NAACP Mural Project at SPC

CREATED DURING THE ST. PHILIP'S COLLEGE EXPERIENCE WITH THE 2018 NAACP NATIONAL CONVENTION IN SAN ANTONIO, A MURAL COMMEMORATING UNITY, DIVERSITY ARRIVES AT THE COLLEGE FOR DISPLAY AUG. 6

Consisting of a single work, a powerful art exhibition upcoming at St. Philip's College is helping 300-year-old San Antonio brush up on unity and diversity.

An artist who can seemingly choose to make a difference with her messages of common sense anywhere she wants has also included the college on her growing grid of installations that range beyond society's offline electronic devices to online and galleries or high-visibility bus shelters to reach humanity's most important repository for information on unity and diversity among people---the heart.

The artist is Yocelyn Riojas and her debut project at the 120-year-old college as an artist-in-residence at the Austin-based organization Jolt is themed Diversity is Resistance.

The art has a world-unique pedigree. After being painted in mid-July by a sensitive team of creatives onsite at the NAACP National Convention in San Antonio, the work traveled with the artist to Austin for proper safekeeping once the 2018 convention for 10,000 ended. With transportation arranged, the art, the artist and the message will return to San Antonio, this time coinciding with the return of students to college and the one-year anniversary of the Turbon Student Center building of St. Philip's College. There it will promote unity, diversity and education while on public display in the college's hub of informal learning and corporate student governance throughout the perennially exciting fall opening of America's annual college, middle and high school seasons that include HBCU Week and Hispanic Serving Institution Week along with Hispanic Heritage Month in September.

Organizers are suggesting that the pre-and-post viewing experience of Diversity is Resistance can be enhanced by viewing the artist's work online, and thinking about diversity in new, personal ways.

All are welcome to view the informal arrival and pre-installation of the work during a meet-the-artist moment Aug. 6 at 10:30 a.m. in the college's Turbon Student Center (building marked as "13' on the interactive map) at 1801 Martin Luther King Drive. Project parking and admission for the informal arrival at the college are both free.

Yocelyn Riojas is a Latinx designer, illustrator, and resistance artist passionate about empowering her community through creating a voice for people of color. Her art depicts themes of Latinx culture, women empowerment, and issues surrounding immigration. Texts from two of Riojas' Instagram posts below document her mural project themed Diversity is Resistance.

This week @jolttexas and I we will be painting this piece as a community mural at the @naacp National Convention in San Antonio to be installed at St. Philip's College. It's crazy to believe last summer I was doodling alone in my room and now within just one year I've grown so much as an artist all thanks to y'all. ���� ¡Te quiero mi gente!

Yesterday I got the opportunity to paint the mural "Diversity is Resistance" with the @naacp Youth College Division and @jolttexas to be installed at St. Phillips College in San Antonio. It is a statement that Black and Brown communities stand together because our daily struggles and future liberation are tied together. Thank you @tiffanydloftin and Derrick Johnson President of the NAACP for having us.

Roijas will be accompanied for the Aug. 6 installation phase of the project by one of the leaders of Jolt---her sponsoring organization--- Jolt Lead Organizer Tess Ortega . Find details on the Diversity is Resistance mural project at the artist Instagram pages, here | here | here.

For details on project objectives at the college, contact Marsha Hall, the assistant to the President of the College, at 210-486-2866. (Image of project at 2018 NAACP Convention is a courtesy image)