#arts advocacy

[punkxhazard]

ART IS NOT MINE* The Art Against Apartheid toolkit contains 100 posters made by artists from across the world in solidarity with Palestine.

There are some fantastic pieces in here and above are some of my faves. If you wanna check them out yourself go to againstapartheid.art

Free Palestine, stop the genocide.

[2dmax]

Sawsan (left), a pharmacist, and Ameera (right), a writer, are two sisters in Gaza living with epidermolysis bullosa, a painful chronic skin condition.

✔ VETTED BY ASSOCIATION: Abeer G. on line 202 is their cousin.

I drew this to help spread Ameera and Sawsan's story and their fundraisers. They want to maintain some degree of privacy, but absolutely need to raise money for critical supplies like antibiotics, painkillers, bandages, as well as all other necessities.

Here's how you can help:

🦋 Follow on Instagram: memeemhmd

🦋 GFM (NEW): Support Two Disabled Sisters Surviving Extermination In Gaza

🦋 Spotfund: Surviving Genocide in Gaza

🐛 Share this post! Crosspost + share directly to your friends & family.

I am personally responsible for both of these fundraisers! If GFM doesn't work for you in your area, try Spotfund.

Thank you!

[adelphenium]

travis dermott + everyone fighting the cowardice of the league.

we keep on!

[ashleymilesphil]

HELLO LGBTQA+ FAMILY 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I’m here again to reach out to you with a heartfelt plea for support. As we approach the festive season, life becomes even more challenging for our LGBTQ+ refugee community in East Africa. Food prices are skyrocketing, supplies are scarce, and we are facing starvation. Our GoFundMe campaign has raised $1,788 out of our $10,000 goal so far, but donations have slowed significantly, leaving us in urgent need.

We’re calling on all our kind supporters to help us keep going. Your contribution no matter the size can make a real difference in ensuring that our community has food and basic supplies to survive this season.

If you are unable to donate, please don’t feel pressured. You can still help us by sharing or reblogging this post, or by spreading the word about our fundraiser on other social media platforms. Every share helps increase our visibility and brings us closer to reaching the people who can help.

Thank you to everyone who has donated or supported us so far. Your generosity and love keep us hopeful. Let’s keep standing together in solidarity.

Support our campaign today and help us survive.❤️🙏

With gratitude,

A Queer Refugee Community Representative

[meeb-motes]

“ that’s fucking ableist ? / that’s a fucking ableist slur ? “ emojis !!

um ,, yeah !!

requests are open !!!

-Two :3

[sluggoonthestreet]

Riley would like to know if you have a moment to talk about trash can security.

[pileofpawns]

got some new stuff on my redbubble in case anyone wants some stickers n whatnot!

*Note for the last two: I am not an AAC user myself, just an advocate! The letterboard can be stuck to commonplace objects and be used as a form of low tech AAC in a pinch. The “This is my voice” sticker is meant to be stuck onto one’s AAC device and give reminders to the user and/or their support person, as well as letting strangers know what the device is!

As always, you’re welcome to print and cut your own stickers at home instead of buying them through RedBubble. I only make a small amount of money from each RedBubble sale, and I’m not in financial crisis anyway, so it’s not big deal, ehe.

[respect-the-locals]

*Not mine, found on Facebook. There was no artist there either.*

[lugarn]

Advocacy and Art (PSA)

As somebody who was around during the AIDS crisis, I have a lesson to share. It's very short, and very simple, and very brutal.

Consuming art is just consumerism. Making art is the only real advocacy.

(obviously also advocacy is advocacy, I'm speaking in particular about fandom 'advocacy')

I learned this at museums, watching people discuss so many artists' final pieces of art. I learned this at clinics, when we ran campaigns to try and get support from the public. I learned this at the AIDS quilt, listening to people comment on how pretty some squares were.

Most of all I've learned this from the way I am still treated. If consuming art was advocacy that changed people's minds, then we wouldn't have dealt with the neglect and the active ignoring of the HIV/AIDS while it got worse and worse.

But art is only advocacy if you're making it. Consuming art is not advocacy.

Consuming shows, movies, and art made by others is not advocacy. Awareness is a very limited form of advocacy only needed for things people are actually unaware of beforehand.

Thus, for queers, the only advocacy possible through art is making your own. Consumption is not activism.

[timetodiverge]

None of these men know how to buy kids' clothes 🙄 (It's okay tho, she DOES love it, girl has 99-core fashion all figured out)

In honour of all the people who instantly wanted this one-liner on a t-shirt:

(in all seriousness, as someone with a disability and chronic illnesses, the way Wrecker delivered this line- with such straightforward humour, warmth, & self-acceptance- meant so much to me.)

[brettesims]

Free Palestine!

From the river to the sea 💦

[de-mykel]

Andrea Bowers. Femme Trans-corporeal Fantasy (Remembering Joy + Re-enchantment), 2023.

acrylic on cardboard

[neurodivergentdingo]

Here's a little explanation of queerplatonicrelationships(QPR)

How does a QPR differ from a friendship? Well, a QPR can be very similar to a friendship! While a normal friendship may include "I love you"'s and a strong love platonic towardsome and other, they usually don't include a deep desire to spend the rest of your life with said person, sometimes longing for marriage, to go on dates, and be in a committed relationship with said person.

Usually people see those things attached to romance, but they aren't always associated with that. QPR are common amongst aromantic folks, due to the lack of the romantic and sometimes sexual feelings too. Some QPR do include sexual activities but just lack the romantic aspect of the relationship.

Queerplatonic can be defined in many different ways because it can be used as an umbrella term for relationships that don't fit the mold or friend๋࣭ship or a romantic relationship. There is no "right way" of having a QPR! it's different for every individual. Some people may have a queerplatonic relationships that is a serious monogamous commitment, and others may have multiple queerplatonic partners (QPP) like a romantically oriented polyamourus person does. Some individuals may have their committed QPR, as well as a romantic relationship at the same time, with the consent of both parties of course.

Overall, it's a beautiful thing. Help decolonize relationships standards :)

I hope this is helpful!

[asthedeathoflight]

the extended Deaf staging post. under a cut cause um. oh boy. I got a little carried away.

First of all wanted to preserve @subwaylesbians 's tags about Deaf Swan for posterity:

#secondly! okay okay SO#teen swan#already sleeping rough#taking a bad blow to the head in a fight and coming out of it with sensorineural hearing damage#and you know that girl is not getting medical attention. so she just tries her best to adjust#to how it makes the isolation worse and threats harder to clock#cleon taking note of the scrappy kid sleeping under the boardwalk and sending cochise down to investigate. except the kid doesn’t notice her#coming until cochise has a hand on her shoulder. predictably this does not end well#obviously swan doesn’t win the fight - if you can even call it one - but cochise does come home with a split lip. at this point cleon#is definitely interested. so she goes down herself. this time swan sees her coming - barely - and she’s trying to talk her down from another#escape attempt when she realises the kid is desperately trying to read her lips. and so she tries signing. obviously swan doesn’t know#any ASL yet. but it’s enough for swan to realise that cleon’s Deaf. and the first moment in which she thinks that maybe she should trust#this woman#cleon teaching her ASL. and just being so proud to be capital D Deaf that it rubs off a little. and swan holds her head a bit higher#(also future swan teaching mercy. only to find out she’s been bullying the other vaguely-competent ASL users in the crew#into#also giving her lessons while swan’s back is turned. it’s 80% out of love for her girlfriend and 20% out of hating to miss the shit-talking.#she learns pretty quick)

I think Swan having acquired hearing loss is super interesting! Becoming disabled while she's out on her own would be super scary and isolating and she probably wouldn't have any sort of resources to learn ASL or anything. She'd probably be trying so hard to hide it too bc she thinks it makes her a liability to have on a crew. Also love Mercy getting the others to tutor her in ASL that's very sweet! Also kind of heartbreaking because to me the two hearing Warriors who were best at ASL were Fox and Ajax so whenever Mercy asks Cochise or Cowgirl a question about it they feel that little pang of loss.

Okay so for MY thoughts about this whole matter.

In terms of like fanfiction land I think Cleon is Deaf but she can talk so people don't always know. Despite being able to assimilate tho she's very invested in Deaf culture and disability advocacy. I'm not sure what the state of Deaf education was like in New York in the 70s but I think Cleon would like organize community ASL classes and stuff like that. Her and Ajax are childhood best friends in this au. to me.

Rembrandt's parents are both Deaf and they have a very like pearl-clutching Toph Beifong's parent's attitude towards her being in a gang even though shes like MOM 🙄 they're literally a Deaf gang. I think in this au she runs with the Warriors less out of like economic suppression and more because like her opportunities in life are kind of limited from being Deaf and queer so she'd rather hang out with the Warriors. Rembrandt can't talk but also like she's never wanted to learn to talk 'cause fuck hearing people. She doesn't have anything to say to them. New Warriors who didn't already know ASL are always really surprised by her because she seems pretty quiet and shy but then as they pick up ASL they realize she's always shit-talking everyone in the background. Real "they didn't know I knew their language" moments with her.

Okay but in addition to fanfiction land there is also hypothetical Deaf staging of Warriors land. And in theater land I have some different opinions.

Okay so like for those unaware in Deaf theater there's a practice of having Deaf actors signing their lines as Deaf characters and then having a hearing actor say those lines out loud at the same time. This hearing actor is a "voice" and they are of varying physical reality depending on the production.

Some Deaf productions are almost entirely presented in ASL as well as English but I think obviously most of the gangs are not going to be addressing the Warriors in ASL so this show would rely heavily on supertitles like opera-style. I think you could get really cool with it as a production design thing though like if you had multiple projection surfaces throughout the set. Moments like the crowd screaming in Derailed could get really cool. But anyways that's pretty minor.

So the important thing that's going on here is that Cleon has a voice and Rembrandt doesn't. Cleon's voice is not physically real tho she's just a voice. Maybe she's off stage or something. But what matters is that Cleon can make the Riffs hear her. Does Masai know ASL? Is he somehow metatextually hearing the voice? doesn't matter. That's simply Cleon's impact. Cleon's role in the story is already about speaking truth to power and making men listen to her as a woman so this is just adding a disability angle to that.

I think for the most part the other Warriors rely on the fact that Rembrandt can lipread so if they are using ASL for her benefit it's more simplistic and they'd still get supertitled. Except for Ajax and Fox who sign while they talk, and of course Ajax and Rembrandt's background entirely ASL running commentary.

So. Rembrandt doesn't have a voice. How does that work? Easy. With the help of my handy dandy word document of every single line of hers in the entire musical I can tell you who says every one of Rembrandt's lines.

The really handy thing about Rembrandt is like half of her lines she's saying at the same time as somebody else, so if she's speaking with someone else they're speaking for her. Very easy and fun.

In general if Rembrandt is speaking on her own Ajax is talking for her, with the assumption that this is like. Normal every day procedure for the Warriors. So like all her little haterly asides in the first half of the musical is Ajax talking. In general the delineation between whether Ajax and Rembrandt are speaking as a unit or if Ajax is talking for Rembrandt is whether Ajax is also signing.

There are a few moments where I think Fox would talk for her instead like I think Fox picks up the "what are we gon do?" in Woodlawn Cemetery for sure, and Rembrandt's first two attempts to get Ajax to back off of Barnes.

There are a few other moments though where I think nobody picks up Rembrandt's lines and they're only supertitles. Some of these moments are like just for fun like I think her finding Coney Island on the map doesn't get spoken aloud as like our lighthearted establishing use of the device. But nobody picks up Rembrandt's "where you going???" in Park at Night because she's only talking to Ajax. and Ajax doesn't listen to her anyways.

After Park at Night Fox picks up being Rembrandt's voice for Cardigans and We Got You 1. Then, in the reprise, Rembrandt physically grabs Fox to get her to act as her voice for her monologue. Fox speaking here is blurring the line between things that are really happening and things which are metaphorical but that's the great thing about theater because you can just stand right on the line and not pick a side. As Fox starts to see what Rembrandt means she starts to sign along with her, and then is on the same page as her to start giving orders to the other Warriors when they have to run.

Momentary note that we don't translate Rembrandt saying Fox's name in Reunion Square because by this time we've learned Fox's sign name bc we've seen it in the roll call a bunch of times so no translation necessary! I don't know enough about ASL to have any opinions about sign names but I think that getting to pick out sign names for the Warriors would be a very fun part of doing the translation for this musical and they'd add a little extra pizazz to the roll call. Cool projection shenanigans for the remix in Reunion Square too!

And then finally. Nobody picks up any of Rembrandt's lines after Fox dies. We let that last "What are we gon do?" just hang in the air.

[ashleymilesphil]

Unity Through Art: A Call for Global Support🌈🌈🌈🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️🌈🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈

As we continue to face difficult times, I want to share something very special that represents both hope and unity. My dear friend, @pyuavlin created this beautiful piece of art that speaks to where I come from and what it means to stand together in adversity.

The artwork features crested cranes and a rainbow, two powerful symbols in my culture. The cranes represent unity, togetherness, and resilience—qualities we rely on every day as LGBTIQ refugees. The rainbow, a universal symbol of diversity and hope, also reflects our pride and determination as a community that is often marginalized, but never defeated.

Here in the refugee camp, things are getting tougher. Food is becoming scarcer, and many of us are falling sick with little access to medical care. But just as these cranes stand together, we continue to stand with each other, holding on to hope for a better tomorrow.

I share this artwork with the world today not just as a piece of beauty, but as a call for support. We need help to survive these tough months ahead—food, medical care, and basic necessities are becoming more and more out of reach. We are also working to support some of our friends who are about to be resettled in Canada. They need essentials for travel, and our fundraiser is struggling to meet its goals.

Pyu’s art reminds me that even in the darkest of times, unity can get us through. I am asking for your help. Whether it’s sharing our GoFundMe link, donating, or simply keeping us in your thoughts, any form of support can go a long way. Together, like these cranes, we can rise above the storm.

Thank you for standing with us.

Art by @pyuavlin