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Great Wall Institute: The Process of the Great Wall of Los Angeles

Early Great Wall Sketches

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“The Free Speech Movement was the first revolt of the 1960s to bring to a college campus the mass civil disobedience tactics pioneered in the civil rights movement. Those tactics, most notably the sit-in, would give students unprecedented leverage to make demands on university administrators, setting the stage for mass student protests against the Vietnam War.” – Robert Cohen, author of Freedom’s Orator
Thumbnail Sketch of Sit- in. Thumbnail documents Sit-In that begins Blair, Richmond, McCain and McNeil planned their protest carefully, and enlisted the help of a local white businessman, Ralph Johns, to put their plan into action. On February 1, 1960, the four students sat down at the lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro, where the official policy was to refuse service to anyone but whites. Denied service, the four young men refused to give up their seats. Police arrived on the scene but were unable to take action due to the lack of provocation. By that time, Johns had already alerted the local media, who had arrived in full force to cover the events on television. The Greensboro Four stayed put until the store closed, then returned the next day with more students from local colleges.
Key years were 1965-1975 - In the 1960s, a radicalized Mexican-American movement began pushing for a new identification. The Chicano Movement, aka El Movimiento, advocated social and political empowerment through a chicanismo or cultural nationalism. As the activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales declared in a 1967 poem, “La raza! / Méjicano! / Español! / Latino! / Chicano! / Or whatever I call myself, / I look the same.”
While some 1960s/1970s women's movements in Los Angeles were inextricably linked to ethnic or national communities and movements, many White Anglo women from different communities came together to participate in groups that, taken together, was often referred to as "the women's liberation movement." These groups ranged from chapters of a national organization like NOW - usually characterized as a liberal feminist group - to smaller radical groups of anarcha-feminists, lesbian feminists and radical feminists. In Los Angeles, many of these groups were spawned at the Crenshaw Women's Center (CWC), where NOW also participated initially. After the center closed in 1972, many of these groups operated out of the Westside Women's Center (WWC), where Sister monthly newspaper continued to be published. This series is by no means comprehensive or inclusive, but rather includes interviews with a few of the women who were key players in some of these Los Angeles feminist groups and/or institutions. Toni Carabillo was the force behind Los Angeles NOW during its infancy and later became a national leader in the organization as well. Joan Robins was one of the main forces behind the founding of the Crenshaw Women's Center, and Nancy (aka Dara) Robinson became active at the Center from the start. With Robins, Robinson began the Center Newsletter, which eventually became Sister newspaper. She was also instrumental in the formation of Lesbian Feminists. Originally active in the Lesbian Feminists at the Crenshaw Women's Center, Jeanne Cordova went on to start the monthly magazine, Lesbian Tide. Sherna Gluck, on the other hand, became active at the Westside Women's Center, where she also initiated the Feminist History Research Project. Carabillo, Gluck, Robins and Robinson were first interviewed in 1984 as part of a project initiated by Women Rising, a group to which the latter three belonged. Four years later, all of them except Robinson, were interviewed in conjunction with an Honors Thesis project of Michelle Moravec at UCLA. Cordova was also interviewed by her. In addition to these generally longer, life history interviews, this series includes both shorter interviews and other audio materials, including an interview with Lilyan Frank about her experience at the UN Conference in Mexico City; interviews with Bernadette Carmier, Consuelo Nieto, and Priscilla Oaks, taken at or shortly after the 1977 Houston IWY Conference; and a panel discussion by Los Angeles women who attended the conference. Although the audio quality of the 1983 Women's History Day speak-out organized by the Women Rising Collective is poor, it has also been incorporated into the series because it provides a glimpse of the range of activities of the Los Angeles women's movement dating back to the late 1960s/early 1970s.
Drawing of crow and psychedelic sky by Kim Martinez. I have worked on the first panel and these are very rough sketches to give us an idea of the figure ground relationship. I used hippy chick grounds and they have a bit more of a cartoony effect if you want them more serious I think we need to go with a ground that is less happy decorative as per the middle drawing where the birds are coming out of the linear elements of the ground, I think it also says something a little more conceptual too. Of course these will require a lot more work as far as setting up to draw and I would do much bigger than a few inches tall.
Drawing for 1960s decade inspired by the Citrus produce Boxes The rays of the sun outstretch the long arm of the Plantation Gov. House through time. The power of sun rises throughout time. Rolling hills, highlight the evolutionary waves of crops and bondage Sacrificed labor force - men women and children Native peoples collapse under the unsustainable brutality of abuse and workload - their enslavement is taken up by the next wave of slave labor. African slaves - harvest/produce cotton as well as more slaves – represented by a baby in basket of cotton; a mother straps her baby on the back of her older child, so they both can continue working. A man is dehumanized by whippings, his wounds are tended to by the cotton he’s destined to forever harvest. Latin American labor force is sacrificed on the cross-looking vines – their legs become the trucks of the vine, to illuminate their entrapment; while their hunched bodies will be part of the vine that is fed by their blood and sweat - destined to produce till they die.
Drawing by Kim Martinez - I wanted to get you these ideas for the Watts section of course I have not put a lot of energy into a complete drawing but these will give you an idea of what I am thinking. #1 Historically is not accurate but I liked the visual of the cops surrounding them as they are being pulled out kind of hard to see but the figures on the left in the car is the woman trying to hold back the man as the cop pulls. #2 After they have all been pulled the two kneeling on the ground is painful and humiliating, but also has a praying feel to it. #3 The figure on the ground is the female, not sure if I like that, but could easily be changed to a male and she could be pulled out instead of the male, finally the last male is already out being carried away. I think they all have a temporal feel to them.