Momentum
06/09/20
By Eric Von Haynes / Flatlands Press
Cujo Dah, Power to Englewood Strong Black United
Flatlands is focused on producing publications and printed ephemera for artists worldwide. We aim to be a community-minded space to create and share ideas. Normally I work on collaborative zines and artist books printed on my RISO. It's a process of back and forth with the artists to get the idea and mood just right, and there's a lot of test prints.
But with the posters I’ve been printing for people this past week, there's an urgency to get them off the press and into people's hands before the ground shifts again. I'm working with people who are making art that's readable from a distance and can be reproduced as a one-color print, primarily black, but I'm varying the paper stock. It's important that the artists understand messaging so that these can be printed quickly and sent out the same day.
Todd Irwin, Civilian Advisory Council Now!
Because Risography is stencil-based, I can reproduce a large quantity in a short amount of time. Throughout this last week, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with longtime colleagues and friends, some of them for the first time. CHema Skandal! is a Mexico City-raised, Chicago-based graphic artist. His work reflects parallel universes and is often inspired by la cultura, cartoons, and music as well as sociopolitical issues. CHema and I both have strong ties to Pilsen and we work together a lot, so our collab was natural. Todd Irwin is a Chicago-based graphic artist and printmaker and teaches printmaking at Northeastern University. He’s the owner and operator of Bitmap Press and co-creator of POWER WASH zine. Todd and I had already been discussing a collaboration during quarantine a few weeks ago. When the protests started, he also offered free prints off his RISO, but only had red ink, so I offered my services to expand our output and color choices.
In the midst of this, I spoke with my mom, and I was energized and invigorated by the conversation. She owns a home in a neighborhood just east of St. Louis in Illinois. This is a town that she wasn't allowed to eat in as a child. I remember my mother telling me about how she wasn’t allowed in restaurants, and how her dance instructor would have to leave her in the car to get her lunch. My mother, Carmenlita, has always been a community organizer and very active. During the pandemic, she has been organizing food drives and drawing upon her community contacts for groceries and to get aid to those in need. Hearing her say she was proud to see the youth on the front lines and how they needed our support inspired me while I was designing the Power to the People poster. It felt like a collaboration between my mom and I.
CHema Skandal!, Brown People for Black Power.
Cujo (Cool Joe) Dah is a multi-disciplinary artist from Englewood. His murals convey the human condition and solidarity amongst the Brown and Black communities at large and in Chicago. Cujo is an old friend and I reached out to him because of his connections to the Englewood Art Council and RAGE, and because I wanted to make sure I was offering support to the South Side as well. He immediately hit me back with his design, which translated beautifully into a 3-color poster. We dropped it off at a wall he was painting in Logan Square, and that was the first time I'd been out of the house in months.
Yesterday morning, I reached out to Nicole Marroquin, and before noon we were working on a poster for the afternoon's protests. Nicole lives in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood. She’s a dedicated researcher and educator whose current work looks at Chicago school uprisings between 1967 and 1974.
I still have artists submitting work, so these collaborations may continue as long as an independent free press is in demand and I have supplies. Because of Covid-19 and the need for a contactless pickup, I’ve been leaving a box of prints on my front porch and have enlisted the help of volunteers who pick them up and facilitate drop offs around the city. It’s impressive to see the solidarity on the streets during a pandemic, and to see people energized by a common goal of human rights. The fact that in under two weeks we’ve seen Minneapolis bend to defund their police department, something people were saying was impossible a few days ago, has shown that things are not as fixed as we’ve always assumed. There’s a momentum in this movement and I’m just glad I can be in service.
Founded in 2007, Flatlands Press is owned and operated by Eric Von Haynes. Eric is an artist, publisher, designer, and curator whose work synthesizes old and new printing methods and aesthetics. While design and printmaking are his passions, he is energized by collaborations and the ideas and challenges that come from working with a community, a true labor of love. Flatlands has created art objects and printed ephemera for artists worldwide.
"Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose."
- George Orwell
One of our core tenets at Flatlands Press is community building and making the invisible visible. While we always offer free or discounted RISO services for community organizations, over the last week, we have been operating as a completely free press for protesters in the form of broadsides. We've printed posters amplifying messages like Black Lives Matter, Black and Brown Unity and Defund the Police.
We're so grateful for the local businesses and organizations that have supported the cause by being depots for distribution, making these messages available around the city:
Lula Cafe
Elephant Room Gallery
Pilsen Outpost
Shady Rest Vintage & Vinyl
Inga Books/Filmfront
Read/Write Library
Englewood Arts Collective
RAGE (Resident Association of Greater Englewood)
Superkhana International
Kusanya Cafe
ACT Collective
An additional thanks to all our comrades who wish to remain anonymous.
Collaborators":
Flatlands Press design (Power to the People)
Todd Irwin of Bitmap Press (Citizen Review Council)
Nicole Marroquin (Defund the Police)
CHema Skandal! (Brown People for Black Power)
Pictured BLM posters screen-printed by Jordan Knecht.