Category: Artists

(Cosmic Outlaws) LA, Number 1 (July 4, 1972).
Platypus Publications
Los Angeles, California

People’s Free Press, Number 1 (September 1, 1971).
People’s Free Press
Reseda, California

World Magazine (February 27, 1971).

Dare to Struggle, Volume 1, Issue 1 [undated].

Y.L.O.: Affiliated with the Young Lords Organization, Volume 1, Number 1 (March 19, 1969).
Ministry of Information
Chicago, Illinois

The Haight-Ashbury Eye, Volume 1, Number 1 [undated].

Aquarius (August 1969) .

Mad Funk, Volume 1, Number 1 (April 20-May 6, 1969).
Mad Funk Collective
Tucson, Arizona

Peace and Justice, Volume 1, Number 1 (April c1970s).
Peace Action Council of Southern California
Los Angeles, California

Issues in Radical Therapy, Volume 1, Number 1 (January 15, 1973).

Our Struggle: Ricardo Chavez Ortiz Defense Committee, Volume 1, Number 1 (June 1973).
Ricardo Chavez Ortiz Defense Committee
East Los Angeles, California

Noosphere… the organized layer of intelligence encircling the planet, Volume 1, Number 1 (1973).
optii (organization of planning teams international inc.)
New Hope, Pennsylvania

A special thank you to Carrie Marsh, Lisa Crane and Ayat Agah of Special Collections, The Claremont Colleges Library, Claremont, CA.

Young Lords Organization banner.

Bruderhof Communities Songs of Light: The Bruderhof Songbook. Rifton, N.Y.: The Plough Publishing House of The Woodcrest Service Committee, Inc., c1977.

Hubbard, L. Ron, Dianetics: The Original Thesis. Wichita, Kansas: Wichita Publishing Co., 1951.

Hubbard, L. Ron. Scientology and the Bible. [Sussex, Eng.]: Dept. of Publications World Wide, 1967.

Russell, Bertrand. Why I am Not a Christian. Girard Kan.: Haldeman-Julius Publications, c1929.

Industrial Workers of the World. Songs of The Workers: To Fan The Flames Of Discontent. Chicago: Industrial Workers of the World, 1968.

Industrial Workers of the World. I.W.W. Songs. Songs of Life—From the Mine Mill Factory and Shop. Chicago, 1925.

Assorted protest badges.

Nordhoff, Charles. The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and Observation. New York: Harper, 1875.

Map of Communistic Societies.

Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society Loma-Land: A Delightful Place for Rest or Residence. Point Loma San Diego Calif.: Theosophical Pub. Co., 1901.

Morris, William. Chants for Socialists. London: Socialist League Office, 1885.

Frame Up: The Opening Defense Statement made by Angela Y. Davis, March 29, 1972.

Fee Angela Davis [pamphlet], c1970.

Mayo, Winifred. Prison Experiences of a Suffragette. Pasadena, California: The Clinker Press, 2012.

Free David Hilliard poster, 1971.

United Farm Workers flag.

A special thank you to Carrie Marsh, Lisa Crane and Ayat Agah of Special Collections, The Claremont Colleges Library, Claremont, CA.

The #100hardtruths-#fakenews Companion is a manifesto in 100 cells compiled from a “primer of digital media literacy” with the same name found online at: https://scalar.me/100hardtruths. Produced by Alexandra Juhasz during the first 100 days of the Trump administration and designed by Craig Dietrich, the website #100hardtruths-#fakenews and its new paper Companion are one citizen’s attempt to counter the purposeful confusion, lack of trust, and disorientation of the current administration’s relation to media, offering instead a steady, reasoned set of resources seeking clarity and justice. It is now being used as one tool for collective experiments in radical digital media literacy based in poetry writing. 

“Let it hereby be resolved that I will work with poets in their local communities to adapt, transform, extend, translate and all-in-all make more usable my original ‘online digital media primer.’ That I will experiment with others in place-based, local, embodied poetry workshops that begin with the five alternatives above and my #100hardtruths-#fakenews primer as resources toward new forms of radical digital media literacy. That in so doing we will engage together in place-based, people-made, word-bound expressions of individuals’ and communities’ truths about social media, fake news, and post-truth outside of the indexical, evidentiary traditions that currently bind us and the technologies that are built upon, reinforce, and monetize such expression.”

See: Resolution toward radical digital media literacy in a post-truth era (11-20-17) at https://aljean.wordpress.com.

Using mixed media and installation, I examine degeneration and “new”-generation. I became interested in this when stem cell research mushroomed in biological science. At the time, my drawings and paintings questioned societal norms and relationship dynamics, elements that persist in my work today.

I combine unconventional materials with traditional tools and techniques. These include medical supplies, which can be tough for people to embrace due to their reference to weakening bodies and mortality. I find ways of breaking barriers through color, play and nature. A multi-faceted language forms from the combination of organic and technologic elements that best reflects my content, which was catalyzed following the neurological impairment of people I love. Combining past with present (traditional paint and modern electrodes for example) requires undulating shifts between the two. Like conversation, it cannot be static. This keeps me challenged and is equal to the task of tapping sensitivities in a desensitized world.

In 2009, I began a written correspondence with several men scattered throughout the country serving death row sentences for what became an extensive project that looked into capital punishment and solitary confinement in the U.S.  

While letters were exchanged between many of them for years, it was only within the first three months that the first man I wrote with was executed. He was in the state of Texas.  I went online to search for more information the day of his execution and landed myself on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) website and the executions archive. 

It was with that information that I catapulted into Parting Words, a visual archive of the 500+ prisoners to date executed in the state of Texas.  This is just a small selection of the archive.

Excerpt from Woman’s Suffrage, Emma Goldman, 1910 (2018)

Archival image on paper

31 x 11 7/8 in.

DO (2017), Digital print on paper

 

All of ‘this’ may be getting too much. 

We live in a world where we can access everything, from the most horrendous terrorist attack to the latest celebrity breakup, financial meltdown, housing crisis, thoughts of a president, natural disaster or last meal someone we barely know has eaten. How can we deal with all this information, this choice?

It appears to me that we have a fundamental decision to make of how we do deal with ‘this’. 

We can tune off, remove ourselves from it all. 

We can continue the culture that responds with ‘like’ and ‘OMG’ and ‘!’ and ????. .

Or we can DO.

DO IT. 

Whatever ‘it’ may be. The important thing is that there is an empowered alternative to tuning out or passively responding from our keyboards or phones. We can be active. We can do things, however big or small. We are amazing, we must remember that.

DO.

written for ASU in 2016 

We hereby declare our mission to end rape at Arizona State University and beyond. To do so we seek:
To clarify conditions of rape based on gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability status
To honor all identities

To respect all genders 

To believe all survivors, students or otherwise
To end slut-shaming and victim-blaming
To be proactive rather than reactive

To recognize that rape is not about desire, but about power

To affirm that sex is an active and consensual choice between partners

To remind everyone that no one is entitled to sex

To promote healthy relationships

To value love over fear 
To transform attitudes about equality, justice, and relationships
To target dominant cultural forces that shape gender roles, relationships, and power dynamics
To utilize the power of difference in order to envision equality
To condemn sexual predators and ensure they have no place on campus
To investigate all rape cases fairly

To foster a campus environment in which everyone feels safe
To seek justice for all survivors through community support and systemic change

To hold our university accountable in regard to sexual violence
To end sexual violence and domination