City Council member Jumaane Williams was convicted today and sentenced to time served for obstructing emergency services. Williams was arrested for blocking an ambulance that was deporting New Sanctuary leader and immigrants rights activist Ravi Ragbir. He is running for Lieutenant Govorner alongside Cynthia Nixon, and was one of 17 demonstrators arrested while protesting Ravi’s deportation by ICE.
This week Cengiz Yar interviewed Molly and Marwan on Roadsandkingdoms.com for a discussion about what it was like to write a book while one of them was living in an active war zone. Check it out here!
“If you provide an environment where people can return and rebuild their houses without the fear of bombs or getting arrested, people will not hesitate to return home. The major concern for everyone there is the uncertainty of not knowing who’s going to control the city next.” – Marwan
TheFeministani.com said “This story is enthralling… Crabapple has done something extraordinary with these illustrations” in this review.
“Brothers of the Gun is the story of that takeover, seen through the eyes of a young man, who along with his friends Nael and Tareq, finds his life turned upside-down by revolution and then war. This is the story of people who attempted to live normal lives, as their homes were being blown to bits around them, as enslaved women were paraded in front of them, as European jihadis invaded their land and established the Islamic State.”
And finally this week, the book got this lovely shoutout in the Times Literary Supplement
“Molly and Marwan’s collaboration began when the latter was living in ISIS-occupied Raqqa: he would smuggle out photos of the city and Molly would turn them into drawings, exposing the brutal reality of ISIS rule without endangering her source. Marwan joined the uprising against Assad in 2011 when he was a student, and the book tells the story of one of the world’s most protracted conflicts through his eyes.”
Have you gotten your copy of Brothers of the Gun yet? It’s available on Amazon in hardcover and for Kindle!
Blood Money at Lucas Lucas NYC
Opening Receptions: August 10th 7PM, August 11 5-8PM
This intimately interactive art show, hosted by Lucas Lucas (57 Conselyea St BK) features art by Molly Crabapple, Stoya, and many more sex workers and allies. Molly’s portrait of Akynos will be on display, and this six foot tall hyper-detailed painting is best experienced in person. There will be visual art, burlesque performances, exotic dancers, sex worker vendors and much more. The show will up until the 19th, but the real fun will be happening on the 10+11th with an afterparty on the 10th hosted by Domina collective Tailer Group.
This is guaranteed to be a very sexy time where you’ll be able to support sex workers and their art. Hope to see you there!
Brothers of the Gun is continuing to get a lot of really wonderful press coverage this week:
This weeks episode of the Laura Flanders Show, Telling the Stories of the Syrian War, features an interview with Molly and Marwan Hisham discussing the book, the war in Syria, and their collaboration.
Molly and Hisham sat down for a video interview with the Aljeezera show The Stream to discuss the risks that were taken to write Brothers of the Gun, and tell some of the fascinating stories behind Molly’s illustrations.
“-a story told through the eyes of, not the power brokers or military leaders, but of those caught up in it, those who it began to happen around as they went about their lives.”
The Activist Files Episode 4: Molly Crabapple doesn’t stay in boxes
The Activist Files podcast featured this interview with Molly on Episode 4,
“We talk about the intersection of art and activism, collaborations she’s undertaken in support of movements and communities impacted by war and government abuses, and what keeps her grounded, despite the online haters.”
The Columbia Journalism Review featured this amazing review of the Brothers of the Gun,
“Hisham’s detailed anecdotes of jihadists chatting about their daily lives in a modern day insurgency would be difficult to recreate through anything other than first-hand testimony. Without his observations and his writing, such conversations would have otherwise been forgotten. By meticulously researching and cross-referencing her illustrations, Crabapple bends the rules of traditional visual journalism and pieces together Hisham’s memories to recreate scenes of Yezidi women in a cafe in Raqqa, and a young man being pulled from the rubble after a US airstrike—both of which would have been impossible for a traditional war photographer to capture.”
Read the full review here:
“Graphic memoir illustrates new frontier in ISIS coverage“- Columbia Journalism Review
And finally, The Intercept published this piece featuring Brothers of the Gun along with Kassem Eid’s memoir “My Country“,
“Our Country, Our Stories: In New Memoirs Syrians Describe Life -and Death- in Wartime”
“Eid’s and Hisham’s revelatory memoirs come at a critical moment, as everyday Syrians are increasingly written out of their country’s story.”
Molly has written and illustrated a new article for The Baffler about Puerto Rican political prisoner Nina Droz Franco, who was arrested in the 2017 May Day protests. This article is part of Issue 40 of The Baffler entitled “Forced Exposure” which is focusing on privacy and surveillance.
Droz has spent the last year in federal prison, waiting to receive her sentence. Outside, while the island combats the overlapping cruelties of fiscal austerity and post-Maria neglect, players on each end of the political spectrum have adopted Droz as a symbol. To many pro-independence leftists who supported the protests, she is a political prisoner. For the pro-statehood right, she is a folk demon, half-witch and half-terrorist: “The Girl Who Breathes Fire.”
Check out Molly’s full article here: “Trial by Fire – Molly Crabapple”
Or read all the articles featured in Issue 40
Tonight (June 29th), Molly’s original paintings of life in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria will be on view at the Clemente Abrazo Interno Gallery at 107 Suffolk Street in New York. The show accompanies a book anthology of art and writing on contemporary activism, in which Molly’s work is also included. The opening reception starts at 7pm and will go until 10pm.
Join us Friday, June 29th, 7-10pm for the opening reception of When We Fight, We Win! / ¡Cuando Luchamos, Ganamos! The night’s program will include brief comments from the curatorial team and When We Fight, We Win! authors, as well as performances by AgitArte | Papel Machete and the inaugural presentation of the End the Debt! Decolonize! Liberate! Movement Unity Scroll.
The When We Fight, We Win! / ¡Cuando Luchamos, Ganamos! exhibition features over 40 artists, cultural organizers and artist collectives whose work bolsters people’s movements and builds solidarity across place, culture and struggle.
The opening reception will serve as the culminating event of the year-long When We Fight, We Win! Arts & Culture Tour and a celebration of AgitArte’s 20th anniversary. We hope you’ll help us celebrate this project and our victories in struggle.
Únanse a nosotrxs el viernes 29 de junio, de 7 a 10 pm para la apertura de When We Fight, We Win! / ¡Cuando Luchamos, Ganamos! El programa de la noche incluirá comentarios breves del equipo curatorial y lxs autorxs de When We Fight, We Win!, así como presentaciones de AgitArte | Papel Machete y el estreno de End the Debt! Descolonize! Liberate! Movement Unity Scroll.
La exposición When We Fight, We Win! / ¡Cuando Luchamos, Ganamos! presenta a más de 40 artistas, organizadorxs culturales y colectivos de artistas cuyo trabajo refuerza los movimientos populares y crea solidaridad a través de lugares, culturas y luchas.
La apertura de la exposición será el evento culminante de la Jornada de Arte y Cultura de When We Fight, We Win! Esperamos que nos apoyen a celebrar este proyecto y nuestras victorias en la lucha.
Molly will be participating in this year’s Logan Symposium in London during October 19th and 20th.
Conspiracy! is about the growing machinery of surveillance and censorship, and what might be our response to it. Then there’s official propaganda and subterfuge. From paid Russian Trolls toiling to Western-funded “media activists” in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, what are the chances for real freedom and democracy when the new media machinery becomes a powerful new weapon of war? The proposed new Espionage Act in the UK, and the renewed threat of prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act in the US, deliberately blur the distinction between information-seeking investigative journalists and spies from a hostile state.
More info at their site: https://tcij.org/conspiracy
Molly has a new Sketchbook article published in the Paris Review about her experience at a recent presentation by New York’s 12th congressional district representative Saraj Patel regarding striking down SESTA and FOSTA
“As crises so often do, SESTA and FOSTA provoked unprecedented activism: art shows, protests, performances, fund-raisers. There was powerful, beautiful work that made me proud to belong to this harlot mafia. (I had too many friends of too many years in that room, friends who I’ve drank with till too many bleary dawns, to fake some sterile sort of distance.)”
Full article here: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/20/sketchbook-the-first-sex-worker-town-hall/
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In the final stop on her U.S. tour, Molly will be in Boston to speak about Brothers of the Gun, in conversation with journalist Jonathan Guyer at Harvard Bookstore. More info on the Harvard Bookstore website and RSVP on Facebook.
Harvard Bookstore is located at 1256 Massachusetts Ave. in Cambridge MA
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Summer of Know is a conversation series pairing contemporary artists with practitioners and thought leaders at the forefront of today’s most urgent social, political, environmental, and legal issues. Held in The Wright restaurant, these informal discussions are moderated or introduced by Guggenheim curators and engage with current issues as they are filtered through the generative lens of art.
Molly and writer Anand Giridharadas will be in conversation, speaking about the nature of journalism as activism in the age of Trump. The session will moderated by Nancy Spector, Artistic Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator at the Guggenheim Museum. The event is free for museum members and students, and $10 for guests but the price of the event may be deducted from cost of admission to the museum. More details about the event are available here on the Guggenheim website.
The Guggenheim is located on the upper east side of Manhattan at 1071 5th ave.
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In partnership with Amnesty International UK, Molly and Marwan – appearing by video link, will be joined in conversation with journalist Paul Mason. The event will be held at the Human Rights Action Center at 17-25 New Inn Yard, starting at 18:30. RSVP is highly encouraged as seats are filling up fast.
Molly will return to the venerable Shakespeare & Co. on May 31st at 7:00 pm to speak about Brothers of the Gun with Marwan who will be joining in by video link. RSVPs are highly encouraged. Shakespeare & Co. is located at 37 Rue de la Bûcherie right off the Seine.
Bant Magazine has put together an exhibition of Molly’s ink illustrations that will be on display in their Bant Mag Havuz/Bina at Caferaga mah. Kadife sok. 26 Kadıköy until June 15th. On June 3rd at 17:00 Molly and Marwan will talk about Brothers of the Gun together in person (for the first time during the tour). The presentation will be followed by an open Q&A. RSVP encouraged.
In the Pacific Northwest? Molly is talking with Lidia Yuknavitch (The Book of Joan, The Misfit’s Manifesto) Sunday at Powell’s at 7:30pm, and the event tops The Portland Mercury’s list of ways to enjoy the arts this week.
Monday night, Molly will be in Seattle in conversation with co-author Marwan Hisham, who will join by video conference at the legendary Elliott Bay Book Company at 7pm. The Seattle Review of Books asked Molly what she’s currently reading.
Thursday, back in New York, Molly will be in conversation with Alexis Okeowo, winner of the 2018 PEN Open Book Award for A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa, at the Strand, as part of PEN’s Out Loud event series, at 7:00pm. Admission details are here.
On Friday, May 25, Molly will be in DC, in conversation with Latoya Peterson, deputy editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated, at East City Book Shop at 7:30pm, and details are here.
For details on upcoming London, Paris, and Boston appearances, click here, and all tour bookstores have signed copies in stock.
A few great clips from this week’s launch in the U.S. that we’d like to share with you:
- Molly Crabapple on Using Art to Expose Injustice from Syria to Guantánamo to Puerto Rico [Democracy Now]
- A Searing Memoir Recalls How Syria’s Civil War Tore Apart Three Friends [Mother Jones]
- 15 Books You Should Read This May: Memoirs, Mothers, Crumbling Empires, and More [Literary Hub]
“Syria in Ink” an exhibition of art from Brothers of the Gun is on exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library until June 30.
Need a copy of the book? Order a signed copy from a tour bookstore, or click here
We are honored to announce that Molly’s second book, a collaboration with Syrian author and journalist Marwan Hisham is out today, May 15th. You can order copies here or from amazon or your local bookstore or anywhere books are sold.
On Tuesday we’re joining forces with the Brooklyn Public Library to celebrate the release of Brothers of the Gun, and the start of their corresponding show, ‘Syria In Ink‘ an exhibition of the paintings from the book. This will also be the start of Molly’s book tour for Brothers of the Gun which will have her visiting LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York, Washington DC, London, Paris, and Boston. (Full details here).
The event and installation will be at the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch at 10 Grand Army Plaza.
We will start he evening at 7:30 pm with an Author Talk. Molly will be joined in conversation by the renowned and poet, novelist, translator and scholar Sinan Antoon. They will speak about the subjects covered in Brothers of the Gun and the process behind its creation.
An audio tour will also be available to visitors that presents author Marwan Hisham’s stories behind the images and in his own voice.
Syria In Ink will be on display in the Brooklyn Public Library through June 30th
Democracy Now interviewed Molly and Marwan in regards to Brothers of the Gun (out this Tuesday May 15th).
The interview is in three parts:
Part 3: Molly Crabapple on Using Art to Expose Injustice from Syria to Guantánamo to Puerto Rico
Molly has a new essay out in 3am Magazine charting the Arabic influences in the formation of Puerto Rico.
There is no victor but God. This calligraphy (copied, unread, from the Nasirids’ Alhambra, brought over, un-comprehended, as decoration for a French restaurant on a hurricane-gutted island) might just be the best epitaph for our age. Who wins, really, in the end?… Who built the thing that lasts? Or are the winners merely those who find their most cherished mottos repurposed as ornament, in glazes of blue and emerald, glazed over by bored tourists’ eyes?
Full article here.
New article out about Julia de Burgos in today’s New York Review Daily.
Puerto Rico’s most famous poet and greatest literary figure, De Burgos is as significant a cultural icon for the island commonwealth as the artist Frida Kahlo is for Mexico. Every line of De Burgos’s verse is imbued with passion, feminist self-assertion, and love of homeland. As with many female artists, De Burgos’s life story added to her legend, though her romantic life and untimely death threatened to overshadow her work by turning her into an allegorical figure for the patria’s humiliations. Yet, outside of Puerto Rican communities, she is largely unknown despite the fact that her poetry, while firmly rooted in place, addresses the universal human subjects of love, war, and self-creation.
Full article here: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/04/26/the-fatal-conscience-julia-de-burgos-puerto-ricos-greatest-poet/
Brothers of the Gun as 82 illustrations, the same number as Goya’s Disasters of War
This spring, Molly and Marwan will be touring physically and by video link to meet readers of Brothers of the Gun, the book they created together that One World/Penguin Random House will publish on May 15.
May 15: |
Brooklyn, New YorkBrooklyn Public Library will host a conversation with Molly (in-person) and Marwan (joining by video link), and Sinan Antoon. There will also be an accompanying art exhibition, Syria in Ink, opening that night. Free, with reservations requested. RSVP: Map: |
May 17: |
Los Angeles, CaliforniaMolly will talk about “Creating Beauty to Resist” with Ece Temelkuran at UCLA’s International Institute at 2pm, Later this day Molly will talk at the Last Bookstore with Los Angeles Times journalist Matt Pearce at 7:30pm (seats can be reserved). Last Bookstore RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brothers-of-the-gun-with-co-author-molly-crabapple-tickets-44427474773 Maps: |
May 18: |
San Francisco, CaliforniaMolly will appear in person for a conversation with Marwan, joining by video link, at the Bindery, the Booksmith’s new event space, at 7:30pm. |
May 20: |
Portland, OregonMolly will be in conversation with Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan and The Misfit’s Manifesto, at Powell’s (main location), at 7:30pm. Map: |
May 21: |
Seattle, WashingtonMolly will appear in person for a conversation with Marwan, joining by video link, at Elliott Bay Book Company, at 7:00pm. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/194597187934542/ Map: |
May 24: |
New York, New YorkMolly will be in conversation with Alexis Okeowo, winner of the PEN Open Book Award, at the Strand, as part of PEN’s Out Loud event series, at 7:00pm (admission details are here). Buy Tickets: https://bit.ly/2HOAeJZ |
May 25: |
Washington D.C.Molly will be in conversation with Latoya Peterson at East City Bookshop, at 6:30pm and reservations are requested. RSVP:https://www.facebook.com/events/191130594948796/ Map: |
May 29: |
London, UKMolly will appear in person for a conversation with Marwan, joining by video link, and Paul Mason at the Human Rights Action Center at 18:30. RSVP: https://bit.ly/2jsugnz Map: |
May 31: |
Paris, FranceMolly will appear in person for a conversation with Adam Biles. Marwan will be joining by video link at Shakespeare and Co. at 7:00 pm. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/168848310484751/ Map: |
June 12: |
Boston, Massachusets.Molly will appear in conversation with Jonathan Guyer at Harvard Book Store at 7:00 pm. RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/227982134423629/ Map: |
Bookstores hosting events will have specially signed bookplates by Marwan (limited quantities, while they last), and Molly will be signing copies as well–– to order a signed copy, contact the bookstore directly before the event.
Molly has a new article out in the NYRB on the current state of life in Afrin, Syria.
photo- Khalil Ashawi/Reuters
To be a Kurd in Afrin, once a majority Kurdish city, Mohammed says, is now to find oneself a member of a despised group, suspected of disloyalty, and liable to be robbed, beaten, put to flight, or worse. In its seventh year, the Syrian civil war has seen the warring parties and their foreign sponsors foster and exploit ethnic and sectarian divisions in order to realize their strategic ends. The looting and ethnic cleansing of Afrin by Turkish-backed militias is the latest ugly episode of this grim and cynical logic.
Full article here: http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/04/11/how-turkeys-campaign-in-afrin-is-stoking-syrian-hatreds/
Last week Molly returned to Puerto Rico to continue her work speaking to those affected and documenting the rebuilding efforts. She also installed two new wheatpaste murals just outside of the town of Mariana.
Portrait of some of the local men playing dominoes.
Cafeteria workers
Syrian refugees hiding from Turkish border guards near Afrin, northern Syria, June 2015
Their initial pieces were published in Vanity Fair. It was, as he puts it, an “art crime” for which he would probably have been executed had he been discovered by ISIS. A body hanging from a lamppost, a small child with an enormous rifle, people running down a rubble-strewn street—such images rendered beautiful by the pen are disturbing. Crabapple used vibrant, sometimes lurid color in the original magazine pieces, but the black-and-white illustrations in the book, carefully blotched and smudged, invite more thought, not least the cover illustration of a violinist playing an instrument that, on closer inspection, turns out to be a Kalashnikov. -Lindsey Hilsum, NYRB 4/19/18
Full review here.
Along with Crabapple’s haunting images, the author’s words offer both an elegy for what has been lost and an angry plea for all that remains. This is memoir at its most powerful, ensuring that we cannot forget lives we never knew.— Colleen Mondor
Full review here.
As he recounts the events leading to the increasing repression on the part of the Assad regime and the eventual descent of Syria into civil conflict, Hisham writes with a wryly observant eye for telling remarks. If the customary cry of faithful warriors was that God is great, then the quietly subversive retort of a Raqqawi graffiti artist makes for a fine rejoinder: “Tomorrow is better.” Tomorrow is a rare commodity in Hisham’s fast-moving account, which is enhanced by Crabapple’s powerful ink drawings.
Full review here.
psssstt: have we convinced you yet that the book is absolutely amazing!? It really is an incredible read filled with gorgeous art. You can already pre-order your copy at your local bookstore or amazon or b&n.
Molly has joined twelve other artists in collaborating with the art collective INDECLINE to do an art installation and performance piece in Trump Tower NYC. INDECLINE came to notoriety in late 2016 after installing nude and excruciatingly anatomically accurate statues of Trump in cities across America.
Their statement about this exhibit:
On March 29th, #INDECLINE checked into a suite at the Trump International Hotel in New York City. Over the course of 24 hours, the collective clandestinely erected an unauthorized, large-scale art installation entitled, “The People’s Prison”. In addition to the installation, 13 American artists were chosen to paint portraits on American Flags, each one representing a different iconic freedom fighter or activist. Select media outlets were invited to attend and report on the private unveiling. This project celebrates America’s long and vibrant history of political activism, poetic dissidence and radical thinking and serves as a call to all artists to engage in direct action against President Trump, his administration and their fanatical followers. The installation will be recreated at Gallery 30 South in Pasade
Art Newspaper Article on the staging: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/art-collective-shackles-trump-in-trump-hotel-in-new-york
edit: Art Forum Article: https://www.artforum.com/news/art-collective-erects-anti-trump-installation-inside-his-new-york-hotel-74861
