Environmental Justice and the Chicano Movement: Barrio Graphic Arts activating Revolution

The Environmental Justice and the Chicano Movement: Barrio Graphic Arts activating Revolution campaign objective is to empower local citizens, residents, and community members to adopt a new sense of personal agency, attitudes, consciousness, and perspectives on what it means to be a social justice advocate fighting for the health and healthy being of neighborhood environments by learning about the struggles of local and regional artist/activists past and present of Chicano Graphic and Mural Arts movements 1960-present, and designing their posters, mural concepts, t-shirts, calendars, hats, and chocolate candy wrappers in the lowest quartile California Healthy Places Index communities of Logan Heights, Sherman, National City, Chula Vista and El Cajon. The campaign involves robust programming, beginning with a living history documentation of local activists for poster imagery and gatherings for community input to inform mural concepts. Subsequent cloth painting sessions provide opportunities to listen to activists share their stories, and community workshops explore printing on paper, cloth, and clothing, as well as practical herbalism and cacao. The campaign culminates with a protest art exhibition and fashion show exhibition with participants' art pieces in shirts, clothing, jeans, hats, and posters.