Intervention 1

Although my intervention pieces are not posters, they still tell a story about activism without directly stating it on a poster board. For this intervention I am an anti-war activist, and this first piece is made from scratch using old military jackets and vintage antiwar patches. I placed this skirt near the Korean war veteran's memorial in downtown Jersey City and as soon as I placed it down for a picture, I felt remorse for all the fallen soldiers and their families and realized that we have not yet learned our lesson when it comes to war. So many innocent lives have been lost and there are hundreds of war memorials in the U.S dedicated to these people. Antiwar protests are nothing new and have been going on ever since people realized the pain and suffering war causes. I chose to make a skirt as a juxtaposition to war; a skirt is worn by woman (who cannot get drafted) and has a dainty, very soft and feminine meaning to it (the opposite of war). I want people to think about the soldiers who wore these military style jackets and their wives and daughters at home who used to work factory jobs (usually as a seamstress) to support the family while the men were away risking their lives. On the first page of chapter 3 in the Art of Activism, the authors state, “Its Cliché to say that we learn from history. But, like many cliches there is truth behind it.” I believe this is true for the most part when talking about other activist topics like racism or the feminist movement, but it clearly does not remain true when it comes to war. We as a globe understand the effects that a nuclear war can have on the world and yet countries like Russia still make nuclear threats and invade countries, killing thousands of innocent people. I feel like our generation has so many issues ahead of us, but we cannot tackle them if we are in nuclear warfare. In the book it states” When we act in order to bring about social change, it's important not only to demonstrate what we are against in the here and now, but also to create a vision of the world in the future.” This is especially important in anti-war activism because people are aware of what can happen if we go to war, but showing people a vision of a peaceful future is equally as important to motivate people to take action and really think about the benefits of anti war activism.