Celebrating our first birthday
“As people who make art, we make democracy by making messages.” --Kristina Wong
It’s February 2022 and the A4D Newsletter is turning one year old, so we thought we’d take you on a trip down memory lane. Over the past year, (nearly) every month we shared actions that you as an artist can take to help strengthen our democracy as well as legislation in the works. We also profiled an artist whose work reflects democratic values.
Artists for democracy
Meet the artists we profiled - click the links for more
June Edmonds: “I think ‘democracy’ means the same to all of us. It’s just that everybody has a different definition of who the ‘we’ is in ‘We the People.’” juneedmonds.com
Sandy Rodriguez: “The way we define democracy evolves with each generation. It has the potential to be very powerful and amazing, provided that everyone has access.” studiosandyrodriguez.com
Anoka Faruqee: “Democracy requires attention, knowing your values and how you want to act on them.” anokafaruqee.com
Joel Tauber: “Democracy implies an understanding that we’re all intertwined with each other.” joeltauber.com
Fabian Debora: “For me, democracy is being able to stand in your truth and speak truth to power, to create betterment for our people.” fabiandebora.com
Kristina Wong: “Democracy is a constantly active chia pet with an endless need for sun and water.” kristinawong.com
Emilia Cruz: “If you have the capacity to help someone in need, that’s what I like to think of as democracy.” emiliacruz.com
Shirley Tse: “Why do I need democracy? Because I want to get rid of oppression. I want it to give me more agency.” shirleytse.com
LEGISLATION
La lucha continua
Across the year we highlighted the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act, both of which would protect voting rights for all Americans. We explained the American Jobs Plan (aka “The Infrastructure Bill”) and the American Families Plan, as well as the US Citizenship Act and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. We also told you about a bill in California that would have created Universal Health Care.
We encouraged members of our arts community to contact elected officials, volunteer as poll workers, support communities that have been most impacted by the criminal justice system, send postcards and letters to voters, and even run for office.
We also helped defeat the anti-democratic gubernatorial recall in California.
Did we get everything we wanted in 2021? No, but that’s the nature of democracy. Are our elected officials perfect? No, they’re only human.
What we’ve learned since we started our work is that to build a more just democracy, we have to play the long game. That’s why here at Artists 4 Democracy we’ve recommitted ourselves in 2022 to working with artists and art students to engage in civic life and democratic institutions.
We’ve been inspired by the artists we’ve met along the way, and we hope you are too. Stay tuned, and keep in touch.
Thanks for reading the Artists 4 Democracy Newsletter. Artists 4 Democracy promotes democratic and civic engagement by mobilizing artists to get involved in political action. Through voter registration drives, fundraisers, and events we seek to foster and protect our participatory democracy.