Elizabeth Catlett & the Mexican Revolution

Description

Join this discussion and private viewing of renowned African American artist Elizabeth Catlett's original prints at the Baltimore Museum of Art, with Christina Heatherton. This event is hosted by the Program in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and co-sponsored by the Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship and the Center for Africana Studies.

Heatherton is an associate professor of American studies and human rights at Trinity College. This event celebrates the publication of Heatherton's book, Arise! Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution (University of California Press, 2022).

The Mexican Revolution was a global event that catalyzed international radicals in unexpected sites and struggles. Tracing the paths of figures like Black American artist Elizabeth Catlett, Indian anti-colonial activist M.N. Roy, Mexican revolutionary leader Ricardo Flores Magón, Okinawan migrant organizer Paul Shinsei Kōchi, and Soviet feminist Alexandra Kollontai, Arise! reveals how activists around the world found inspiration and solidarity in revolutionary Mexico.

From art collectives and farm worker strikes to prison "universities," Arise! reconstructs how this era's radical organizers found new ways to fight global capitalism. Drawing on prison records, surveillance data, memoirs, oral histories, visual art, and a rich trove of untapped sources, Heatherton considers how disparate revolutionary traditions merged in unanticipated alliances. From her unique vantage point, she charts the remarkable impact of the Mexican Revolution as radicals in this critical era forged an anti-racist internationalism from below.

The Baltimore Museum of Art holds an important collection of Catlett's original artworks — which attendees will be invited to see during a discussion with Heatherton. Space is limited, RSVP today.