Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS is proud to present Landless Not Voiceless, an exhibition curated by the newly found, Oakland-based, Cardboard & Concrete Unhoused Artist Collective. Landless Not Voiceless will open at Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS on Saturday, October 10th, 2020 (Indigenous People’s Day) with public reception, talks, and mural street art action by the Poor People’s campaign. Artists will begin painting the mural at 11 a.m. The exhibition will feature the works of unhoused artists, members of the Cardboard & Concrete Unhoused Artists Collective — from Oakland and Berkeley, and guest artists, including art installations, paintings, drawings, photography, writing and short films.
The intention of the Cardboard & Concrete Unhoused Artists Collective is to spotlight the skills and imaginations of displaced communities. Poor and unhoused people are facing evictions and increased criminalization in the midst of a global pandemic, a nationwide housing crisis and looming evictions, which further jeopardize the livelihood, stability, and future of the most vulnerable. We hope our unity, and leadership encourages the People–whether housed or unhoused, facing evictions in the San Francisco Bay Area to stand up, work together and organize.
This day is also the nine-year anniversary of Occupy Oakland – the militant movement of the 99% vs. the 1% symbolized by a massive tent city on the plaza in front of Oakland City hall. Contrary to popular belief, the political encampment at the plaza was held down and led by the unhoused Black and Brown folks who were already living at the plaza prior to the social justice upheaval. This exhibit will create space for those unhoused militant voices to tell their stories.
A street mural in collaboration with Poor People’s campaign will be painted at the plaza, shedding light on the adversities and intensified criminalization of unhoused residents during a pandemic. Join us for a physically distanced outdoor and indoor event, celebrating the resilience of our unhoused communities. A virtual video tour will also be made available after opening night. Masks required for attendees. Free food will be provided.
The Cardboard & Concrete Unhoused Artist Collective is a group of people with like minds that are living in curbside communities, working towards an ultimate goal: Housing is a human right and homelessness is not a crime. We strive for fair treatment for all people. These artists have come together to form a union. A circle with no beginning, no end, no hierarchy. Unbreakable. Undivided. Unafraid.
The vision of the collective is to inspire the exploration of diverse and complex narratives of our shared humanity through art. Using visual art and dialogue, we want to seed and interpret our societal diseases, encouraging a truthful perspective from the negative stereotypes on unhoused communities. To explore the ways in which we relate to each other and one’s self outside of societal programming and the economic systems that separate us. To stand against the death of humanity.
Masks and social distancing will be required. To join the opening via Zoom:
Topic: Landless Not Voiceless Art Opening
Meeting ID: 840 9352 0370
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Meeting ID: 840 9352 0370
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https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcS2RiVQFUABOUT THE ARTISTS OF CARDBOARD & CONCRETE COLLECTIVE
Timothy J Petty is a poet, free form dancer, and garden artist focusing on edible landscaping. He is currently based in the Bay area, although a Colorado transplant. He is primarily a peer- taught, having found vibrant inspiration around him most of his life. Tim desires to connect people through common goals. He seeks to dissolve the dishonest systems in society. Tim aims to remind everyone of the Artist inside.
Tim feels the strongest urgency relating to the environmental crisis, but having lived a strange and sometimes rough life, he feels at ease when speaking about social justice issues. Through food justice, he believes it is possible to serve both the people and the planet. His ultimate goal as an artist is to transform culture through the integration of ancestral wisdom into our daily lives.
Toan Nguyen was born in Biên Hòa, Vietnam and now resides in Berkeley, California. He is an artist that immerses himself in the art he displays and shares. By doing so, he is able to capture the experience and transfer it to the art he creates. His work is at the intersection of art and protest, always engaging with passersby. Toan is interested in creating a discourse that goes beyond the presence of the artist.
He enjoys cultural diversity and is rarely seen without his extra limb (bicycle).
Anita “Needa Bee” De Asis Miralle wears many hats in Oakland. With Cardboard and Concrete collective, she wears the hat of an educator, activist, visual and spiritual artist. She uses culture and arts to inspire peoples political imaginations, spark critical thought about the world we live in, and offer solutions to the social ills of our society. She is a published writer and a self-published book artist, accomplished thespian, acclaimed spoken word artists and dancer. Miralle practices sacred arts including divination, healing and protection works, and has built community altars in public spaces throughout Oakland from street corners to Oakland Asian Cultural Center Art Gallery.
As a performer, she has opened for Dead Prez, KRS-1, Michael Franti, Tone Toni Tony, The Roots and Medusa to name a few. In Oakland, she was a member of several multi-disciplinary Hip Hop krus, including Underground Railroad, Overseas Artists, People’s Art and Axe Dance Ensemble.
Yesica Prado is a multimedia journalist and a first-generation Mexican immigrant from Nezahualcoyótl, Mexico. She grew up undocumented in a southeast neighborhood in Chicago, Archer Heights. With limited choices for a job without social security, she ventured into photography to learn a skill – a trade. She hoped to earn a living as an independent contractor and attended the University of Illinois at Chicago, earning a BFA in Photography. But unexpectedly before turning 21, she was granted a U-Visa. Yesica took advantage of this new opportunity, expanding her borders to seek a master’s in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Prado lost her housing in San Francisco while she was a graduate student. She came to the Berkeley Marina and joined a community of vehicular residents already residing there. They created a network of support for one another, showing the empathy, resilience, and kindness present even in the face of precarious living. Prado captures these elements in her photography in her most recent work, “Driving Home: Surviving the Housing Crisis,” which she completed for visual nonprofit Catchlight as an inaugural CatchLight Local Fellow for the San Francisco Public Press.
Ayat Bryant-Jalal was born in San Francisco in 1973, and his parents were Black Panthers. Bryant-Jalal’s family was displaced by the attack on the Black Panther Party and forced to move to S.E. Washington DC. In 1989, he returned to the Bay Area.
In DC, Ayat was a self-taught artist, drawing portraits (pencil), graffiti on the desks and walls. Through the Arts, Ayat grew and matured in understanding himself and others. He began writing poetry and philosophical sayings – understanding what being Black is. As a painter, Ayat has presented his work at the Impressions Gallery in Berkeley, taking part in a Displaced Artist Venue exhibition. He has been painting and drawing pieces ever since.
Tracy Lee is an immigrant from Thailand. She is Iu Mien. A single mother of seven children. Lee and her parents were residents of a refugee camp. In 1983, they came to America. They were brought here by the Americans to have a better life, during a war between the communists in Thailand.
Lee’s artwork takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues. Often referencing police brutality, her work explores the varying relationships between popular culture and fine art. Having engaged subjects as diverse as the civil rights movement, black life matters and modernist architecture, her work reproduces familiar visual and aural signs, arranging them into new conceptually layered installations. She has different ways of expressing her work, but her preferred methods are drawing or green screen movies.
About Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS
Pro Arts Gallery & COMMONS is a collectively-held space in Oakland, California that blurs the line between art, debate, experimentation, and collaboration. Through the sharing of material and immaterial resources, we reflect Oakland’s existing artistic and cultural fabric, while creating future landscape of other commons-centric spaces that encourage the economic and cultural power of the community. Our collaborative activities are rooted in these mutual values and principles.
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