“What does a new revolutionist look like?” asks Laura Burhenn in her TEDx Talk.
Her question was first answered in 2012 by the women depicted in The New Revolutionists — an art project of women’s portraits. The women were nominated for doing extraordinary things, fighting on behalf of the oppressed, children, seniors, people with illnesses, and much more. Often these pioneers were working simply, with what they had, on shoe-string budgets, without waiting for Government grants (aka Government permission). Just getting things done.
As the American Government changes hands, Burhenn is back at it.
“Right now the news doesn’t seem to be getting any better,” says Burhenn in a press release. “You are probably exhausted; I know I am. But I will choose to keep singing, because I know that music saves my life every day. And if I can use my voice to do some good for others, I will.”
I Know Why I Sing is a visual art protest in response to Trump’s inauguration and the ongoing prevalence of rape culture in the USA.
The artwork features 30 original gouache and ink (framed and signed) birds, available on Etsy and also on display at Woodcat Coffee Bar in Echo Park, Los Angeles with 50 per cent of proceeds going to RAINN, the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network.
“Each of the birds featured in I Know Why I Sing was made in the summer of 2016 as I was writing the song ‘Good Medicine.’ While not every one is a songbird, each represents the unique voice in all of us, when we chose to lift it — no matter how uncertain or terrified we are to speak up — that can transform a heart, a community, the world,” says Burhenn.
Twenty seventeen more than ever is shaping up to be the year Americans — and humans everywhere — will need to work with what they have, not wait for their government’s approval. Burham’s birds show how anyone with a revolutionist spark is capable of making a positive impact, of getting things done. Now get up and get that worm!
Experience I Know Why I Sing on display at Woodcat Coffee Bar through February 11, 2017, and watch Laura Burhen’s TEDx Talk below: