Issue 47 | www.fokus.org
Atiba T. Edwards
Founder & Chief Curator Atiba is an engineer focused on making and connecting creative people, nodes, networks and moments.
Shani Cohen Curator
Shani is a Brooklyn based writer who believes in uniting our diverse communities through art and the power of words.
Jozi Zwerdling Curator
Jozi is an artist enabler, educator and organizer who loves the INSIGHT project as a means of re-imagining, linking and documenting selves, stories and worlds.
INSIGHT Magazine showcases and archives emerging contemporary artists from all art disciplines. FOKUS produces this magazine to provide insight into people who are creating art, traditional and non-traditional, in their own way.
Structures Contributors
Kevin Coval • Atiba T. Edwards • Hagop • Esther Loria • Brittany Maldonado • Nelson “Host” Santiago • Tes • Keya Whetsone
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Questions, comments and contributions can be sent to insightsubmit@gmail.com. To view older issues of INSIGHT, visit www.fokus.org/insight. Copyright © 2016. INSIGHT (ISSN 2164-7771) is a publication of FOKUS, Inc. All rights reserved on entire contents. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.
INSIGHT: Structures Contents 4 12 13 14 18
Hagop Totems Defined Esther Loria Bird in the Canyon Atiba T. Edwards The Antonym Brittany Maldonado Structures Kevin Coval The Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act 19 Kevin Coval Graffiti Blasters: an erasure (a buff) 20 Kevin Coval Graffiti Photo Series 30 Nelson Santiago Wake Up 2016 31 Tes Imma Let You Finish 32 Keya Whetsone Crumbling Conformity
Photography
Visual Art
Creative Writing
Articles
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Totems Defined
Art & Text By Hagop
Walrus medicine represents uniqueness and survival. It serves as the keeper of wisdom. As a totem, Walrus Woman teaches the importance of connectedness and the lesson that each individual is important and serves its purpose. Walruses live in large herds and are dependent on the group for survival. Walrus Woman is an African woman depicted wearing a walrus skull to demonstrate her strength and ability to survive. 4 | www.fokus.org
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Antler Queen symbolizes great strength and demands respect. Her Elk Antlers represent her strength and abundance, while her mask veils her true face, which represents her mastery of the illusion and her ability to slip into other worlds.
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The Desert Queen is a priestess. She is grounded, calm, and abundant as represented by her cow horns. Her wings are her connection to the divine and she is an embodiment of heaven on earth. 6 | www.fokus.org
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Atlantis is the ultimate symbol of femininity and fertility and represents the primordial life force. She is able to access the deep mysteries of the creative subconscious while balancing the mental and emotional currents of life.
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Aztec Princess is an ancient warrior and seer. Her third eye is magnified by three lenses which penetrate the layers of illusion. Her bull horns represent raw strength and power, both physically and spiritually, and the ability to sacrifice for the greater good. The egg represents new life, which is embraced by the divine serpent energy. www.fokus.org |
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Aries Queen embodies the essences of fire and air. Her Ram horns are a symbol of action, initiative, and leadership in forging new roads.The selenite crystals on her shoulders represent clarity of mind and spirit. She is able to overcome fear and walk in faith with vision and conviction. 10 | www.fokus.org
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Warrior Princess is a fierce and noble warrior. She comes from privilege but chooses to to fight for truth and justice. She wears the skull of an extinct pouch lion called a Thylacoleo. The lion represents courage and the sun, and is the most relentless fighter in the face of life’s challenges. She is a defender and protector of her family and tribe. Hagop is a self-taught mixed media/collage artist. His work explores and challenges societies’ preconceived notions regarding race, gender, and culture by constructing unlikely relationships and thereby giving new meaning and purpose to the subject matter. www.madeofhagop.com www.fokus.org |
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Bird in the Canyon by Esther Loria
One of the most unique artists of our age, Esther Loria’s touch is stunning in its simplicity and truth. Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Designs, Literature and Photography. www. Facebook.com/EstherLoriaAsISeeIt
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The Antonym
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By Atiba T. Edwards “I want to manage your expectations about the role you applied for” I soon realized that was just code being told to me for I had the nerve of aspirations to move to the front you felt I wasn’t supposed to be here in your world so you took it into your hands to temper my audacity of hope my melanin too high and was an explicit reminder of my trying you didn’t want to sully The Street as I walked around like Prynne thankfully, I let you finish and realized we were finished you weren’t going to stop me and my dreams of flying so when they say “manage your expectations” know they just want to keep you grounded and in their pre-selected lane the more things change the more they stay the same
Atiba T. Edwards is the co-founder of FOKUS and creator of INSIGHT magazine. www.fokus.org |
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Work by Brittany Maldonado
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What’s Left Brittany Maldonado is a Bronx born artist, actress and poet. It wasn’t until Brittany graduated from college that she fell helplessly in love with creating visual art. She creates unique images using mostly recycled materials. www.facebook.com/missbrittheartist www.fokus.org |
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Paris Ave
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The Violent Crime Control & Law Enforcement Act By Kevin Coval
this made streets gaunt ghost like. gave Daley the impetus to cut heads of gangs with abandon & without oversight. 100,000 new police. 9.7 billion for prisons. inmate education vanished. no more Malcolm’s or Etheridge’s jail rigid, more separatist. more private stock options on how to pile bodies: boot camps for minors green lite magicians: a school to prison pipeline, urban out fitted, since this bill bill passed & rahm rammed thru congress making democrats republican. when the country tricked the huddled masses the poor & tired deported, kids kidnapped off the block. there is a 33% chance each Black man will be in chains again. 3 strikes means life. means jobs gone & the ways one might supplement income or deal with the impossibility of doing so are obsolete delete. this means you’ll be deleted. defeated. the city takes land & creates an indentured service sector. wah lah ta dah a new, america a new america & always the same
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Graffiti Blasters: an erasure (a buff)
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By Kevin Coval
Graffiti scars hurts property Chicago blast trucks use baking soda high pressure remove stone mineral. has become a model for other cities foreign countries WarsawPragueMilanChina Arizona the City’s anti-crime program depends on removal we make every effort to remove. The Department works very closely with Police will apprehend vandals deface. No Chicago has to tolerate graffiti Please join us in eliminating a beautiful city
*language removed from the cityofchicago.org website
Kevin Coval is the author of seven books including The BreakBeat Poets & This is Modern Art, co-written with Idris Goodwin. A People’s History of Chicago is forthcoming in the Spring of 2017 on Haymarket Books. www.kevincoval.com www.fokus.org |
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Graffiti Photos By Kevin Coval
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Black Bar Buff Chicago These pictures are documentations of graffiti from around the country. Graffiti is the contestation of the right to the public sphere and asks the questions who art is for, by and why? www.fokus.org |
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No Trespassing STL
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School Hallway Detroit
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Art Is Not Allways Vandalism Chicago
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Your Luxury Is Our Displacement Chicago
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Wake Up
by Nelson Santiago
Nelson Santiago is deeply rooted in his Puerto Rican heritage. Born in Harlem, raised in the Bronx, Nelson has an innate artistic talent. He is captivated by Hip-Hop culture and immerses himself into comic books and the world of graffiti. www.nelsonhostsantiago.com 30 | www.fokus.org
Imma Let You Finish
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By Tes
a kiss on the neck his version of a temperature check she paused and said one second as he was blinded by the light for she was about to hit send on the message she “had� to finish
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Crumbling Conformity by Keya Whetstone
These pieces express the structure of emotional and mental health in young adults slowly crumbling from the pressure to conform to social norms.
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(de)Shelled www.fokus.org |
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Spilled 34 | www.fokus.org
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Keya enjoys sunlight and sleep when she’s not pouring parts of her soul on a canvas. www.fokus.org |
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Thank You for reading INSIGHT: STRUCTURES We hope you enjoyed the work shared with you. The theme for the next issue is: SOLSTICE Read more issues @ www.fokus.org/insight