What makes up The Soul? The Soul of Life? The Soul of Human History? For centuries, Western museums tried collecting, preserving, and exhibiting evidence to their answer. That answer comes at the expense of countless others, many victims of exploitative colonial museum practices that persist today. This calls for a reevaluation, a reexploration of that space,…

Forces of nature often leave one stupefied? What can possible help hundreds killed, and thousands more injured and missing after two massive earthquakes, one right after another, in Chiapas and Puebla, Mexico? Substrata doesn’t have answers, but they did do something. There strategy is told fold: One, sell a product whose funds directly fund reconstruction works…

There is strength in numbers. Numbers today gain mass media coverage, potential donations and international aid. Numbers pose a threat to individual attackers. Numbers don’t quiet easily. 7000+ Central American migrants don’t quiet easily. Continued poverty and strife in Honduras with no hope for substantial change spurred a leftist group to push the caravan strategy…

In response to Dana Schutz’s Open Casket (2016), a painting produced by a white woman that aestheticizes the murder of Emmett Till, Parker Bright and others commenced what was at once a protest, a performance, and a teach-in. Schutz’s painting was a part of the Whitney Biennial in 2017 and quickly became the subject of…

In recent protests all over the world, masses of women have dressed as Handmaids in red robes and white bonnets to silently point out that what they are protesting is associated with the oppression of women. Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale from 1985 features oppressed characters called Handmaids whose primary purpose in life…

A democracy without accountability, without open critique of law enforcement is not a democracy. “Risking your life,” doesn’t earn anyone the inalienable right to unending goodness and respect. The NFL Superbowl is the perfect opportunity to send such a message to as many people in Amerikkka as possible. An unofficial U.S. holiday, millions of Americans habitually gather…

Pure unrestricted expression can be a holy thing. Democracy promises that, freedom of expression, freedom of being and not-being. The unfortunate reality for so many is that theoretical pure democratic freedom isn’t realized in their daily lives. Religion, culture, language, gender, age, etc. much of our freedoms are predetermined by our social identities. So much…

Capitalism doesn’t work. It is a zero-sum game leaving most of the world losing. However totalizing its presence in contemporary global political economy- it isn’t the only option. The large-scale critique often overlooks the daily lived experience of capitalism negatively economizing basic needs. What if we acquired food for free? Rode the train without charge?…

Why is liberation and re-liberation necessary? The teleological narrative of Western human development urbanism, technology, and American democracy are it. This fails to consider is how each of these is traps humanity in their failings. Urbanism efficiently manages the habitation of growing populations, while also over defining private and public spaces. Technology revolutionizes research, medicine, and communications,…

No Blood/No Foul is one of eight works by Suzanne Lacy that makes up The Oakland Projects, each of which are the result of careful planning, political activism, media outreach and direct engagement with the community with the goal of enacting social change. Preceding this 1995-1996 piece, which was a televised basketball game that put…