We invite individual visual and performing artists, writers, bookstores, book clubs, brave non-profit or government organizations and other individuals or groups across the USA to independently “flood the zone” with creativity, for Create to Liberate, Saturday, April 19, 2025.
Think of the following idea as a pilot light for the creative fire within you (if yours needs to be lit.)
Create to Liberate Idea No. 7
A simple act you can perform on April 19, 2025, is to wear something with a provocative message in support of American civil liberties and freedoms.
Design, messaging and fashion have long contributed to arts activism.
T-shirt retrospective
The modern t-shirt evolved from the union suit; a one-piece undergarment worn by men in the 19th century. In 1913, the U.S. Navy adopted cotton t-shirts as undershirts. Through the Great Depression, t-shirts remained mostly undergarments but began to appear on laborers and athletes as casual wear.
During World War II, soldiers began casually wearing t-shirts, popularizing them as outerwear rather than underwear. However, Marlon Brando in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951) and James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955) helped make plain t-shirts a symbol of youth rebellion.
In the 1960s, advances in screen printing led to political and artistic expression on t-shirts. Popular were anti-war slogans, “Ban the Bomb” t-shirts, peace symbols, and tees bearing civil rights messages.
Today, as you know, t-shirts are a powerful canvas for personal expression, protest and, well…branding.
News to a T
Last month the current U.S. president staged a hostile takeover of The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
A few days later, Spanish American musician Victoria Canal gave an emotional and powerful performance.
At the end of her concert, she popped backstage to get a t-shirt and reemerged wearing it and a smile.
This is arts activism.
Canadian comedian Mike Myers made a statement on the NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
During the March 1 show, the comic took aim at absurd comments made by another comic, the current U.S. president.
As the credits rolled, he revealed his t-shirt and mouthed to the camera, “elbows up,” a hockey-related phrase Canadians are using right now in response to U.S. aggression.
This is arts activism.
Fashion designers are following suit (so to speak) by incorporating slogan t-shirts in current fashion week events.
In a world where political tensions have intensified, and right-wing governments are making decisions that are particularly harmful to LGBTQ+ communities, designers are use their moment in the spotlight to express dissent.
Fashion is still a space for political expression.
This is arts activism
Be provocative
So, on April 19, may we suggest you and yours wear your protest art as t-shirts, ball caps, buttons, pink knitted pussyhats or even satin sashes with tiaras.
How delightful it will be to see you swarm your grocery store, public park or government plaza in wearable protests.
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