Week 8: Printing the revolution!

 

Although I did not attend the "Printing the revolution!" speaker series, I was luckily able to listen to a recording of it from a classmate. As I listened to each artist’s life story, I found it to be very interesting and inspiring. The first person I heard from was Malaquias Montoya. Malaquias grew up in the San Joaquin Valley raised by a single mother. While living in that area, Montoya grew up in a community which included people from diverse backgrounds such as Japanese and African-American. He was known for creating posters for many events that occurred. Another artist that spoke was Favianna Rodriguez. She was born and raised in Oakland, California with a family background of Afro-Peruvian. Favianna had created many posters which she used to express how she felt about events such as the anti-immigration law back in 94, and a poster for Obama's presidency. This poster stated "Migration is beautiful", and also digged deeper about the places she traveled. Once she went to Mexico city for 2 years, where she learned about the indigenous culture and history of different groups. She said this trip had completely changed her life, and led to her creating artwork which honored her indigenous and african roots.