LaToya Ruby Frazier

In the 1940s the great songwriter Woody Guthrie placed a sticker on the front of his guitar that said “this machine kills fascists.” Visual artist, performer, and fine art photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier, who will deliver a lecture with images for the UCSB Arts & Lectures Race to Justice series on Thursday, February 25, doesn’t need a label for her camera because what that machine is doing speaks for itself. Frazier’s images blow away the webs of myth and clouds of distortion that obscure American industry’s deadly impact on communities of color. Working from her own experience as a native of Pennsylvania steel country, but moving well beyond that initial point of departure, Frazier has created an extraordinary body of work that testifies to the ongoing blights of environmental racism and discrimination in health care that disproportionately poison vulnerable populations. Her talk on Thursday night begins at 5pm and is titled “Art as Transformation: Using Photography for Social Change.” UCSB professor of art Kim Yasuda will join Frazier for a Q and A session following the presentation. To learn more about the event, or to purchase tickets and watch, visit artsandlectures.ucsb.edu.

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