Street art mural by Guache
Artivism can serve as an important tool to expand dialogue and engage with communities in a more meaningful way. Art transcends borders imposed by identities such as race, class, and gender and creates opportunities for powerful interdisciplinary collaborations that foster inclusive visions of social justice and embody innovative collective action. This integration appeals to our humanity and allows art to have a greater reach and impact.
Art can serve as a method of documentation to register wrongdoing and foster empathy. Art can act as a form of resistance to push back against normative expectations. Art can also be a vehicle for imagination to collectively envision new possibilities.
Artivism merges commitments to seeking knowledge, creative problem solving, and promoting social justice.
"In these perilous times, a third way is emerging, a kind of escalated passion -- a creative energy that comes from giving ones heart and soul and imagination to the struggle. Not aggression but fierceness. Not hurting but confronting. Not violating but disrupting. This passion has all the ingredients of activism, but it is charged with the wild creations of art ... Artivism is where edges are pushed, imagination is freed, and a new language emerges altogether."
- Eve Ensler
Marielle was an outspoken critic of police brutality and extrajudicial killings. Her openly feminist, Black and favela-centered politics were a source of hope for marginalized groups in Rio de Janeiro, currently governed by a conservative city government and an evangelical mayor.
On March 14, 2018, after delivering a speech in Rio de Janeiro, Franco and her driver were shot multiple times and killed. Following news of her death crowds took to the streets shouting "Marielle presente!" (Marielle is here!) and demanding justice be done.
Information provided by the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) campaign to remember and honor women's human rights defenders who are no longer with us. This campaign allows us to carry their legacy of struggle as our torch in feminist and women's movements.
Artwork by Vienna Rye.