February 2021 Newsletter

February 25 marks Create Protest’s one-year anniversary and we are taking a moment to celebrate! Motivated by our motto “say it/do it,” we partnered, we connected, we shared messages of engagement, community, unity. We love seeing all of you wearing our artist-designed messages, and send our thanks to you, our Create Protest community!

As we move ahead, we are embracing our Say It/Do It ethos and focusing on issues that our artists are committed to amplifying. Climate change, gender equity, gun control, and social inequality are issues we will elevate. Through our artist-designed merchandise, you can wear messages that bring voice to these causes. Our online platform will connect you to vetted ways to participate in these efforts.

Thanks to our artists, to our community of folks who have joined us in this first year to speak up and speak out, to engage and connect your individual efforts to larger movements. We appreciate you all!

Our first issue-oriented campaign relates to our national Covid crisis.

Say It! Rose River Memorial

Create Protest is very happy to welcome Marcos Lutyens to our roster of artists. Marcos believes that “artists must reach out beyond the protective and sometimes timid art institutions and engage directly with the world at large. A world that is seething with turmoil and changes and environmental catastrophes must be healed by art-making processes.”

In this spirit, Marcos has launched the Rose River Memorial project, a massive artwork that gives us all a way to collectively grieve the nearly 500,000 people our Nation has lost to Covid this past year. Red felt roses made by individuals collectively become a national memorial.

By purchasing Marcos’ merchandise here, you are supporting this timely, relevant, necessary communal art project.

Do It! Make Your Own Roses

Join us in a virtual rose making workshop on Sunday, February 28 at 2:00 p.m. PST. Zoom in and work with Marcos who will guide us on how to make roses from home. Register here and receive instructions for supplies needed before the workshop.

March 1 marks the first National Covid Memorial Day, and our rose making workshop will be a way to participate in this national moment of grief and recognition. Your individual roses will become a part of this national communal effort to recognize so many lost to Covid this year.

Rose River is being created – rose by rose – by you and all of your fellow rose makers.

Wearing It/Doing It

Dr. Biden, meet Dr. Gudis

Who is wearing our Create Protest merchandise and what actions are they taking locally? Meet our first local hero, Dr. Cathy Gudis, wearing Melanie Green’s Dr. Biden shirt, who is investing in her local community.

Dr. Catherine Gudis wears her Dr. Biden shirt in solidarity with her fellow professor. Dr. Gudis, a professor of 20th Century U.S. cultural history at the University of California, Riverside, amplifies Dr. Biden’s community engagement ethos. She is a Gubernatorial Appointee to the California Cultural and Historical Endowment Board, a board member of the Los Angeles Poverty Department, a founding member of Project 51: Play the L.A. River, and has curated and consulted with art and history museums and in the field of historic preservation. She invests her considerable creative talents to increase awareness of histories that don’t get seen, to systems that don’t work equitably, and to discover ways to create fair and just access to resources for all. She is our local hero!

Wear it/Post it/Tag it!

When you wear your Create Protest merch, be sure to take a picture, post it on your social media, and tag #createprotest, @createprotestmerch. And, send of a photo of yourself wearing one of our products, we’d love to share.

Thank you for joining us in our effort to Create Protest.

Julie and Cynthia