Hello! My name is Erica.
I am a Graphic Design major and printmaking minor graduating this May. I’ve applied to MFA programs in Book Arts and Printmaking, not-so-patiently awaiting responses. . . I’ve never blogged before, but I do have a portfolio website (ericahonson.com) and an artist page on Instagram where I share all my work (@des.print.book).
The blog Anniways is really interesting to me as they’re exploring “feminist, identity, adoption, art and all the ways [they] look at this world.” I like how they talk about current events, experiences, and news reports / journalism in a really relatable way. It’s personal, but factual, not just educating readers, but also asking them to consider their own place, identity, and actions within society.
My senior capstone project (read: thesis) is on global women’s rights, specifically education and reproductive rights. I have collected reports from many different organizations on the laws and statistics of women’s rights issues globally. When people are reduced to statistics in such a massive way, those consuming those statistics and reports, and even some of the phrasings within the reports, are really cold and impersonal. It’s as if people forget that these statistics represent real women, real lives, and real experiences. I hope to be able to incorporate what I learn in this class on ecofeminism into my capstone project.
“Environmental Justice in North Minneapolis” by Minnesota Women’s Press (click for link)
I grew up in Minnesota about 25 miles north of the Twin Cities. My dad worked in downtown Minneapolis, so I’m fairly comfortable in the city. When I was in highschool I started working for a non-profit performing arts center in North Minneapolis. While downtown is wealthy and cared for, North Minneapolis is poor and mostly populated by communities of color. Because of this, the city government has built the majority of its industrial polluters in North Minneapolis where the people in the community can’t afford to move anywhere else and just have to live in this increasingly toxic and polluted environment. Driving from my dad’s work to mine there was a noticeable difference in air quality; sometimes the air would make me cough or sneeze. At first I thought I just had bad allergies, as I’ve had in the past. However, I began to realize that I started to not feel well only while I was at work or in North Minneapolis.
In this article, Jennifer Hyvonen writes about Tishawn Penny’s experience as a single, black mom living in North Minneapolis and raising three kids, “who all have some combination of allergies, asthma, developmental delays, and behavioral disorders.” She tries to live as clean a life as possible with her children, but no matter what she does she cannot prevent them from getting these medical conditions or falling seriously ill. The City of Minneapolis is environmentally racist. Hyovonen notes that “in 2014, the University of Minnesota found that people of color are exposed to 38 percent high levels of nitrogen dioxide compared to white people.” She and other women within her community and local organizations conducted their own research and provided it to the Minnesota government. With this new information and support from the community, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency settled with Northern Metals Recycling, an emissions permit violator, to “cease Minneapolis operations by 2019 and pay $2.5 million in penalties.” While this is amazing work, there is still so much more to be done. The community is grateful for this change, but wondering what will happen to the building when the company leaves and if there will be long-lasting environmental damage in the following years.
https://womenspress.com/Content/Default/Grounded/Article/Environmental-justice-in-North-Minneapolis/-3/943/5298