give them the respect they deserve. 

Laura, 2014, Mexico City
Laura, 2014, Mexico City
Stephanie, 2012, Philadelphia
Nirali, 2013, New York City

Lee. R, Felicia. “An Artist Demands Civility on the Street With Grit and Buckets of Paste.” The New York Times, 9 Apr. 2014 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/arts/design/tatyana-fazlalizadeh-takes-her-public-art-project-to-georgia.html

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

Lambkin, Kelly and Cortland, Suny. “2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change.” 15 Nov. 2017 https://studybreaks.com/culture/graffiti-ignite-social-change-new-york/

Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana “Stop Telling Women to Smile.” www.tlynnfaz.com

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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.

2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change

Fazlalizadeh, Tatyana “Stop Telling Women to Smile.”

www.tlynnfaz.com

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

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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,

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/8/18/16165160/confederate-monuments-history-charlottesville-white-supremacy

(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

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More On The Confederate Statues

Some people may say that the confederate statutes represent a point in American history that is obviously true. These statues all over the south including Louisiana, Virginia, and North Carolina were set up by white southerners who fought against black citizens getting rights.

Recently we have seen riots, protests, and people fighting against the police after the horrible death of George Floyd in 2020. On the news, you would see statues being vandalized, and some recently removed which at the time I had really no idea why. After reading the articles and doing some googling it’s clear that the statues represent confederacy and people who fought against black rights.

The removal of these statues in my opinion is a great place to start. People argue that the statues represent fallen soldiers when they were really made to represent the idea of white supremacy. With the removal of the Stonewall Jackson statue in Virginia, I am optimistic that we can expect a future of equality.

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Statues: Bring Them Down

By Ryan Smith

Looking back on these past two years I remember seeing people tearing down these statues or what some would call “monuments”. There was a lot of uproar about it when these statues would get ripped down because people thought they were a part of American history and somehow be celebrated. While you cannot argue that these statues are yes a part of The United States of Americas history, that doesn’t mean we need to have them up on display and celebrate them.

People nowadays are becoming more aware of the disgusting and horrific things these people have done and been made out to be statues. Theres no reason we need to have these Confederate leaders on display after the treacherous things they’ve done in the past to fellow human beings. This country has a deep history and rooted in so much racism so back then when the statues were put up people didn’t have a way to express their voices as much as they do now. With social media and more outlets for people to show their opinions on these topics I think it really opens a lot of peoples eyes and shows them why what’s being done is done.

I think these people should be learned about in school still, because people need to know how this country came to be and what truly happened back then. But to have their statues and monuments up is way over the line and they all need to be taken down immediately. It’s almost as if the people are taking back what’s right and standing up for themselves which is a very beautiful thing.

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Street Art and Social Change

First, a Civil War explainer, if you never really studied this stuff or it’s been a minute:

Read and explore these resources on Confederate Monuments

Watch this video: https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2017/aug/22/battle-over-confederate-statues-united-states-video-explainer

Read this (note that it is from 2017): https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/8/18/16165160/confederate-monuments-history-charlottesville-white-supremacy

Read this article AND take time to explore the timeline included in its images: 

https://www.npr.org/2017/08/20/544266880/confederate-statues-were-built-to-further-a-white-supremacist-future


Explore this photo project of plinths after statues have been removed: https://www.hectorrene.com/ozymandias

This summer, the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, was finally allowed to remove the statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson that became the flashpoint for the “Unite The Right” rally that brought Nazis to town. As it happened, the statues were taken down while I was on a train headed there to visit a friend. Here are two pictures I took of what was once known as Jackson Park, now known as Court Square Park. The first, taken in 2017, shows the statue shrouded. The second, taken this summer, shows its empty plinth.