Lifelines: An arts action for International Women’s Day

“Writing is dangerous because we are afraid of what the writing reveals: the fears, the angers, the strengths of a woman under a triple or quadruple oppression. Yet in that very act lies our survival because a woman who writes has power. And a woman with power is feared.” - Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Speaking In Tongues: A Letter To 3rd World Women Writers

Lifelines is a collaborative arts action organized by artist Elana Mann, She Loves Collective, Tomorrow Girls Troop, Ni Santas and AF3IRM - all community-driven creatives focused on the intersection of art and activism. Lifelines is an arts action which centers concerns regarding violence against women throughout the world. The action was developed collaboratively with representatives from disparate communities in Southern California – including East/SE Asian, Chicana, Latinx, Armenian, Filipina, Norwegian, Persian and Jewish – with aligned concerns and goals to draw attention to the further marginalization of femme people around the globe both physically and in legislative actions taken by government bodies. The action presents a blend of human bodies, color, form and language to create a visual representation of powerful collective action. 

Lifelines gives visual representation to the urgent need for a more caring future for femme people across the globe. At a time when the rights and autonomy of womxn, femmes and transgender bodies are being increasingly threatened, these issues must be at the forefront. Only through collective actions which bring awareness to these issues can real change manifest. This piece seeks to amplify the voices of those who may not be heard in the media today. 

Lifelines is in honor of the protestors fighting for women’s rights in Iran.

About the participants:

Elana Mann is an artist who explores the power of the collective voice and the act of listening through sculpture, sound, and community engagement. Mann has presented her work in museums, galleries, and public spaces in the U.S. and globally. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at 18th Street Art Center (Santa Monica, CA), Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX), Artpace (San Antonio, TX), and Pitzer College Art Galleries (Claremont, CA). Mann has participated in group exhibitions and screenings at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, the Orange County Museum of Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum. She has been commissioned to create public projects by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Montalvo Art Center and the Getty Villa. 

elanamann.com | @elanamamma 

She Loves Collective is an alliance of female artists who share a strong belief in the power of creating social change through art. Through exhibitions, workshops, and events Collective works strive to push the boundaries of expression and creativity while emphasizing the transformative power of art. Acknowledging that love inspires and elicits feelings across the gamut of human emotion, She Loves Collective explores its diverse manifestations while working with creatives across diverse artistic mediums.

shelovescollective.com | @shelovescollective

While the majority of Ni Santa’s work is rooted in aerosol art, serigraphs, and community altars, every member contributes to incorporate a myriad of art mediums through different skills and style. The goal of the collective is be open to any mujer and manifest the power of mujeres with all artistic backgrounds to learn from each other. Ni Santas is an all women of color collective whose mission is to write their history through art, with responsibility to create socially conscious visual narratives. Ni Santas envision creating a safe space by cultivating a community of women, free of judgment to nourish their emerging artists. “When you’re brown a women from the hood, whether you’re queer or gender non-conforming, your oppression isn’t only experienced as a women, it is any and all those things at the same time so you have to create spaces to be able to articulate those experiences. Historically we’ve been erased from art, and we have a responsibility to re write herstory through art creating socially conscious narratives. It empowers us to support each other because we have that trust and healing space among each other. We only get stronger by coming together.” Ni Santas x Ni Putas x Solo Mujeres. 

nisantas.org | @ni_santas 

Tomorrow Girls Troop is a worldwide fourth-wave feminist social art collective focusing on gender inequality issues in East Asia. Established in 2015, TGT has some 50 members dispersed around the globe, operating in a decentralized and non-hierarchical way to collaborate on art and social projects engaging with intersectional experiences of sexism and racism. Via the internet, TGT creates socially engaged art in the form of video, research-based campaigns, and community building. TGT’s activities also find physical manifestation in social art practices, protest, and performance actions spanning Asia, the US, and Europe. Actions have included performances in collaboration with artist Yoshiko Shimada commemorating so-called “comfort women”; a successful campaign to change the definition of “feminism” in the Kojien dictionary in Japan; an educational project on sexual harassment with the #metoo and #NotSurprised social movements; a social outreach campaign and performance series about sexual violence, which raised awareness and resulted in changes to century-old laws regarding sexual assault in Japan; and a performance and educational series on trans rights in collaboration with a non-binary trans human rights activist Tsukuru Fors. TGT’s goal is to educate in order to achieve gender equality for all men, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

tomorrowgirlstroop.com | @tomorrowgirlstroop 

AF3IRM stands for Association of Feminists Fighting Fascism Imperialism Refeudalization and Marginalization. Founded in 1989, AF3IRM is a transnational feminist, anti-imperialist organization of women dedicated to the struggle for women’s liberation and the fight against oppression in all its forms. AF3IRM is an all-volunteer, grassroots organization of women of color who share histories of migration under imperialist globalization and bearers of a multiplicity of histories, languages, cultures and world views. AF3IRM actively practices immigrant- and Native-led, trans-inclusive feminism.

With the slogan “a woman’s place is at the head of the struggle,” AF3IRM’s diverse, multi-ethnic membership is committed to militant movement-building, and makes change through grassroots organizing, trans-ethnic alliance building, education, advocacy, and direct action. Join AF3IRM to continue the fight for this new world and onward towards liberation.

af3irm.org | @af3irm @af3irmla