Melanie Cervantes

Xicana artist and activist, born 1977

BiographyMelanie Cervantes is a Xicana artist and activist based in California, who is best known for her political screenprints and posters. Cervantes creates visual art that is inspired by the people around her and her communities’ desire for social transformation. In 2007 she co-founded Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration that produces screen prints, political posters, and multimedia projects that illustrate stories of struggle, resistance, and triumph in artwork that can be put back into the hands of the communities who inspire it. She has exhibited across the US and internationally and her work is in the university collections of Stanford and Dartmouth, and at the Library of Congress.

Cervantes is the inaugural recipient of the two-year Art In Resistance Fellowship (2019-2020), as well as being recognized as Dignidad Rebelde with The Piri Thomas & Suzie Dodd Cultural Activist Award from Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (2016), Community Award, National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies (2015), the NALAC Fund for the Arts(2012) and the Exemplary Leadership award from San Francisco State University (2010). She holds a BA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley

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