Shut Rikers: A Brief History of Political Graphics in 15 Stickers. By Josh MacPhee and the Katal Center for Equity, Health, and Justice. Published July 2024.
Part history lesson, part organizing tool, part sticker set, this publication traces the ark of reproducible political graphics over the past 100 years via a collection of 15 examples. Each of these—from the Russian Revolution’s “Red Wedge Beats The Whites” to an 1980s squatting flyer featuring Bart Simpson—have been re-imagined as graphics mobilized to shut Rikers Island Jail Complex.
Katal Center staff – Melanie Dominguez, Yonah Zeitz, Ricky Forde, Lakenya Smith, and gabriel sayegh — provide a brisk introduction to Rikers Island, why it is one of the country’s most notorious jails, and about the campaign to shut it down. MacPhee draws on both his extensive knowledge of political graphic history and his 30 years of designing within social movements to deftly connect the two via the bridge of the campaign to #ShutRikers.
The zine is only available in hard-copy, and can be ordered from JustSeeds.org.
In addition, each zine comes with a set of 16 stickers, ready to use.
