When Women Disrupt

“What does it mean to be white when black bodies are under attack?”

“How would you define you manhood if it didn’t mean oppressing women?”

“Who does America belong to?”

These are some of the many questions posted on random walls across America by a special group of artists. Last month, I attended an event sponsored by USC Annenberg Institute for Diversity and Empowerment and Visions & Voices. The movement “When Women Disrupt” is a collaboration between artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, muralist Jessica Sabogal, and filmmaker Melinda James. Together they created outdoor public art installations that brings issues of racism, sexism and xenophobia to the forefront.

From their self-introductions, I could get a sense of the reasons and the driving force behind this creative concept. Being an immigrant herself, Jessica talked about how she had faced problems of feeling isolated by the “white supremacist”, xenophobic society. Tatyana talked about how she feels that gender inequality and sexism are still huge problems in our society. The oppression women and their voices should not be taken lightly. Therefore, she came up with the radical idea of installing art on the walls that directly interacts with the community. They wanted to create street paintings because it is accessible to virtually everyone, and it almost confronts the viewer to think and reconsider some of their prejudices and perceptions on gender and race. The choice of visual images and words are carefully chosen to suit the respective places it will be shown at. There are a lot of thought-provoking questions featured as part of the artwork. The fact that their meaningful art consumes public space could be translated to women claiming public space as their own, taking more power in the society, which is inherently powerful. Also, they managed to put up some of the artwork without permission. This is also meaningful in that it conveys a message that women belong and can take charge.

Surprisingly, I found the talk quite intriguing. They did not simply explain some of their artwork but took us through the process and thinking involved in this tour of street art. Some of their artwork are very radical in terms of the language and the way it is presented, and I was left surprized by it. But I think that was the point. Sometimes it just takes radicalism to capture the audiences’ attention and to make the message memorable. This is a great example of how art could be a powerful tool to cause social change. I admire their courage and determination in using their talent to express their views. Ultimately, it lets us realize: if you want change, fight for it. Only when we take initiative and fight for what we believe is right will the issues of gender inequality and xenophobia be alleviated.