AMERICA FREE, FAIR & UNAFRAID
Updated: 1 day ago
“If you’re wondering what you would have done in Germany when the Nazis rose to power — you’re doing it now.” — Anonymous
I'm a happy person, living in pura vida paradise with gorgeous kids, an awesome wife and magnificent friends. Gratitude is my attitude. Still, like so many Americans these days, I wake each morning to another relentless serving of miserable, authoritarian cruelty from the US powers that be ... and ask myself, "WTF can I do to stop the madness and KEEP AMERICA FREE, FAIR & UNAFRAID of a mentally ill president and his followers hellbent on stealing elections and torching democracy.
It's common knowledge that our Supreme Court gutted MLK's crowning achievement to negate black and brown voters, while masked federal ICE agents shoot innocent people in the face in broad daylight and rip children from their mothers arms … The list goes on and on, and I know a great many of you feel the same burning desire to do something, ANYTHING, to save democracy as we know it.
Well, my friends, we have a plan ... a big Rapid Response plan with an extraordinary team. And you're part of it!
At the beginning of the year, I called my friend, fellow For Freedoms billboard artist and renowned National Geographic photographer, Aaron Huey. “We have to do something to fight fascism. This is starting to feel very scary,” I shared with my battle-tested colleague.
Aaron founded Amplifier in 2015 and built it into an award-winning, game-changing powerhouse - a nonprofit media lab building campaigns to amplify the most important movements of our times. Every single one of you have seen Amplifier’s “We The People” campaign, one of the most far-reaching and impactful in history. Created in collaboration with Shepard Fairey (see the video clip below), it flooded the streets of Donald Trump’s Inauguration and the International Women's March in 2017 and ignited over 700,000 image downloads from 193 countries in 24 hours, grassroots symbols of hope activated to combat the rising power of nationalism, bigotry, and intolerance.
I could not be more proud to join forces with Amplifier and lean into this fight for the soul of our country. With over ten years in the trenches, Amplifier’s distribution channels now reach an average of 20 million viewers per campaign, reaching activists, teachers, policy makers, journalists and everyday citizens eager to build a new world.
Our project to KEEP AMERICA FREE, FAIR & UNAFRAID is already underway and, together, we will reclaim an American identity rooted in equality, dignity, diversity, truth, and beauty. We need your support to fight back against authoritarianism through public art & civic education leading up to the midterms.
METRICS:
As a NatGeo photographer, Aaron understands the immediate impact of “the right image at the right moment." Think of the little girl, burning from napalm, running naked during Vietnam. That image changed the course of history. Likewise, our nationwide activations are designed to let everyone with a cell phone capture and share moments that change the authoritarian narrative.
WHAT WE’RE BUILDING:
We're fired up! Some of the world’s most recognized and hard-hitting artists have created incisive works exclusively for us … built to hijack the news cycle and protect voters from the intimidation surrounding the midterms. This and other works will drop between now and Election Day, distributed to 100 million citizens via installatiions, activations, classrooms, hospitals, places of worship, street corners, community centers, spaces where people work, play, seek guidance and safety.
ROCKSTAR ARTISTS
Jenny Holzer - Best known for her large-scale public art installations that use text and language to confront social, political, and cultural issues. Jenny is creating “Mirror Shields” — mirrored protest shields to face off against ICE mobs. These works are not framed as confrontation, but as witness. The power lies in this juxtaposition, inviting reflection rather than polarization.
Dread Scott - "I make revolutionary art to propel history forward. I look towards an era without exploitation or oppression. I don’t accept the political structures, economic foundation, social relations and governing ideas of America." Dread is also creating “Mirror Shields” to face off against ICE mobs. Their power lies in this silent juxtaposition, inviting reflection rather than polarization.
Sarah Sophie Flicker - 2017 Women's March Organizer, Activist, Cultural Organizer, Writer & Producer. This incredible polymath is creating her “Ten Commandments” — rights-affirming street signs, billboards and wild-postings inspired by the historical Danish anti-Nazi list of 10 commandments … launching in New York, purple states, and classrooms with a companion short film.
SPECTACLE
In addition to many commissioned works, 500+ proven and trusted content creators are creating Large-Scale Public Interventions Built to Hack a News Cycle — guerrilla sculpture, mobile monuments, installations placed in the civic spaces where the country argues with itself.
Because it takes more than the magic of art to win elections, we are also mass producing and distributing “Know-Your-Rights” materials for the polls — printable, multilingual and free. You cannot intimidate a voter who knows their rights.
20,000 SCHOOLS AND EDUCATORS:
Amplifier’s formidable network of 20,000 Schools & Educators currently reaches over 1 million middle and high school students across all 50 states through their Education Amplifier Network ... dedicated to keeping classrooms places of inquiry, representation and critical thinking. Topical discussions, art projects and "Know-Your-Rights and Vote-Early" materials will be live in classrooms and on the street before early voting opens. This ensures young people are not only informed, but actively engaged in shaping cultural response.
RAPID RESPONSE
National Street Team Mobilization - Amplifier is activating its street team network, nearly 400 volunteers across more than 70 U.S. cities, to distribute cultural materials directly into neighborhoods and be ready to capture the moments where history is made - because the moments that demand a cultural response give 48 hours notice, not 48 days.
Amplifier’s leadership team is battle-tested and passionate. Executive Director, Cleo Barnett, a notable artist and peace activist in her own right, spent days with us in Costa Rica recently, mapping out strategies for this historic endeavor. Obviously, it takes more than a group of fierce artists to move the needle on a fascist takeover. We are but one very sharp arrow in an impressive quiver of allies who are also “all hands on deck” at this moment. We are aligned with legislators in Congress preparing to use every tool available to fight back on Trump’s illegal election plans. And with legal scholars with heroic organizations like the ACLU and Brennan Center for Justice who are lawyered up and ready for battle. Please donate to them as well.
This is hard and exhausting but, in this existential moment, no one is going to say we didn’t armor up and join the fight. I have donated $50,000 to lift this campaign off the ground, and we aim to raise another $200,000 to see this effort grow through the midterms and onto the 2028 election. We need your support. So, please donate generously. Amplifier is is a 501(c)(3) and donations are tax deductible.
It’s not about grand gestures it’s about YOUR granular civic engagement:
Buy a packet of clever stickers and place them on a stop sign to turn an object we see all day into an incisive act of resistance.
Share this with 5 people ... and, we’ll move the needle together!
Donate like your country depends on it ... because it does!
In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted critical parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and, the very next day, many of the reddest states enacted racist laws making it much more difficult to vote in underserved communities. This work above shows long polling lines caused by decreased polling placers in AZ in 2016. They just did it again in Texas. And we're not going to sit back and watch!
I was honored to be part of the 2018 For Freedoms "50 State Initiative" billboard campaign, what the New York Times called "the largest creative collaboration in US history." Ironically, the world has only gotten worse since. Still, there is something soul-satisfying in being part of a meaningful movement, even if the outcome is not immediately obvious. It's like the old zen saying to "Plant trees under whose shade you will never sit." We are creating the future we dare to imagine.
Please support us and share with others !
What a great effort, Stuart!! I feel energizeed and hopeful when I see an initiative like this come to life! How can I be sure my grandson gets the "KNOW YOUR RIGHTS" matierials to distribute? You know what it is like to be in the rural South...dicey! Continued good luck...