I illustrated these poses originally for Yogi Jill Guerra who teaches Yoga to the children in public schools here in the Bay Area. Jill gave me some art direction for these awards which can be used for students of all kinds, not just Yoga students. You can cop them here "The Love Curriculum".
Ongoing series of inspiration that keeps me going, creating, living, and moving forward. Click the label "Inspiration board" to see more. Ok, starting from the top and going left to right, top to bottom:
1. Low Rider Roll Models-love this series 2. Hiroshi Yoshida- wood block print! 3. DJ Harrison-dj, musician, producer 4. Hack the hood-just worked w/them.Love what they do 5. Feathers- great graphic novel for kids 6. How I built this-Great podcast about business 7. Kim English-incredible painter 8. Til Infinity-documentary on The Souls of Mischief 9. Allmos- LP by Allan Cole (Stuyvesants) 10. Fathers Incorporated- An org about empowering dads of color 11. Uncivil-Podcast debunking civil war myths 12. A Rocky start- a kids bk by Anthony Tucker 13. Bao Pham- Illustrator 14. Crown-A great children's bk about hair 15. Bao Phi-a great poet/author 16. The Black Press- a documentary about Black owned newspapers.
Just wanted to let folks know "Furqan's First" is back in stock (2nd printing). You can get it from me directly. If you need a large number of books , please contact me at info@robdontstop.com. You can get the book through "We Buy Black.com", Etsy, and from your local bookstore.
Check out this awesome video showcasing some of the attendees, fans, creators, and founders of The Latino Comics Expo! For more info please follow them at Latino Comics Expo.
This is a story by Laurin Mayeno, the author of "One of a kind, like me" and this is an awesome heart wrenching animation about her son and her son's father. For those that don't know, El Salvador and other countries like Guatemala and Nicaragua were doing their best to throw US forces and puppets out of their countries but were facing US trained mercenaries, deaths quads, and several coup's to control those countries, their people, and their wealth. Please watch!
Recently, I got the chance to work with Oakland based organization Hack the Hood (HTH) on multiple illustrations for an internal document showcasing how they help young empower, attract, and retain youth of color in tech companies. Who is HTH? A dope tech based organization run by Susan Mernit and Zakiya Harris in Oakland California. I am extremely honored to work with them and so happy to help contribute to their success and the amazing work they do.
With the help of organizers, techies, teachers, activists, and students HTH is bringing young people of color into the tech world where their talent and presence are severely underrepresented. It was just three or four years ago that folks like Tracy Chou helped to get huge tech companies to release their diversity numbers. And when they did the picture that most poc already know became more clear; the world of tech is primarily white and male. News outlets like Wired, NY Times, The Guardian, Time, Fortune, Pbs, NPR, and more have written about the problem which not only ignores poc, but marginalizes women, and privileges white males. The bigger companies have vowed to do better, but their hiring, funding, and employee retention practices are not changing fast enough.
Organizations like Hack the Hood,Black Girls Code, Code 2040, Qeyno Labs, The Hidden Genius Project, Game heads, and a few others stopped waiting and started local and national programs to bring in the young people that these companies claimed did not exist or that they could not find. HTH is making paths to employment, wealth, upward mobility, innovation, and power that I wish I had as a kid. I'm emotionally ecstatic that they exist!
These are just some of the many illustrations I completed for HTH, but what they are essentially doing is demonstrating why tech companies must approach finding, working, with, and keeping youth of color differently. Inherent in this is the fact that youth of color come to the table with different cultural practices, knowledge, challenges, and values. Want to get involved? I thought so! GO HERE.
And please watch videos about their young scholars on youtube!
BIG thank you to Susan, Zakiya for bringing me in.
Had the pleasure of working with journalist Jamilah King for the new year. She's an amazing journalist who has worked for Al Jazeera, Mic.com, The California Sunday Magazine, and now Mother Jones. Please support her and read more about her here at www.JamilahKing.com
I'm happy to announce that my paintings from the past two years on the theme of Black History Month will be up at the Burlingame library here in the Bay Area. If you're around, please come by and say hello. At the event I will have prints, and there will be lots of artwork up to see.
Hello folks, happy new year again. I just got a chance to paint to another portrait of a young poet in Oakland for Chapter 510 and Oakland Public library. Hope you like it. The first image is the final design, the second is of the poet performing this past friday at Chapter 510 alongside some young poets. And the last is a final image. Follow them on Instagram.
I'm super excited to tease a little bit of this new book that I'm in. Its called "Thirteen ways of looking at a Black Boy" and you can preorder it at Penny Candy Books. Happy new year!
From the publisher: We published 7 books at Penny Candy Books in 14 months, between Oct 2016 and Dec 2017. Now it’s 2018 and we are so thrilled and fortunate to have 8 books coming out this year. The first, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy by #tonymedina, is out on Feb 13, right in the middle of #blackhistorymonth. A book of poems illustrated by 13 different artists, this amazing book shows that the lives of young black men are far more complex and far richer than portrayed by popular media. Thank you to all the artists for their brilliant work: @floyd.cooper.4 @cozbi @skiphillart @tlynnmcknight @robert_tres #keithmallett @popcorn.on.mute @keshabruce @macabrii #rgregorychristie #ekuaholmes @javakasteptoe #chandracox
