A group of anti-abortion protesters stormed a feminist art parade taking place during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Vice President Kamala Harris, who would become the first female president of the United States, is scheduled to accept the party’s nomination tonight.
Artists Michele Pred, Whitney Bradshaw and Airco Caravan had organized the “Reproductive Freedom” event as a call to action, urging the public to speak out on women’s health. But in the middle of the procession, protesters burst out carrying signs equating abortion with genocide, drumming and shouting into megaphones.
“They literally infiltrated us – they marched in front of us, in our midst and behind us, and they were louder than us because they had drums,” Pred told me. “They harassed us and wouldn’t leave us alone.”
The march was part of “Into Action 2024,” a nonpartisan art exhibition held to coincide with the DNC. Billed as a “festival of art, ideas, and the power of choice” by two creative agencies, Task Force and Drive Agency, it includes over 200 artworks curated by Yosi Sergant and Jessy Tolkan.
Yosi Sergant and Jessy Tolkan, curators of Into Action 2024. Photo courtesy of Into Action 2024.
“We believe that artists are an integral and central part of the change process,” Sergant told me. “Art, by its very nature, is designed to challenge us and help us tackle very difficult and complex issues.”
The exhibition includes works by well-known activists such as Molly Crabapple, Favianna Rodriguez and Shepard Fairey. (Sergant commissioned Fairey’s famous Barack Obama Hope poster while working as a media consultant to the campaign.) There is also a 20-foot digital version of Keith Haring’s 90-foot CityKids talk about Liberty Banner banner Statue of Libertyreproduced with permission of the non-profit organization CityKids and the estate of the late artist.
“We would love to show the original, but unfortunately we don’t have the space or the ability to show it on that scale,” Sergant said, noting that “Into Action” is the 14th art exhibition he has organized in conjunction with political conventions across the country since Task Force opened in 2010.
“Into Action 2024.” Photo courtesy of Into Action 2024.
Since his youth, he has believed in the power of art to bring about political and social change. Sergant credits a chance encounter with Los Angeles guerrilla poster artist Robbie Conal, known for his political work, with setting him on the path to staging shows like “Into Action.”
“The gallery has works that deal with all the evils of our history – who has been able to participate in democracy and who has been excluded from it, and how that impacts the current problems we face as a society,” he added. “We have works here about maternal mortality rates, about police brutality, about mail-in voting, about credit card debt.”
What really caught the attention of conservative groups, however, was a collaboration with Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which set up a van outside the exhibit offering free vasectomies and medication abortions. Anti-abortion activists quickly arrived on site and tried to discourage anyone from seeking care there.
The Reproductive Freedom March by Michele Pred, Whitney Bradshaw and Airco Caravan, part of the Into Action 2024 exhibit coinciding with the DNC in Chicago, became a target of anti-abortion protesters. Photo by Michelle Hartney.
“The price of health care should not be victimization,” Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, wrote me in an email. “Abortion is a common life-saving health care option. We will continue to combat the hatred and prejudice our patients endure with empathy and kindness.”
Not only did the van generate breathless coverage on Fox News and other right-wing news outlets, it also put Into Action on the radar of protesters who had come to town for the general election and wanted to spread their anti-abortion stance.
The plan for Reproductive Freedom was to march from the exhibit to the DNC and then back again. When the protesters arrived, Pred initially thought they would mock the parade and then move on. But the anti-abortion group followed the artists all the way back to Into Action, where security had to prevent them from entering the exhibit.
The Reproductive Freedom March by Michele Pred, Whitney Bradshaw and Airco Caravan, part of the Into Action 2024 exhibit coinciding with the DNC in Chicago, became a target of anti-abortion protesters. Photo by Michelle Hartney.
“The artists were surrounded and felt overwhelmed,” said Sergant.
Pred has held 14 other feminist parades since 2017 and always warns participants not to get involved with people who hold oppositional views and might look for trouble. This was the first time it ever got to that point.
“This has never happened before, but it makes sense because the atmosphere is super charged and people come specifically to an event like this,” Pred said.
“The parades are always happy and fun and joyful, but this was none of that. We just acted noble. We didn’t react to them and just kept marching,” she added. “The most upsetting thing was that these were young women in their 20s, both white women and BIPOC women. It was really disturbing to see such young women opposed to abortion.”
Michele Pred and her inflatable sculpture Abortion is health care (Mifepristone and Misoprostol). Photo courtesy of Michele Pred.
Also in the exhibition, Pred’s inflatable sculptures of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol caused controversy. She is touring the country with two of these works to educate women in states with abortion bans about the continued availability of medical abortion. On September 4, they will be in New York to present “Body Freedom for Every(body),” which kicks off with Times Square Arts and the Armory Show.
“A lot of people still don’t know how to get them, where to get them, how common they are and how many women get them,” Pred said of the pills. “You can get them through the mail even if you live in a state where abortion is illegal.”
Works from Michele Pred’s “Power of the Purse” series featured in “Into Action 2024.” Photo courtesy of Michele Pred.
The exhibition also featured a selection of her signature glowing “Power of the Purse” sculptures, vintage handbags decorated with feminist messages made from electroluminescent wire. The latest entries in the series include two “Vote” handbags in “Brat” green and one emblazoned with the words “We are not going back,” a quote from Harris. (Pred and Harris actually went to elementary school together in Berkeley, California, though the two were in different third grade classes.)
Other feminist works in the exhibition included the work of Chicago artist Michelle Hartney The mother’s rightTogether with midwives, doulas and other volunteers, she sewed 1,200 hospital gowns, one for every U.S. woman who died in childbirth in 2013. The fabric is screen-printed with medicinal herbs that are traditionally administered during labor.
Michelle Hartney with her piece The mother’s right featured in Into Action 2024. Photo courtesy of Into Action 2024.
With work like this, Sergant hopes to make it clear that women’s health care should not be a partisan issue.
“Women’s reproductive health is a red flag,” Sergant said. “Artists are here, alongside activists and people across the country, raising the alarm and saying, ‘These rights are at risk and we’re here to stand up and make sure people are aware that these rights are at stake.'”
“Into Action 2024” will be shown in August at Resolution Studios Chicago, 2226 West Walnut Street, Chicago, Illinois. 17–22, 2024.
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