Stories for Solidarity

Our organization is composed of many diverse artists and team members who have been forced to pick sides on political and social issues based on their ethnicity. Our goal is to show solidarity for them through art that can represent their feelings and create more allies in the community. We have every type of artist with every type of medium from acrylic paintings, music producers, muralists, ceramics, dancers, and many more.

What does "liberation" mean to you?

Liberation to us is the ideal of no longer having to justify your identity or expertise in order to be deemed suitable, but instead being in a place where people can learn art, culture, and history in a non-confrontational cohesive way.

Is your creative practice one of liberation?

Our practice is more specifically solidarity, however they often go hand in hand. By showing solidarity we are bringing all people with differing views together through art, we can in essence liberate people's hearts and ideals with visual expression and then continue to liberate their consciousness by engaging in difficult conversations surrounding the complexities of race.

How can art be a tool in the revolution?

Art activism has been around since the beginning of time. We picked the theme of solidarity so the art is very intentional for this purpose. Other groups are doing more radical pieces, while some are doing many pieces depicting their experiences with violence. All of these different avenues of artivism are needed to bring about and sustain social change. It’s one thing to hear it, but seeing it stimulates a different part of our brains that can cause a switch to go off inside of them.

Share a little bit about your creative process!

We have creative directors who help organize the artists and communicate to our business team/ vice-versa so we are all on the same page and are aligned with the solidarity mission. Solidarity is often difficult and can at times conflict with our personal beliefs. We feel the need in our community Is to unite and elevate BI-POC people through art and having an open means for conversation and discord versus solely criticism-in spite of our personal beliefs. Our goal is that our organization can unite people of all beliefs, ethnicities, and walks of life.

Storiesforsolidarity.com

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