Impressions for Change An historical exhibit of social change posters at the Wong/Yee Gallery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 20, 2010
Contact: Thomas Chen 781-475-9493 or Lydia Lowe 617-259-1503
wygallery@gmail.com
Impressions for Change
An historical exhibit of social change posters at the Wong/Yee Gallery
The Henry Wong and You King Yee Memorial Gallery (W/Y Gallery) and the Chinese Progressive Association welcome Impressions for Change, an exhibition of social change posters printed and curated by Red Sun Press, a printing and design cooperative based in Jamaica Plain. The exhibit also includes several original hand-made posters from a series of political poster-making workshops sponsored by the W/Y Gallery last year and focused on a common theme: Whose Boston? Our Right to the City!
The W/Y Gallery is a 31-foot long exhibit space on the Nassau Street side of the Chinese Progressive Association’s offices. The W/Y Gallery’s mission is to link activism and the arts and to display artistic exhibits that express community struggles. The W/Y Gallery is named after the late Henry Wong and You King Yee, two pioneers of community organizing in Boston Chinatown.
IMPRESSIONS for CHANGE: An anniversary collection of political posters from Red Sun Press, 1974 – 2009
On exhibit March 1 – April 16, 2010
Opening reception, celebrating International Women’s Day,
Saturday, March 6, 3:00 – 5:00 pm
One Nassau Street, Unit 2
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION
An Inter-generational Discussion of Women Activists
Saturday, March 6, 1:00 – 3:00 pm
At the Chinese Progressive Association
One Nassau Street, Unit 2
From immigrant mothers to garment workers to tenant leaders, Boston Chinatown has a long tradition of women-centered grassroots organizing. Come to an inter-generational discussion among women activists in celebration of International Women’s Day (March 8th).
A History of Red Sun Press
Several months after Nelson Mandela was released from a South African prison in 1990, he made a visit to the US, including a stop in Boston. He was greeted with posters and banners held by crowds all over the city, and bells pealing from the city’s churches in welcome. One of the posters produced for that event was designed and printed by Red Sun Press, using an original woodcut by South African artist Kim Berman. The poster was printed for the Fund for a Free South Africa (FreeSA), an organization that has become the South Africa Development Fund and continues to print with Red Sun today. As has been the case so often over the past three decades, the work of Red Sun Press was an important element of this historic political event.
When they founded Red Sun Press in 1974 with $350 and a small press in a basement, three political activists envisioned a high quality print shop that would support the movement for political and social change. Thirty five years later, the faces have changed, but the mission remains the same.
Red Sun Press is a printing and design cooperative with eleven full time members. Set up as a not-for-profit business with a worker cooperative structure, we are proud of the leadership and business skills this model fosters. Over the years, our coop members have represented the diversity of the community we serve—we have been Latino and African American, Asian and Caucasian, women and men, gay and straight. Our members have come from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Jamaica, Vietnam, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the USA. Regardless of our backgrounds, we have been able to share equally in the running of the business and achieve personal development in an industry that has not always provided growth opportunities for women and minorities.
The posters you see here today provide a glimpse into the history of social change in Boston over the past 35 years, and a taste of the printing provided by Red Sun Press. We have printed a wide variety of materials for progressive organizations—brochures and newsletters, annual reports and booklets. But the posters provide a colorful documentary of the struggles and rallies, protests and political campaigns, victory celebrations and cultural events that have reflected the political organizing of the past 35 years.
Red Sun Press looks forward to continue to change and grow with a new generation of political activists, the evolving technology of the printing industry, and the developing communication needs of a 21st century movement for peace, justice, and a sustainable world.
Red Sun Press, 94 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 . www.redsunpress.com . 617.524.6822
