Makibaka: Struggle
A brother named Ed Jr. M. Arimboanga, who I know simply as JR, showed me love and warmth at a poetry reading last spring called Flip Da Skript. It was an open-mic at San Francisco State University's Rigoberta Menchu Hall, and put on by the League of Filipino Students. The room was filled with young activists, musicians, and poets of color. It was the new "Art and Soul of the Struggle," a mirror image of the famous Striker's place of refuge.
JR's black and white photos caught my eye immediately. They sing songs of history, living injustices, hopes, and solidarity. This is what art is: a tool, a weapon, that educates and informs, unites and divides people, grasps and transmits experience.
Where our Manongs, Chinese and Japanese and black and other brown brothers, and student youth came together to fight. It is a symbol of gentrification and racism in San Francisco.
Photos courtesy of Ed Jr. M. Arimboanga & his online albums
Contact Ed Jr. M. Arimboanga, check out more of his photography, and wish him a happy [early] birthday.
support local art, struggle through art
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1 Comment
November 18, 2008 at 12:37 PM
i agree with you.. i like his informative art work in combination with historical storytelling. seems like he'd be a great teacher as well! ive been impassioned to learn more and more of the pilipino history alongside my own this year.
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