Protest Posters for Rise and Resist

I made a series of protest posters and flyers for Rise and Resist, a grassroots direct action group. Our goal was to get our messages out in the press. We’re an all-volunteer group and funded by our members, not grants, so we are light, nimble and spend our money wisely. Here are some of our campaigns.

President’s Day Protest: No Wall No Way/Trump Is the Emergency

Anticipating that the news would want to cover the President’s Day 2019 protests, we created a slogan and several signs. About 200 activists showed up at 4pm on Friday to protest and do civil disobedience in front of Trump Tower on Columbus Circle. We got great press coverage, and MSNBC used our images as part of their lead graphic that night. The images outlasted that one newscycle. Photos of those posters at various protests were used to illustrate Trump-related stories in the news for several months.

TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AT COLUMBUS CIRCLE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/01/29: Members of the activist group Rise and Resist held an "Arrest Trump" protest outside the Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle in Manhattan the day when the State of the Union was supposed to be delivered by Trump before the government shutdown. Rise and Resist demands the arrest of Trump for his multiple serious crimes against the people of the United States and other countries. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 15: People affiliated with the protest group, Rise and Resist, block the street in front of Trump International Hotel on February 15, 2019 in New York City. The group is protesting U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration of a National Emergency in order to build his proposed border wall. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

 

 

Summer 2018: Abolish ICE and Return the Children

Late in 2017, our immigration working group stood up at one of our meetings and asked us for ideas about how to push back against the new, tighter immigration policies that were happening around the country. Another member piped up that we should Abolish ICE and ask our government to return to the pre-9/11 systems and laws that had worked well for decades. It was a radical call, so a bunch of us tumbled the idea around. We debuted this logo at as a poster in spring of 2018, just in time for it to catch fire in the media. We added “Return the Children/Devuelven los Niños” for the Families Belong Together march in June 2018.

Like many of my protest posters, these logos are meant to be seen as a tiny thumbnail in a larger photo or read from a block away.

Abolish ICE poster used as to illustrate an article in The New Yorker





This is an earlier immigration flyer that we’d used.

CITY HALL, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2018/07/30: Members of the activist group Rise and Resist organized a protest outside New York City Hall on July 30, 2018 as part of the four days of protests targeting local politicians and businesses profiting from ICE. Activists demand Mayor De Blasio to follow the lead of other cities, states, and lawmakers by standing up to ICE. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

ALEXANDER HAMILTON CUSTOM HOUSE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2018/07/31: Immigration advocates seeking to Abolish ICE gathered outside the Alexander Hamilton Custom House in Bowling Green where DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Vice President Mike Pence attended a DHS conference, to demand that Secretary Nielsen and VP Pence reunite the families cruelly separated through anti-immigrant policies. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 15: People hold signs that read "Abolish I.C.E." in front of Trump International Hotel on February 15, 2019 in New York City. The group is protesting U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration of a National Emergency in order to build his proposed border wall. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

People hold signs that read 'Abolish I.C.E.' in front of Trump International Hotel on February 15, 2019 in New York City. The group is protesting U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration of a National Emergency in order to build his proposed border wall. (Photo by Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

 

Madonna: Rise Up

One of our early banners was featured in Madonna’s Rise Up music video. We carried this in the 2017 Women’s March

Expel DeVos

We were thrilled to partner with several local educational unions to annoy Betsy Devos when she arrived for a fundraiser at Cipriani. I used the Cipriani brand colors just to give these a little kick. I wanted their staff to know that we were specifically making these posters for this event.



Climate Emergency

Our environmental group wanted a poster and tee shirt to bring to a variety of events, and we came up with a simple slogan: Climate Emergency.

KOCH PLAZA AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/03/24: Activists from Rise and Resist, with co-sponsors 350NYC, Food and Water Watch New York, and 350 Brooklyn gathered at the Koch Plaza outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC to call for a massive global response and urgent action to end our climate emergency and demanding the rejection of climate denial and delay. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

KOCH PLAZA AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/03/24: Activists from Rise and Resist, with co-sponsors 350NYC, Food and Water Watch New York, and 350 Brooklyn gathered at the Koch Plaza outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC to call for a massive global response and urgent action to end our climate emergency and demanding the rejection of climate denial and delay. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

 

 



From Gothamist's coverage of this event

CITY HALL, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/06/24: Climate activists and NYC Council members holding a banner as they held a rally on the steps of City Hall, New York, in support of Resolution 0864-2019 which, if passed, would declare a climate emergency and call for an immediate emergency mobilization to restore a safe climate. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

CITY HALL, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/06/24: Climate activists and NYC Council members holding a banner as they held a rally on the steps of City Hall, New York, in support of Resolution 0864-2019 which, if passed, would declare a climate emergency and call for an immediate emergency mobilization to restore a safe climate. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

 CITY HALL, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/06/24: Climate activists and NYC Council members holding a banner as they held a rally on the steps of City Hall, New York, in support of Resolution 0864-2019 which, if passed, would declare a climate emergency and call for an immediate emergency mobilization to restore a safe climate. (Photo by Gabriele Holtermann-Gorden/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

 

 

Impeach/Arrest/Indict Trump

We’ve made a series of banners and flyers to protest at Trump events and properties. Among the odder things we’ve done with it, we launched a 30′ long one into Grand Central with balloons before the 2019 State of the Union. It hung out there, delighting commuters and tourists alike.

My Congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, announced her support for impeachment and on-going investigations in front of a banner that I designed.

 

TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL AT COLUMBUS CIRCLE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/01/29: Members of the activist group Rise and Resist held an "Arrest Trump" protest outside the Trump International Hotel at Columbus Circle in Manhattan the day when the State of the Union was supposed to be delivered by Trump before the government shutdown. Rise and Resist demands the arrest of Trump for his multiple serious crimes against the people of the United States and other countries. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
THURGOOD MARSHALL UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2019/05/22: The day Trump's lawyers (Consovoy McCarthy Park) appeared to represent the Trumps and Trump Organization in the Southern District Court of New York, members of the NYC activist group Rise and Resist held a demonstration in front of the U.S. Courthouse in Foley Square to demand the release of Trump's financial records. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)