Art, Activism, Social and Environmental Justice: Social Justice Resources
Resources related to artistic practices, activism, social and environmental justice issues. Use the tabs to toggle between pages.
Books
Social Justice and the City by Publication Date: 2010
Feminism and History by Publication Date: 1996
A History of U.S. Feminisms by Publication Date: 2016
The New Jim Crow by Publication Date: 2010
Outlaw Culture by Publication Date: 2006
Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution by Publication Date: 1993
¡Chicana Power! by Publication Date: 2011
Online
- False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” SourcesCreated by Melissa Zimdars, associate professor of communication at Merrimack College.
- Know Your RightsDo you know your rights? These easy-to-use resources were created by the ACLU so you can have your rights at your fingertips.
- Radical ReferenceOnline reference service to activists, journalists and researchers who requested help looking for information and resources. Active answering service has been suspended since 2013, but the archive of answered questions can still be searched from the site.
- The Trust ProjectThe project crafts tangible digital strategies to fulfill journalism’s basic pledge: to serve society with a truthful, intelligent and comprehensive account of ideas and events. We take advantage of our location at the heart of Silicon Valley to imagine technology that can bake the evidence of trustworthy reporting -- accuracy, transparency and inclusion –plainly into news practices, tools and platforms.
- How to Protest Safely and LegallyHitting the streets to make your voice heard is a fundamental right in the United States, and it's part of our country's lifeblood. Whether you're headed out in support or dissent, you should know what you're getting into before you go. Even if you think the event is purely peaceful, someone else, another protest group, or the police may all have different ideas. Here are some tips to prepare before you go out to have your voice heard.
- Boycott injustice and police brutality in AmericaBoycott cities, states, businesses, and institutions which are either willfully indifferent to police brutality and racial injustice or are deliberately destructive partners with it.
- Protecting Your Digital Life in 7 Easy StepsA list of tools to help you protect your personal information in the digital age.
- The Art of the ProtestIn other countries and throughout American history, ordinary citizens banding together have triumphed over governments, even when a single party holds sweeping control. Learn from how those victories were won.
- 10 Ways Youth Can Engage in ActivismIdeas for bringing social activism into the classroom and outside of the school walls. These are lifelong skills and attitudes that teach students about citizenship and that there is something you can do when faced with injustice. The strategies can be acted upon individually, organized together as a group and young people can join with a larger effort that is taking place locally or nationally.
- When Does Protest Actually Work?10 established social science insights about unarmed dissent that everyone should know.
- American Civil Liberties UnionThe American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a national organization that works daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
- Art and FeminismWe are students, librarians, professors, artists, art workers, and art lovers who create meaningful changes to the body of knowledge available about women on Wikipedia.
- Black Lives MatterRooted in the experiences of Black people in this country who actively resist our dehumanization, #BlackLivesMatter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society.
- The Center for Artistic ActivismThe Center for Artistic Activism is a place to explore, analyze, and strengthen connections between social activism and artistic practice. Artistic activism is more than just an innovative tactic, it is an entire approach: a perspective, a practice, a philosophy. Our goal is to make more creative activists and more effective artists. We aim to win.
- Center for Reproductive RightsFor more than 20 years, the Center for Reproductive Rights has used the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect, and fulfill.
- Chinatown Art BrigadeThe Chinatown Art Brigade is a project that includes a series of large-scale outdoor mobile projections that will address themes of gentrification, displacement and community resilience in NYC's Chinatown.
- The Council on American-Islamic RelationsThe Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties organization, with regional offices nationwide. Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. Through media relations, government relations, education and advocacy, CAIR puts forth an Islamic perspective to ensure the Muslim voice is represented.
- Electronic Frontier FoundationThe Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. We work to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows.
- Make the Road New YorkMake the Road New York builds the power of immigrant and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice.
- Matrix | University of Colorado Colorado SpringsMission: To examine and challenge systems of oppression and privilege in society, and implement effective solutions through comprehensive educational programming, literature, institutes, and workshops locally, nationally, and beyond.
- Movement Alliance ProjectMovement Alliance Project works to build a healthy movement ecosystem where organizations succeed in making transformational social change. We collaborate with organizations and alliances to develop strategy, collectivize the administrative capacity emerging projects need, and convene groups to deepen the interconnection and solidarity within and across sectors of organizing.
- National Action NetworkNational Action Network is one of the leading civil rights organizations in the Nation with chapters throughout the entire United States. Founded in 1991 by Reverend Al Sharpton, NAN works within the spirit and tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to promote a modern civil rights agenda that includes the fight for one standard of justice, decency and equal opportunities for all people regardless of race, religion, nationality or gender.
- National Organization for Womenthe National Organization for Women is dedicated to its multi-issue and multi-strategy approach to women’s rights, and is the largest organization of feminist grassroots activists in the United States. NOW has hundreds of chapters and hundreds of thousands of members and activists in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Since our founding in 1966, NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.
- New York Immigration CoalitionThe New York Immigration Coalition aims to achieve a fairer and more just society that values the contributions of immigrants and extends opportunity to all. The NYIC promotes immigrants’ full civic participation, fosters their leadership, and provides a unified voice and a vehicle for collective action for New York’s diverse immigrant communities.
- Occupy Wall StreetOccupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement organized against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process.
- Rally BusRally provides round trip shuttle bus travel to events of all kinds. Crowd-powered travel for the smarter way to get there.
- Southern Poverty Law CenterThe Southern Poverty Law Center is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. Using litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy, the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.
- The Trevor ProjectThe Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) young people ages 13-24.
- Visual AIDSFounded in 1988, Visual AIDS is the only contemporary arts organization fully committed to raising AIDS awareness and creating dialogue around HIV issues today, by producing and presenting visual art projects, exhibitions, public forums and publications - while assisting artists living with HIV/AIDS. We are committed to preserving and honoring the work of artists with HIV/AIDS and the artistic contributions of the AIDS movement. We embrace diversity and difference in our staff, leadership, artists and audiences.
- American National Election Studies Data CenterTo serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists, the ANES produces high quality data from its own surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation. ANES data enable researchers to better understand the theoretical and empirical foundations of national election outcomes.
- Southern Poverty Law Center Hate MapInteractive map of currently active hate groups in the United States.
- State of Working AmericaThe State of Working America, an ongoing analysis published since 1988 by the Economic Policy Institute, includes a wide variety of data on family incomes, wages, jobs, unemployment, wealth, and poverty that allow for a clear, unbiased understanding of the economy’s effect on the living standards of working Americans.
- US Census Bureau - Statistical Abstracts of the United StatesThese publications are a comprehensive collection of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.
- ACLU Apps to Record Police ConductDownload your state's mobile justice app.
- CryptoParty NYCCryptoParty is a decentralized movement with events happening all over the world. The goal is to pass on knowledge about protecting yourself in the digital space. This can include encrypted communication, preventing being tracked while browsing the web and general security advice for computers and smartphones.
- DeflectDeflect is a DDoS-mitigation service for NGOs, civil society groups, activist bloggers and independent media. Built by digital security non-profit eQualit.ie, the service is a free, open source and effective solution to mitigate DDoS attacks.
- RiseupRiseup provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change. We are a project to create democratic alternatives and practice self-determination by controlling our own secure means of communications.
- Signal appSignal is an encrypted instant messaging and voice calling application for Android and iOS. It uses the Internet to send one-to-one and group messages, which can include images and video messages, and make one-to-one voice calls.
- Surveillance Self-DefenseTips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications
- Tor BrowserTor software protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection and learning what sites you visit, it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location, and it lets you access sites which are blocked. Tor Browser runs on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux without needing to install any software. It can run off a USB flash drive, comes with a pre-configured web browser to protect your anonymity, and is self-contained.
Magazines
- AdbustersCall Number: Periodicals StacksAdbusters is a not-for-profit magazine fighting back against the hostile takeover of our psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces.
- Harper's MagazineCall Number: Periodicals StacksHarper’s Magazine, the oldest general-interest monthly in America, explores the issues that drive our national conversation, through long-form narrative journalism and essays,
- The NationCall Number: Periodicals StacksThe Nation is America’s oldest weekly magazine, serving as a critical, independent voice in American journalism and a platform for investigative reporting and spirited debate on issues of import to the progressive community.
- The Utne ReaderCall Number: Periodicals StacksThe mission behind every issue of Utne Reader is to start meaningful conversations that transcend traditional labels, biases, and stereotypes; conversations that demonstrate there’s still plenty of room for all of us to grow, to be educated, to be cured of ignorance.
- White FungusCall Number: Periodical StacksThis publication began in the spirit of pure anarchy. It was initiated as a pseudoanonymous protest against corporate interests overriding community values and concerns in Wellington, New Zealand, where the publication was initially based. In particular, the first issue was directed as a protest against the building of an innercity motorway that has subsequently displaced Wellington’s artists and left a hollow commercial shell where there was once a vibrant community. The publication was produced quickly on a photocopier, wrapped in Christmas paper and hurled anonymously through the entrances of local businesses. The road was built but nearly nine years on this publication continues.
White Fungus is now based in Taiwan where we discovered artists encountering their own struggles with consumerism, non-responsive government and a lack of space for activities that run counter to instrumental commercialism.
Streaming Documentaries
Streaming films provided through our subscription to Kanopy require login with your SVA credentials.
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Kanopy is a streaming video platform with a "Netflix-like" user experience and a broad, curated selection of documentaries, indie movies, classics, feature films and training videos. Films can be watched from anywhere, anytime by current students, faculty, and staff.
