Politics

A poem about the soldiers killed in the Iraq. Performed October 28, 2012 at 6018NORTH.

"Barack the Barbarian" is a political satire comic book. In the plot, Barack the Barbarian fights The Old Warrior (John McCain) and Red Sarah (Sarah Palin) for the stimuli.

"Revolution As an Eternal Dream: the Exemplary Failure of the Madame Bihn Graphics Collective" examines the political practice and visual propaganda of a now-obscure women's poster, printmaking, and street art collective based in New York City between 1975 and 1983. For a brief, intense period of time, the MBGC collaborated on projects against racism and in solidarity with national liberation movements, producing many beautiful multicolored silkscreen prints, note cards, banners, posters and other print ephemera before withdrawing into the isolation of a sectarian and militaristic political line. By 1982 its core members were in prison or underground. "Revolution As an Eternal Dream" calls up the perpetual desire for revolution, but also the frailty of such dreams.

According to a 2003 survey by the Young Women's Action Team (YWAT)a positive call to action was issued in December 2005, "We reached out to men and women [young and old] across Chicago to participate in a Citywide Day of Action against Street Harassment on May 4th 2006. The YWAT wanted everyone to hear the message that "The Streets Belong to All of Us." We hoped that at least 100 different "actions", individual and collective, would take place across Chicago on May 4th. We surpassed our goal with over 140 actions." And this magazine documents those actions that took place May 4, 2006.

Published in conjunction with the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention, the Chicago Initiative for Thriving Youth discusses youth violence in Chicago, strategies for the Chicago initiative for thriving youth, governance and accountability, as well as tables and figures regarding the specific issues. The appendix is full of resources for thriving youth including but not limited to after school programs, safe city transportation, as well as family support services.

"The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health's (ICAH) Sexual Health Education Planning Project (SHEPP) was designed to create a vision for the future of sexuality education in Illinois. Over the course of 15 months, ICAH engaged nearly 500 people in statewide strategic planning sessions to answer key questions necessary for designing Illinois-specific approaches to sexuality education." This magazine includes more background information, recommendations for Illinois (from policies and funding to definitions, values, and standards), project methods, as well as a conclusion for Sexuality Education for Illinois specifically.

As this pamphlet begins, "Police violence is unfortunately not new." Because of this, the series revolves around "The Mississippi Black Papers: Testimonials of Police Violence in the South" with images to accompany these testimonies from the mid 1960's.

'"Communities Engaged in Resisting Violence' is part of a growing movement in Chicago of community-based initiatives seeking to resist violence against women, to to create community accountability for the perpetuation of violence, and to develop strategies to end violence and the oppressive systems that support it.