Author: Robert Liu-Trujillo

Teachers 4 Social Justice – T-shirt art

Hey fam, I was really excited to do this t-shirt illustration for a historic organization. The “Teachers for Social Justice” San Francisco chapter is a dope community based organization that held an annual conference for teachers to share information about social justice pedagogy, books, songs, practices, teaching methods, and more in San Francisco California. I first went in the 2010’s but had been to conferences like it where we would give workshops to young people about murals, graffiti, and a way to combine social justice with art. Here’s some process art.

As a student of ethnic studies I was always really excited to learn at this conference and even more excited to illustrate and design the official tshirt for this years conference which was returning after a break during the pandemic. I started by trying to illustrate some kids I would actually see in middle or high school in the Bay Area now. Profiles with a simple color palette.

Instead of the name of the conference they changed it to have that on the back of the tshirt and the phrase “Ethnic Studies Everywhere” on the front.

And this is what it ended up looking like with the line work, and two ways to apply the color for a black or white tshirt. I did the lettering as well:)

Here’s the shirt done! I love rocking my joint to let folks know, Its not a buzz word like “woke” which means to be aware or “DEI” which meand diversity, equity, and inclusion and gets to the fact that Black and Brown people were excluded, erased, and kept out of so many industries for over a hundred years in the US. Nope, this goes back to my work around “ethnic studies” or learning about US and world history through the histories, stories, and lived experiences of Black folks and people of color in the US.

But more importantly, if you know an educator who is already incorporating social justice in their classrooms, or you know folks who want to learn please send them to TEACHERS For Social Justice and get them plugged in for the next conference.

Here’s a bit about what the Teachers for Social Justice do:

Who We Are.
Teachers 4 Social Justice is a grassroots non-profit teacher support and development organization in San Francisco.  T4SJ is project of the Community Initiative Fund.

Our Mission.
Our mission is to provide opportunities for self-transformation, leadership, and community building to educators in order to affect meaningful change in the classroom, school, community and society. See more about our goals, principles, and vision in the next pages.

What We Do.
T4SJ organizes teachers and community-based educators and implements programs and projects that develop empowering learning environments, more equitable access to resources and power, and realizing a just and caring culture.

Dig this? Check out more of my work

• Ethnic Studies in Every School 1
• Ethnic Studies in Every School 2
• Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies
• Akonadi Poster