CLIMATE PORTFOLIO

CultureStrike and Justseeds ’ Cooperative have collaborated with artists and environmental justice organizations to create an art print portfolio designed to highlight how climate change disproportionately affects frontline communities. These images inspire us toward a widespread cultural shift -- they serve as a vision about how underrepresented communities can lift up their voices to be heard.

This Climate Portfolio is a collection of fine art prints depicting the powerful work of grassroots organizations and groups that are working to defend the most impacted communities against large- scale industrial fossil-fuel projects and helping to build resilience in communities affected by global warming.

As climate disasters continue to wreak havoc on communities around the globe, climate deniers increasingly dominate the mainstream debate around climate change. Their perpetuation of myths about the effects of global warming and climate change stand in the way of social and environmental progress towards a more balanced way of life on our planet, and point to an urgent need for art and culture that can inspire and educate people about the truth.

The portfolio consists of a limited edition of 22 prints created by CultureStrike and Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative artists -- a diverse lineup of people of color, migrant, indigenous, and environmentalist visual artists from across North America. The collection is printed in a limited edition of 100 and is composed of both offset and screen prints.

At the heart of this portfolio is the belief that art has the power to move the climate conversation in a new direction by engaging the hearts and minds of people who might not otherwise have seen themselves, individually or collectively, as agents of change.

The portfolio draws inspiration from the work being done by frontline groups organizing in impacted communities to achieve a safe and just environment, by stopping the expansion of dangerous industrial projects, or rendering them obsolete. These include: • the disastrously polluting and destructive Tar Sands projects in Canada • the Keystone and Enbridge pipelines designed to move oil from the Tar Sands throughout the U.S. and Canada • fracking operations all over the country that pollute water and undermine communities • coal mining, oil extraction, and the transporting and burning of these toxic fuels

The groups range from First Nations defending their unceded territory from corrupt energy conglomerates, all the way to bands of young activists trying to keep pipelines from connecting the dirty fuel sources to the dirty energy generators. All of these projects are not only dangerous and polluting by themselves, but they are directly contributing to our outdated energy system -- the major driver of global climate change.

The artworks also focused on what groups are doing to mitigate the accelerating effects of a changing climate, such as extreme weather, rising sea levels, and increasing temperatures. This work ranges from technological solutions, like the creation of green energy zones in urban areas, to broader cultural changes that allow for respect and learning from the wisdom and practices of indigenous peoples.

ARTISTS

Agana Fernando Marti Gilda Posada Meredith Stern Micah Bazant Colin Matthes Jesse Purcell David Tim Kevin Caplicki Mazatl Pete Railand Rommy Torrico Thea Gahr Nicolas Medina Favianna Rodriguez Mary Tremonte Thomas Greyeyes Roger Peet Julio Salgado Erin Yoshi Nicolas Lampert Bec Young

www.culturestrike.org www.justseeds.org COLLABORATIVE PROCESS

We identified a group of environmental organizations doing important work at the local level with diverse constituencies. Our goal was for each to consider how to leverage the wisdom and experience of these groups and be inspired by the work they do. We asked each artist to question: Who are these groups? What are they fighting for? What are they fighting against? What do their communities look like? What does their land look like? We wanted artists to push the climate conversation to new levels beyond the limits of policy reform, while also balancing the need for the urgent messages of the front lines to be translated into creative content.

“We’re using everything at once; every tool in the toolbox to block fossil fuel development, every community relationship to make us strong, every connection to better ways of living on the land to honor, be humbled, and give back, and every visionary thought to imagine a world where we do things differently. This portfolio is intended as a shared documentation of these efforts. That better way of living is nothing new. It’s as old as all the world -- and we hope to help light it up and shout it out.” – Roger Peet, Climate Portfolio artist, co-organizer

“I see art as a way to bring things to life. If people see themselves in the image, they can become more aware, or question things more, as the beginning of taking action. It’s made me way more aware of both how much the presence of people of color are important to the [environmental] movement, but also how much more we need to be present and visible.” – Gilda Posada, Climate Portfolio artist

COLLABORATING ORGANIZATIONS Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) Bridge the Gulf California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) Climate Truth.org Everglades Earth First! Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) Marcellus Shale Earth First! The Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MI CATS) Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) Movement Generation (MG) No More Deaths Occupy Sandy People Organizing to Demand Environmental Justice (PODER) Portland and Wild Idaho Rising Tide Radical Action for Mountain People’s Survival (RAMPS) Reclaim Turtle Island (RTI) The San Carlos Apache Southwest Workers’ Union (SWU) Tar Sands Blockade Texas Environmental Justice Advisory Services (t.e.j.a.s) The Unis’tot’en (C’ihlts’ehkyu/Big Frog Clan)

The Climate Portfolio has been co-created by CultureStrike and the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative

CultureStrike is a migrant-led organization that works with a national network of artists to change public sentiment around migration. We believe that art is critical to changing national consciousness around issues such as migrant rights, climate justice, and racial justice. Since our founding in 2011, we have connected a national network of 200+ socially engaged artists, provided space and funding for professional and creative development, developed shared strategy with movement groups, and spearheaded dozens of events and campaigns that have resonated in local venues, social media, and the halls of power. As we grow we continue to develop new projects that amplify our strategy and inspire new artists and audiences with visions of social justice.

Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative is a decentralized network of 30 artists committed to making print and design work that reflects a radical social, environmental, and political stance. With members working from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, Justseeds operates both as a unified collaboration of similarly minded printmakers and as a loose collection of creative individuals with unique viewpoints and working methods. We believe in the transformative power of personal expression in concert with collective action. To this end, we produce collective portfolios, contribute graphics to grassroots struggles for justice, work collaboratively both in- and outside the co-op, build large sculptural installations in galleries, and on the streets – all while offering each other daily support as allies and friends. Project Team and Acknowledgements Organized and produced by Roger Peet, Gabriel Harrison, and Favianna Rodriguez, 2014-2015. Printed by Jesse Purcell at Repetitive Press in Toronto, Canada and at Inkworks in Oakland, California. Cover by Roger Peet. This portfolio was made possible in part by funding from Compton Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. With special thanks to the artists and organizations who apply their creativity and work tirelessly every day to make a difference. Artists’ Biographies and Collaborating Organizations Agana/Southwest Worker’s Union (SWU) Swamp by the Martin County Power Plant, defended openly and in community to uphold fundamental Vanessa Espinoza is an aerosol artist and a the Briger Forest with direct action, and is working human rights. In addition to abuse documentation, digital audiovisual specialist with a background with the Seminole Tribe to prevent construction of a deportation aid, and property recovery, No More in jewelry metal arts. Known as DJ AGANA, the fossil fuel power plant next to the Seminole Tribe Big Deaths maintains a humanitarian presence in the loose translation of con ganas— which means one’s Cypress reservation. 262-square-mile corridor where over half of known deaths of climate and economic migrants in recent motivation, drive, desire and ambition to hungrily Thomas Greyeyes/The San Carlos Apache accomplish any task. For more than a decade she years have occurred. has exercised her knowledge of digital media and Thomas GreyEyes is an interdisciplinary artist from the Navajo Nation and was raised throughout Colin Matthes/Missourians Organizing for creative arts with young Bay Area artists encouraging Reform and Empowerment (MORE) them to tell their own unique stories through the state of Arizona. He is Hashk’aan Hadzohi Colin Matthes makes work about engineering the painting, film and animation. Her goal is to reach (yucca fruit strung out in a line) born for Todichiinii absurd, which allows him to address economic endless audiences with visual landscapes that cultivate (bitter water). A graduate of both Arizona State and environmental crisis from a funny, critical, and art for thought and action while bringing visibility to University and the California College of the Arts in perversely industrious point of view. His practice current issues and topics that tell untold stories from a San Francisco, he has taught media and studio art includes painting, drawing, installation, zine and female perspective of resilience. classes at the college level on the San Carlos Apache reservation. Tom also teaches youth mural workshops graphic production, and projects. Matthes The Southwest Workers’ Union (SWU) and has participated in acclaimed artist residency is a member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative is an organization of low-income workers and programs at ASU through Map(ing) and the School of and has exhibited internationally in New York, Los families, community residents, and youth, united Unity and Liberation in Oakland, CA. In 2012 he was Angeles, Chicago, Antwerp, Dublin, Houston, Seville, in one organizational struggle for worker rights, awarded the Phoenix New Times Big Brain award Ljubljana, Melbourne, and Berlin. Recent solo- environmental justice and community empowerment. in Visual Art. The theme of the colonized indigenous exhibitions include BAND-AID: Instructional and Flood They work to protect communities and Mother Earth who refuses the status quo is apparent in his work, as Resistant Work and Green Mini Demo Derby, a solar from exploitation and contamination. “Libertad, well as the culture clashes that native peoples have powered remote control car demolition derby. He has Dignidad y Justicia”. experienced. He uses site-specific installations, participated in numerous residencies including Hotel Pupik (Austria), Werkkamp (Belgium), and Cow House Micah Bizant/Indigenous Environmental print, performance and video art to convey anti- Network (IEN) authoritarian messages to the dominant society. Studios (Ireland). He won the Mary L Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists in 2012 (Established) and 2007 In the “Copper Triangle” of Arizona the San Carlos Micah is a visual artist and graphic designer who (Emerging). works with social justice movements to make change Apache are fighting to protect the sacred site Chich’il look irresistible. They are also an anti-zionist Jew Bildagoteel, also known as Oak Flat, the traditional Missourians Organizing for Reform and and identify as timtum (one of six jewish gender site for the female puberty sunrise ceremony. This Empowerment (MORE) believes that Missouri categories). Micah creates art inspired by struggles ancient tradition is under threat from mining giant is positioned at a unique intersection of social, to decolonize ourselves from white supremacy, Rio Tinto and Arizona Republicans, who have plans economic, climate, and environmental injustice. patriarchy, and the gender binary, and to reimagine to use block cave mining to extract copper. Mining With their Take Back St. Louis campaign, MORE has ourselves in right relation to the planet in the face of uses enormous amounts of water, and leaves behind worked to eliminate financial incentives for fossil fuel catastrophic climate change. piles of toxic and polluting tailings. Nearby, drought extraction companies like Peabody Coal, a major stricken towns already live with devastated water miner and polluter of Navajo and Hopi lands in the The Indigenous Environmental Network sources from past mining operations. Tú ba Ch’naa Southwest- and to show the damage dirty energy does (IEN), established within the United States in 1990, means water is life. Apache representative Standing to public health. works to build the capacity of Indigenous communities Fox says. “When this happens, it is directly going and tribal governments to protect sacred sites, land, Mazatl/Reclaim Turtle Island (RTI) to affect our water aquifer,… So we’re trying to tell water, and air, while improving the health of people the border towns, hey, if this happens where are you Mazatl is an activist and artist who lives in Mexico, and of all living things and building economically going to get your water from?” where he takes part in several collectives seeking sustainable communities. social/political/environmental justice. His art is Nicolas Lampert/The Michigan Coalition Kevin Caplicki/Marcellus Shale Earth First! inspired by the work individuals and collectives do to Against Tar Sands (MI CATS) free themselves of the noose around their necks. He is Kevin Caplicki is a self-taught, multi-disciplined Nicolas Lampert is a Milwaukee-based part of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and Escuela artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He produces work on a interdisciplinary artist and author whose work focuses de Cultura Popular Martires del 68. variety of themes, including imperialism, resistance, on themes of social justice and ecology. His art and radical politics. He was a founding member of Reclaim Turtle Island (RTI) is a cross-border been exhibited internationally and at museums such grassroots radical media project that works to the Visual Resistance collective, the Miss Rockaway as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, MASS Armada, and he helped initiate the Ghost Bike develop resources for Indigenous sovereigntist MoCA, and the Madison Museum of Contemporary and anti-colonial struggles on Turtle Island (‘’North Project. He prefers collaborative projects and has Art. Collectively, he works with the Justseeds Artists’ worked with numerous artists, including Chris Stain, America’’). An all Indigenous collective supporting Cooperative and has also collaborated on creative self-determination through self-representation, RTI Tom Civil, Swoon, Josh MacPhee, indoors and actions with the Rainforest Action Network, Tamms outdoors. fights resource extraction, reservation apartheid Year Ten, and the Chicago chapter of Iraq Veterans and colonial capitalism by providing media Marcellus Shale Earth First! is a network of Against the War. support through video collaborations, social media, Earth First!ers in the Northeast US, geographically The Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands workshops and skill shares within communities and united by the underlying Marcellus Shale formation (MI CATS) seeks to unite people towards a common movements. and united in the struggle to stop fracking -a region- goal of stopping all transportation and refining wide ecological terror. They use tactics like tree- of tar sands oil in the Great Lakes Basin and Nicolas Medina/People Organizing to Demand Environmental Justice (PODER) sitting, lockdowns, and equipment occupation to advocating against the production/transportation halt fracking operations and are committed to a NO of tar sands everywhere. Their actions draw issues Nicolas Medina is a CultureStrike artist, and COMPROMISE approach to end drilling everywhere. of environmental injustice and racism into the public community organizer living in Oakland, CA. Thea Gahr/Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) narrative, exposing the corruption and complicity of People Organizing To Demand industry and regulatory bodies. Environmental & Economic Rights (PODER)’s Thea Gahr is a Mexico City-based printmaker mission is to organize with Latino immigrant families currently living on her family farm/nature reserve Fernando Marti/No More Deaths outside McMinnville, OR. She works with various and youth to create solutions that are locally based, Fernando Martí, originally from Guayaquil, community led and environmentally just, working in international collectives, including Justseeds, La Furia Ecuador, grew up crossing borders all his life. Now de las Calles, Colectivo Cordyceps and ECPM68. San Francisco’s Mission neighborhoods to achieve a San Francisco-based printmaker, architect, and transformational change. Everglades Earth First! (EEF!) is a non- writer, he brings his formal training in architecture hierarchical direct action group dedicated to the and urbanism, as well as his engagement with Roger Peet/Portland and Wild Idaho Rising defense of the wild lands of the Everglades bioregion, urban politics, to his prints, constructions, and public Tide struggling alongside communities for environmental projects. Roger Peet is an artist and printmaker currently living justice and against environmental racism. Since 2007 No More Deaths is a humanitarian organization in Portland, OR. His work tends to focus on issues of EEF! has worked to stop the West County Energy based in southern Arizona. Their mission is to end ecology and violence, and on relations between the Center power plant and a military project in the town death and suffering in the Mexico–US borderlands human and non-human realms. He is a member of of Venus, exposed the killing of the Barley Barber through civil initiative: people of conscience working the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, the president of the Artists’ Biographies and Collaborating Organizations, cont’d. board of Portland’s Flight 64 printmaking studio, and justice, and ecology. Favianna lectures globally on the quality of life for all Kentuckians. They work to change coordinates the Endangered Species project power of art, cultural organizing and technology to unfair political, economic and social systems, and are for the Center for Biological Diversity. He collaborates inspire social change, and leads art interventions in open to all who are committed to equality, democracy with artists, activists, and scientists around the globe communities around the country. Rodriguez partners and non-violent change. in the service of a more generous and a wilder world. with social movement groups around the world to Mary Tremonte/Tar Sands Blockade In 2014 the Umatilla, Nez Perce, and Warm create art that’s visionary and transformational. Mary Tremonte is an artist, educator, and DJ based Springs First Nations collaborated with activists Movement Generation inspires and engages in Toronto via Pittsburgh, PA. A founding member from Northwest US cities to block the transport of in transformative action towards the liberation of Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative, she works with megaloads of machinery destined for Canada’s Tar and restoration of land, labor, and culture, led by “printmaking in the expanded field,” including Sands. Among those groups were Portland and low-income communities and communities of color “printstallation”, interactive silkscreen printing in Wild Idaho Rising Tide, part of an international, committed to a Just Transition away from profit and public space, and wearable artist multiples. Mary all-volunteer, grassroots network of groups and pollution and towards healthy, resilient and life- has exhibited, presented lectures and workshops, and individuals who organize locally, promote community- affirming local economies. performed in Toronto, throughout the United States, based solutions to the climate crisis and take direct and internationally. Through her work she aims to action to confront the root causes of climate change. Julio Salgado/Texas Environmental Justice Advisory Services (t.e.j.a.s) create temporary utopias and sustainable commons Gilda Posada/California Environmental Justice Julio Salgado is the co-founder of DreamersAdrift. through pedagogy, collaboration, visual pleasure and Alliance (CEJA) com and events and project coordinator at serious fun. Gilda is from Southeast Los Angeles, CA. She CultureStrike. His status as an undocumented, queer In the summer of 2012, Tar Sands Blockade received her A.B. from the UC Davis in Chicana/o artivist has fueled the contents of his illustrations, began coordinated grassroots actions across Texas, Studies and Comparative Literature. Since 2009, which depict key individuals and moments of the including blockading pipeline roads and locking Gilda has been working at Taller Arte del Nuevo DREAM Act movement. Undocumented students and themselves directly to heavy machinery. The Tar Amanecer, a satellite cultural center to the UC Davis allies across the country have used Salgado’s artwork Sands Blockade is an open invitation for people campus. Her interests and research are based on the to call attention to the youth-led movement. across North America to join a peaceful direct action methodologies, framework and practice of Chicana/o Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy campaign to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, standing Art. Gilda seeks to understand the Chicana/o Art Services (t.e.j.a.s.) works to provide community with people of all backgrounds who are fighting to production through an art historical lens and the members with the tools to promote environmental save their homes, land and the planet from destruction curating effects of how the culture’s understanding and protection through education, policy development, by tar sands pumped by TransCanada. formulation were shaped. Gilda is a first-year dual community awareness, and legal action; degree candidate at California College of the Arts in Erin Yoshi/Asian Pacific Environmental understanding that everyone, regardless of race or Network (APEN) the MFA Social Practice program and the Visual and income, is entitled to live in a clean environment. Critical Studies program. Born in Los Angeles, CA, Erin Yoshi was inspired at an early age by her parents to create. She was The California Environmental Justice Alliance Meredith Stern/Bridge the Gulf influenced by stories of her family’s experiences (CEJA) unites the powerful voices of approximately Meredith Stern obtained a BFA in Ceramics at during the Internment Camps of WWII, which instilled 15,000 Latino, Asian Pacific American, and African Tulane University in New Orleans and went on curiosity for human capacity and politics of power. American residents to promote movement-building and to develop a multifaceted practice that includes Her foundation as a community organizer has strategic policy advocacy at a statewide level. They printmaking, ‘zine publishing and socially engaged influenced her art and project themes. Her artwork advocate for the healthy economy, climate, and ‘hood creative production. Meredith is a member of the reflects of the struggle within communities, and the that all of California deserves. Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and has collaborated on several large scale art installations at the national paradigms of social injustice and class struggles. Jesse Purcell/The Unis’tot’en (C’ihlts’ehkyu/ and international levels. Her work is part of the Yoshi rides with The Trust Your Struggle Collective Big Frog Clan) permanent collection of Book Arts at the MOMA, (US), Few and Far (US), Choke on It (LA), and APC Jesse Purcell is an artist and designer based The Library Of Congress, and in Universities and (Colombia), and was previously the Interim Director in Toronto. He is a member of Justseeds Artists’ Libraries around North America. She currently lives in of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. Yoshi has Cooperative and the founder of Repetitive Press, a Providence, RI. left her imprint creating murals in Mexico, Guatemala, screen printing and design studio with a focus on Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, the Bridge the Gulf is a community media project that producing visual materials in support of movements Philippines and across the United States. lifts up the voices of Gulf Coast communities working for social and environmental justice. He recently co- towards justice and sustainability. It is a project of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) organized and helped produce the print portfolio, Gulf Coast Community Initiatives. “The seas are is working with intergenerational and Laotian refugee Celebrate People’s History/Iraq Veterans Against the rising and so are we” and “Gulf South Rising” are community members in Richmond, CA on a vision War: 10 years of Fighting for Peace and Justice and slogans of regional campaigns for climate justice, of building a healthy and sustainable city, pursuing printed the Justseeds posters for We Are the Storm. spearheaded by groups such as the Gulf Coast Center a just transition from the pollution-based economy of The Unis’tot’en (C’ihlts’ehkyu/Big Frog for Law and Policy & Gulf Future Coalition. the Chevron refinery and oil trains towards a healthy Clan) are the original Wet’suwet’en Yintah Wewa, living economy. distinct to the lands of the Wet’suwet’en in so-called David Tim/Climate Truth.org Bec Young/Radical Action for Mountain British Columbia, Canada. Unis’tot’en recent history David Tim was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. People’s Survival (RAMPS) includes taking direct action to protect their lands from He obtained his BFA in printmaking and ceramics Bec Young is a visual artist who seeks to inspire— Lion’s Gate Metals at their Tacetsohlhen Bin Yintah, from Iowa State in 2012, and obtained his MFA in and draw inspiration from—movements for justice building a resistance camp and cabin at Talbits Kwah printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in May and ecological wellness. She works primarily at Gosnell Creek and Wedzin Kwah on the Morice of 2015. in printmaking, paper-cutting, illustration, and River, and fighting seven proposed Tar Sands and ClimateTruth.org is a community of more than installation. Her practice also includes direct LNG pipeline projects. 170,000 people that organize online to combat the interactions within communities, empowering others, skill-sharing, and facilitating change. She is a Pete Railand/Occupy Sandy denial, distortion and disinformation blocking bold action on climate change. Since 2012, they have member of the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative and Pete Railand: printmaker, educator, bike rider, self- been pushing public officials and institutions to cut ties co-editor of Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas, taught musician and stay at home dad. Member of with the polluter front-groups and other vested interests an illustrated anthology of social change-makers. the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative. Born in Milwaukee, obstructing climate solutions. Her work has been shown internationally, including WI; raised in the north woods of Wisconsin in a town the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Germany, Slovenia, with one stoplight. Recently returned to Milwaukee Rommy Torrico/Kentuckians for the and Great Britain, and was included in A Survey of after a 16 year absence. Commonwealth (KFTC) Contemporary Printmaking in 2012. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a broad coalition Rommy is a queer, undocumented, non-white, trans Radical Action for Mountain People’s of groups sprang up under the umbrella of Occupy artivist born in Iquique, Chile and currently residing Survival (RAMPS) is a non-violent direct action Sandy to provide assistance, relief and solidarity to in Naples, FL. They have been involved in the (im) campaign based in the southern coal fields of West the communities affected by the storm and its effects. migrant rights struggle for several years and infuse Virginia, dedicated to ending all forms of strip mining Those efforts are embodied by the community center much of their work with personal experience and in Appalachia. RAMPS’ direct action tactics are part YANA, which served as a hub for restoration and the stories their community shares. Rommy is part of of the larger movement to end mountaintop removal outreach efforts, after being devastated by the storm the Collier County Neighborhood Stories Project, a that includes many organizations using a wide variety and rebuilt with a view towards a more inclusive and Southwest Florida grassroots collective which strives of strategies, fighting decades of repression by the resilient future. to work alongside communities to uplift collective coal industry, and opposing the inept, often corrupt, voices through education around issues that affect regulation agencies and government. Favianna Rodriguez/Movement Generation immigrants, families and their supporters and offer (MG) support when needed, while pushing back against Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist, injustices on marginalized communities. cultural organizer, and political activist based in Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) Oakland, CA. Her art and collaborative projects believes in the power of people working together to address migration, economic inequality, gender challenge injustices, right wrongs, and improve the