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Trust Your Struggle Collective Tag

TYS Panel w/ Letterform Archive

Ey, myself, Nisha Sethi, and Miguel Bounce Perez will be speaking about Graff, lettering, and answering questions about it with the Letterform Archive Thursday Septermber 7th from 12-1:30pm. Tune in online, its FREE.

Link to register

This talk is connected to a much larger show at the Letterform Archive called “Subscription to Mischief” about the culture of Graffiti zines. The show is up until October 5th!

Dig this? Here’s a video from a show we did in 2015 called “Of Love & Riots 2”

September 7, 2023
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Who I’ve run with-Crews/Families

Hey y’all, this is an appreciation post about some of the folks I’ve run with, worked with, and learned from. Some of these folks I’ve known since I was a kid, some I met in college or as an adult. All of them have given me a tremendous amount of love, support, ideas, game, and support and I’m happy to work with them.

Top to bottom, left to right: 

1. Trust Your Struggle Collective– (Bay Area, NYC, int’l) Crew of Graffiti writers, educators, muralists, organizers, etc who create large scale murals, gallery exhibitions, and educational workshops. Founded in 2003! I’m a proud co-founder of this crew. Learn more here.

2. Social Justice Children’s Book Holiday Fair– (Bay Area) This is a kids book fair founded by authors, illustrators, teachers, organizers, and book lovers in 2017. This fair champions books featuring People of color, queer folks, and social justice minded creators to serve our community. See some photos from past events here.

3. Tone/ Umber: (Bay Area) Both magazines were founded by an incredible designer, artist, and father Mike Nicholls who has been going since 2016 I believe with Umber magazine. A journal to celebrate Black and Brown stories relating to manhood, sports, music, lifestyle, and more. I was briefly a part of Tone , a magazine dedicated to Black men which is currently dormant, but you can see Umber here.

4. Rad Dad Magazine– (Bay Area) Founded by Tomas Moniz in 2005. Rad Dad was a zine and magazine dedicated to helping fathers of all stripes share their experiences, triumphs, and challenges as dads. Read more here.

5. Muphoric Sounds– (NYC/London) Founded by Vanessa Warren in 2008 MS functioned as a booming part of the music blog landscape. We wrote about new and old music primarily focused on Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk, Electronic, and House. Read some of the pieces here.

6. The Bull Horn Blog/ M is for Movement– (Boston/Bay Area). This is a blog founded by Innosanto Nagara, Alison Goldberg, and Janine Macbeth that highlighted children’s books from multiple age groups featuring stories by people of color and social justice minded creators. Read posts here.

Dig this? Check out my interview with Avy Jetter of Oakland Creates

January 31, 2023
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My mural in a book! – Painting the Streets

 

Check out some images from the new “Painting The Streets” book I’m in alongside many of my Trust Your Struggle Collective family and so many more Bay Area artists. Get a copy here.

Here is my first post about that mural as well.

The good folks over at the East Side Arts Alliance and Nomadic Press got together to make this book of all the artwork created in the summer of 2020 in response to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Amhaud Arbery, and so many other victims of Police Terrorism in the United States.

Walls by Cece Carpio, Miguel Bounce Perez & Thitiwat Phromratanapongse, Nisha K Sethi, Priya Handa, and Robert Liu-Trujillo. That summer Cece, Nisha, Migs, Thi, and Rob hit the street to paint walls in frustration, solidarity, and creativity as the crew has done so many times in the past 19 years. We’re honored to be featured in this book by Nomadic and East Side.

The book features both artwork, essays, and poetry by artists and writers such as Alicia Garza, The Black Cultural Zone, Greg Morozumi, Leslie Lopez, Robin D.G. Kelley, The Bay Area Mural Program, Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith, Kufue, Keena Romano, Timothy B, Zoë Boston, Maisha Quint. DonJuan Carter-Woodard, Amiri Baraka, The Illuminaries, Inbal “Bali” Rubin, Dime, Chris Granillo, Pancho Pescador, Oree Originol, Shi Shi, TDK Crew, DeVante Brooks, and words from JK Fowler of Nomadic Press and Elena Serrano of East Side Arts Alliance!

Dig this? Check out this video where I talk about some of my favorite art books

January 26, 2023
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Winter Playlist -by TYS Collective

 

It’s that time of the season again, a new playlist from the TYS Collective. Feliz año nuevo to you all. Here’s a playlist from the Trust Your Struggle Collective (Hip hop, funk, Reggae, Jazz, Rock, and more). 
To listen go here: LINK
While you’re there check out a post about some of the people we lost over the past year. if you’re not following my crew on IG, here’s the link. You might get some exclusives from the TYS Newsletter though….

January 4, 2022
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Podcast interview: w/NOT REAL ART

 

Whats up fam, I got a chance to be a guest on the “Not Real Art” podcast w/ my TYS sister Erin Yoshi. I wish I could embed it directly here, but please check out this LINK to listen. 
This show was recorded last month and I talk a bit about kids books, illustration, of course the “Art of Rob” campaign on kickstarter, and our crew “Trust Your Struggle”. If you’re not up on this podcast please give them a listen, Man One and Sourdough have been doing it for a minute and they just brought Erin Yoshi on as an official co-host. Here are some of the folks she’s interviewed that I admire!
If you would like to hear or see more media features please check out my press page here.
November 23, 2021
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Summer Playlist by TYS Collective

 

Hey, my crew the Trust Your Struggle Collective dropped a playlist of music last month. Some new and old on there. If you’re into music, give it a listen here.
If you missed it, I have a quarterly blog post about music I am listening to, the last one was about House music

August 9, 2021
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Dead Prez x Sault remix – Pele Durian Funk

 

Dead Prez classic remixed by DJ/Producer Pele Durian Funk w/ this new vibe UK band Sault is creating w/their focus on music. If the video gets taken down please go to Pele’s bandcamp to listen to a whole EP of remixes featuring different artists such as Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Bambu, and more all w/ flips of Sault. 
And please support Dead Prez and Sault by streaming and purchasing their music. 
Exclaimer, the remix is a vital part of not only hip hop culture, but of music and culture in general. Here’s a link of some other music I’ve been listening to a lot lately. HOUSE.

July 3, 2021
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Online Exhibition via SF Int’l Arts Fest

Peace, my crew “Trust Your Struggle Collective” will be participating in this year’s San Francisco International Arts Festival which is usually a lively in person event with visual art, dance, music, etc. This year however with Covid everything is online so tune in to see a virtual exhibition of some of our individual and collective works.
Invite LINK

August 3, 2020
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Mural: Black Lives

Before/After
I painted this in collaboration w/ artist & business owner Binta Ayofemi. She came up with the design and Paint The Void commissioned it. Haven’t painted a big wall (30′ x 50′) in a minute so it was nice to get back up on the lift. It was painted with house paint, brushes, rollers, and Montana Spray.Shout out to Nisha K Sethi (TYS) who hooked this up for me. 
Affirming Black Lives w/ the words “Reparations” and “Transformations” is a powerful statement. Despite the circumstances it felt good to collab with Binta and hear from every day folks. There were so many beautiful pieces painted in downtown and East Oakland since George Floyd and Breonna Taylor were murdered. This is not the first time I’ve painted a wall, banner, or painting in response to police terrorism and I know it won’t be the last. But, i’m encouraged by how many more artists (OGs and youngsters) out there taking control of the narrative w/their work.
The work we all create is part of a legacy of resistance. Keep creating young artists! Marathon over sprint. And please take care of each other. We got a long way to go. 
Check out some of the process and close ups. 
Binta’s sketch
Mask ready
Sketch
Adding gold
Cleaning it up
Adding gold

Almost there
Binta wanted to let em know
Done

Signed

Dig this? Did you see this post? Police Brutality Over The Years
June 30, 2020
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My homies are my Heroes – Organizer piece

Yo, so I just exhibited this new painting at the “My Homies are my Heroes” show at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco’s Mission District. If you’re around go see it while it’s up for a month. The show is curated by my Trust Your Struggle Sister in arms Nancy Hernandez and it features artwork inspired by the show’s title. Some of the amazing artists featured in the show are OGs, established artists, and emergin artists such as Yolanda Lopez, Twick, Spie, Thitiwat Phromratanapongse, Crystal Clarity, Vyal One, Marina Perez -Wong, and more. Check out a few photos from the opening, but know there are many more!

Please go check it out. The opening reception was this past friday. Here is the facebook invite and here is the link to the gallery at MCCLA. 

February 10, 2020
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