Sí de Aquí, Sí de Allá

OPTalkspodcast
Written By Open Plaza

Tyler B. Davis interviews artist Mark Menjívar on storytelling as a way to empathy and action

Artist Mark Menjivar conducts a Migration Stories workshop in the Stanier Gallery at Washington and Lee University, Lexington City, Virginia, 2017. Migration Stories is an oral history project focusing on personal narratives of how we arrived to where we are now. Photo courtesy of Mark Menjivar

 
 

South Texas-based artist Mark Menjivar works at the intersection of art and social justice, exploring diverse subjects through photography, archives, oral history, and participatory project structures. He is currently the artist-in-residence with the Texas After Violence Project, which uses oral history and archives to create dialogue and action around capital punishment in Texas. In this episode of OP Talks, Menjivar talks to religion scholar Tyler B. Davis about past and present projects involving migration, religion, and Latinx history and experience. These projects include Northern Triangle, Migration Stories, and Stations. Menjivar is currently working with the Borderland Collective, a long-term participatory art and education project based in Texas. The project utilizes collaborations between artists, educators, youth, and community members to engage complex social issues and build space for diverse perspectives, meaningful dialogue, and varying modes of creation and reflection.

 

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

 

MIGRATION STORIES

Migration Stories is an oral history project focusing on personal narratives of how we arrived to where we are now.

 

ORAL HISTORIES

 

This iteration of Migration Stories was hosted in 2017 by the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, IL.

 

LISTENING SESSIONS

 

Participants listen closely at a Migration Stories community listening event hosted by Artpace in San Antonio, TX, 2019.

 

PUBLICATION

Migration Stories Book Set (M. Menjivar, Printed Matter, Inc., 2020), a set of seven Risograph printed books.

They were created through community workshops that explore the historical, practical, and philosophical aspects of oral history and the question, “Can you tell me where you come from?”

Individual copies of each book were then distributed back into the communities in which they were made through public listening sessions.

To date, there have been 7 iterations in 6 cities with 238 participants that have connections to 71 countries.

Partnering institutions include the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL), University of Arizona Art Museum (Tucson, AZ), Krannert Art Museum (Urbana-Champaign, IL), Washington and Lee University (Lexington, VA), Newspace Center for Photography (Portland, OR), International School of the Americas (San Antonio, TX), and Artpace (San Antonio, TX).

 

NORTHERN TRIANGLE

Created by Borderland Collective, the Northern Triangle exhibition opens a space for constructive dialogue and exchange around the refugee crisis along the United States-Mexico border and the long and complicated history of U.S. intervention in which the border is irrevocably entangled. 

 

INSTALLATION

 

Northern Triangle Exhibition Installation, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum (project’s original commission), San Antonio, TX, 2014.

 

EXHIBIT ITEMS

 

Drawings made by children after federal raids on their home by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), 2016.

The drawings were provided by Raices, a nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees.

 

EXHIBIT ITEM

 

1981 FMLN [Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front] propaganda poster.

From the collection of Jack Elder, a prominent member of the Sanctuary Movement who was convicted of federal crimes for helping people who were fleeing violence in Central America during the 1980s.

 

STATIONS

Stations is a project created in collaboration with the community of Santa Marta, El Salvador. Participants have retold stories of fleeing violence in 1981, spending seven years in a Honduras refugee camp, and communally repatriating back to El Salvador in 1989.

 

PARTICIPATORY WALK

 

Community members gather during a participatory walk for Stations on San Antonio’s Riverwalk, 2018.

 
Featured
Tyler Davis

Tyler B. Davis is a lecturer in theology at St. Mary’s University and University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. He holds a PhD in theological studies from Baylor University and a MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary. He has published work in the Journal of Africana Religions, Religions, and other academic and popular outlets. His current research examines the significance of a black oral tradition about a tornado in Waco, Texas as an expression of liberation theology.

Featured
Mark Menjivar

Mark Menjivar is a San Antonio-based artist and Associate Professor in the School of Art and Design at Texas State University—San Marcos. His work explores diverse subjects through photography, archives, oral history and participatory project structures. He holds a BA in Social Work from Baylor University and an MFA in Social Practice from Portland State University. He has engaged in projects at venues including the Rothko Chapel, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, The Houston Center for Photography, The San Antonio Museum of Art, The Puerto Rican Museum of Art and Culture, Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, and the Krannert Art Museum. Menjivar is currently the artist-in-residence with the Texas After Violence Project, which uses oral history and archives to create dialogue and action around capital punishment in Texas. He is also a member of Borderland Collective, which utilizes collaborations between artists, educators, youth, and community members to engage complex issues and build space for diverse perspectives, meaningful dialogue, and modes of creation around border issues. In 2019, Menjivar was named a Mid-America Arts Alliance Interchange Fellow, along with other “socially engaged artists making an impact in their communities.”

 
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