Spring 2014 Classes

“It is the role of the revolutionary artist to make revolution irresistable.”
– Toni Cade Bambara
We’re excited to introduce classes for the public at the Interference Archive, continuing our work of increasing critical engagement with political and social movement arts.
REGISTER Art Making Change Class 4/28-5/19 https://artmakingchangeclass.eventbrite.com
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Monday April 28 — Monday May 19 7-9pm: Art Making Change class
Art transforms hearts, minds, and social movements. This class explores history around movement art. Art is used for social movements: from posters to protest signs, t-shirts to buttons, book covers to zine art. What are the overarching principles that tie this art together? Examining recurrent themes, production methods, and makers of political art helps us understand the ways images and messages play roles in social movement strategies and resistance cultures.
In this four-week class you’ll:
— work with with materials on-site at the Interference Archive to follow your own art-research path on one image, group, or icon,
— learn about types of art and organizations that make “political art”,
— engage in discussions about the creation and dissemination of political art and visual culture,
— and as a class co-create a digital collection of images, increasing movement documentation.
Looking over the development of one image tells intersecting stories about liberation, direct action, and autonomous organizing for revolutionary change. Class facilitator Hadassah Damien has spent two years researching visual connections across political arts, and shares strategies as well as theory from her work, which covers the history of raised fist images. Using the focus point of raised fist images allows her to look across a century+ of political art production, while allowing the meaning of this image to shift over time. What will you learn in your research?
Class is Limited to 15 participants.
COST: $20-100 for the course. In the interest of financial accessibility, solidarity and mutual aid, we ask that you pick your ticket type based on your income and access to resources. Here is a guide to help you decide:
$1500/month or less: $20 — 3 spots available
$1500-2500/month: $40 — 3 spots available
$2500-3500/month: $60 — 3 spots available
$3500-4500/month: $80 — 3 spots available
$4500+ /month : $100 — 3 spots available
Half your ticket cost goes to support the Interference Archive, and half goes to support the teacher. If cost is an issue please email info@raisedfist.femmetech.org to enquire about other options.
REGISTER Art Making Change Class 4/28-5/19 https://artmakingchangeclass.eventbrite.com
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About the teacher
Hadassah Damien is a political artist, technologist, and community organizer from Brooklyn, NY. She is Resident Scholar at the Interference Archive, co-producer of the queer art troupe Heels on Wheels, and a fearless rabble rouser across the US and Canada. She holds a MA from the CUNY Graduate Center. See more at: femmetech.org
*****************************PAST WORKSHOPS & CLASSES
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Wednesday March 19, 7-9pm: The Fist Is Still Raised Workshop & Slideshow
The Fist is Still Raised is a slideshow and talk about the history of the use of the raised fist in protest images from 1906-2013. Looking over the development of this one image tells intersecting stories about liberation, direct action, and autonomous organizing for revolutionary change.
The 1.5 hour slideshow uses the repeated raised-fist image to examine:
– relationships between movements
– historical anti-racist and civil rights work
– copyleft and resisting image ownership as a form of artistic prefigurative politics
– art as part of direct action and as an inspiration to act
– movements covering claims and ideologies including radical labor organizing,
autonomous/anarchism, indigenous peoples/First Nations rights, LGBTQ rights, squatting, anti-globalization,
– what it looks like and means for images to be “co-opted”…and if it matters.
RSVP for the Raised Fist Workshop 3/19 https://raisedfistworkshop.eventbrite.com
Digital Catalog: www.raisedfist.femmetech.org
Raised Fist Writing: www.femmetech.com
Follow on FB: facebook.com/femmetech #raisedfists