Liberation Ink Artists Perry Bradstreet is a San Francisco native who's been fighting oppressions and exercising his creativity ever since learning what hate really was. At 15 his favorite things to do are fighting injustice, writing, and acting! He is excited about how the posters can help people feel less isolated and like there are others who feel the same way. Natasha Brinsko (Tashabay) dwells in the city of San Francisco where her habitat, The Academy of Art, resides. She is quite the interesting person to investigate - for she wears many disguises. A seeker for the hidden reality, tashabay observes her world as passerby lull about their day. She is a master of listening, though her lips carry a soft voice. The perfect way for tashabay to express what her innermost feelings are is to represent it in a form of art. For inside she still shivers on the thought of love. Make way for tashabay- an artist seeking poetry. Lauren Bruton is an 18-year-old, emo-boi, gender queer, youth artist and activist. Shi has worked with many kick-ass organizations such as GSA Network, LYRIC, go, Project Cornerstone, and the Monta Vista High School GSA on an array of different projects and conferences. Hi is a passionate artist who combines activism and education into hir artwork to better kick the ass of injustice. Marco Colón is 15 years old and will be a junior at Berkeley High School. He enjoys graphic design and architecture and studied engineering at Oakland Tech. He hopes that these posters will have a great impact in California schools and will change what people are inclined to say. Newman Howell is a youth of the Bay Area. He is an aspiring fashion designer and dancer who has just recently graduated Berkeley High School and is going to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. Newman has been active with GSA Network and LYRIC as a volunteer for the OHMY conference, a Make It Real trainer to implement AB 537, and as a member of the GSA Network Youth Council. With the poster created in the Free Zone class he hopes to penetrate the minds of youth that don't see the struggles that are thrust upon them‹to help them identify their oppression and liberate themselves from it while still staying true to their dreams. His poster is a symbol for youth that need or have a hunger for a voice and a revolution. Evelyn Krampf is nineteen, entering her second year of college, and participating in her first LYRIC/GSA program. She is interested in various arts - oil paints, instrumental music, and furniture art - and how they can be used to create positive social change and empowerment. Hopefully, will be doing more neat queer youth stuff in the fall, this program has been a good start. Cass Leung was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to San Francisco at age 15 and is working toward a degree in psychology at San Francisco State. He became interested in art from an early age and has been drawing seriously since the age of 10. Cass decided to attend Free Zone because it was a workshop that combined two of his biggest interests: art and political activism. Jack (Devin) Thompson is a transexual junior at Berkeley High School. Jack hopes the Free Zone project will help people get more okay with the queer youth in schools and make the queer youth in schools feel safer. Jack believes politics need youth opinions, and who better to tell it how it really is. Facilitators Vanessa "Andrew James Walker" Duran is an award winning queer youth activist and artist from the bay area. She is currently involved in 22 projects between 3 organizations. The former president of the Berkeley High School GSA, Andy also has also served on GSA Network's Governing Board and Northern CA Youth Council. When she's not out saving the world this hopeless romantic enjoys Black and white photography, filmmaking, music and dancing in her drag king boi band. Juan Fuentes is the director of Mission Grafica, the print making department of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. He has been an active member of the San Francisco arts community since the mid-1970s, primarily as a print/poster maker the Mission Campus of City College and California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. His works have been exhibited in community galleries, major museums, and some works reside in museum and poster archives. Favianna Rodriguez is an Oakland based artist, teacher, and entrepreneur. As an artist trained in the political poster tradition, she is best known for her posters against the war and Prop.21. She has produced serigraphs both at Self Help Graphics and Mission Cultural Center. Favianna is an active member of East Side Arts Alliance, a collective of third world artist and community organizers living and working in the Fruitvale/San Antonio neighborhood in East Oakland. She is also the lead designer and co-founder of Tumi's Copies and Design, a full service design and printing studio serving social justice campaigns and non-profit organizations. Jill Shenker is the Arts Empowerment Coordinator at GSA Network and the co-coordinator of the Free Zone project. She is a multimedia artist with a focus in photography. Jill uses arts activism in conjunction with student organizing, anti-war, labor, racial justice, prison abolition, and Palestinian solidarity efforts. Liberation Ink was a collaborative project of GSA Network, LYRIC, Tumi's Copies and Design, and Mission Grafica at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco. It is supported by the Youth Initiatives Program of the Open Society Institute, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA) was established in 1977 by artists and community activists with a shared vision to promote, preserve and develop the Latino cultural arts that reflect the living tradition and experiences of Chicano, Central and South American, and Caribbean people. The MCCLA makes the arts accessible as an essential element to community development and well-being. Under the direction of Juan Fuentes, Mission Grafica offers poster and printmaking services to the community along with offering classes in silkscreen, etching and monoprint. LYRIC has a vision that all LGBTQQ youth should live in a world that respects them; gives them access to a support system of peers and allies; in which they receive large-scale institutional recognition of and sensitivity to their needs; live healthy, rewarding lives; believe in their own power; and are actively involved in leading within their community. LYRIC brings LGBTQQ youth together to build a peer-based community that empowers them to end isolation; create a progressive queer youth voice; increase well-being and self-esteem; and change the communities in which they live. LYRIC accomplishes this by offering peer-based education, advocacy, recreation, information, and leadership opportunities. Gay-Straight Alliance Network is a youth-led organization that connects school-based Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) to each other and community resources. Through peer support, leadership development, and training, GSA Network supports young people in starting, strengthening, and sustaining GSAs and builds the capacity of GSAs to: 1. create safe environments in schools for students to support each other and learn about homophobia and other oppressions; 2. educate the school community about homophobia, gender identity, and sexual orientation issues; and 3. fight discrimination, harassment, and violence in schools. Tumi's Copies & Design is the first bilingual, full-service copy, design and print shop between Downtown Oakland and San Leandro. Tumi's multicultural designers have long-established roots in the Fruitvale and San Antonio neighborhoods. Tumi's strengthens our community by participating in and sponsoring social justice movements and events. We employ and train local youth. Liberation Ink As If It Matters High Contrast Free Zone HOME Apply for Free Zone About Free Zone Arts Activism Links