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Diego Rivera in Detroit

April 23, 2009

Last evening I presented with Bec Young at The NorthStar Center in Lansing, MI. In the discussion following our presentation, one of the women in the audience (who happens to be my good friend María) asked an interesting question about archival work and the role that radical graphics play in the visual history of movements. She was interested in discussing the lack of movement ephemera being saved or archived within mainstream institutions. As radicals, she noted, we rarely do a thorough job documenting ourselves and our histories. Moreover, she was disappointed by the absence of material written about radical art and culture.
In response, I noted that this is, in fact, quite a large problem. However, as some of know (or actively participating in) there are some folks out there doing amazing things to change these absences. For instance, I mentioned the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in LA. The director, Carol Wells, does an excellent job documenting radical graphics, both inside and outside the US, with Justseeds contributing one impression of each print to the Center.
Additionally, I began to think about the various curatorial and writing projects that JustSeeds members are engaged in. It is striking that JustSeeds is not simply producing art and participating in various radical social movements, but many of us are also actively writing texts about the history of radical. Although serendipitously happening on the very night that I posted my first writing on the blog, this discussion concretized my desire to post blogs of my writing.
With that said, here is my second attempt at offering my academic writings to the JustSeeds community. These two articles are a little older (2005). The first is an article I wrote about Diego Rivera’s labor activism in Detroit. The second is an essay by Mexican philosopher Alberto Híjar Serrano that I translated into English for Third Text. They were published alongside one-another and function as a unit.
Feel free to post comments or responses!
Dylan AT Miner. ‘El renegado comunista: Diego Rivera, La Liga de Obreros y Campesinos and Mexican Repatriation in Detroit.’ Third Text, Vol. 19, Issue 6 (November 2005): 647–660.
Alberto Híjar Serrano. ‘The Latin American Left and the Contribution of Diego Rivera to National Liberation.’ Third Text, Vol. 19, Issue 6 (November 2005): 637–646.

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