Agitate! Educate! Organize!
Agit Prop in the 21st Century
Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, June 12, 6-9pm
Exhibition Dates: June 12 -- September 30, 2018

Our daily lives are saturated with information; we consume supposedly “neutral” media that implicitly supports existing power structures, yet we simultaneously fear “fake news” without critically analyzing the truths and biases that coexist in every message we see or hear. The reality is that all media has an agenda: for hundreds of years, people have used art, culture, graphics, performance, and design as central elements of social and political organizing across all realms of the political spectrum, to spread information and reimagine reality. This exhibition reflects historic and current uses of agitprop, or agitational propaganda, at the intersection of design and political organizing.

“Propaganda,” from the same root as “propagate,” refers to information that is shared in support of a cause. In modern times, the word propaganda has been weighted with negative connotations; we aim to reclaim the word and highlight the radical potential of propaganda to instigate change. With the Arab Spring, Occupy, Gezi Park, Black Lives Matter, #NoDAPL, and now the resistance to Donald Trump, we’ve seen a new explosion of agitprop. People of all stripes have come out into the streets, placards and banners in hand, wearing T-shirts and buttons, passing out flyers and stickers to protest social injustice. This boost of political ephemera hasn’t been created in a vacuum—since the advent of the printing press and movable type, political slogans and graphics have been part of our daily existence. Politicized communication is the constant accompaniment to people organizing to improve the lives of their families, communities, and co-workers.

Because so much attention is focused on organizing and activism, now is the perfect time to unearth and unpack the history of agitprop. Where does it come from? Who have been its major practitioners? How have the aesthetics and content evolved over time? And, how can we use it to change the world?

Film Screening: My Country Occupied
Wednesday, June 13, 7pm

Join us for a screening of My Country Occupied (Newsreel #151, 1971, 30 minutes), with filmmakers Tami Gold and Heather (Lewis) Archibald. In this moving film, the personal testimonies of Guatemalan Indians, peasants, and guerrillas are dramatized to provide the narration for a powerful overview of the history of U.S. destabilization of democracy in Central America.​ ​This screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers. Visit our website for more information.

Radical Discipline:
Exploring the Reasons Children Are Punished, and Alternative Suggestions
DATE CHANGE: Saturday, June 16, 3pm-4:30pm

Radical Playdate presents an open and personal caregiver discussion about disciplining and punishing children—is there ever a need to punish children? How were we punished as children, and what repercussions did that have on us? What are some alternative models for punishment that we can employ as radical caregivers? To frame our discussion, China Martens has generously shared an issue of her exploratory zine on radical parenting. Visit our website for more info and to download a copy of the zine.

Social Justice Book Club
Sunday, June 24, 2-4pm

Join the Social Justice Book Club for a discussion on Roxane Gay’s searing memoir, Hunger. Hunger builds on Gay’s writing about feminism, women’s bodies, and rape culture to unflinchingly tackle personal experiences. Hunger is about weight gained and lost and gained. It’s also about so much more: the body she built to shield herself from the contempt of men and her own sense of shame, her complex relationship with parents who took great interest in solving her weight “problem,” and what it has meant for her to be highly visible and yet feel unseen. Please RSVP if you’d like to join us.