Flowers for Fighters, 2021
“Hearts starve as well as bodies; yes it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses, too.”
- Judy Collins, Bread & Roses 🥖🌹
Commemorated May Day 2021 by celebrating the labor of Chicago organizers in a new window exhibition, Flowers for Fighters at P.O. Box Collective in the Rogers Park neighborhood. On display for the month of May, the window exhibition featured some of my watercolor portraits of Chicago-based organizers Byul Yoon (Dissenters), Mariame Kaba (Project NIA, Interrupting Criminalization), Benji Hart (Multi-Disciplinary Artist and Organizer, #NoCopAcademy), Kelly Hayes (Lifted Voices), and Sarah-Ji, whose photography of Chicago justice movements were also on display. Additionally, other illustrations of mine included posters uplifting the labor of queer Latinx farmer friends at Catatumbo Cooperative Farm on the southeast side, the mothers in the fight for reparations for Jon Burge torture survivors, and more.
I spoke briefly at the opening and noted that the U.S labor movement as we know it would be nothing without the labor of Black women (Lucy Parsons, Sylvia Wood, Clara Day) and how important it is to keep creating all kinds of new traditions of giving roses to those who lead us towards a world where everyone has what they need to survive and more. Thank you to Black & brown women, femmes, gender non-conforming and trans organizers in Chicago who teach us how to fight and why we fight everyday.
Thank you to Mary Zerkel, Salome Chansoff, Mark Diaz, Grae Rosa, Molly Costello, Jes and Tiff Favers du Shine, and many more who helped with installing the exhibition.
- Judy Collins, Bread & Roses 🥖🌹
Commemorated May Day 2021 by celebrating the labor of Chicago organizers in a new window exhibition, Flowers for Fighters at P.O. Box Collective in the Rogers Park neighborhood. On display for the month of May, the window exhibition featured some of my watercolor portraits of Chicago-based organizers Byul Yoon (Dissenters), Mariame Kaba (Project NIA, Interrupting Criminalization), Benji Hart (Multi-Disciplinary Artist and Organizer, #NoCopAcademy), Kelly Hayes (Lifted Voices), and Sarah-Ji, whose photography of Chicago justice movements were also on display. Additionally, other illustrations of mine included posters uplifting the labor of queer Latinx farmer friends at Catatumbo Cooperative Farm on the southeast side, the mothers in the fight for reparations for Jon Burge torture survivors, and more.
I spoke briefly at the opening and noted that the U.S labor movement as we know it would be nothing without the labor of Black women (Lucy Parsons, Sylvia Wood, Clara Day) and how important it is to keep creating all kinds of new traditions of giving roses to those who lead us towards a world where everyone has what they need to survive and more. Thank you to Black & brown women, femmes, gender non-conforming and trans organizers in Chicago who teach us how to fight and why we fight everyday.
Thank you to Mary Zerkel, Salome Chansoff, Mark Diaz, Grae Rosa, Molly Costello, Jes and Tiff Favers du Shine, and many more who helped with installing the exhibition.