Women Reproductive Right Is In Danger

The battle for women’s reproductive rights is similar to the struggle for African Americans to have “the full liberty of speech in public and private” as Dread Scott found out in 1865 when he petitioned for his personal freedom from slavery and lost. Moreover women’s reproductive rights are akin to defending the rights of racial equality, civil rights, desegregation, same sex marriage, and universal human rights. Every individual should have the right to choose how to live his or her private life in today’s society without governmental interference or control. Abortion had been illegal since 1880 in the United States, unless it was “crucial in saving the woman’s life.” According to the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, by the 1950s, “about one million illegal abortions were performed annually,” resulting in one out of 1,000 women dying in the process. Accordingly, this brought to the forefront the importance of having safe medical treatment for women who underwent these procedures. As a result, beginning in the 1960s, women’s movements began pushing for their rights, including reproductive privacy after being inspired by the civil rights movement a decade earlier. Nevertheless, in the United States, the process of getting the word out to unify women nationwide was slow, but in 1970, the newly organized, National Organization of Women’s, voice was finally heard by legislators. Subsequently, the first state to allow the full right to abortion was New York. As a result, in 1973, abortion was legalized in the U.S. due to the persistence of the feminist’s and women’s movements.At the end of the day, the sole decision on what is best for individual women’s health rests in their own hands.

Social Norms be Damned

                                                   The Idea of Rebellion
      An artist or artist have many ways to view the world. By expressing this view, they are intending on changing a certain error found in society or in ourselves. The artist gathered within this piece intend to show the world how society needs to break free of the idea that contentment and inaction are key to survival. Five artist are key to proving this point and they are N55, Alex Villar, Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA), The Surveillance Camera Players (SCP), and Yomango. The interacting goal between them is to break free of conformity. These five have the needs of the people in mind and are trying to liberate the self from social norms. The IAA is centered on individual and self-determination, Alex Villar is focused on re configuring public space, N55 is about expanding outside what is a home, Yomango is focusing on breaking free of the corporation, and SCP is focused on demanding privacy.

        Each artist or group has its own way of breaking free from the shell of normality. The first example is N55. They consist of four members whose goal is to "liberate land across the globe" (59). They wish to liberate people from the constraints of normal houses and apartments and to allow people the opportunity to just be free. In terms of practicality, it would be easy to move this mobile home from place to place. It would break down the idea of the home being set in one place and just by thinking up this theoretical idea people can see a home as actually traveling alongside them. There would be absolutely no limitations.

        Looking at the idea of physical presence, the IAA would be the opposite. The Institute of Applied Autonomy is an anonymous organization consisting of artist, engineers, and researchers. Their "mission is to study the forces and structures that affect technologies that serve social and human needs" (75). Their goal is not only to liberate social thinking but to liberate the human needs. These specific needs fall into the category of social protest and protecting the human in volatile environments. By involving themselves, the IAA is changing the rules to protest to make it safer to make powerful impacts in the world.

        Society is very big on social space, making up words such as trespassing and ownership to keep people away from private property. Alex Villar, an artist, directly puts himself at odds with the concept of trespassing, willingly heading straight into it. His intervention consists of "positioning [his body] in situations where the codes that regulate everyday activity can be made explicit" (65). Villar is not trying to invade private property but rather to call attention to the idea of it. People instinctively stay out of lawns and private spaces but it is because society has conditioned this mindset. Villar does the opposite to enforce the notion that our social mentality keeps us from doing as he does.

       Connecting to the idea of trespassing as a form of social awareness, one might look at Yomango next. They are focused on stealing/ shoplifting " as a form of social disobedience and direct action against multinational corporations" (107). Yomango is not keenly engaged in the notion of thievery but rather on the concept of taking matters into your own hands. By stealing from the corporations, they are inciting an act of rebellion by committing the crime. Stealing, to them, is their act of resistance.

      While Yomango is about stealth before cameras, another group is in it for the performance aspect of it. The Surveillance Camera Players (SCP) are a group which " protests the use of surveillance cameras in public spaces in the belief that cameras violate a constitutionality protected right of privacy and free movement" (83). In terms of the visual performance aspect, SCP uses news and the Big Brother image to focus the camera on them. It is not about the attention per say but rather reversing the roles on the camera and in truth, becoming the camera that watches. They are in turn forcing the camera into the role of observer. They are practically saying we are watching you watch us so watch this.

         In end, these five groups of artist use art to force people out of the narrow mindset society has forced them to take. Be it through a mobile home, a protest, thievery, trespassing, or being pro-privacy, these forms of activism call attention to the self. It is forcing people to look at the self as a form of resistance. No one said anyone had to get hurt, just do something that takes you outside the box because outside the box are more possibilities than were previously anticipated. Society has made a wall. It is our job as individuals to simply get over it.

This is link connecting to Alex Villar.
https://medium.com/breaking-into-business
This is a link connecting to N55
http://www.designboom.com/architecture/n55-walking-house/
This is a link connecting to Surveillance Camera Players
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RILTl8mxEnE
This is a link connecting to Institute of Applied Autonomy
http://theinfluencers.org/en/institute-applied-autonomy
This is a link connecting to Yomango
http://beautifultrouble.org/case/yomango/
   

Newark nj black lives matter

Kevin Haynes
Final project


                                                                 BLACK LIVES MATTER

My semester project is about how black lives matter in Newark NJ. The black lives matter is not just a great topic but the best topic for me because I actually live through police officers taking averages of their power. Being a resident of Newark I have seen cops be a heroes and villains. In the 1960's the black panthers party originally called Black Panther party for self-defense was a group of blacks that wanted to protect their people from police brutality. An artist that have witness and I can relate to is mysonne who is a Bronx rapper who does not talk about how we should sell Drugs or make women feel less then equal to men but how everyone is kings and queens. Independent New York rapper Mysonne is embracing his (growing) voice as a representative of the Hip Hop community’s fight against social injustice. The Bronx-born artist has released “T.H.U.G.S.”, a new track expressing his frustrations at how wider society views young Black men across the nation. Rocking a “Police Murder People” statement t-shirt, Mysonne juxtaposes his angst (“Pastors pray for us / Caskets wait for us / Our elders failed us /Now they got hate for us”) with images of those who’ve tragically lost their lives to police brutality and powerful statistics detailing the extensive inequalities people of color in America suffer. http://thesource.com/2015/11/16/mysonne-releases-powerful-new-track-t-h-u-g-s/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-jPX51EdaI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFQJEQO6GpI


 This is my video that i have created on Black Lives Matter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DNVqc9HPEs

Group- Melissa and Tony

We will be presenting our project on Ruben Ortiz-Torres. We spoke about him in class very briefly about his big truck that light up. That was one of his many talents that he has done, which i will talk about his Alien Toy truck. We will also explain one of his baseball caps, photographs that he has taken while in Mexico City, and his foundation of arts. We have some videos of Ruben talking about his latest(2011) exhibitions that he had during that time.

35 Mujeres and Pro Libertad

      When i was a young girl my parents were always political and involved in the communit, especially the Latino community. My mother finally decided to go back to college to finnish her bachlors degree after many,many years of being a stay at home mother.She began attending CCNY around 1995/1996 . During my mother's amazing self transformation,she met some wonderful people who were also attending the Education program, who were  also very active in the politicalcommunity as well. 
    These wonderful people were a great influence onmy mother, and our family in general. They protested with my mother on campous a few times, which i was brought along to join and rally in with them. I have to say, I dont remember many exact details,but i do remember feeling completly empowered and important. I remember feeling likeI was really making a difference in the world just by being there and standing for something that meant alot tomy mother.
     My mother also began attending meetings for an organization named Pro-Libertad. The Pro-Libertad campaign focused onmanypolitical issues sourounding Puerto Rico. At the time the two main issues taht were focused on were "freeing" Puerto Rico fromtheUnited States, making them their own country again,and freeing the 14 Puerto Rican Political prinsoners (at the time there were 14). We attended organization meetings, protests, Rally's until I was about 14 or 15 years old. My parents continued to be affliated with the organization a bit after i stoped attending meetings,and eventually stopped being politacally active all together. 
      I didnt realize how much i missed being involved and interested in being affliated with a political organization. Now here we are about 17/18 years later, and i plan onbecoming involved with Pro Libertad again, and another organization that they are affliated with named, 35 mujeres.
     When i began doing research for this project i found one of the light blue shirts that i used to wear to our protests and meetings when i was younger had two phone numbers on the back of the shirt. I decdied to call those numbers just to see what happened. Thefirst number directed me tona voicemail, i left a message explaining who i was and the project that i wasdoing. The second number rang a bit, but a woman picked up. I was super excited andnervous at the same time. She told me that her name is Esperanza Martell, and that she was once a huge part of pro libertad, and now is focusing on another movemet which she helped to organize named 35 mujeres. 35 mujeres is an activist group that is focusing on freeing one of the remaining (of the 14 original) Puerto rican political prisoners. I spoke with Espreanza briefly and explained to her  how i am doing a project about different forms or artistic activism for a class project and that i was interested in doing some feild work and  getting back into the activist scene. She was very warm and helpful and said that i could come and join the group in advocating for the release of Oscar Lopez Rivera. She told me that 35  Mujeres gets together every last Sunday of each month on 44^th street and broadway in new ork city, times square. The chanting begin at 4pm and lasts until 4:35pm. It 35 minutes of chanting, I belive the 35 is derived from the 35 years that Oscar has been in prison. I found a video clip from last year and it said “34 mujeres” and they were chanting stating that he had been inprisoned for 34 years, so im asuming that each year that Oscar is in jail, the women add another number to their name. This will be one of my questions whe I speak to esperanza on Sunday November 27, 2016 so that I can be 100% certain. Espreanza also said that when I come to the chant on November 27, 2016, that I can interview  few people and posibily even her, if things aren’t too hectic at the moment. She also said for me and who ever comes with me to wear light blue and pink and to bring noise makers.
            As of right now, I am planning attending each meeting (the last Sunday of every month) and creating a Blog after each meeting. I would begin small, and as I learn more about the cause I would be writing and comenting about other organzitions that are afiliated with Pro Libertad and 35 Mujeres. In addition, I would also like to create a twiter account that would bring more attention to the cause, because as of right now the two groups are on a very limited amount of social Media.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43/003.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/08/us/12-imprisoned-puerto-ricans-accept-clemency-conditions.html

http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=yjll

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/10/puerto-rico-last-political-prisoner-oscar-lopez-rivera

https://www.facebook.com/events/116440038824759/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOcDFeeuPdQ

Mental Illness

Rachel George

          Richard Carlson, an American Author says, "Stress is nothing more than a socially acceptable form of illness." Stress seems to be normal because everyone is talking about, but doing nothing about it. A person who is stress might have headaches more often than a person usually get; or feels tired all the time. These little signs people always ignore leads to serious diseases such as cardiovascular disease or Alzheimer's disease. Rob Haskell, writer in fashion magazine and psychiatrist, writes in Vogue magazine, "Under Pressure", about anxiety among adolescents. Haskell tells us that we bypass mental illness. Toby Allen, freelance illustrator, brings mental illness to life; he imagines how mental illness should not be ignored because it is take over people's lives, especially the younger generation.
          Haskell's young patients is where he notices anxiety a lot. He begins with a story about his fifteen year old patient whose parents are Honduran went to the beach for a swim. When he goes into the water, all he remembers is himself trying to gasp for air. Then he tells Haskell, I figured that eventually I would get to tired and then just basically drown...But typical me, I can't even die right"(225). To hear a young boy wanting to die is scary. He is tired of living. Haskell learns that Joseph worried about many things: "Would he ever grow taller than five feet six? Could he ever bring a girl home to see the apartment where he slept with his brother on a foldout sofa in the living room?"(225). He worried so much about simple things about himself. It is as if he does not like himself. As psychiatrist or parent, this should never be ignored.
         Sometimes parents cannot understand why their children act the way they do. Joseph's  mother did not understand why her son acted the way he did. For example, "His mother took his shyness for defiance and complained for his refusal to run simple errands for her, such as stopping by the butcher on his way home"(225). Joseph's mother at the time probably thought that because he is a teen, he is just acting out. However, she is not the only parent who does not know the reasons for their child's behavior. Haskell states, "it may be the    case that the wealthier and more stable we become...the more easily we turn our attention to..."internalizing" conditions"(226). As long as people are making their money, the more they forget about keeping their mental health as normal. People are not aware of the importance of their mental health.
         Allen's art illustrates anxiety, depression, anorexia nervosa, schizophrenia, misophonia, and many more. These creatures are created with "dark colours...heavy and oppressive feelings...the shock of bright pink represents the intense rush of fear or anxiety", said Allen. The colors express the feelings of people with a mental illness. Also he describes what the creature is capable of doing. For example, Paranoia has "tall ears like a radar, scanning the area for any activity...the monsters ears are almost useless...tight curled...thick fur...often hears the wrong thing." Paranoia is a mental disorder where delusions of something horrifying occurs. This is one out of many mental illnesses that are attacking many people because we dash it off.

Project Summary~ Rachel, Irene, and Kevin

Guerrilla Girls

Guerrilla Girls began in 1985. The women hide their faces with Guerrilla masks.  To hide their identity, they use dead female artists names. They visited various countries such as New York, L.A, Minneapolis, Istanbul, and Shanghai. They used art to brings people attention to problems in art museums. Also to problems like abortion and homeless people.  Famous museums like the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial exhibition and Guggenheim Museum did not include much women and African American women at the museums. On top of all this, the Guerrilla Girls received either much love or hate for their activism.