Celebrating Maize - Screenprinting and Conversation - OMCA Garden

Your browser does not support the video tag. Your browser does not support the video tag. Before You Are Here: Decolonial Cartographies and the Indigenous Bay Area Spotlight Sundays: Celebrating Maize Through Screenprinting and Conversation with Xicanx Artists, Melanie Cervantes & Elizabeth Blancas Join us for an engaging outdoor event in OMCA’s Oak Street Plaza. This program will explore Indigenous Xicanx heritage and its deep connection to maize \(corn\). Engage with a screenprinting poster activity and informal talk with featured artist, Melanie Cervantes & guest artist, Elizabeth Blancas, who will delve into the themes presented in our special exhibition, Calli: The Art of Xicanx Peoples. We invite you to connect, learn, and celebrate with us! This event is free and open to the public. Artists Melanie Cervantes \(Xicanx\) makes her home in San Leandro, California where she creates visual art that is inspired by the people around her and her communities’ desire for radical social transformation. Her intention is to create a visual lexicon of resistance to multiple oppressions that will inspire curiosity, raise consciousness and inspire solidarities among communities of struggle. Melanie’s practice includes the production of screen prints, political posters and multimedia projects that are grounded in Third World and indigenous movements that build people’s power to transform the conditions of fragmentation, displacement and loss of culture that result from histories of colonialism, patriarchy, genocide, and exploitation. The purpose of this work is to illustrate stories of struggle, resistance and triumph into artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it. Elizabeth Blancas \(she/her\) is an interdisciplinary artist working in mediums including: muralism, ceramics, illustration, printmaking and florals. She utilizes art as a tool for resistance as well as a celebration of the communities she comes from and is in solidarity with. Through her practice, she explores themes of culture, spirituality, healing, justice, sexuality, and womanhood. Blancas holds a B.A. from UCLA in Chicanx Studies and Art History. Accessibility Oakland Museum of California \(OMCA\) is committed to providing programs that are accessible, welcoming, and inclusive of our community. Wheelchairs, sensory inclusive devices, and additional amenities are available for checkout on a first come, first served basis at the Ticketing Desk. To request other accommodations, like American Sign Language \(ASL\), Cantonese, Spanish or another language interpreter, please email [email protected] at least three weeks before the event. Learn more about our accessibility options. Return to Events