Chicago, IL
Aaron Hughes is an artist, curator, organizer, teacher, anti-war activist, and Iraq War veteran. He works collaboratively in diverse spaces and media to create meaning out of personal and collective trauma, deconstruct and transform systems of oppression, and seek liberation. Working through an interdisciplinary practice rooted in drawing and printmaking, Hughes develops projects that deconstruct militarism and related institutions of dehumanization. These projects often utilize popular research strategies, experiment with forms of direct democracy, and operate in solidarity with the people most impacted by structural violence. In addition to his work with Justseeds, Hughes works with a range of art and activist projects including About Face: Veterans Against the War (formerly Iraq Veterans Against the War), Warrior Writers, emerging Veteran Art Movement, and Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project.
Other Media
Eight Guantánamo survivors, in solidarity with the men who are still extralegally imprisoned there, have written an open letter (below) to President Biden calling for an end to a Trump-era…
Today, marks the 20 years since the US opened the extralegal military prison and torture facility at Guantánamo. As many of you know this is an issue that has been…
The Kairos Center and the NYS Poor People’s Campaign, recently launched the pilot episode of our new podcast, Getting Into Step. The podcast is dedicated to illuminating the times in which we…
Tamir’s Campaign for Justice is a solidarity campaign with Samaria Rice focused on obtaining justice for Tamir Rice, her 12-year-old son who was fatally shot by Cleveland police in 2014….
Celebrate the launch of DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE, Justseeds’ newest art portfolio and booklet in collaboration with the powerful movement organization Dissenters, by supporting their important anti-militarism organizing trainings and anti-militarist campaigns! Contribute…
This May Day, in partnership with the Dissenters, Justseeds released the new DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE portfolio and booklet during an Art Against Empire launch event. The Dissenters is a movement organization leading a…
“We went on strike because the company didn’t care to give us basic protections, and kept exposing us to get sick or die. For weeks we demanded the company to…
Food workers are essential workers! The COVID Jungle: Chicagoland’s Essential Food Workers and the Need for Vaccination Priority a new report released by the Chicago based Warehouse Workers for Justice…
The Chicago Printers Guild is rallying its members and community to support the efforts and contributions that the Southside Community Art Center continues to make in the Bronzeville Neighborhood and…
I am extremely excited to share Carving Out Rights from Inside the Prison Industrial Complex, a book I have been working on with Tara Betts, Sarah Ross, and the Prison…
I am excited to announce, Autonomous Democracy, a new project focused on exploring the history of experiments in direct democracy within freedom movements. Over the course of the next year,…
In collaboration with the powerful emerging youth movement organization Dissenters, Justseeds is excited to announce the forthcoming DE-MIL-I-TA-RISE portfolio. Dissenters is leading a new generation of young people to reclaim…
LUMPEN RADIO | SPECIAL PROGRAMS9AM & 3PM Central Time | Friday, September 18, 2020Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem) Friday, September 18th at 9AM and 3PM (Central Time), Lumpen Radio will…
We Are Called to Be A Movement by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber This summer Rev. Dr. William Barber of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival…
New Justseeds members Nicole Marroquin and Monica Trinidad were recently featured with other activist artists in a Hyperallergic article by Claire Wang about their powerful work supporting the abolitionist movement…
The PO BOX is a creative collective and intergenerational social practice center dedicated to building the Rogers Park community in Chicago through radical art making and programming. They “embrace a…
As a National Guard veteran I am honored to be apart of About Face: Veterans Against the War which through the following open letter is calling on the Minnesota National…
Aaron Hughes, Justice, 2020 The Earth Day to May Day Chicago coalition formed to unite labor, immigrant, community, and environmental justice organizations during the current public health, economic, and environmental…
Earlier this year the emerging Veteran Art Movement joined Iraqi artists featured in the “Theater of Operations” exhibition at MoMA PS1 in calling on MoMA board members to divest from…
From April 13th to 17th the Illinois Coalition for Higher Education in Prison (IL-CHEP) hosted the Let Our People Go: Week of Action. One of the IL-CHEP coalition partners is…