photo by Joe Brusky
Deadline for first draft: March 1, 2020
Fast forward in your mind to Tuesday night, November 3, 2020. The results are coming in and the presidential election is being decided by a handful of swing states, perhaps one. The future of the county, the world, the climate hang by a thread. You watch as the candidate who currently sits in the Oval Office is up by 5,000 votes. You think to yourself: I could of made a difference in this outcome. I could of been in solidarity with the grassroots movements in the swing states. I could have thrown down from afar. Well, you can. Read this call for GOTV images because a powerful movement in Wisconsin needs your support and it needs your designs.
The November 2020 election will likely be won by a razor thin margin. Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada are considered the key battleground states with some early indicators predicting that the results in Wisconsin may very well decide the 2020 Presidential election.
The GOTV (Get Out the Vote) organizing effort in these battleground states will be all essential and that work starts now. Artists can make an impact by designing GOTV images and with social justice organizations who are mobilizing to sign up new voters and to encourage those registered to go to the polls.
Voces de la Frontera in Wisconsin is one of the main groups focusing their efforts this year on the 2020 election. Voces (founded in 2001 and based in Milwaukee with 10 chapters across the state) is the leading immigrant rights organization in Wisconsin has mobilized tens of thousands across the state to take collective action. The membership-drive organization have become leaders in community organizing, including the fight for legalization path to citizenship, advancing workers’ rights, GOTV, education rights and youth organizing, and the New Sanctuary Movement and deportation defense.
In 2020 Voces has an organization goal of getting 23,000 new Latino voters to the polls. Their aim is to reach Latino voters and young multicultural voters. This type of work is not new to Voces. In 2018 Voces de la Frontera Action launched Voceros por el Voto that mobilized 48,000 Latinx voters for the mid-terms in Wisconsin with the goal to elect pro-immigrant, pro-worker candidates up and down the ballot. The Voceros por el Voto campaign was a key factor in deciding the 2018 election outcomes in Wisconsin for the governor’s race.
Art Solidarity / Call for GOTV Images
Voces de la Frontera (and their art affinity group Voces de los Artistas) is organizing a Get-Out-the-Vote poster campaign. This call is open to local, national, and international artists and designers. The goal is to select a dozen images that can be mass produced (offset, screenprinted, shared ONLINE, and painted on banners.) Voces and other allies will then distribute these images across the state of Wisconsin from March-November 2020. The images will wheatpasted in the streets, hung in storefront windows, union halls, etc. The DNC is in Milwaukee in July so these images will have a large presence in the streets and in the demos. The images will also be available as a free, creative-commons downloads on the Justseeds.org “graphics” page where significantly they can be used and adapted in other swing state GOTV campaigns. Thus these designs are not just for the Wisconsin movement.
Types of Images needed / Themes:
The Voces de la Frontera staff came up with this list of specific image requests.
Images that speak to young multicultural voters, Latino voters, African American voters, and rural voters.
1. 6-8 different images: images that visualize multiracial young people (ages 18-25.)
Included in the image (some combination of): Latinx, African American male, Muslim Woman, Asian woman, transgender, disability, Latinx farmer, young white student or white farmer.
2. One image communicating to the local Puerto Rican community. Include the Puerto Rican flag in the image. Could also include an image/outline of the island.
3. A series of images: (theme)Vote for Freedom / Vota por la Libertad. (This series should all have the text “Vote for Freedom / Vota por la Libertad” and can have feature different individual people impacted by Trumps policies (Immigrants, Women, Muslims, LGBTQ..) Meaning a single image with a Latina/o. Another image with the same layout and font with a Muslim woman….)
Slogans: (chosen by the Voces de la Frontera)
Join the fight. Become a vocero. (Únete a lucha. Se vocero.)
Voceros for the vote. (Voceros por el Voto)
Vote for Dignity. (Vota por la dignidad)
Vote for the Many Not the Few. (Vota por el pueblo, No por los privilegiados.)
Vote Hate Out (Alto al odio.Vota.)
Voting is Power. (El voto es poder)
I Will Not Be Silenced. Vote. (No me callaran. Votare.)
Votes Break Walls (El voto derriba muros)
Vote for Freedom (Vota por la libertad)
Rural Wisconsin Stands with Immigrants (La comunidad rural de Wisconsin se solidariza con los inmigrantes. Vota.)
Sanctuary for All. Vote. (Santuario para todos. Vota.)
End the Ban. Vote. (Alto al bando. Vota.)
Keep Families Together. Vote. (Mantiene familias unidas. Vota.)
Format of images/specifics:
-offset size (12×18)
-A full color image AND (if possible) a one-color black and white version of your design that can be used for screenprinting and banner designs.
-Your welcome to include one of the slogans on the first draft designs OR you can leave the text out and wait for critique from the Voces de la Frontera staff on what slogan is best needed for your design. If you are doing a linocut/woodcut please wait for critique before adding a slogan. Your image can include both the English and Spanish slogan OR you can make two versions of your design: One in English, one in Spanish.
Deadline for first draft: March 1, 2020.
Artists/designers responding to the national call: email images to Nicolas Lampert at: animaltrap@yahoo.com
Conclusion:
Allies across the country need to focus their energy on the battleground states. Wisconsin is viewed as more difficult for the Democrats to win in 2020 than Michigan or Pennsylvania because of the higher percentage of white voters in the state, but the difference maker could be the number of Latinx and African American voters who go to the polls in November. This is why a Get Out the Vote graphic campaign in Wisconsin is all essential. A powerful movement (Voces de la Frontera) is already in place and their focus is reaching new Latinx and young multicultural voters across Wisconsin. The 2020 election could come down 20,000 votes in Wisconsin or less. Artists aligned with this struggle could make the difference. Here are some recent articles that note how crucial Wisconsin is in the 2020 election.
