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Cultural Politics

The arts have always been used to tackle difficult issues on a wide scale. From poetry that ignites millions to photography that captures injustices, artists are using their creativity to make space for the marginalized and give light to untold stories.

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Sweet Land: The Making of a Myth
56:39
“Sweet Land” recasts this nation's story through the eyes of immigrants and the Indigenous
Life Centered: The Helen Jean Taylor Story
55:39
Ceramist Helen Jean Taylor crafted timeless works and helped others find peace in clay.
Con Safos
54:35
A tribute to Rubén Funkahuatl Guevara, a Chicano music pioneer.
A mural showing Frederick Douglass in the middle, flanked by an African American man holding an African American child on one side and a Black soldiers and slaves on the other side.
In an era where many old monuments are being torn down and history is being rewritten, learn how public art rooted in inclusivity can help right the wrongs of history.
A mushroom cloud from a nuclear detonation.
The effects of nuclear testing have been devastating. What is more alarming is how the United States government has downplayed its effects and perpetrated a monstrous public health deception, especially to marginalized rural communities.
A freeway crosses a concretized river bed. This is an aerial view of the Los Angeles River as it meets the Rio Hondo.
The Southeast Los Angeles Cultural Arts Center is a great idea on paper, but locals have well-grounded fear that bright and shiny developments like these would leave their best interests out in the cold.
A young woman smiles at the camera with roller skates on.
Today's jam skaters draw from a community built over generations at Venice Beach and rinks across the city.
A graphic design poster of Malcolm X made by Emory Douglas.
The flowering of grassroots social movements in California in the 1960s and '70s led to concurrent flourishing of graphic innovation as a form of collective action. Designers today continue this legacy, using their practices to inspire change and raise up global fights for justice.
A poster for Women in Design Conference at the Woman's Building designed by Sheila de Bretteville.
Issues of accessibility have long been woven through all facets of graphic design and can especially be seen in Los Angeles during the late 1960s and early '70s.
Artist Barbara Carrasco standing in front of colorful floor-to-wall length mural "L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective" holding a commendation plaque from Los Angeles County presented by County Supervisor Hilda Solis at the opening of the temporary exhibition Sin Censura A.
After 40 years, Barbara Carrasco's epic (and censored) 1981 mural "L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective" finds a home where its stories can be told.
The famed Black inventor and scientist, George Washington Carver, depicted around racist stereotypes while crossing the Delaware.
The Black Lives Matter movement helped uplift the recognition and value of Black artists' works.
A print of the April 1975 issue of Gidra with Asian American students on the cover.
What started as a monthly paper in 1969 geared towards Asian American students at UCLA soon expanded to the greater Los Angeles community.
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