Poster of the Week

Living the Dream
Earl Newman
Silkscreen, circa 1974
Summit, Oregon
12148

Text:
"Sooner Or Later, All The People Of The World Will Have To Discover A Way To Live Together In Peace."  Living the Dream  Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968

Poster of the Week

 

Earth Day Is Everyday

Earl Newman

Silkscreen, 1969/1970

Venice, California

7920

Earl Newman describes the origins of the poster:

It was the beginning of more consciousness about recycling, and people trying to build more awareness…Israel Feuer, activist with the Peace and Freedom Party, came up with the slogan, “Earth Day is Everyday” before I came up with the design. 

The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970 was marked by environmental teach-ins held throughout the U.S. Approximately 20 million Americans participated and this date marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. 
 
Now, more than 40 years later, the situation is worse and the climate is changing rapidly and very noticeably. The polar ice caps are melting faster than scientists had predicted, extreme weather is becoming the norm, and expanding swaths of oceans and lakes are becoming dead zones where no marine life can survive due to depleted oxygen levels caused by pesticide runoff. In 2004, 146 dead zones in the world's oceans were reported.  A 2008 study counted 405 dead zones worldwide.  Meanwhile, new ways of polluting our air, soil and water are increasingly profitable therefore actively supported by industry and government alike:  from deep sea oil drilling, to fracking, to transporting tar sands across some of the most fertile and fragile agricultural land in the country. 
 
Adding insult to injury, the Koch Brothers and their cohorts in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), continue to try to destroy support for renewable energy, state by state.  In 2013, ALEC tried to repeal clean energy targets in 13 states and failed on all fronts.  They are trying again in 2014. When will they ever learn?

Sources:

http://treealerts.org/region/north-america/2013/05/alec-fails-to-repeal-state-clean-energy-policies/

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/03/24/3418060/koch-kansas-clean-energy-repeal/

Poster of the Week

Pete Seeger

Earl Newman

Silkscreen, 2009

Summit, Oregon

31309
www.earlnewmanprints.com

Those of us who work for peace with justice lost one of our most creative and legendary cultural activists. Pete Seeger used the power of music to make the world a better place for more than seven decades.  He helped create the modern American folk music movement.  In 1940, he performed “This Land Is Your Land” with Woody Guthrie—shortly after Guthrie had written it as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Over the years Pete turned   “This Land Is Your Land” into an alternative national anthem for progressive activists.

In 2009, Pete and Bruce Springsteen sang “This Land Is Your Land” during President Obama’s inauguration—including the often censored verse:

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

This poetic and powerful verse exemplifies Pete Seeger’s lifelong political activism.  He wrote or co-wrote many consciousness raising songs, including "If I Had a Hammer," ''Turn, Turn, Turn," and ''Where Have All the Flowers Gone." He is also credited with popularizing "We Shall Overcome” into the anthem of the 1960’s liberation movements.  He sang and marched against fascism, racial injustice, nuclear weapons, the Viet Nam War, and the death penalty. He sang and marched to support countess just causes, including peace, civil rights, migrant workers, political prisoners, the environment and the Occupy movement.

He was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and black-listed from commercial broadcasting for 17 years.  In 1967, the Smothers Brothers convinced CBS to break the network black-listing and invite Seeger to perform on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Seeger performed his latest hit, the powerful “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” about  a commander who, against the advice of his men, drowned while leading his troops into a river without knowing how deep it was.  CBS deleted the last verse which left no doubts as to its reference to President Johnson and the Viet Nam War:

Now everytime I read the papers
That old feelin' comes on
We're waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.

(Copyright 1966 Melody Trails)

Through the years, Mr. Seeger remained determinedly optimistic. “The key to the future of the world,” he said in 1994, “is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be known.”

Pete Seeger

1919-2014

¡Presente!

Sources:

http://www.peteseeger.net/nytimes09151967.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/arts/music/pete-seeger-songwriter-and-champion-of-folk-music-dies-at-94.html?_r=0

http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2014/1/28/we_shall_overcome_remembering_folk_icon