I don’t care for anything as much as I care for art.  Like most artists I’ve worked plenty of jobs outside of the art field, but even the more interesting jobs leave my soul feeling empty.

The creative person is vulnerable in that we want to experience everything fully, by fully I mean being present in all ways- emotional, mental, and physical availability. Artists tend to remain fully present even when situations become toxic or harmful. Self-preservation becomes an afterthought.

Babies and young children are being ripped away from their mothers, fathers, and relatives at the border. It's not unusual to feel helpless at this time, but if we're willing, we'll find a way to help.

You can make a tax deductible donation to Protest Mag through our official (and long-term) fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas. Handmade journals are yours to keep when you make a donation. You're a critical part of a larger picture, help bring Protest Mag to fruition.

Cindy Trinh is the woman behind the images of Activist NYC, she is a photojournalist with a special interest in social justice movements. We got the chance to speak to Cindy about the disparities of minority women in journalism and her experiences as a photojournalist.

We don’t get to hear the stories of marginalized people often and when we do it is most often through the lens of a white person. I want better representation of women of color and I think only other women of color can achieve that.

-Cindy Trinh

Activist NYC’s Instagram page is filled with moving, inspirational images of people organizing, demonstrating, and doing their part to fight off injustices.

I learnt a lot about design process and concepts applied in real world when I used to assist Dona Karan and Peter during the fittings of the fashion show. I understood a sense of style and taste and fashion as a means of expression over the time working for different designers. But the important thing I learnt from all of them is that 'I need to have a unique voice to be successful.'

As for Storm, there’s plenty to work with in terms of narrative arc: daughter of African royalty, orphaned traumatically as a child, apprenticed to a master pickpocket, worshipped as a goddess, recruited to the X-Men, rising to a leadership position within the X-Men, and let’s not forget that whole superstar superhero marriage thing. And go! There is source material penned by none other than bestselling African American novelist Eric Jerome Dickey; in fact, his mini-series has been described as Ororo’s origins story. 

Storm’s badassery makes her one of the most popular X-Men and superheroes. Period.  And we haven’t seen the full range of her awesomeness on screen yet - her regal bearing, her sense of authority, her complexity, her sexiness, her power; all of it. She’s a fighter, a leader, and did I mention she controls the weather? As a Caribbean girl, in the path of hurricanes, and vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, flash flooding, and all kinds of unpredictability, I have much respect for the weather…and she who controls the weather.

Do you ever feel your body is guided while painting?

When I paint it's really sporadic but I feel like when it happens I’m focused, I’m like ‘okay I’m doing this,’ I’m focused. My mind is kind of at ease, my spirit is kind of at ease because I’m just focusing on seeing where this (artwork) is going to move or change to, what colors I’m going to move toward. It’s almost like my guards are let go. And that sporadic-ness is okay at that time. Even just going through magazines and cutting out shapes and stuff, that does offer me some solace but it looks crazy, if someone saw me in my room cutting up magazines and shapes and just cutting things out…(laughs) I think I kind of act manically, but creatively, it’s fine.

Protest Magazine is grateful, and thankful, and still breathing.

We. Didn’t. Make. Our. Fundraiser. Goal. But Protest is still winning. The loss was a lesson and we’ll chalk it up to growing pains. We are growing. Recently, we were approved as a company to post calls for artists and writers in the career database of colleges in the country. Spots like The New School, Pratt, and Dillard are just a few of plenty. Calls for contributors went up on independent artist resource sites, too. You can find us on the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, Lambda Literary, and the Chicago Artists Resource sites for up and coming artists and writers.

Women are responding. Women are looking to protest oppressive social norms and provide commentary on society through creative work. Women are sending in their illustrations, poetry, essays and words of wisdom and we intend to work with them.

Handmade Gifts / You can make a tax-deductible donation to Protest Mag through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas. This is a forever thing so you can make a one-time or recurring donation whenever you'd like. The money will be put into the hands of women who contribute work to Protest.

Protests On Film / A talk with Cindy Trinh, the woman behind the images of Activist NYC.

Art Engineered / The engineer is the artist, too. Small talk with Ruchira Amare

Where Is Storm's Movie? / Writer and mentor Joanne C. Hillhouse

The ecosystem Dotun grew up in was one that catapulted her into a creative career. As a kid, she went to a performing and visual arts school in South London. Her classmates were fellow creatives moonlighting as artists, musicians, and innovators outside of school. She grew up with them and watched them mature as creative people. Dotun witnessed even more of their progress through social media; friend requests, tweets and ‘likes’ kept her looped in on success stories of other artist-types in the UK. Dotun is one person in the plethora of young creatives emerging from the UK, they are mavericks chasing opportunities and making things happen. They exude energy that is contagious and motivating- it's the kind of energy that excites others to go after their dreams, too.

disorderly communities

feature

When researchers compiled data on women incarcerated within the United States in 1970, they concluded there were 8,000 women being held in jails. Just one-quarter of counties within the United States housed women in its jails. When researching women incarcerated in 2014, it was concluded there were almost 110,000 women in jails. They can be found in the jails of counties throughout the United States. It’s understandably hard to form a mental picture of 110,000 women in jail. That is 110,000 different personalities, 110,000 different faces, many of them mothers, ill, and survivors of trauma. I’m imagining an entire city of women to help put this in perspective. More men are involved in the justice system than women, but the population of women in correctional facilities is growing at a faster rate than that of men. The quick growth is fueled by the focus on policing disadvantaged communities and implementing harsh punishment to those who commit low-level crimes, also referred to as broken windows policing.

Broken windows policing was introduced to the public in 1982 by criminologist George Kelling, who has since admitted the practice is being misused by police. He believes without proper training, depending solely on police officers to maintain order will cause a negative effect on our communities. The broken windows theory claims that all crime begins with disorder and the way to prevent major crimes, like rape and murder, is to crack down on the smaller, pettier crimes first. To law enforcers and city officials, things such as abandoned cars and buildings, groups of people gathered outside and graffiti can be seen as disorder.

Disorder is split into two categories, physical and behavioral, and, classifying an area as disorderly has everything to do with image. Physical disorder is visual cues that are stereotypically synonymous with crime, the cues are the abandoned cars, graffiti, and litter I mentioned earlier. A person looking to commit a crime will view these community characteristics as a sign that getting caught is unlikely. Law enforcement will view them as a sign to heavily police the area- if there is physical disorder than behavioral disorder will follow. 

I’ve been writing about my mental health since I was a little girl, I needed a way to make peace with it. My first depressive episode happened a few years before hitting puberty, but I had no idea what to make of it so I never spoke about it with anyone. There were times when I felt I literally couldn't speak, that I couldn't open my mouth to talk or sing or yell- it was as if my jaw was nailed shut. I would write the most during those times. I would record, in my third-grade vocabulary, my excessive worrying, fatigue, and irritability in colorful spiral notebooks covered in Spice Girls stickers. To grow up in this society -which is run by racists, sexists, capitalists, and scammers- as a black female can be a lonely experience. To grow up as a black female living with a mental illness is nothing short of isolating, but I intuitively found a companion in writing, a confidant I could trust.  

There have been so many essays, none of them good enough for me. My latest attempt at writing a cohesive and in-depth essay turned into ten pages of me rambling. Poetically, of course. I jumped from one subject to another in each paragraph. I read every paragraph written at least nine times in a row, in a subconscious search for perfection, I meticulously combed through every sentence. I needed my intentions to be clear so I obsessed over the words and phrases used. To write this, whatever it is, is to escape. To run from myself, to forget memories I don't care to relive, to feel lighter. While editing and writing I continuously think to myself, this is it, writing this is gonna free me. It’s gonna solve all of my problems, I’m gonna come out of this as the person I’ve been dreaming of.

Protest Magazine, Artists Call: Call for Submissions for issue one of Protest Magazine

We make art and put emotions and thoughts into words that interpret our different cultures, femininity and all other intersections we exist in. We are the vital voices of social commentary, we are vital voices of marginalized communities.

Protest Magazine is the anthology and portfolio created for femmes of color; consider Protest as a the temporary a home for your creative work.