BURNING MAN 2015

I was a gifted a ticket this year as part of the Radical Inclusion Project headed by my campmate Laura Diamond. This was my second migration to Black Rock City since the 2013 burn. As an artist of color I was invited back to share my artwork at Burning Man in which I decided to take my "Justice For Our Lives" prints to do wheat paste installations throughout the playa. My project coincided perfectly with our racial justice themed camp, "Que Viva!" which is dedicated to bringing visibility to the issues of migrant rights through artist, Favianna Rodriguez's "Migration Is Beautiful" campaign. I had secured wall space at Center Camp prior to the event and also set plans to find any other wall space that was available at the festival. I came in on early arrival so I had the advantage of seeing the city built and scope out the possibilities. The first installation happened at The Temple shortly after they finished constructing it. I was able to wheat paste every portrait on a beam close to the entrance.  Then I did the installation at Center Camp with help from members of my camp, an installation on a small building out in the playa that was one of the first burns of the week, and one on a piece of tyvek that was taped to a Bounder in our camp but it was blown down by the wind storm. Finally, I painted a "Justice For Sandra Bland" banner to match the Mike Brown banner installed opposite of each other at our camp's entrance. Im really glad I got to go out and participate in adding an element to Burning Man that is so uncommon. For the most part I either got good or impartial responses to my work out there. The worst was a post I came across on a Burning Man page on Facebook of a white guy complaining about my posters being place in The Temple. Im glad I pissed some people off. I wasnt so prepared for this year and this time around I know ill be there in 2016 which means I have an entire year to plan out something that will have a greater impact out on the playa. Thank you to everyone who vibed out on my designs and I hope everyone can take this message back into your own communities which is the intent of producing this work for Burning Man. See ya next year!
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