If Every Poster Was a Stone: Palestine Prints to Intervene, Disrupt, and Confront
Presented by EastSide Arts Alliance
Curated by Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area and Thad Higa
Location: 2285 Gallery, 2285 International Blvd, Oakland, CA
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 28th, 2025 1pm-4pm
Closing Reception: Friday, September 12, 2025 7pm- 9pm
Exhibition Dates: June 28, 2025 extended through September 20, 2025
Gallery Hours: Thu-Sat, 12pm-5pm
If Every Poster Was a Stone is an exhibit of Palestine posters that examine the use, responsibility, and inherent political nature of the poster. It will include pieces which challenge the false and divisive narratives of the US/western empire, posters that promote action, connection, inter-solidarity, learning over avoidance and despair, and posters which ground us in the decades of steadfast struggle of the Palestinians. There will be posters gathered from in-person protests and actions in America, online printed posters generated internationally since Oct 7th 2023, and historical posters from archives such as the Palestine Poster Project. Our title and theme is in reference to the first Intifada, and a tie-in to art and printmaking. Just as every Palestinian could pick up a stone to throw, so can every artist, designer, principled human raise their voice for Palestine and all colonized peoples.
Programming
Eastside will be hosting events throughout the duration of the exhibit, including a print sale and archiving day, art education and wheat paste making workshops, a play on Hind Rajab called They Have Names: Hind Rajab, film screenings and more. All events located at EastSide Arts Alliance unless specified elsewhere.
Opening Reception
Saturday, June 28th: 1pm-4pm
They Have Names: Hind Rajab, In Her Voice,
Saturday, July 12th: 5pm-5:45pm (Children’s Edition) & 6pm-7pm
Print Sale & Community Archiving Day
Saturday July 26th: 11am-4pm
Is Art Action? A 3-Part Political Education Series for Artists (Session 1, Class)
Thursday August 14: 6pm-8pm
Friday August 15: 7pm-9pm
Justice for Our Lives: Wheatpaste Workshop with Oree Original (Xicana Moratorium Block Party)
Saturday August 30: 1:30pm-3:30pm
Friday September 12th: 7pm-9pm
Is Art Action? A 3-Part Political Education Series for Artists (Session 2, Workshop)
Thursday August 21: 6pm-8pm
Is Art Action? A 3-Part Political Education Series for Artists (Session 3, Tour)
Thursday September 4: 6pm-8pm
Location: SUMUD Mural, 401 26th St, Oakland
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Curators
Palestinian Youth Movement Bay Area
The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) is an independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in exile worldwide as a result of the ongoing Zionist colonization and occupation of Palestine. We are dedicated to the freedom of our homeland and assume an active role as a youth in our national struggle for liberation.
Thad Higa
Thad Higa is a Korean-Okinawan American language worker. He works with artists' books, concrete poetry, printmaking, collage, typography, graphic design and living rooms. He investigates the intersections of language, technology, capitalism, white supremacy, and their roles in controlling perceptions of reality, value and legibility.
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Financial Support
If Every Poster Was a Stone and all related public programs and events are made possible with generous funding from EastSide Arts Alliance, the Korean American Artist Collective and the Alternative Exposure 2025 Grant from Southern Exposure.
Korean American Artist Collective
The Korean American Artist Collective (KAAC) is a group of artists dedicated to supporting, building, and amplifying works that are politically, socially, and culturally engaged, and rooted in the Korean American experience. We do this by creating spaces of connection, collaborating, exhibiting, and distributing works in all media. Our work lies at the intersection of Korean American identity, community, and justice.
Our mission is to provide resources and opportunities for Korean American artists to collaborate and tell their stories, thereby presenting the Korean American experience in all of its complexity and diversity. We believe that building solidarity with and providing support for Korean American artists will bring about a more just and liberatory future.
Southern Exposure
Southern Exposure (SoEx) is an artist-centered nonprofit organization committed to supporting visual artists. Through our extensive and innovative programming, SoEx strives to experiment, collaborate and further educate while providing an extraordinary resource center and forum for Bay Area and national artists and youth in our Mission District space and off-site, in the public realm.
In celebration of Eastside’s 25th Anniversary all programming throughout this year will be free of admission! Please consider donating to people powered programming so that EastSide can continue to grow and provide a haven for revolutionary thought and truth telling.
For media contact: Roberto Martinez, roberto@eastsideartsalliance.org
