The Civil Liberties Project is a competitive fellowship operating as both a dialogue and production space that explores the socio-political context through which we defend and celebrate our civil liberties. The fellowship looks to engage young adults in their transition from highschool, building their learning path and looking for guidance in exploring topics of humanities and the arts. Through examining archives and their relationship to community histories, we will investigate race, class, gender and sexuality. Fellows will engage in readings, discussions and presentations to make connections to civil liberty violations, such as Japanese American incarceration, voter suppression, police brutality and liberation movements, transnational effects of the Migrant Protection Protocols program, and LGBTQ rights and incarceration. Fellows will be guided to explore and experiment with art forms as a way to interrogate history. We will consider the archive as a generative space and together ideate alternative archiving models and socio-historical art practices. The cohort will build upon personal explorations to create a multimedia online archive and corresponding public interventions that invite audiences to engage with community histories.
READ ABOUT THE FELLOWS WORK AND PROCESS
MENDING - Natalia Quintero
Natalia Quintero was born in 1985 in San Diego, California and currently lives in San Diego. As Chicano Activists her parents encouraged her to be outspoken, expressive through art and to live an optimistic life. Through art Natalia discovered she could overcome adversity, encourage change and bring people together. Becoming a teacher was the catalyst for promoting positive change in her community. Additionally while mothering 3 young children Natalia has gained the perspective and passion to generate a positive impact on her community through public art installations.
Natalia continues to work on her HOPE campaign. A series of painted signs put in public places throughout her community. Her goal is to empower her community by spreading positivity. She is inspired by her late Father who lived a life deeply rooted in optimism. Her current sewing project is guided by the Internment of Japanese Americans during WW2 and the erased stories of minority women. Through sewing Natalia examines the social spaces and narratives that continue to exclude women and their stories.Through Art Natalia continues to investigate ways to empower her community and spread optimism.
EXHIBITION OPEN NOW AT THE FRONT ARTE CULTURA
147 W San Ysidro Blvd - San Ysidro, CA
BORROWED SCENERY - Kristi Lin
Kristi Lin is an artist and landscape designer whose deep love of the natural world and concern for social justice issues inspires her to create environments that invite us to stop and notice our place in the world. Through Borrowed Scenery, she explores her relationship to the Japanese Friendship Garden as a 4th generation Japanese American and 3rd generation Chinese American. 借景 Shakkei (Japanese) and jièjǐng (Chinese) both translate to "borrowed scenery," an ancient Asian garden design technique where a distant view, such as a faraway mountain, is incorporated into the composition of the garden. Taking a contemporary perspective, Kristi situates the Japanese Friendship Garden as borrowed scenery, distant yet woven into the landscape of her multicultural identity.
Through incorporating wind, sound, time, decay, and other natural phenomena into her artwork, Kristi Lin explores innovative ways to build public memory and inspire social change. Kristi earned her Bachelors in Landscape Architecture from University of California Davis and currently designs landscapes throughout San Diego.
EXHIBITION OPEN NOW AT THE JAPANESE FRIENDSHIP GARDEN
2215 Pan American Rd E
San Diego, CA 92101
FRAGMENTS OF MEMORIES - Famo Musa
Famo Musa was born in Somalia and raised in Kenya. She is a photographer and a Youth Organizer with the Global ARC. She is one of the co-founders of City Heights Youth for Change (CHYFC), a youth-led organization, advocating for youth in City Heights. Famo is a community leader that has been active in her community for the past 10 years, she advocates for youth and helps parents who are not familiar with the educational system. She also works as a Teaching Artist at the AjA Project and does Poetry and Creative writing on the side. She is currently going to University of California San Diego for Literature in writing. Famo has been a photographer for the past ten years, she does documentary and portrait photography with the emphasis of preserving memories within her Community
EXHIBITION OPEN NOW AT YOU BELONG HERE
3619 El Cajon Blvd
San Diego, CA 92104
THE CIVIL LIBERTIES FELLOWS
Natalia Quintero was born in 1985 in San Diego, California and currently lives in San Diego. As Chicano Activists her parents encouraged her to be outspoken, expressive through art and to live an optimistic life. Through art Natalia discovered she could overcome adversity, encourage change and bring people together. Becoming a teacher was the catalyst for promoting positive change in her community. Additionally while mothering 3 young children Natalia has gained the perspective and passion to generate a positive impact on her community through public art installations.
Natalia continues to work on her HOPE campaign. A series of painted signs put in public places throughout her community. Her goal is to empower her community by spreading positivity. She is inspired by her late Father who lived a life deeply rooted in optimism. Her current sewing project is guided by the Internment of Japanese Americans during WW2 and the erased stories of minority women. Through sewing Natalia examines the social spaces and narratives that continue to exclude women and their stories.Through Art Natalia continues to investigate ways to empower her community and spread optimism
Natalia studied Art at Long Beach State University and graduated with a B.A. in Art from San Diego State University.
Kristi Lin is an artist and landscape designer whose deep love of the natural world and concern for social justice issues inspires her to create environments that invite us to stop and notice our place in the world. Through Borrowed Scenery, she explores her relationship to the Japanese Friendship Garden as a 4th generation Japanese American and 3rd generation Chinese American. 借景 Shakkei (Japanese) and jièjǐng (Chinese) both translate to "borrowed scenery," an ancient Asian garden design technique where a distant view, such as a faraway mountain, is incorporated into the composition of the garden. Taking a contemporary perspective, Kristi situates the Japanese Friendship Garden as borrowed scenery, distant yet woven into the landscape of her multicultural identity.
Through incorporating wind, sound, time, decay, and other natural phenomena into her artwork, Kristi Lin explores innovative ways to build public memory and inspire social change. Kristi earned her Bachelors in Landscape Architecture from University of California Davis and currently designs landscapes throughout San Diego.
Famo Musa was born in Somalia and raised in Kenya. She is a photographer and a Youth Organizer with the Global ARC. She is one of the co-founders of City Heights Youth for Change (CHYFC), a youth-led organization, advocating for youth in City Heights. Famo is a community leader that has been active in her community for the past 10 years, she advocates for youth and helps parents who are not familiar with the educational system. She also works as a Teaching Artist at the AjA Project and does Poetry and Creative writing on the side. She is currenting going to University of California San Diego for Literature in writing. Famo has been a photographer for the past ten years, she does documentary and portrait photography with the emphasis of preserving memories within her Community
TEACHING ARTISTS
DANA WASHINGTON-QUEEN + LUISA MARTINEZ
Dana Washington-Queen (they/them) is a research-driven writer and lens-based artist exploring autobiographical and cultural fields to examine race, representation, place and sociopolitical structures. In working across video, experimental cinema, digital and film photography, their research and practice brings production strategies into dialogue with black feminist thought, critical race theory, media and gender studies.
Luisa Martínez (we/they/she) is a transfronteriza cultural organizer, artist, and educator. Their practice develops from the trans-border context of so-called Tijuana-San Diego, but looks to understand borders, and their imminent destruction, beyond geographical parameters. Much of her work focuses on tenderness, intimacy, and radical imagination as strategies of resistance and solidarity. We investigate the ways our bodies can disrupt and transform space – physically, emotionally, and politically. She explores the transfronterizx as a strategy to engage the world, a way of seeing that allows us to build just and liberated futures.
Photo: Beto Soto
PRESS: THREE ARTISTS, THREE EXHIBITIONS
A new fellowship brings three artists with different backgrounds together to explore the memories and archives of Japanese-American internment and other civil liberties violations
BY JULIA DIXON EVANS
WEDNESDAY, FEB 10, 2021
This work was made possible through The Civil Liberties Fellowship, a program of The AjA Project and funded by the California State Libraries. The Fellowship is rooted in studying the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans and its connections to current issues of politics, culture, and identity.
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