In the summer of 2006, a broad-based, non-violent, popular uprising exploded in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some compared it to the Paris Commune, while others called it the first Latin American revolution of the 21st century. But it was the people’s use of the media that truly made history in Oaxaca.

A 90-minute documentary, A Little Bit of So Much Truth captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of school teachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, farmers, and students took 14 radio stations and one TV station into their own hands, using them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice.

Filmmaker, Jill Freidberg, had already spent two years in Oaxaca, producing her previous film, Granito de Arena. She returned to Oaxaca, in 2006, and joined forces with Oaxacan media collective, Mal de Ojo TV, to tell the story of the people who put their lives on the line to give a voice to their struggle. Narrated almost entirely with recordings from the occupied media outlets, A Little Bit of So Much Truth delivers a breathtaking, intimate account of the revolution that WAS televised. Brilliantly conceived and executed.

Revolutionary women of Latin America – lending our voices to their poems and songs. Powerful words of love, justice, equality and liberation: selection inspired by the women of the Oaxaca 2006 uprising.

Join us on Th3 Thursday, July 16th at 7pm for an evening filled with Latino music from Colleen Kattau and Caroline Kim. Otilia Ortiz, will present a video (short) about a young sandinista woman named Arlen Siu.  Other poets and singers include Violeta Parra, Giaconda Belli, Natalia Toledo, Gloria Martin and Jenny Terrero who will read from her book, “The big apple turns brown when you slice it”. Featured will be the poetry of Bertha Muñoz a sample of which we have printed here;

Poesía testimonial de Oaxaca

Porque fueron miles de pies
andando por el tiempo

pies de niños, de adultos,
pies de ancianos,

de jóvenes
pies de amas de casa, de empleados

de campesinos, de indígenas,
pies de burócratas y profesionistas

de pequeños comerciantes, de artistas, de desempleados

pies de maestros y estudiantes.

Aplanando las calles
sonando rítmicamente en un solo clamor

armónicamente unidos a la esperanza, pies musicales

los pies de un pueblo que
en busca de un sueño
decidió echarse a caminar.

Testimonial poetry from Oaxaca

Because it was thousands of feet walking through time,

the feet of children, of adults, the feet of the elderly,

of the young, the feet of housewifes, of workers, of farmworkers, indigenous feet.

The feet of bureaucrats and of professionals,

Of small business owners, artists, of the unemployed.

Teacher’s feet and student’s feet.

Leveling the streets, crying out rhythmically in a single voice

United harmoniously to hope;

musical feet-

The feet of people who in search of a dream, decided to start walking.

During the 2006 Oaxaca uprising Dr. Berta Muñoz, nicknamed Doctora Escopeta, created first aid stations to help the injured, later she broadcasted from Radio Universidad where she helped organized the people’s defense of the radio station. She had to go into exile for two years from Oaxaca because of threats to her life and to her family but went back to Oaxaca in 2008. You can find out more about Dr. Muñoz by visiting:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue54/article3259.html

You are also invited to listen to a presentation given by Barucha Callamity Peller at ArtRage gallery on June 17th about the role of women during the 2006 uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico by visiting: http://palabrasacentuadas.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/262/

A hot, steamy, summer night (we hope) event to raise money for ArtRage. Listen to Jazz under the stars with the Jesse Collins Group. Enjoy wine, beer & food in our main gallery and bid on some great items at our Silent Auction until 10pm.  It’s a great way to spend the night and help support the ArtRage Gallery.

Please note* – ArtRage will be closed for regular hours from July 19 thru August 4, 2009. We will re-open for films, events and exhibition on Wednesday, August 5 at our regular times of 2-7pm.

We end our season in June with a powerful exhibit of photographs from the Oaxaca, Mexico resistance movement combined with original political posters from art collectives there.

In 2006, Oaxaca, Mexico came alive with a broad and diverse movement that captivated the nation and inspired communities organizing for social justice around the world. Fueled by long ignored social contradictions, what began as a teachers’ strike demanding more resources for education quickly turned into a massive movement that demanded direct, participatory democracy.

Hundreds of thousands of Oaxacans raised their voices against the abuses of the state government. They participated in marches of up to 800,000 people, planned strategy at the barricades, occupied government buildings, took over radio stations, held sit-ins, and reclaimed spaces for public art and altars for assassinated activists. In the now Legendary March of Pots and Pans, 2,000 women peacefully took over and operated the state television channel for three weeks.

All this despite the fierce repression that the movement faced – with hundreds arbitrarily detained, tortured, forced into hiding, or murdered by government forces and paramilitary death squads. And the Oaxacan people are still determined to make their voices heard. This exhibit is our attempt at ArtRage to help make those voices heard through the photographs and art of those who were there and to learn from them.

Films and presentations on this struggle will accompany the exhibit along with the sale of a must read book, “Teaching Rebellion; Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca”.