[Freedom archives news] The Cultural Workers Movement and Frente Conference
Freedom Archives Events
freedomarchivesnews at freedomarchives.org
Tue Jan 30 11:27:35 EST 2018
https://freedomarchives.org/the-cultural-workers-movement-and-frente-conference/
The Cultural Workers Movement and Frente Conference
January 29, 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
<https://freedomarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/img183.jpg>
Here at the Archives, we recently unearthed a couple boxes that have now
turned into a new collection! This collection provides material about
the *Cultural Workers Movement
<https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=1048>* in
California in the 1970s. This was a movement of visual artists, writers,
musicians, theater people, and other cultural workers to form a
committed revolutionary and anti-imperialist cultural front, the
Cultural Workers’ Front of Our America. The Front had several goals: to
rediscover and build peoples’ culture, to use culture as a form of
political education, and to produce work that reflected the struggles of
the Third World and working people in the U.S. Much of the collection’s
materials relate to the Frente Conference of 1975, which the Front
organized to bring together cultural workers across the Bay Area,
including largely Latino-Chicano artists, poets, and writers.
As an artist myself, this collection makes me think not only about how
the arts can do radical and revolutionary work, but about the power of
collective mobilization. The collection prompts some key questions about
today’s cultural landscape: what are the differences between individual
artists creating revolutionary-themed work, versus a collective,
organized movement? What does revolutionary cultural work look like
today—especially in our digital, more globalized world? Is there any
equivalent modern movement to the 1970s Cultural Workers Front? What are
our responsibilities as cultural workers and artists?
<https://freedomarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/img186.jpg>
Working on the collection, I was also particularly struck by the
importance of internationalism for the Cultural Workers Movement.
Materials from the collection reveal how the Front actually began in
Quito, Ecuador and then decided to expand to North America to include
like-minded cultural workers in the U.S. This is a great example of how
a movement not only values international solidarity, but is actually
founded by and committed to Third World and international leadership.
The materials in the collection provide a fascinating window into the
inner workings of a political movement. You can trace the organization’s
formation, evolution, methods of organizing, and even internal politics
through its records. For me, one of the most unique parts of the
collection is its folder of internal documents, meeting notes, and memos
that span more than a year of the Front’s activity. Flipping through
this collection, you’ll also find beautiful artwork, cultural
publications, drafts of speeches, and more. Check out the collection
*here <https://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=1048>*.
-Addy
--
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/freedomarchivesnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20180130/47704512/attachment.htm>
More information about the Freedomarchivesnews
mailing list