Welcome, everybody.
Thank you for joining us at today's program featuring
artist, William Camargo, presented
as part of the Wignall Museum's Home Edition,
a series of curated artist talks,
workshops, and discussions featuring
artists and cultural workers.
My name is Rebecca Trawick, pronouns she,
her, hers and I'm the director and curator
of the Wignall Museum.
The Wignall Museum is a teaching museum and interdisciplinary
arts space that introduces Chaffey College students,
faculty, staff, and community members
to innovative contemporary art objects and ideas.
By fostering critical thinking, visual literacy, discourse
and empathy, the museum seeks to enhance
the intellectual and cultural life of our community.
We want to take a moment to recognize that we are situated
on the Rancho Cucamonga campus of Chaffey College, which
resides on the traditional and unceded lands of the Tongva
people.
We offer our recognition and respect
to the elders, both past, present and future.
And hello.
My name is Roman Stollenwerk, I'm
assistant curator at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art.
All sessions of Home Edition will
be recorded, when possible recordings will be
made available on our website.
Please visit us at www.chaffey.edu/wignall
to access our full schedule of programs and available
recordings.
In an announcement we'll post our email subscribers
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All recordings on our site include captions and audio
descriptions as options.
Thank you.
And hi, everyone.
My name is Andy Hadle, I'm the proprietor at the museum.
Along with Rebecca and Roman, I'll
be assisting with today's Zoom session.
Let me share a quick breakdown of today's program.
In a moment, William will present for about a half
an hour or longer with the remaining time
available for Q&A.
Today we're delighted to introduce you
to William Camargo.
Camargo is a photo-based artist, educator and arts
advocate who lives and works in Anaheim, California.
He received his MFA at Claremont Graduate University and his BFA
at the California State University Fullerton.
His work has been featured at venues such as Chicago Cultural
Center, Loisaida Center, University of Indianapolis
and the Cooper Gallery of African and African-American
Arts at Harvard University.
He was awarded residencies at the Artists Cooperative
Residency and Exhibitions, ACRE, the Chicago Artists Coalition,
Project Art, Otis School of Art and Design's LA Summer Program.
And he was the recipient of the 2020 Lenscratch student prize.
Most recently he was included in Vanity Fair's inaugural Silver
List.
He is currently the artist in residence of The Latinx
Project at NYU, he serves as commissioner
of heritage and culture for the city of Anaheim.
And he is founder and curator of Latinx Diaspora Archives.
Camargo's 2020 exhibition, Origins and Displacements
Volume one and two organized by CSUF Begovich Gallery
in partnership with CSUF Grand Central Art
Center and museum of cultural--
excuse me, museum and cultural center
was presented to much acclaim.
Currently, his work can be seen in Negotiated Frontiers
at the Latinx Project at NYU.
A virtual exhibition will be on view through April 30
and I highly recommend it to all of you.
So please join me in giving a warm virtual welcome
to William Camargo.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you for having me today.
Also just want to make a quick land acknowledgement.
Where I'm currently at, it is Tongva and Acjachemen land,
and I think that's where a lot of my work
started from, looking at histories who occupy spaces.
We are the borrowers of this space,
and there's still a lot of Indigenous folks
out here that I think don't really get recognized,
or we think they've moved away.
But that's a little bit of my work
that I do in the community, is trying
to bring that history and those kind of narratives in front
and talk about the erasure that that happens with history.
I am a photo-based artist, a community archivist,
and an advocate and an educator.
I think those are all somewhat important to think about how
we can kind of create these kind of archives and kind
of narratives, and always kind of think
about the canon in photography and in all these spaces,
the archives as well.
I like to start off with this because it's
a reminder of home, which is still home
and I have been lucky enough to be back and create work
about home.
This was a home movie on VHS that
was archived by XEM Collective who is still
archiving movies of the Latinx diaspora
in Southern California.
If you look him up on Google or Instagram,
you're able to digitize your home movie collection.
They'll give you a copy and as long
as they can keep one copy in their collection,
it costs nothing.
And I think that's partly due to the community collective
that they want to--
they don't want charge folks to keep these sisters alive.
But to the left of me is a movie still from, I believe it was,
my fourth birthday in Anaheim, California.
I think when people think of Anaheim, California they think
of, of course, Disneyland, but I didn't recognize it as that,
I recognize it as a close knit community.
I had about, I would say, at least
over 30 family members that lived in this kind of mile
or a mile and a half radius.
Sadly, there's only two families left in Anaheim,
California and the rest have kind of
been priced out, et cetera.
And I think the '90s was this kind
of another wave of activism.
And as well in Southern California,
we think about the riots in '92, and this
was quintessential kind of Southern California upbringing
in Brown communities.
You see to the right, that's my cousin, what one would
call of quote unquote, "cholo."
That was something that was super close to me,
I grew up in that culture.
And also there's those histories that
don't get told of that culture.
And to the left is-- you would never
see a police officer come by the neighborhood,
unless something else was happening.
And I think we all kind of related to each other.
We asked for help, our neighbors were helping us.
It was a stop also for family members that migrated to the US
to make a pit stop at our home or my aunts homes,
and kind of go on to other cities
that they were going to work at.
Thinking about my own history, I thought
about everyone that had stepped in Anaheim,
that possibly left their mark in the city's history.
I came back after a stint in living in Chicago,
and one of the first things I did
was always look at my family history,
like my family photographs.
I realized that I had family here
that was here earlier than the '70s that I was told about.
And also, some of the history that I
did find about the city of Anaheim
about the racist policies that they had, the segregation,
was all through this alternative weekly newspaper
called the OC weekly which sadly is now defunct newspaper.
And kind of taking off from that point,
I thought about there must be some kind of documents
that, told me this information, that
made this history valid because the people that
hold the knowledge, that hold valid knowledge,
and especially in economic spaces were mostly white males.
And I think when I was in school and grad school learning
from black feminist scholars, their struggle
was having to validate their knowledge,
having to show proof that these histories did exist.
So working twice as hard to definitely say we are here,
we are still here and we're still going to be here.
And I was lucky enough to find some images.
This is a elementary school.
It's an all Mexican school that doesn't exist anymore,
but I think it still has a--
the neighborhood that was in this area was--
a lot of the orange Grove workers and the folks that
packed the oranges all lived in that neighborhood,
and it was made specifically for them.
It's not ironic that this neighborhood that the school
still--
the land occupies the space now is also still predominantly
Mexican-American Brown or Central American.
I don't think it's a coincidence and I think we definitely
have to think about history as a way
to bring forth, but also to kind of restructure
the construct there to include a lot of what we
have to say in our histories.
I'm thinking about burning the master's house
and rebuilding it from those ashes.
And then thinking about liberation for our communities.
And when I was an undergrad at Cal State Fullerton,
I thought about going to other places
to document, to do my projects and realizing
that there were stories to be told in my backyard.
My professor, who's still a [INAUDIBLE] author,
pushed me to think about what is there?
What is still there?
What are you kind of ignoring when you're making work?
And when I did procrastinate a lot of the times in community
college or undergrad, I would turn my lens to my family
because they were readily available,
it was an intergenerational household of course,
and I think not thinking that they were kind of--
these stories were also relic to be
told, especially when thinking about academia
not really seeing a lot of Black and Brown
imagery from communities that I would love to see that.
I found out about [INAUDIBLE] Bay
later on not really kind of seeing them
in slideshows when I was looking at my photography classes.
That project that I did in undergrad
was able to come out and be published years later.
I was doing that project in 2011, 2012 and then
five years later
Anaheim was again on the spotlight,
but it wasn't because of this, and it was actually
because of the low wages at Disneyland
they'd give to employees.
A lot of my friends worked there, I never worked there.
Actually, when I was a senior, I would always tell myself,
I don't want to work in Disneyland.
I think I was already conscious of the separation
between my community and Disneyland was.
And of course, between the 2012 shootings
that were really close to--
really affected me and really kind of led me
to think about the history of that city,
and that separation between those
two, Disneyland and the community.
A lot of artwork and bodies at work,
but they're all somehow interconnected.
And I think while making work, I would just Google stuff.
I would just surf the web and this
was like when I was rethinking of-- when
I looked at those images from my home movies and I realized,
and I saw this that these tattoos
that my cousins did have.
And then again looking at media, looking at what
they were kind of portraying,
Black and Brown folks in those spaces,
we see the kind of disconnection between media
and how they portray folks, these kind of stereotypes
that still exist.
So I found this website that supposedly sells
tattoos and sends their makeup artists to Hollywood film sets
and create these personas of folks,
and they literally have a tab that has prison tats on them.
And realizing too that I have these quote unquote
"prison tats" and a lot of my family does.
But there's this projection that was given to these things
and this is what these two images are about.
And I wanted to kind of make it a bit comedic as well, I
think I found friends that--
yeah, that to the right is Jonah, he only has, I think,
two tats.
And my friend on the left has none,
and I think this double temporality
of things when we think about the things I was reading
in academia like simulacra and Plato's cave,
this kind of double temporality.
And I also wanted to poke fun at it,
but use it in my work as this kind of temporary tattoos,
and then making temporary-- again, we're using tape.
And I guess, again, thinking that we
hold these projections to Black and Brown folks
and the connection with the prison industrial complex.
Knowing so many folks in my family
have been in and out of prison.
A cousin of mine [INAUDIBLE] was out after 13 years
and being incarcerated, what that
does to our family, the things that we
have to deal with outside.
And knowing that some of the first things that do
happen when police were coming into my community
is lifting up the shirts or looking at the bodies
of these Black and Brown folks.
And seeing that there was these tattoos
that they can kind of connect with the neighborhood
gang, et cetera.
Along with that too I realized that there
was these super personal ideas of who I was
and not realizing afterwards that there
was these ideas of beauty that were kind of even
being thrown around in Latinx committees,
I think there's still this--
I still think that the Latinx Hispanic still
tries to kind of center a bit of whiteness in communities.
And knowing that I went to a 98% Latinx high school,
there were still these issues of colorism,
of anti-blackness and anti-Indigenous notions.
And my connection with my Indigenous communities
has disappeared because of colonization, but as
well as that kind of robbing of identity.
And this is one thing that I would do growing up
because I wanted a smaller nose, I wanted less Indigenous
features, and a simple gesture kind of portrayed that.
And I've been finding folks, friends of mine that
have these kind of similar issues,
and this is a friend of mine being
able to let me photograph this, that gesture of trying
to get rid of this Indigenous nose there.
And I think it's cross-cultural, there's
a lot of these issues that continue
to plague our communities and we're seeing it every day now.
And then recently when I started grad school I think,
thinking about grad school you have
to kind of think about your thesis show from the beginning.
And learning and kind of being in institutions
for several years now, community college,
undergrad and grad school, I still
want to take some of those kind of contemporary structures
and use them in spaces like my own,
again, using archives, but also responding
to those archives and this signage series is--
hopefully, I think, in a couple of years
Origins and Displacements will be a book.
And thinking that the signage series,
is art going to be chapters of that?
And I think seeing these signs I think
about the work of Laura Aguilar, her series on access having
the same issues that she was talking about how
she can get access to museums.
And seeing how that has kind of left her--
and sadly she passed away a couple of years ago,
so she wasn't able to see some of these successes
that she has, like for her solo exhibition
traveling across the country.
And I think it is because of these economical issues that we
deal with in photography, is she's not getting her due
while she was alive, she's getting it afterwards.
| one point I always make is showing her work to my students
and also introducing folks to other photographers
that they might not see through their academic career.
So these are some of the images that I did
find that I'm responding to.
The archives are there, I'm privileged enough
to have an education to be able to access some of these things.
I think our archives are sometimes
inaccessible to community.
Unless we think about how we--
think about putting these archives in public spaces.
Which is something that I am thinking about
as soon as we're able to be outside and conversate
about issues of these as commissioners,
is being able to bring forth projects that are
in cooperation with community.
Not being someone coming into a community
and thinking that we know what the community wants.
Even myself, that I do come from a community,
there's still that kind of relationship building
that you need to have.
And I put this back to that first images,
that states this park used to be segregated,
because in those days, in the '20s this park, which is now
Pearson Park in Anaheim, I wasn't sure what side
of the park was segregated.
And knowing that finding this image
from the '20s of this Brown baby in this area that I do
know where it's at, thinking that maybe the site was
the only site that Black, Brown and Indigenous
folks were able to be at.
I think it was a huge finding for myself to think about, Oh,
the site where I used to practice
soccer was a site that I wouldn't
be able to go back then.
And making those connections, I think
archives and moments in histories
were not put to the forefront and kind of have
to deal with it is there's some kind of interconnection that
happens with events that we're seeing today.
And I kept continuing to still think
about how you document a community along
with the project, I was doing these kind of performance
documentation of my performances with the signage series.
But I still love documenting the beauty of my community
and thinking about also, who I was seeing
at that time and an undergrad.
Steven Shaw is one that I always see and then slideshows
of contemporary landscape photography,
and in general contemporary photography.
And his work is great and I think
I'm using these tools that I've learned
and kind of projecting myself into this canon
and I think there's been a lot of talk
with friends of mine of what we think about when
we think about the canon.
Should we just kind of insert ourselves or should we kind of
rebuild it from the ground up?
And I think that's one way to think
about how to teach these artists such as Ansel Adams, Edward
Weston, and thinking about them more critically.
When we think about Ansel Adams and his imagery of nature,
I'm thinking about like Manifest Destiny.
And when thinking about what kind of
work should we be introducing in kind of academic spaces or even
just--
I mean I still want to teach and I still
want to open up space for other photographers
that look at me that don't really see themselves
in the archive or in the canon.
And this is again like thinking about the masses, how
it's like--
and this is a great book if you want
to take a screenshot of it, it's asking those questions,
and what we can do to think about--
as the camera was used as a [INAUDIBLE] tool
for oppression for communities of color, especially
Black communities.
And again thinking this image was made
and thinking how possible it was that four climber members who
were elected to the city council,
and how 10 out of the 12 police officers during that time
were also official members of the KKK.
And it took me back to another moment in Anaheim history
in 2016 when there was a small KKK rally in Pearson park,
in that same park which was segregated, in 2016.
And [INAUDIBLE].
I didn't see it as a coincidence,
I saw it as a reflection of our history,
of our continued legacy of white supremacy.
And I think the way a problem solve some of these issues
is making work out of it.
I am still continuing this work of connecting
these past moments in history to contemporary moments
now, why is it that we still have de facto
segregation in our schools?
I don't think it's a coincidence.
It's a tool of white supremacy that
allows these things to happen.
And I kept just documenting and thinking
about these kind of banal moments too in my neighborhood,
the kind of resourcefulness that our community does have.
I document with a medium format camera, a pretty hefty one,
so that it's not me kind of parachuting in into community--
I used to be a photojournalist and I
think that was always a concern of mine
of having to make the work, but also,
again, being in cooperation with them.
Not just coming into a new neighborhood
and being there for five minutes and then taking off.
Obviously, I think photojournalism
with the rise of the internet made it a bit harder because we
wanted that news fast and we wanted
to see content so fast that those mistakes were made.
And I think not being able to concentrate in a work more
that I allow myself to actually be in community.
And additionally, I'm not just an artist,
I also do some work in the community with mutual aid,
with the school district.
I would say 80% of the time I'm without my camera.
And again, keeping documenting my own family,
this is during the pandemic, we're still in the pandemic.
That's my brother giving my dad a haircut,
all the barber were are closed.
And I think that's still these moments that we should really
look back at and think about that our community,
it was the one that was helping us out during this time.
And this image at the Muzeo had a little bit of a--
the board of the Muzeo was talking about this
because I think now the packing house is kind of--
I don't go to it much anymore.
I think they're trying to think about how
do you think about a historic place
that definitely a lot of Brown and native folks I work there.
And think about how it's not like I would say,
like now the Grand Central market in LA
it's been like gentrified and I think
what it was before as a place for folks that maybe didn't
have enough money to buy a whole space
were able to kind of rent out a location there.
I don't think many folks from the community
in Anaheim really go to this area anymore.
But then again, thinking that this was leased for very cheap
and thinking of it could have been
leased for maybe a community center or a space
that they definitely serve the people.
Again, this is just kind of a continuation
of doing portraits in landscape along with the signage series
as well, to kind of give a face to a little bit of who
I'm talking about now.
I think I also like to play around with titles.
I sometimes have different titles
for if something just comes up and I think about it later on,
because when I did first take this picture,
I think two months later, she told me that her father--
I mean it is meant to be Ian and then later on they
kind of full cycle.
And then so many words I think, especially in LA,
you'll see chickens running around the neighborhood.
I'm thinking of that's how my family was feeding themselves
before they migrated, it was mostly from the land.
They raised their own food, and that that changed in Mexico
with the NAFTA trade agreement in '94.
And how it's so difficult now to--
and even in Mexico, to kind of eat from your own land.
Again, I'm always thinking about photography
as cooperation with community, especially the way
I work differently than my counterparts in that we look
at in photographic history.
And even though this is an older essay from the mid '90s, I
think it still does a lot with how a lot of my friends work
and we think about--
I'll just read it out loud, says, "What does it
mean to have, or indeed to be with, an image of oneself?
And, "How is that image constructed?
How is that image controlled?
To have an image implies the rights of ownership.
To be with an image implies a relation
of cooperation, community."
And I think about archives as well with this,
it's like me running that Instagram,
it's like I don't declare that I have ownership
of any of these photographs.
If there's a committee member that
wants me to definitely show one particular image
and they give me five, then I'll show that one.
I don't have control of that, that's the community's control.
And I think it's a kind of-- we're
seeing this wave of digital archivism on Instagram.
And again, trying to change the narrative,
we think about the Black Archives,
we think about [INAUDIBLE],, it's a different way
of collecting these.
Sometimes these like ephemeral moments of community,
from you I'm thinking of quinceanera archives as well,
it's so different than--
and I don't have a degree in archiving
but I think it's a different way of looking at how [INAUDIBLE]
do collect work, collect family photographs,
collect other objects.
And also this wave of like Native American folks
asking for all their items that these museums own.
Yeah, I mean hopefully someone wants to give me that degree.
And I'll end it with this image which
is one of the newer series that I've been doing,
and I'm just making sure that my knee is back
so I can run again.
But a different version of this image got me in a little fight
on Instagram.
And I never thought John Divola was actually
going to see this work.
And this work, I wanted to share,
I was so angry with what happened
with Ahmaud Arbery, which a couple of days
ago was just the one year anniversary of his shooting.
And how there's still these kind of negotiations
that we have to do as Black and Brown people,
and I think queer folks as well with how we can kind of move
around in a space that, again, 95%
Mexican-American neighborhood.
And I really thought about those images
of police cameras and people running away from police.
And I saw that it was so uncanny to see those images
and to see the work of [INAUDIBLE] that I had seen
even from high school that when I
took one class and then from community college, until now.
If you're taking a photo class in California and Southern
California, you're not going to be able to not see his work.
I know his work is not about his--
it's about process, it's about these kind
of contemporary notions of, I wouldn't say nothingness,
but process and et cetera.
But as being a Brown person in these spaces, for me
it was way different.
Not only that sometimes cops would
try to chase me to think to talk about or to kind of turn
in my cousins, but also just running away from other quote
unquote "cholos" or folks that wanted to mess around with me.
I made this work and I thought about, again,
the canon and how it is kind of dangerous too
as well for when we're looking at it,
because his work being really--
there was no worry about his white body
running in these deserts.
And of course I wanted to do this in a neighborhood that
again is my own, that I grew up in that I thought about this,
and I thought about the alleys, the different pathways.
And also I think later on a car was at the end of the alley,
it was like yelling at me, thinking that I
was running away from someone.
These things that you don't see in the photograph.
And I think about these relations
with space and our bodies as well
and how we have to navigate them because they're still--
even though it's a predominately Brown community,
it's still kind of decided who gets to live, who not,
not from the community but from those who kind of impose
these issues, these ideas.
OK, thank you, William.
So a reminder to all of you, please do
include your questions in the chat
and we already have quite a few.
If you don't mind, perhaps Andy and I
could just read them for the recording as we go.
OK, first actually since we ended after the Divola piece,
Kat has a comment.
Kat says I was disappointed yet not surprised
to see such a reaction from a prominent figure like Divola.
Wished he took more time to appreciate your intentions.
So I wanted to share though.
So Linda has a great question.
Was it difficult finding resources
to create and distribute your artwork after Graduating
do you have any recommendations for someone
with low income on what they can do to pursue digital and film
photography?
I've relied on my school's darkroom
to print and develop my work, but no longer have access
to that resource.
And of course, with everything going virtual,
there's a lot of people in that position.
Yeah, I mean, I think [INAUDIBLE] I'm hoping,
I would always say, I'm always telling folks, younger folks
and folks that look at me, I am a resource
and I think I'm available to anyone that really
kind of wants to get in there.
And I don't have a darkroom myself, I just scan my work.
But I can definitely point you to that direction.
And there's few of us around, but I
think we're able to really want to help out.
I see that [INAUDIBLE] is here, I
don't know when the Irvine space is opening
up again to the public for their darkroom,
but there is, I think, some space that you can still
go and develop your work.
You know but I've gone to more really just
scanning my film because I still work all in film.
But finding those folks there that
maybe have had some success and reaching out to them.
Hopefully their heads haven't gotten big enough
to be able to actually even have a conversation
with students and folks who just graduated.
I look up at my mentors for the [INAUDIBLE] just check up on me
and I was lucky enough to TA for Ken Gonzales-Day, which
his work is his longest project on erased lynchings
has been a great inspiration to my work too.
I TA'd for him for two years and he's been amazing,
and responds to my texts and I know he's always busy
but he you know he makes himself available.
And I think finding folks like that is a really great asset
and you'll be surprised if you like someone's work, reach out
to them and I think hopefully they can respond.
But you can find community on Instagram
too, on these kind of digital platforms based on Facebook
it's like photographers of color,
there's diversified photo, which is a great space
that I joined early on.
And these things don't cost either,
so I think there's always questions
that you can ask in those forums and folks will reach out.
Yeah, and I mean film is quite costly,
I definitely agree with that.
And I think you used your student ID still
if you graduate.
I still use it and get that student discount.
I don't think anyone from--
what do you call it?
Freestyle --is here, right?
Consider using your iPhone if you have one too, right?
Cameras aren't bad.
Yeah, so Regina, they'll be opening soon, when it's safe.
And they do have a very affordable darkroom,
it's black and white, white darkroom processing stations.
And the tags are great there too.
Excellent.
So Steven has a question, which of your works
do you think was deemed the most controversial
by the general public or critics?
And how do you defend your art to those
who don't understand it?
I'm thinking about like who am I making this work for.
Obviously it's also too, there's some folks that will never
like my work and I don't think I want
to hold a grudge against them or try
to make work that is somehow going to make them like it.
Because I think there's always this kind of internal issues
there if folks don't like my word because it's
centering the, quote unquote, "the other."
Like sometimes we learn in school,
there was a chapter I remember in undergrad it's
the other, which was like photographers,
native photographers, women photographers.
I don't think it should be kind of--
I wasn't upset that they didn't like my works.
I mean the John Divola stuff was like something
that was kind of spoken about a lot,
and I mean there was a couple of folks, but I really--
The great support that other photographers when I did
have a talk with [INAUDIBLE] who I
had a conversation with a couple of months ago,
was a great supporter of the work.
And I think I was fine with that.
I thought that John Divola and I would have a great conversation
about this work.
And I don't really like--
I want to say, if I have to defend my art,
I think that's an issue with them, I don't think
or I don't want to make anyone like show my work
if they don't like it.
That's fine, there's other spaces that I can do.
In all, I think it's definitely just a collaboration
with the community that I'm making the work about.
And if I don't exploit that--
I don't want to exploit folks for an image.
Rebecca has a bunch of great questions in the chat,
but I had one.
I hope our time limit didn't cut your presentation off
too short.
I was kind of hoping maybe if you would talk about
as you continue to practice with Latinx histories
and perspectives, what's next for you?
What are you looking forward to?
Yeah, like I mentioned to y'all before,
sadly I wasn't able to have a in-person exhibition
at the Latinx project, and that's a great space that's not
too old and I think it's a couple of years new,
that I think everyone should be following to see what's next
in Latinx art.
And so I'm working on a catalog of that exhibition
that I think, hopefully, will be out in April.
And then a long-term book about origins and displacements,
in, I think late 2022.
But again, I'm hoping once we kind of go back
to a somewhat normal is continuing this collaboration
with my own like community.
I've been, quote unquote, "promoted" as co-chair
of that commission, and we're currently working
on the public arts plan.
And one of my concerns is how this plan is definitely
going to have input from community, from youth,
from our elders that live here.
Because we want to see equity in the arts in Anaheim,
I never found out about the amazing murals of Emigdio
Vazquez that I would see every day because there's mural
right next to this park that I grew up on,
and I never knew who painted it, what was the story about.
And the pride that that work showed about being Brown,
I think that's owed to the community and to the youth
that they're going to be the future of the city.
And I think it's a universal process too.
I think I see that being something that many artists can
work together on achieving.
That's really remarkable, William,
that you have this position as commissioner
and you're able to actually continue
the work of your practice in this really
sort of governmental public policy way.
That's very cool.
How did that happen?
The good thing is I don't really have contact with the council
members because they wouldn't like me,
but it was through the only--
well, I he's one of two Democratic council members
in my district, Jose Moreno, a Chicano studies professor
at Cal State Long Beach.
He appointed me and then I had to get approved.
And I think he realized what I was doing.
I was working with youth and community in Chicago
and in the years I was there and I really saw Chicago
as this place where there was this collaboration
with the arts and the arts were very liberatory to youth.
I saw the powerful things that it was done with there.
I was I was working them with folks in Cook County jails as
well or folks that had just been released, and youth there too.
And I think I wanted to bring that here too,
thinking about my own community and how
I went through public school, I wanted
to give that kind of opportunity for folks to learn about this,
and public art is one way to do it.
I think our as an act of liberation,
this is something that I'm trying to kind of convey to--
not everyone agrees with me in city politics
because I didn't ever attempt to be in a position like this,
but I think they're going to have to get used to me.
The first meeting I was there they
thought I was a youth commissioner.
Again, I come in with these tattoos on my fingers
and everywhere, and I think they never had seen someone
in a space like that.
But things have to change, and they've realized that there.
In the city that's like 54% Latinx
and it's just kind of diversifying.
Overall, they have to kind of step aside and let
us do some work in the city.
Well, that's great.
So this is sort of a related question
and we may not really have time to fully answer it,
but I thought it was interesting that you talk about mutual aid
and working in cooperation is obviously
really critical to you, and your practice, and your philosophy.
Can you talk about how you approach working
in that way in communities?
Yeah, I mean I've been lucky to work from home or work
in my studio and I think I teach,
and I bring in folks to these conversations.
There's people that are definitely
been affected by the pandemic, especially in Orange County,
it's been Santa Ana and Anaheim.
And I think with this privilege I do have to reach out to folks
to donate, we went partnering with local non-profits
or non-profits that help out with food sovereignty and food
insecurity.
I think not until a couple of times--
I mean, most folks in the community
don't really know I'm a photographer or an artist,
and then we just have these daily conversations.
They ask me what I do and then they ask me like, Oh, yeah.
Take a picture of us and I think I put that aside for a bit.
Obviously my experiences are always connected to my practice
and sometimes I do see something and then I come back to it
and photograph it.
But it's just kind of shown up as a hand,
as a body to be able to give these resources to folks
that have had things happen to them in these communities.
Like we've been doing a lot of pop up grocery markets
where we just kind of made bags of groceries
and hand that out to the community.
I think every city that i.e.
Has great mutual aid, Black Lives Matter ID,
has monthly or weekly food distributions,
it's like if you're lucky to not be over 65
or have there not be compromises.
Give them a hand and help them out,
but don't do it to feel good, just
do it to serve the community.
And we always kind of relay back to the Black Panther Party
of feeding the community and educating them
as well, political education as well too.
Well, one question that we like to ask all of the Home Edition
guests is, are there any artists that you would like to promote
or suggest for our audience?
Yeah, definitely.
There's this quite a bit.
I'll do one great one because I think
it's a good friend of mine too, her name's Irene Antonia Reece.
She's an amazing a photographer out of Houston
who deals with family histories as well, but also
with this kind of idea of being Black and Mexican.
And, again, talking about sometimes the anti-Blackness
there is in Latinx communities and how that kind of affects
Afro-Latinx folks as well.
Yeah, no, she's amazing, I think there'll be some shows.
I was lucky enough to be in a show with her
and in San Antonio.
This is right when the pandemic hit,
so I was about to buy my ticket to go see it
and we were going to have all this--
yeah, it was an amazing show.
But, yeah, so that's her work.
Again, [INAUDIBLE] I think a lot of folks may know his work.
I mean, you have to see it, it's just amazing.
Well, we can't thank you enough for your time and energy today.
It's really been wonderful to hear about your process,
and trajectory, and experience as a working artist.
So a huge thanks to you, William.
And thanks to all of you who were
able to attend and spend a little bit of your afternoon
with us as well.
Please visit us on our website, I
think roman put that in the chat,
to sign up for future episodes.
And Roman will also include a very quick survey chat--
actually, it's probably already there.
So if you take two minutes, we'd really appreciate it.
But we thank you all.
Thanks so much William, we appreciate you
and love your work.
So wonderful to have you here today
and thank you also for being of a resource for everyone who's
here, that's beautiful.
Yeah, definitely.
Thanks, everybody.
Please be well, take care, stay safe.