Social Justice Projects

Recent Work: “Justice Is Blind”

(20×30 board mixed media)

Justice is Blind is an exploration of what it means for social justice advocates when the law is so inhuman and yet so blind at the same time. Blind in the sense that most people working in the public interest field can agree that cruelties are occurring in our legal and educational systems, that there is in fact a disparate treatment of people across class, race and gender lines that severely affects the way people can live their lives. To simultaneously advocate for justice and fight against oppression is something that cannot be effectively done while being blinded by injustice. Those who actively seek to serve human needs delve into the heart of the struggle by amplifying the people’s voice.

Previous reports:

The Birth of A Mural

Through the summer of 2011 I was in the unique position of witnessing how street art becomes the environment it touches. A Know Your Rights Mural was put together on the walls of Bushwick. I tracked its creation, the artist, and the poetry that the neighborhood added to the piece.

Background:

Make The Road New York (MRNY), a community organization focused on promoting economic justice through education, organization, and direct services, helped sponsored and coordinate the creation of a Know Your Rights Mural (KYR) in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The mural incorporates criminal defense tips for dealing with encounters with the police. Aware of the community from which it springs, the mural includes portions in Spanish, clearly visible to the predominant Latino/a population in that area.

The Artist:

Cekis aka Nelson Rivas, originally from Santiago Chile, belongs to the first generation of graffiti writers/artist in Chile in the early nineties. Cekis currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY since 2004.

Pictures from the mural: