MOBILE PRINT POWER

Publishing Works
through Public
Participation

INTRODUCTION

MOBILE PRINT POWE R (M PP) started as a weekly printmaking and
political education workshop at Immigrant Movement International in
Corona, Queens (IMI Corona) in March 2013. Over time, and as regular
participants in the workshop began to emerge as co-facilitators and
co-organizers, we began referring to ourselves as a collective. We are a
multigenerational group with diverse backgrounds from all over New York
City and the world. Our different educational backgrounds and viewpoints
make us strong as a collective and powerful as artists and activists.

For over four years we have been using our methodology for
participatory design in public space along with a pair of portable silkscreen
printmaking carts to engage communities and explore social and cultural
situations. To transmit the work that we co-create with the community we
make books, prints, and public sculptures. Each project that we do reflects
our commitment to socialjustice and our belief in the value of shared
artistic production. Inspired by groups like the Black Panthers and the
Young Lords, we set out to create a set of principles to guide our work as a
collective. During the winter of 2015—16 we wrote the first draft of the MPP
8 Principles [or MPP’s 8 Principles). Each principle reflects a particular
belief that we aspire to live up to, not only in our work as artists, cultural
workers, and educators, but also as students, family members, community
members, and friends.

What Does Justice Real/y Look Like?, 2017, event, South Bronx, NY.
Photo: MPP