ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
Clara Spars ('21): Supporting Communities
In Crisis through Collaboration & Visual Activism
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BY THERESE SANTIAGO ('21)
In less than six months, Clara Spars (’21) has fundraised over $22,000 for various social causes through sales from her artwork alone.
Like many creatives in recent months, Clara, who is majoring in English with a focus in Creative Writing, has found ways to use her work as a form of activism, specifically for the racial justice movement and communities impacted by Covid-19. Her business, KITA Products, which began as a fashion line, is now dedicated to supporting social justice through designs that reflect the causes for which they raise funds.
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Clara Spars (’21) has fundraised over $22,000 for various social causes through sales from her artwork. Image credit: Stella Rose Photography
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One of her most popular stickers, entitled “Silence is Violence,” raised over $15,000, with corporate matching, in a matter of days. Created shortly after the murder of George Floyd, in partnership with Stanford’s Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., Xi Beta Chapter, the sticker quickly gained popularity among students and community members aligned with the cause. |
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Clara said of its design: “The message ‘silence is violence’ is especially salient now. Silence is not an option. We all need to stand up, speak out, and support Black communities.” Within twenty-four hours of its release, the sticker raised over $1,400 for North Star Health Collective, an organization that provides health care services, resources and training to the Minnesota community. After seventy-two hours, the same sticker raised $14,200 for We Love Lake Street, another Minnesota organization dedicated to helping small businesses and community organizations on Lake Street in Minneapolis rebuild after being impacted by protests. To date, this sticker has raised $14,700-and counting.
Since creating the Silence is Violence sticker, Clara has designed several more fundraiser stickers, each of which has a distinctive style and important messaging aligned with the values and causes of the organizations she collaborates with.
“Making these symbols is an expression of solidarity, but it only feels appropriate when the people involved with a given movement are connected in the creation process,” Clara said in a recent interview. Given that, all of KITA’s designs are created in partnership with the respective organization or community members.
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Clara Spars (she/her) is a Stanford undergraduate in the Class of 2021 majoring in English with a focus in Creative Writing. She is the Co-Editor-in-Chief of FACES Magazine (via Forum for American-Chinese Exchange at Stanford), a Stanford Habla Tutor, and the Head of Marketing at Stanford Planned Parenthood. She can be reached at cspars@stanford.edu. She can be found on Instagram and Facebook @claraspars and @kitaproducts. Her products can be purchased at kitaproducts.com.
Therese Santiago (she/her) is a Stanford undergraduate double majoring in English and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. She is passionate about racial justice, community organizing, photography, and stories that move people. If you are a Stanford artist interested in being interviewed for our Artist Spotlight series or have any questions, please contact Therese at tsantiag@stanford.edu.
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Al Camarillo (History) works with CA legislators on new CSU ethnic studies requirement |
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BY CCSRE STAFF
For the past three years, Al Camarillo, emeritus faculty of History and founding director of CCSRE, worked closely with the California legislators who sponsored AB 1460, which requires that CSU students take an ethnic studies course to graduate. Camarillo has been working on similar legislation and curriculum for high school students. "This is a very important first step toward eventually making an ethnic studies curriculum mandated for high school graduation in the state," Camarillo said. He added, "CCSRE can play an important role in making this curriculum available for students across California." Read the NBC news story below for more on AB 1460.
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BY PHIL HELSEL
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a bill into law that requires students at the California State University system, the nation's largest four-year public university system, to complete an ethnic studies course in order to graduate.
The Democratic governor signed AB 1460, which was proposed by Assemblymember Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, his office said in a statement.
The law "reflects 50 years of student, faculty, and community advocacy for curriculum reflective of and responsive to our diverse state," Weber tweeted.
In July, the California State University Board of Trustees, which oversees the system comprising 23 campuses across the state, voted to include a course addressing ethnic studies and social justice as a requirement. Read the complete story here.
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STANFORD FACULTY REPORT
2019
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CCSRE Faculty Affiliates partake in Dangerous Ideas lectures, now available to Stanford community
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CCSRE affiliates featured include Jim Campbell (History), Marci Kwon (Art & Art History),
Kathryn Gin Lum (Religious Studies), and Ana Minian (History)
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BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
Last spring, while many people struggled to make sense of the worldwide troubles, students enrolled in the course Dangerous Ideas learned how the humanities and the arts could help them understand themselves and their world and participate in current debates.
Now, members of the entire Stanford community can benefit from this popular course, which features 10 lectures from faculty members in the School of Humanities and Sciences from a range of disciplines: music, philosophy, art history, English, French, religious studies and history.
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Among the 10 faculty members featured in the Dangerous Ideas lecture course (clockwise from top left): Mark Applebaum, Music; Juliana Bidadanure, Philosophy;
James Campbell, History; and Ato Quayson, English.
Image credit: Andrew Brodhead
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MOMENTUM:
Sustaining Black Liberation through
Activism, Art and Collective Care
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PACIFIC HEARTBEAT SUMMER FILM FEST
AUGUST 19 - SEPTEMBER 9, 2020
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Welcome to the Pacific Heartbeat Summer Film Fest—Four unique titles from PIC’s catalogue will be posted to YouTube with universal access
on four consecutive Wednesdays beginning August 19th.
All films will be available on the Film Fest Playlist
at Pacific Heartbeat's YouTube Channel, here.
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AVAILABLE ON YouTube:
ETL Discussion with Stockton Mayor
& CCSRE Alumnus Michael Tubbs
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On November 8, 2016, Michael Tubbs, a CCSRE alumnus, was elected to serve as the mayor of the City of Stockton, California. Upon taking office in January 2017, Tubbs became both Stockton’s youngest mayor and the city’s first African-American mayor. Tubbs is also the youngest mayor in the history of the country representing a city with a population of more than 100,000 residents. In his first year as mayor, Tubbs secured $20 million to launch Stockton Scholars, a place-based scholarship that aims to triple the number of Stockton students entering and graduating from college.
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Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs |
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CLAYMAN CONVERSATIONS PRESENTS
The TERF Industrial Complex:
Transphobia, Feminism, and Race
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August 26 | 4p | Zoom Webinar |
The figure of the “TERF” (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) has emerged as one of the more puzzling flashpoints in recent culture wars on campus and in the media. Why have trans lives and identities become a politically potent rallying cry for people who seem not to care very much for trans people? In this conversation, we explore the outsize influence TERFs wield in the media, what their influence means for feminism, and why their position occupies a unique and troubling place in the current discourse around free speech and "cancel culture." |
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APARC DIVERSITY GRANT
Submissions Due September 1
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CALL FOR PRESENTERS
Environmental Studies Workshop, University of Chicago
Abstracts Due September 8
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The Environmental Studies workshop is a collaborative cluster designed to integrate students, faculty, and other affiliated scholars working on themes relating to the environment in the social sciences, humanities, policy, and scientific fields.
Our workshop brings together the most diverse and advanced modes of inquiry to understand and imagine the history, present conditions and future of this planet and our species. Our space is open to works that focus on local, regional, global, and planetary systems as they relate to human history, species relations, religion and ethics, law and policy, economic development, political economy, the built environment, urban design, art and film, and resource management.
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We are always seeking news and stories written by and about our CCSRE community-including faculty, students, staff, and on and off campus partners-to feature in our newsletter and blog.
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