Urban Prophets Illustrated - Volume IV

Art by: Maestro Calixto Robles

Let's start looking for common ground. Let us say that we are put on this Earth without consent, almost against our will, only to discover -if we are lucky- that we are either oppressing people or being oppressed.

See? The thing about lines is that when you get close enough they disappear...

Look closer, don't believe everything you think, and as long as you devise a line in the horizon

just...keep...walking...

I offer you an alternative: We are all here to become Alchemists, to transform the deep trauma that the world experiences and turn it around.

beyond all this nonsense.

This in your hands, is a compendium of people that are seeing possibility in the world, that keep raising their voice, that dare to imagine that a new reality is possible.

We keep making gold with them. The world keeps throwing rocks at us.

We are the Oracles of a new dawn unafraid to declare that

THE FUTURE IS ALIVE!!!

And we build it as we speak…

Only those who can see the invisible, will be able to achieve the impossible.

We dedicate our lives to witness reality and we speak back in the form of art, those are our prophecies. In them, we reveal what is sick and rotten, we warn people of what is to come, and signal a possible future where we transform the pain into messages of dignity and justice for everyone. We are the voices calling in the wilderness of the asphalt jungle...

Snippets from an interview with Nateure Jenkins, Joy embodiment coach based in Oakland, CA

What does Dignity look like? Dignity, for anyone black in this country provides (...) the ability to bond without being attacked. Dignity is fair housing. Dignity is reparations (...) Dignity is not having to watch your people get murdered. Dignity is the simple ability to breathe.

As a black man, I don’t want to heal in front of white faces. The medicine we need is the ability to heal. The medicine is the funds, resources, and narrative changes that allow my community to come together without fear of being destroyed.

I carry injustices in my heart with great PAIN … knowing my people are chosen gives me strength. I carry a connection to the source that meets colossal force. My heart knows you can’t take from an empty cup. So as they keep taking from our people, I must know there is so much to take. We are abundant by Nature.

Knowing that something is so good inside of us that they need to have an advantage that will never come to them.

We are peaceful by nature… Our peace is interrupted daily. Imagine being black and having a police officer following you. This is the meaning behind no justice no peace.

Joy is a method of moving through pain... When I see a brown body experiencing joy I see the world being lifted. Either creatively. Or being a steward of the land. Our joy has a power that can heal the planet. If we share this joy with a lack of ego. Others can receive and digest this message with such ease.

As humans we are all interconnected. If we lift up our community. We are all carrying a higher vibration. Allowing us all to live in more of an attuned and connected world. As we connect to ourselves we learn that we are connecting to each other.

Thank you for being open to this experiment Nateure. All the Love. All the Power.

...the black talk at the age of 12… about the potential of their life being hunted down...

Ilustration by:@c.gazaleh

Your relentless will to remain on the land is a source of inspiration, perseverance, and fortitude. Once again, Palestinians from the far north to the far south of our homeland are defying settler colonialism’s attempts to partition land and people. From the Galilee to Gaza you reveal the geography of Palestine, in the face of military brutality and international impunity. State and settler violence and ethnic cleansing in Sheikh Jarrah and the Al Aqsa compound are not exceptions. They are part of an ongoing Nakba that has spanned Palestinian time and space since 1948.

To our Palestinian sisters, your steadfastness to hold ground, at the risk of injury and death, and against all odds is our fortitude. Gendered violence is core to settler colonial practice. We stand with you as you resist this masculinized and militarized colonization. We share in your pain from this renewed assault on Palestinian life and land. We are enraged as settlers wreak havoc and call for the death of our people. We stand vigilant as you withstand airstrikes in Gaza, and stun grenades, tear gas, skunk water, rubber bullets, and the desecration of our sacred sites in Jerusalem, no less during the month of Ramadan. We stand with you as you resist the media’s violent erasure of the Palestinian struggle.

To our people throughout Palestine, we are with you. You are protecting a future where Palestinians everywhere can live without fear of colonial violence, a future where our children and our homes are safe, a future free from colonial containment and incarceration, a future where we can freely practice our spiritual worship.

We are rising up across cities in the heart of U.S. empire, that has fed the colonization and dispossession of the Palestinian people. Our vision for a radically different future is based on equality, justice and life-affirming interconnectedness. We honor your voices, perseverance and sumoud, and promise to continue our joint struggle for justice and liberation in Palestine and the shataat.

By : Palestinian Feminist Collective

This country was built by the hard work of brave people, coming from all parts of the world, leaving everything behind in search of a better life. Their unrestricted welcoming was a beacon of freedom for humankind and the driving force of this nation’s growth.

Immigrants are still fueling the economy, they are a key part of the workforce and an essential thread on the fabric of our society. Their cultural impact continues to enrich our communities on all levels. We should acknowledge their contributions and embrace their arrival!

THERE’S STILL SO MUCH LAND TO POPULATE AND SO MUCH WORK TO BE DONE, WITH THE CHANCE TO GIVE TO SO MANY A ESCAPE FROM POVERTY, HUNGER, TRAGEDY AND DEATH. THIS IS A FIGHT FOR THE CORE IDEAS OF THE UNITED STATES, EMBRACING ITS DIVERSITY AND WHERE EQUALITY AND FREEDOM COULD BE REAL FOR EVERYBODY.

and

Open borders would bring an end to ranked citizens, cruel family separations and infamous degrading concentration camps. It would allow the removal of a useless and brutally expensive border-security machine, putting an end to this major waste of resources that could be used to improve the life of millions of people.

impact of

change and the pandemic

By: Esteban Magariños

ILLUSIONS CREATED TO THWART FREEDOM AND THEY EFFECTIVELY CREATE A CASTE SYSTEM BASED ON THE EXPLOITATION OF THE NEWLY ARRIVED.

The far reaching

global

climate

has proven once again that Humankind is in this together, no matter where were we born of what’s written on some piece of documentation. Weʼre sick and tired of the lies and violence that perpetuates a racist system!

Let’s shout it loud and clear!

The fact is that street cleaners are welcomed as angels, and their task of removing the residue of yesterday's existence is surrounded by a respectful silence, like a ritual that inspires devotion, perhaps only because once things have been cast off nobody wants to think about them further.

La cosa es que los limpiadores de calles son bienvenidos como ángeles, y su tarea de remover los residuos de la existencia de ayer, está rodeada de un silencio respetuoso, como un ritual que inspira devoción, solo porque una vez desechadas las cosas nadie quiere pensar más en ellas...

#bastaya #metoo #yotambien #noalsilencio

Inti-Batey

Presents: “San Francisco World Tour”

Art is medicine. Music is medicine. Community is medicine. Joy is medicine.

After the storm, when the lighting has ignited the trees, and the fire has consumed plants and animals alike, people finally come out to see what remains and what is gone. But the land, wise and whole, doesn’t wait for the storm to waiver to see what comes next, it sees death and destruction as an opportunity to be reborn.

Those who know about the land know that the sun doesn’t just come in the morning, but it’s actually marauding in the darkness, and if you know how to look, you’ll find it in the cracks of the night. When the ‘People of the Sun’ look at this world and all its pain, they also look to the future and what will arise from it and start making their path and start the new journey.

Inti Batey is medicine-music.

During the lockdown the Sun God, known in other cultures as: -“Inti'', “Tonatiuh”, “Apollo”- gifted us with community, music, and compassion, the perfect ingredients to create a ‘Batey’, a space for Joy, Celebration and Jam!

Through hundreds of years pre-Columbian culture of the Puerto Rico native people -also called Taínos, they referred to ‘batey’ as a place where people would meet at the end of the day to share, discuss and let off steam by playing music and dancing. In this time of exacerbated isolation and lonely digital screens, the age of longing for community support

and warmth our ancestors had felt more present than ever in us, and it birthed ‘Inti Batey’, the Sun Gathering. Our intention now is to share not only the stream of music that so effortlessly flowed from our collective, but also to express our gratitude by inviting our audience to be a part of the healing space with compassion and friendship.

San Francisco World Tour

We are celebrating the resilience and artistic community close to the spirit of San Francisco, so this summer we will be hosting the Batey in different public spaces to take the streets with music, community, and love!!! Join us!!

Find

Inti Batey familia: Some of the people might or might not come jam with us:

GRACIAS ABSOLUTAS

To the Artists/Prophets in this Issue:

Maestro Gilo Cabrera - @gilodapinche

Hell Hiatus - @hellhiatus

Sennyo Ookami - @sennyo_ookami

Nateur Jenkins - @nateuredhealing

Alex Sodari - @sodapaints

Chris Gazaleh - @c.gazaleh

palestinianfeministcollective

Pham aka LoveMeOrDIY - @lovemeordiy or @hermartcrab

Yael Olalde - @tuyael

Maya Holm - @maya__sawa

Charlotte Victorie@charlotte.victorie

T' - @dustooned

survivor.love.letter

Gonzalo Andrade@andradegonzo

Chiara Powers@chiara.powers

andradegonzo

Peoma de Viejo Antonio

Video by: @cultural.producer

Lizzy Hernandez - @lizzythecynic

Curated and Produced By: Arturo Méndez @cultural.producer

Contrasted with Digital information, this Zine that you are holding in your hand is a physical snapshot of our time. Feel free to intervene it, cut it, wheat paste it, share it, color it, it doesn't matter just create something new with it!!!

En comparacion con toda la informacion digital que nos rodea, este Zine es una estampa fisica de nuestro tiempo. Eres libre de intervenirlo, cortarlo, pegarlo en la calle, colorearlo o compartirlo. ¡No importa lo que hagas mientras crees algo nuevo!