Illustrated by Molly Crabapple
Narrated by Padma Lakshmi
Directed and produced by Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt
“Access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, largely depends on where you live and how much money you have. But abortion funds are taking the hassle, hustle, and harassment out of healthcare by helping people all across our network access and fund abortions.”
Molly’s latest article for the New York Review of Books, ‘Whores But Organized’: Sex Workers Rally for Reform, is now online. Covering the February 25th rally organized by Decrim NY, Molly reported on and illustrated the sex workers and public officials that showed up to support the decriminalization of sex work.
“I have seen sex workers all of my life,” Jessica Ramos declared. “I have seen them denigrated by neighbors. The answer is always, call the police to fix this. Police do not fix anything.”
“If we are going to combat harm done to the sex worker community, we have to fully decriminalize,” she said, “so we’re creating a space where sex workers can get healthcare, or cooperate with attorneys’ offices to hold those who harm them accountable.”- Queens District Attorney candidate Tiffany Cabán
Limited edition prints of Molly’s painting of Chelsea Manning are now available in the shop!
This painting is a collaboration between Molly and Chelsea, and 100$ from each sale will go directly toward Chelsea’s legal defense fund.
Get yours now from https://mollycrabapple.com/shop/ or donate here https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/chelsea-manning-needs-legal-funds-to-resist-a-grand-jury-subpoena?source=direct_link&
A lot of very exciting things happened in 2018. After three years of hard and dangerous work, Molly and Marwan published Brothers of The Gun through Penguin Random House in May.
The book has been getting amazing reveiws from around the world, is a New York Times Notable book, and was a semifinalist for the National Book award.
The book tour has taken Molly to speaking events and literary festivals all over the US, and to London, Paris, Istanbul, Delhi and Mumbai. Syria In Ink, an exhibition of the original artwork from the book, opened at the Brooklyn Public Library, with simultaneous exhibits at Amnesty International HQ in London and BANT Havuz in Istanbul. The show is currently on tour.
Life drawings from Mumbai are currently available in the shop!
Molly also did quite a lot of writing for the NY Review of Books including a cover story on refugees, essays on Puerto Rico’s greatest poet Julia De Burgos, the Turkish invasion of Afrin, and The Jewish Labor Bund, the forgotton Jewish revolutionary party. She also contributed illustrations for an article by Rohini Mohan about Dehli’s farmer protests, in addition to illustrating a piece about gang violence in El Salvador for The International Crisis Group and contributed drawings to Feeling of Being Watched, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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My first cover story for New York Review of Books, reviewing three new graphic novels about refugees
Molly also wrote about covered Trump’s manufactured border crisis for Rolling Stone, America’s destruction of Raqqa forThe Guardian, and the murder of Iraq’s instagram queen as well as the potential invasion of Idlib for New York Times.
From “Scenes From an American Trajedy: The Texas Border Crisis” in Rolling Stone
From “If the Regime Comes Here, Everyone Will be Targeted” in The New York TimesMolly illustrated the cover of Pretty Things, her third book cover for french pulp author Virginie Despentes.
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In a collaboration with Ms Saffaa, Molly installed new murals at The Owls Head wine bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and in Barrio Mariana, Puerto Rico.
And some of her art was even wheatpasted up around NYC
Molly and the lovely folks at Sharp As Knives also release this video about the money bail industry, narrated by John Legend. They also worked on several short films for Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum.
In Jakarta, Molly collaborated the the Indonesian feminist collective House of the Unsilenced to do portraits of refugees and women who had had abortions.
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Honored to do this collaboration with @elizavitri for @unsilenced_ . Please read her words
Molly also translated several “Know Your Rights” pamphlets into Arabic for the DSA and painted a few protest banners
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Molly spoke at the Chicago Ideas Festival, Tata Literature Live!, the Zee Jaipur literature Festival in Boulder, and will be speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India in January.
There’s a lot to look forward to this year, including the announcement that Molly will be an artist-in-residence at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU in spring of 2019!
Looking forward to bringing you more art, writing, and resistance in the New Year
This week The Cairo Review of Global Affairs described Brothers of the Gun as “an indispensable read that features how ordinary youths change, adapt, and resist, in different forms, in the face of unceasing injustices”. And “a story of hope, fear, devastation, uncertainty, and bravery told through a concise and personal narrative. It is an essential read for anyone who seeks to understand what Raqqa has endured”.
Former US Marine Dewaine Farrina reviewed Brothers of the Gun for The Mantle .He gave an eloquent description of his time in Syria, before and after Arab Spring, and his impressions of the book. Describing Molly as “one of the most influential visual artists of our time” and saying that “(Marwan) demonstrates courage in every sense of the word”. Check out his wonderful piece Sea Stories and Memoirs: A Review of Brothers of the Gun.
There’s also a new way to buy Brothers of the Gun that directly helps Syrians in need…
The Karam Foundation is a non-profit that began in Chicago in 2007 that provides aid to Syrian refugees. They create education and entrepreneurial opportunities, as well as give direct emergency assistance to recently relocated Syrians. You may remember them from the murals Molly painted at Karam House and in schools in Reyhanli, Turkey in 2015.
Right now you can buy your copy of Brothers of the Gun directly from the Karam Foundation where proceeds will benefit Syrians in need. While you’re there check out some of the other amazing books about Syria that they carry. Or pick up a set of the “Innovative Leaders” series of greeting cards, illustrated by Molly!
Visit KaramFoundation.org to learn more about the incredible work they do.
via mamasday.org. Send your mama a free ecard here.
Molly again participated in Zeitouna, a program aimed at aiding and inspiring the youngest victims of the Syrian crisis. Alongside other mentors, she returned to Reyhanli, Turkey to paint murals for the Jeel School for Syrian refugee children.
Like these? Consider donating to Karam Foundation, a grassroots organization working on both sides of the border.
8″ x 4″ pen, ink, dye and gouache on Arches watercolor paper. Signed by Molly, this piece is up for auction to benefit Young New Yorkers. Auction lasts until April 1st, 9 pm EST. You can bid here.
Limited edition of 250, 13″ x 19″ prints of Baby Doll are now available at Braddock Tiles.
Portrait in the Twenty-First Century
November 29, 2014 – January 17, 2015
54 Franklin Street
New York, NY 10013
Presented by Postmasters and featuring artwork by Molly Crabapple, Kristin Lucas, Katarzyna Kozyra, Sally Smart, Shamus Clisset, Austin Lee, Anton Perich, and Ryder Ripps. More info here.
Bidding for Groundswell’s Annual Art Auction is now live! Featuring Molly’s signed 2014 self portrait, which you can bid on here. Bidding ends the day of the benefit, October 14th. For more information and to purchase tickets to the event, click here.
Groundswell Annual Art Auction Benefit
110 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010
October 14, 2014, 7-10 pm
Tiny painting for Cynthia von Buhler’s Lilliput exhibit at MyMicroGallery in Milan. All artwork is 1:12 scale, the size of most dollhouses. Lilliput is open to the public through October 8th. Click here for more details.
Cover art for the Bronx Defenders’ new report on solitary confinement. Read it here.
Molly’s piece for Temple of Art. Photo by Allan Amato. For information about the film, click here.
Had the great honor of being asked to come along with Zeitouna, a program by the Karam Foundation, to mentor displaced Syrian kids. A few dozen of us came to the Salam School, a school in Southeast Turkey for refugees. Dentists from the Syrian American Medical Society fixed hundreds of kids teeth. Boxers taught little girls to kickbox, and my friend Lina Sergie introduced the kids to the fundaments of architecture. I drew these murals.
The teachers, refugees themselves, were brilliant and inspiring. I’m shy and not particularly great with kids, and my Arabic has faded to a few sentences. But the kids loved watching me draw cats and mice up to no good all over the walls.
Photos by Mohamad Ojjeh.
17″ x 22″ giclee print, signed and numbered. $125 with free shipping. Buy yours here.
My first major solo show, SHELL GAME, closed last Tuesday.
Shell Game was covered by the New Republic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, Wired, Reuters, the American Reader and many more. The openings were attended by hundreds of people –– many of whom, through their support of Shell Game’s kickstarter, made this whole project possible.
I’m starting to think about my next project, which will explore ideas of explicitly digital culture and privacy. I may even work with an institution or cultural organization to bring it to life on the largest scale possible.
Without the support of hundreds of people online, Shell Game would never have happened. The internet believed in me, believed in the promise of my art, and showed that in concrete ways.
The internet gave me Shell Game.
I want to give them something back.
Today is May Day. The day of workers, immigrants, beautiful young girls, and rebellion. I’m releasing all the art from SHELL GAME on Creative Commons. Share. Remix. Make art. Wheatpaste the world.
Click each image to see it in high resolution. Non-commercial use only and attribution is mandatory (see CreativeCommons below).
Shell Game by Molly Crabapple is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://mollycrabapple.com/2013/05/01/shell-game-hi-res/.
A limited number of prints of the Shell Game watercolours are available at my Etsy shop. 17″ x 22″ on Canson art paper, signed and numbered, only 25 of each.
“Scabby the Rat is popular art at its best. He’s the mean, funny, fiercely alive counterpart to all New York’s anodyne corporate sculpture.”
Sarah Jaffe and I created a tribute to Scabby the Rat. See him outside a non-union building site near you.