Contents:

Get Out the Vote! | The fall 2022 Creative Citizens Series focused on getting out the vote for the most important midterm election to date. Events were organized by CCA faculty members, with information and registration sessions organized and led by the CCA’s Voting Coalition (Jaime Austin, Katherine Hamilton, Janrey Javier, Connie Jeung-Mills, and Noki Seekao).

• 📸 Get Out the Vote Sticker Design Contest | Organized by the Voting Coalition
• A Lecture by Michele Pred | Organized by Nathan Lynch
• 🎥 Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls | Organized by Julian Carter
• 🎥 Between the Sun and the Sidewalk: A Film Screening and Dialogue | Organized by Helen De Michiel
• 📸 The Democratic Multiple Exhibition and Cross-Border Print Exchange | Organized by Anthea Black
• Boba and Ballots | Organized by the Voting Coalition

CCA@CCA Election Week Activations | The fall 2022 Creative Citizens Series culminated in a series of activations during the week of November 8, in the Nave.

• Portable Theater Political Stand | Organized by Nathan Lynch
• Writing Ancestors Altar | Organized by Acacia Woods Chan
• Vote Red, White, and Teal | Organized by Natasha Haugnes
• Personal Publishing | Organized by Aaron Gonzalez
• 📖 PROJECT: CCA | Organized by Steve Jones
• A Crystal for Care | Organized by Shreya Shankar and Layla Namak
• Oh Shit: An Election Proposition Project | Organized by Jasmine Zhang

Organized by CCA’s Voting Coalition (Jaime Austin, Katherine Hamilton, Janrey Javier, Connie Jeung-Mills, and Noki Seekao)

In September, the Voting Coalition launched a "Get Out the Vote Sticker Design Contest" aimed to showcase the CCA Community's creative activism.

The sticker was a way to let people know CCA is thinking about and engaged in the democratic process. It was also a simple way to remind others of their civic duty and encourage informed conversation about voting and participating in electoral politics.

Winning stickers were designed by Riah Trevino (Undergraduate Film and Individualized Studies), Josh Yule (Graphic Design), and Anjni Shah (Graduate Design).

📸 View the submissions and winning stickers ➞

Organized by Nathan Lynch, Associate Professor, Ceramics Program/Chair, Ceramics Program/Chair, Glass Program

On October 12, Nathan Lynch invited feminist artist Michele Pred to speak to CCA students about her practice that fights for gender equality, including abortion rights and the wage gap.

Michele Pred is a Swedish American artist and activist whose practice includes sculpture, assemblage, and performance. Her work uncovers the cultural and political meaning behind everyday objects, with a concentration on feminist themes such as equal pay, reproductive rights, and personal security. Currently she has a solo show in New York titled “Equality of Rights”. She has organized numerous feminist art parades in cities from San Francisco to New York and in Sweden. Pred founded the initiative The Art of Equal Pay in 2020, this project confronts the racial and gender pay gaps for womxn artists. She is represented by the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York. Her artwork has been written about by The New York Times, The Art Newspaper. ARTnews Magazine, The International Herald Tribune, Artnet News, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle. Her work is held in numerous museum collections including the Berkeley Art Museum, 21C Museum, The Contemporary museum of Hawaii, the 9/11 Museum and the Fashion Institute of New York Museum.

Organized by Julian Carter, Associate Professor, Critical Studies Program

On October 22, Julian Carter and choreographer and filmmaker Suchi Branfman held a film screening meets workshop open to the CCA community about the intersection of abolition, art, and dance.

Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic brought together an in-person film screening and discussion with filmmakers, dancers, and authors, as well as excerpts of DATA or 7 ways to dance a dance through prison walls, a project by students from Julian Carter’s UDIST 3000-2, "Staging Social Bodies: doing/feeling/together" class.

In 2016, choreographer Suchi Branfman, began a ten-year choreographic residency inside the California Rehabilitation Center, a medium-security state men’s prison in Norco, California. The project, dubbed “Dancing Through Prison Walls,” developed into a critical dialogue about freedom, confinement, and ways for surviving restriction, limitations, and denial of liberty through the act of dancing.

The dancing abruptly ended in March 2020, when the California state prison system shut down programming and visitation due to COVID-19. The work was rapidly revised, and the incarcerated dancers began sending out written choreographies from their bunks to the outside world. The resulting collection of deeply imagined choreographic pieces, written between March and May of 2020, became a performance and film project titled Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls During a Pandemic, and in March of 2022, DATA or 7 ways to dance a dance through prison walls. The profound devastation of COVID-19 inside prisons, living side by side with acts of resilience, resistance, and community survival. The event includes a discussion with formerly incarcerated and “free world” dancers, authors, visual artists, and filmmakers involved with the work.

Organized by Helen De Michiel, Adjunct 2 Professor, Film Program

On November 1, Helen De Michiel presented clips from her unreleased documentary Between The Sun and the Sidewalk, which follows the story of two Latino political organizers and their young recruits who were mobilizing against implementing a sugary drink tax in Stockton, California. De Michiel and special guests led a lively, interactive dialogue among attendees around the urgent issues that the film explores. What is 21st-century community organizing on the ground and in the field? How are young people fighting for democracy at the local level? What does it take to activate Get Out the Vote strategies in this crucial election year?

Participants came away with an expanded sense of how sidewalk politics, a compelling story, and wide-ranging conversations interact to inspire democratic participation at the most fundamental community level.

Organized by Anthea Black, Assistant Professor, Printmedia Program

From November 28 to December 2nd, prints from Anthea Black’s Introduction to Printmaking class were shown alongside work by students from Emily Carr University of Art and Design at RayKo Print and Photo Centre, San Francisco and Emily Carr University, READ bookshop, Vancouver, Canada. The Democratic Multiple is a cross-border exhibition and print exchange coordinated by Anthea Black and Beth Howe that focused on experiences of global citizenship and democratic engagement. This program coincided with the midterm elections in the United States and amplified the political voices of citizens and non-citizens alike, especially international students and faculty who maintain political connections through their own immigrant, cross-border and international experiences. In art, international printmakers have been some of the most important voices on politics and democratic engagement. Political print traditions run deep throughout many places and communities—often driven by students: Mexico, France, China, Ukraine, and North American anti-war activists and Black, Indigenous, and Queer communities.

The Democratic Multiple was presented by Printmedia Program's Introduction to Printmaking class in collaboration with Professor Beth Howe's Printmedia class at Emily Carr University in Vancouver, Canada, to expand print as a tool for activism and democratic debate.

CCA student artists include Christine Ortiz, Tori Sommerhof, Aki Yoshie, Audrey Ni, Weijan Shi, Jiwon Chun, Jaia Linden-enge, Lisa Maria Prudente Vazquez, Shannon Chung, Kirito Qi, Winslow Perry, Ziola Meereiltagh, Fiona Feng, and Angel Lusky.

📸 View a digital exhibition of the prints included in The Democratic Multiple on the CCA Libraries website ➞

Organized by CCA’s Voting Coalition (Jaime Austin, Katherine Hamilton, Janrey Javier, Connie Jeung-Mills, and Noki Seekao)

On October 19, 21, and 26, The Voting Coalition organized a series of casual informational sessions to education CCA’s community about the midterm elections and how issues on the ballot impacted them. The midterm election was to determine the future of the United States of America. Boba and Ballots was a series of events that invited students to come together, be in community, and educate themselves on important issues that were on the ballot in fall 2022. Each session focused on different groups of students, from California Voters to BIPOC Voters to Students Who Legally Can’t Vote; all students were welcome to attend any of the sessions. The first 20 students received a boba beverage.

Organized by Nathan Lynch, Associate Professor, Ceramics Program/Chair, Ceramics Program/Chair, Glass Program

Students in CERAM-2700-2: Workshop: Clown Shoes responded to the prompt: "Make a 'soapbox' or a podium for people to stand on, stand behind or otherwise encourage public speech in advance of the elections. Your sculpture should foster awareness of the upcoming election and provide a venue for civic engagement. Start with a single form. Make 12 drawings of the same shape or a stencil that you can move around. Now imagine and draw 12 new ways to use that same form other than its original purpose and orientation... Can it be a megaphone or a step stool? Think of this like a pedestal for your speech."

Student artists included Madison Brooks, Dareal Calderon, Sara Cruz, Hina Jamal, and Taylor Shantz.

Image: Madison Rose Brooks, Cone Age, 2022–2023. Ceramic, Approx. height of each cone: 15–17 inches. Approx. base: 11x11/12x12 inches.

Organized by Acacia Woods Chan, Adjunct 1 Professor, Critical Ethnic Studies Program

Writing Ancestors was a multisensory experience that welcomed members of the CCA community to reflect, honor and engage with the effects of those who have come before us. With the 2022 elections, we acknowledged the changing tide of civic engagement at various levels of relevance to our diverse community, however we challenged ourselves to connect the current political landscape with that of our ancestors and their work to create our current situation. Members of the CCA community were invited to reflect on their relationship to the current political situation, their relationship to their chosen ancestor, and their chosen ancestor's relationship to our evolving sociopolitical reality.

Organized by Natasha Haugnes, Adjunct 2 Professor, Writing and Literature Program

Students in "Writing 2: Seeing Citizenship" planned a two-part campus-wide activation to help CCA students flex their democratic muscles. On October 17th, unofficial ballot boxes were placed around campus, and students and faculty had the opportunity to vote on CCA colors, CCA programs, as well as state policies, and more! Students held a practice ballot voting event on October 24th where the CCA community voted on fun questions pertaining to CCA, and spun a question wheel to learn more about California issues on the ballot.

Organized by Aaron Gonzalez, Adjunct 1 Professor, Graphic Design Program

Students in Personal Publishing were asked to research the midterm elections and design and print risograph posters informing the public of the issues being voted on that are important to them. This collection represented the breadth of the student body, raising awareness of issues not just local to the Bay Area but to the entire country.

Participating students: Cha young Son, Josh Yule, Kexin Li, Lui White, Makayla Ware, Soyeon Park, Weeland Huang, August Rushton, Cami Morgan, Itzél Ríos-Ellis, Jillian Ikehara, Maahi Shah, and Mariela Jacamo.

Organized by Steve Jones, Adjunct 2 Professor, First Year Core Studio Program

PROJECT: CCA involved each student in the Agitprop: Issues and Causes course looking inward to observe and address an issue/cause of personal relevance relating to their experience as a student at CCA. They were tasked to dissect, analyze, research, and create a response informed by their personal experience/s as a member of the CCA student body. For the project, students focused on a CCA issue that they felt strongly about (pro or con) and implemented a response to address the issue—while thinking of how their issue is linked to the political/administrative climate within the school. The work was required to integrate and employ strategies and the techniques of media-literacy, form-making, and messaging. The goal is to draw attention and/or educate a targeted audience on the importance of understanding, participating, and questioning the binary system (between student/college) that mutually affects, and benefits both parties.

📖 View the PROJECT: CCA Process Book ➞

Image: "CCA Land Acknowledgement" by M Tanaka

Organized by CCA@CCA Student Fellows Shreya Shankar and Layla Namak

This interactive, site-specific installation made from found wood, screws, thread, paper, and fabric invited the CCA student community to map connection and care through reflection. It asked: What mark do you want to make in the world? What does community mean to you? What activities do you love to do with your community?

The instructions for the installation read:

"Please write your response and tie it to a thread. You can share as many times as you would like. At the end of the semester, our crystal will be infused with all the ways we connect and commune."

Responses included "dancing," "looking at the clouds, the sky, and the stars," "talking to neighbors at the local farmers' market," "storytelling," "gardening," "listening to music," "cook for them," "kiss 'em," "make them silly gifts," "being in nature," "go on walks," "making good bread," "make them tea!" and many more.

Organized by Jasmine Zhang, Adjunct 1 Professor, First Year Core Studio Program

Leading up to the November 8th election, CCA professor Jasmine Zhang crowd-sourced sarcastic or satirical propositions meant to highlight the difficulties of living in the U.S. as a non-citizen. On election day, she screenprinted the propositions.

Jasmine writes: “I realized as long as I am not a citizen, as long as I can't vote, I am having a big democracy FOMO. I try to make other citizens/ Americans realize that lots of residents who are sharing this land with them are not able to vote. Some of them having been refugees but unable to gain citizen status. Some of them are green card holders but having a hard time to naturalize. We are all residents of this land. The United States is an immigrant country. Who are the citizens? Who are the immigrants? Who gets to vote?”