{ "article": { "title" : "Sanyu Nicolas", "author" : "Sanyu Nicolas", "category" : "interviews", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/global-resistance-art-sanyu-nicolas", "date" : "2025-02-04 15:33:00 -0500", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/sanyu-4.jpg", "excerpt" : "", "content" : "EIP: Your work has layers of queer imagery, erotica and fantasy; do you agree with this sentiment and can you elaborate?SANYU: I absolutely agree. There’s so much beauty and freakish wonder in nature and beyond and that’s what drives the fantasy aspect of my work; melting that which fascinates me together and forming these fantastical moments. A lot of my work explores the beauty and wildness of queer sensuality and sexuality in this kind of shame shedding practice. I think shame serves a purpose in things like community justice and holding people accountable and mitigating harm… but when it comes to sexuality and queer identity, shame can be so paralytic and stifling in self- expression. So I like to push that boundary and depict queer erotica in this pretty and beautiful but sometimes messy and gnarly swell of fantasy.EIP: You do tarot readings, considering that you are a spiritual person; how did that journey crossover with your work ?SANYU: Yeah every Tuesday I try to host what I call Tarot Tuesday where people send in questions to my instagram story and I provide them with a tarot reading. The crossover came sometime after I recognized that my tattoo practice was also a spiritual thing. I’ve spoken in the past about spirit trails and how I think we leave a non-linear impact or imprint throughout existence that affects the energy of spaces. I think this also correlates to the spiritual, conversational and physical experience of tattooing and tarot. I was only a little into tarot at the time that I started and it was mostly a fascination with the imagery of different card decks and it grew to me learning more of the story. I like to think that through tattooing I help others in their journey of self evolution and expression and tarot is a similar kind of helping.EIP: When did you start illustration? Did painting come first? What feels like your passion in the present moment?SANYU: Drawing came first. I started drawing when I was really young. I was a really sick child and diagnosed with Lupus at 8 years old. This was a catalyst of sorts for this intrinsic need to transmute the pain and confusion and so drawing was just an awesome channel for me. Right now my passion is music. I had a music project called Cryptolect some years ago that’s currently evolving into a new project called Tandem Mirror. It’s trippy and triumphant and electronic and I have a deep raspy voice that I’m exploring with. I met a man at a restaurant last year in Boston who got super tearful when he heard me speaking and really urged me to not waste my voice and I think about that a lot. So I’m working on my creative development and confidence to hopefully use this voice. I don’t want to let him down lol but really I don’t want to leave any regrets on the table.EIP: We wanna know your inspiration reference wise, what are some crucial films, photographers and artists who deeply resonate with you?SANYU: I try not to indulge in too much work of other artists and try not to draw too much inspiration because I’ve found that to keep my artistic vision and voice true to myself I need periods of introspection. But I am fascinated by nature, the woods, lava, the ocean and the cosmos.. friends and queer people .. some artists I admire are Octavia Butler, Wangechi Mutu, Silvio Cadelo, Bjork, Imogen Heap, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, Ex:Re, Arca, Fatima Al Qadiri, Caroline Polachek, Florence, my girlfriend Julissa Emile who is a poet..I also like a lot of old black and Arab disco and house music.. also video games like Bloodborne, Disco Elysium, Mass Effect, Deus Ex and anime like Made in Abyss, Serial experiments Lain, Kino’s Journey, Dorohedoro, Genius Party… as far as films something recent I watched that I’m so enamored by is Scavengers Reign. There’s also The Event (short animation), Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Handmaiden, The Shape of Water….. I also really love cartoons like Amphibia, Infinity Train and Summer Camp Island… Honestly the well of admiration is vastEIP: Tell us about your cultural heritage and ancestry, where does it show up in your work and daily practices?SANYU: Most of my family is from Haiti. My mother and father are both from Haiti. Although I was raised catholic I always felt resistant to the imagery and suffocated by the religious dogma. I definitely feel like my Haitian ancestry has some deeply spiritual implications and reverberations. I think it shows up in the ways I shape my spiritual practice without restriction. I take meditative baths and keep an alter. I also like to put positive incantations or affirmations into tattoos (with consent). I do rituals and journal.I’ve been asking myself how to speak on my political views without my thoughts seeming convoluted or confusing but I now realize I just have to speak as I am. The political climate is precarious and confusing and so I think my thoughts reflect that reality. I notice more and more that history is a culmination of progressions and regressions. I know where my moral compass lies and so I’m spending some time understanding the context of all this degenerative backsliding that’s happening.I have insomnia and so for a few nights past I was up until about 4am doing historical analysis and learning about the situation in Syria, researching things like Ba’athism, the Alawites, the resistance… I was looking into France, Britain, Egypt, president Nasser and the Suez Canal. I learned some Palestinian history and Haitian history. I even went so far as the year 622 learning about the ancient city of Yathrib and even further into some Roman Emperor named Hadrian. And this past Haitian Independence Day I did research on Haiti’s history as the first black-led republic to free itself from enslavement and thinking about the fact that they’re still suffering for that.I’ve been thinking a lot about ambivalence and attempting an ambivalent approach to the way I understand the complex political dynamics of the world and history. A pattern I notice amidst some of the convolution is that a lot of deeply complex issues have historically cyclical behaviors. So many political pains of the present have such old seeds. I’m not sure if an ambivalent approach is best because I ask myself if in some ways it indirectly furthers the status quo.The status quo being something that marginalized people are forced to evolve quickly from and to stay ahead of because they’re unable to really exist within it peacefully.How does progress become sustainable without cyclical history marring it back to violence? I think some deeply intersectional and critical conversations are necessary. There needs to be systemic change that takes in to account intersectionality with things like accountability, forgiveness, redemption, race, class, age, gender, sex, sexuality, reparations, technology, biology, climate change…. Everything in tandem and everything overlapping and interdependent… it feels so heavy to talk about especially knowing I don’t have the jurisdiction or credentials to change anything on a higher level but I do have the ability to make changes even if on a smaller scale. Even by existing within the intersections that I exist in. Black, woman, lesbian, artist.Something I’ve been saying to myself is “insistence on my existence is an act of resistance”… even in my day-to-day choices. My spiritual practice, what I read, how I dress, products I buy, the music I listen to, my choice to sing to my plants and hug random trees and my choice to love and date a black woman and uplift black women any chance I get. I believe every day is an opportunity to make a conscious effort. I also believe that it is enough for me to simply exist and every day is an opportunity for me to find rest. My rest is radical too." } , "relatedposts": [ { "title" : "Socialist Girl Summer: How Capitalism Spent Billions to Demonize Socialism — And Why That Spell Is Breaking", "author" : "Céline Semaan", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/socialist-girl-summer-demonize-socialism-why-spell-breaking", "date" : "2025-07-03 22:00:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_SocialistGirlSummer.jpg", "excerpt" : "As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.", "content" : "As the founder of Slow Factory, I design everything you see—every typeface, every framework, every campaign. I don’t outsource the vision. I shape it. And I started Slow with one goal in mind: to rebrand socialism, justice, and environmentalism—not as niche causes, but as cultural movements essential to our survival. Design isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s about power. And I use design as a tool to imagine, demand, and build better worlds.For nearly a century, the United States has spent billions of dollars, media bandwidth, and educational muscle to ensure one thing: that the word socialism would strike fear in the public imagination. That’s not because socialism failed. It’s because socialism threatens power—especially the kind of power that hoards land, labor, and life for profit.But something is shifting. The re-election of Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani in New York—an openly socialist organizer who unapologetically defends tenants, workers, and Palestinians—marks a rupture in that narrative. A new generation no longer flinches at the word. They embrace it. They are building it. They are winning.But before we can move forward, we must understand what we are up against.A Propaganda Empire Built on FearFrom Cold War cinema to first-grade civics books, socialism was rendered as the enemy. Not because it endangered democracy, but because it questioned private property, militarism, and capitalism’s sacred cow: unlimited profit.The U.S. government, backed by its capitalist elite, responded with a sweeping cultural war. The Red Scare and McCarthyism turned union leaders, civil rights activists, and artists into traitors. The FBI surveilled and imprisoned people for organizing against poverty and racial capitalism. Hollywood blacklists sanitized storytelling and sold capitalist mythology as aspirational truth. CIA coups, from Chile to Iran to the Congo, dismantled democratically elected socialist governments because they dared to nationalize oil, land, and education. This wasn’t a fear of failure. It was a fear of redistribution.Why the Spell Is BreakingCapitalism made big promises. But it delivered gig work, burnout, debt, climate collapse, and endless war. A growing number of people—especially Gen Z and Millennials—aren’t buying the myth anymore.According to Pew Research (2023), 70% of younger Americans support some form of socialism.Mutual aid groups, public power campaigns, and tenant unions are taking root in cities across the U.S.And politicians like Mamdani, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee, and others are bringing these values to governance—publicly, unapologetically.This isn’t a rebrand. This is a return. A remembering.Designing LiberationDesign has always been political. It’s a tool used by empires—and also a tool of resistance. Every successful propaganda campaign used design to criminalize solidarity and glorify capitalism.Mid-century posters showed socialism as monstrous: Stalin as an octopus devouring the planet. Red flags engulfing American homes in flames. Inspectors peering through windows. These visuals weren’t neutral. They were weapons.But today, we’re flipping the frame.As a designer, I use visual culture to demystify and disrupt these fear-based narratives. We design not just what we see—but how we see. And when we shift that perspective, we make new futures possible.My work at Slow Factory has always been about this: telling stories rooted in care, equity, and ecological justice. Whether through open education, cultural programming, or climate justice campaigns, I’m reprogramming what power looks like—and who it belongs to.Zohran Mamdani and the Future of StorytellingMamdani’s victory isn’t just electoral. It’s cultural. He won while calling for an end to genocide in Gaza, organizing with workers instead of corporations, and speaking openly about the harms of capitalism and imperialism.He won while the establishment poured millions into defeating him.His win is proof: the old script is wearing thin.Reclaiming the Word, Reclaiming the WorldSocialism has always been about care—public housing, free healthcare, universal education, the right to rest and exist without fear. These are not fringe demands. These are the bare minimum for a livable planet.The villain was never socialism. The villain was the empire that told us we didn’t deserve care unless we could afford it.We are entering the Possible Futures era. And it’s being led by people who no longer fear justice—but are terrified of its absence.Designing that future means unlearning propaganda and replacing it with stories of survival, resistance, and imagination. We must reclaim the visual language of dignity—transforming symbols of domination into frameworks for liberation.We don’t just need to rebrand socialism.We need to remember it.And redesign everything." } , { "title" : "Who’s Profiting from Genocide?: What Francesca Albanese’s Report Reveals—and Why It Matters for the Climate", "author" : "EIP Editors", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/profiting-from-genocide-what-francesca-albanese-report", "date" : "2025-07-02 18:33:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Francesca_Report.jpg", "excerpt" : "Let’s be clear: genocide is never just a military operation. It’s an economy.", "content" : "Let’s be clear: genocide is never just a military operation. It’s an economy.This week, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released a groundbreaking report—“From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide” naming dozens of global corporations complicit in and benefitting from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. The report makes what many of us have long known impossible to ignore: multinational corporations are not just “doing business” with Israel—they are profiting from displacement, resource theft, and mass death.And it’s not just harming people. It’s killing the planet.Albanese’s report lays out how corporations across defense, tech, finance, construction, and agriculture are directly enabling Israel’s assault on Gaza. This is not indirect. This is not abstract. These companies are not passive observers—they are profiteers. Weapon Manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Boeing, BAE Systems, and General Dynamics are supplying the bombs raining down on hospitals and refugee camps. Tech Giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Palantir provide the cloud computing, AI surveillance, and targeting software that power Israel’s military intelligence. Construction Firms like Caterpillar, HD Hyundai, and Volvo provide bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes—often paid for with public funds or foreign aid. Hospitality Platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb list vacation rentals on stolen Palestinian land, laundering settler colonialism into leisure. Financial Institutions including BlackRock, Barclays, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank fund Israeli military bonds and invest in all the above sectors. This is what an economy of genocide looks like: global, profitable, and deeply entrenched in the status quo.Genocide and Ecocide Are Two Sides of the Same CoinThe same companies enabling genocide are actively destroying ecosystems. This isn’t a coincidence—it’s a pattern.Caterpillar, already infamous for displacing Palestinian families, is a major contributor to fossil fuel extraction and mining projects that poison Indigenous lands in the Global South.Palantir, which boasts about using AI to “optimize” military surveillance, is also deployed by ICE in the United States to track, detain, and deport climate refugees and migrants.Netafim, an Israeli irrigation company profiting off stolen Palestinian water, is celebrated as “sustainable innovation” in the ag-tech world—masking eco-apartheid as green tech.In short: genocide and ecocide share a supply chain. And we need to cut the cord.Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer, supplies drones and surveillance tech to police at the U.S.-Mexico border—and to ICE.HP and Google provide AI and cloud infrastructure for the Israeli military while also marketing themselves as “green tech” leaders.Chevron and ExxonMobil continue to fund and extract from the Eastern Mediterranean, leveraging Israel’s military occupation to secure infrastructure.This is greenwashing meets genocide—a deadly symbiosis between environmental harm and militarized violence.What This Means for UsThis moment calls for more than statements. It calls for a total redefinition of what sustainability means—because there is nothing sustainable about silence in the face of genocide.If you are a brand, an artist, a designer, a policymaker, a curator, or a student: you are being called in. Your work, your budget, your institution may be entangled—knowingly or not—with the companies Albanese has exposed. Now is the time to do the work.What We Must Do—Now1. Follow the MoneyStudy the companies listed in Albanese’s report. If you work with—or fund—any of them, ask questions. Divest. Cut ties.2. Demand Institutional AccountabilityMuseums, universities, nonprofits, and sustainability conferences are often quietly sponsored by companies profiting from Israeli apartheid. Push for transparency. Refuse complicity. Call it what it is.3. Connect the StrugglesThe fight for Palestinian liberation is not separate from climate justice. This is all one system: extraction, occupation, militarization, profit. As we say often: everything is political—because everything is connected.4. Build and Invest in AlternativesMutual aid, abolitionist design, food sovereignty, fossil-free infrastructure, and Indigenous stewardship—these are not just buzzwords. They are the way forward. Center Global South leadership. Fund frontline communities.5. Say PalestineRefuse the pressure to sanitize. Refuse the pressure to stay neutral. In the face of genocide, neutrality is complicity. If your liberation practice does not include Palestine, it is incomplete.A Propaganda Crisis, TooThese companies aren’t just selling tools of war—they’re shaping narratives. They sponsor art exhibitions, climate conferences, design summits. They greenwash occupation and brand apartheid as “security innovation.”The most dangerous lie today is that “sustainability” can coexist with genocide. It can’t.No climate justice without Palestinian liberation. No sustainable future while apartheid is profitable.So What Can We Do?DivestCampaign for your workplace, university, or city to divest from the companies named in the report. Check your retirement funds. Audit your donors. Pull the receipts.ExposeIf your favorite brand or cultural institution is collaborating with Amazon, Palantir, or Caterpillar—say something. Publicly. Email them. Call it what it is: complicity.Cut the Narrative LoopRefuse to use language that normalizes occupation: “conflict,” “both sides,” “retaliation.” This is genocide.Build AlternativesSupport community-owned energy, Palestinian agricultural cooperatives, and local solidarity economies. Join land back and degrowth movements—they are connected.Organize for PolicyPush for legislation that bans military trade with apartheid regimes and prohibits companies from profiting off human rights abuses.Tell the Truth, ConsistentlyUse your platform to amplify the names, the facts, the systems. Share this report. Write your own version. Make the invisible visible.The Link Between Genocide and Climate HarmWe can’t talk about genocide without talking about resource theft, land colonization, and environmental destruction. The same weapons being used to bomb hospitals and schools in Gaza are being manufactured by companies who also profit from climate collapse—polluting ecosystems, propping up fossil fuel economies, and creating the conditions for displacement that militarized borders are then built to contain.We must hold the line. Genocide is not inevitable—it is designed. And anything that is designed can be dismantled. If we want to build a just, livable future, we must start by divesting from the machinery of death—and investing in life.Let this be the beginning." } , { "title" : "What Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” Really Means", "author" : "EIP Editors", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/what-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-really-means", "date" : "2025-07-02 11:21:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_bbb-00eaee.jpg", "excerpt" : "Let’s be honest: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t beautiful at all. It’s dangerous. It’s a massive attack on our rights, our environment, and our ability to live with dignity—no matter how they try to sell it to us, we all know it’s bad.", "content" : "Let’s be honest: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t beautiful at all. It’s dangerous. It’s a massive attack on our rights, our environment, and our ability to live with dignity—no matter how they try to sell it to us, we all know it’s bad.This is the kind of policy that sounds good on cable news, but when you look closely, it’s a disaster for people and the planet. So let’s break it down, plain and simple.What Is It?Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (yes, that’s really what it’s called) is a sweeping package of tax cuts, spending shifts, and policy changes that would: Cut taxes for the rich by over $1.5 trillion over 10 years1, with nearly half of the benefits flowing to the top 1%2. Slash social services like Medicaid and food assistance—proposing $2 trillion in cuts over the decade3, including: $900 billion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act3 $200 billion from SNAP (food stamps)3 $25 billion from Supplemental Security Income for disabled people3 Give more money to ICE and the military—$800 billion in new military spending4, and $25 billion for expanded ICE operations, border walls, and detention centers5. Roll back climate protections and expand fossil fuels—$100 billion in subsidies and tax breaks for oil, gas, and coal companies6. Criminalize poverty and deepen surveillance of immigrants.It’s one big gift to billionaires and fossil fuel CEOs—and one big punishment for everyone else.How Does It Hurt People? More people will lose healthcare. The bill adds new “work requirements” to Medicaid, meaning if you’re not working enough hours (or can’t prove you are), you could lose your coverage. Up to 10 million people7—many of them women, disabled folks, and people of color—could be pushed out of the system. Food assistance is being cut. Adults aged 55 to 64 would lose access to SNAP (food stamps) if they don’t meet new restrictions. This hits low-income people who are already struggling—especially elders. Family separation and deportation will increase. The bill pours $25 billion into ICE, deportation forces, and border militarization5. It turns migration into a crime, rather than a response to global injustice, climate collapse, or colonial borders. Electricity costs will go up. By rolling back clean energy incentives and increasing reliance on fossil fuels, the bill is projected to raise electricity prices for U.S. households by up to 15% over the next decade8. This especially burdens low-income families and seniors living on fixed incomes. What About the Climate?This bill is a disaster for the planet: It cuts support for solar, wind, EVs, and home energy upgrades—slashing $80 billion in incentives9 over the decade. It opens up public lands for more oil and gas drilling—projected to generate $100 billion in giveaways and lease sales to fossil fuel companies6. It silences climate monitoring—especially in schools and marginalized communities.It’s not just a step backwards. It’s a full sprint toward climate collapse.Who Wins? Who Loses?Winners: Oil companies, who will receive $100 billion in new subsidies and tax breaks6 Weapons manufacturers and defense contractors Landlords and billionaires, reaping hundreds of billions in tax cuts1 Private healthcare and prison contractors benefiting from societal painLosers: Working families, who will see $2 trillion in cuts to basic services3 Climate organizers Disabled folks, elders, undocumented communities The Global South The Earth itselfThe Bigger PictureThis bill is not about economics. It’s about power. It’s about reshaping the country so that rich people have fewer obligations and more control—while everyone else has fewer rights and more surveillance.It’s designed to distract, divide, and destroy. And let’s be clear: this is part of a global pattern. From Gaza to the U.S.-Mexico border, from Lebanon to Louisiana, we are watching the violent expansion of authoritarian policies masked as “law and order” or “economic growth.” These are tools of white supremacy and colonial capitalism. And they are killing us.What Can We Do?This is a fight we can win—but only if we organize, locally and globally. Here’s how: Educate your community. Break down this bill in simple terms. Talk about who benefits and who suffers. Share this piece. Host teach-ins. Pressure lawmakers. Call your reps. Tell them to reject this bill and any cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, climate protections, or immigrant rights. Build alternatives. Support mutual aid, public power campaigns, climate justice organizations, and local cooperatives. Design what could be. Tell the story. The people in power want us to believe this is normal. It’s not. Speak truth. Use your platform. Name what’s happening. Center care, not capital.This bill is a blueprint for an empire in decline. But we don’t have to go down with it. We can write a different story—one rooted in solidarity, in justice, and in collective imagination.This is not the end. This is a beginning. If we want a future, we’ll have to design it together. Tax Policy Center, Distributional Analysis of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2017–2027 (link) ↩ ↩2 Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Major Tax Provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2018 (link) ↩ Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Trump’s Budget Cuts Would Cause Severe Hardship for Millions, 2020 (link) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 Congressional Budget Office, Analysis of the 2020 Defense Budget, 2019 (link) ↩ Migration Policy Institute, Funding for Immigration Enforcement and Border Security, 2018–2020 (link) ↩ ↩2 Friends of the Earth & Oil Change International, Fossil Fuel Subsidies in Trump’s Budget, 2019 (link) ↩ ↩2 ↩3 Kaiser Family Foundation, Estimated Medicaid Coverage Losses Under Work Requirements, 2019 (link) ↩ Energy Innovation Policy & Technology LLC, Analysis of Proposed Rollback of Clean Energy Incentives and Consumer Energy Costs, 2020 (link) ↩ Congressional Research Service, Energy Tax Policy and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 2019 (link) ↩ " } ] }