Monica Trinidad creates safer communities with her movement posters.
By Michelle Zacarias
(Photo: Samantha Cabrera Friend/City Bureau)
This profile is part of our How a Community Heals series.
The first time I saw Monica Trinidad’s name pop up was in 2014 when she was one of eight organizers in We Charge Genocide, a now-retired coalition of Chicago activists calling for police accountability, who took their complaints to the United Nations Committee Against Torture hearing in Geneva, Switzerland. After speaking to the council, We Charge Genocide members stood up in protest, holding up pictures of Dominique “Damo” Franklin, a 23-year-old Black youth who died in Chicago after Chicago police officers shot him with a stun gun three times while he was handcuffed. Alongside her co-organizers, Trinidad stood with her hands interlocked and raised for 30 minutes.
Nowadays, whether she is co-running an artist collective, hosting a radical literature podcast, curating a poster series, or being a cat mom, Trinidad never shies away from an opportunity to support her community. While art has long been a means to spread awareness and solidarity for social movements, Trinidad’s signature poster art gained even more recognition amid the George Floyd uprisings last summer and can now be spotted throughout Chicago, including the windows of the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport.
Her images always center on Black and indigenous organizers, queer and trans individuals, women, disabled folks and others who have historically carried the weight of social justice movements on their backs. Messages like “We Are Worthy of Rest,” and “Defend Communities, Defund Police,” on her posters help amplify messages of community care and collective liberation. Most recently, Trinidad’s “Hope Is A Discipline” postcard art (a direct quote from esteemed abolitionist Mariame Kaba) was chosen as the cover of Kaba’s new best-selling book, “We Do This ‘til We Free Us.”
What has always stood out about Trinidad is her focused demeanor—the meticulous and strategic way she handles unforeseen circumstances. Anyone who spends more than five seconds around Trinidad can immediately tell she’s a Virgo. The 34-year-old queer, Latinx Chicago artist has no problems commanding a room, virtual or otherwise.
Growing up in the East Side neighborhood of Chicago, Trinidad learned early that community needs are not met if the people do not demand it for themselves. Her first lesson came directly from watching her mom.
She recalls, when she was in elementary school, her mother showing up and demanding to speak with staff and administrators after reports of mold in the bathroom: “She was out here getting in trouble because she saw Black and brown kids having to exist in these conditions, and she said, ‘I’m going to do anything I can to expose that.’”
Trinidad says growing up where environmental racism is an ongoing issue showed her the value of collective action as a source of healing. Recently, activists from the Southeast Side led a month-long hunger strike against the relocation to East Side of a metal recycling plant formerly known as General Iron that’s had several EPA violations, efforts that Trinidad supports and hopes to join soon.
On the creative side, she credits her father for her desire to heal through art. “My dad is also an artist, and so I was inspired by his constant creativity and expression of his experiences through his art,” says Trinidad. “That always stayed with me in my adult years.”
Trinidad collaborated on politically-themed zines for the Brown and Proud Press as early as 2012; however, the creator humbly claims that she didn’t consider herself an “artist” until her late twenties. “It wasn’t until 2016 when my work was put into the permanent collection at the DuSable Museum of African American History, that I thought, wow, my art really is powerful. I want to keep documenting this,” she says.
Although the pandemic has limited in-person gatherings, Trinidad embraces digital art for its accessibility. One of the aspects that initially inspired her to pursue digital illustrative content was that it could be so widely circulated. “It’s more than just one painting you see on a wall one time,” she says of her “We Keep Each Other Safe” poster series.
Despite being a bit of a workaholic, Trinidad strongly encourages her community to take time to reset. Rest, she says, is part of a greater collective effort to heal. “If we don’t have our basic needs met, we can’t keep going, and we’re not going to win.”
Still, the fight for justice is far from over, and Trinidad intends to be in it for the long haul. She says taking care of herself gives others permission to do the same. With several collaborative projects in the works, the pandemic isn’t slowing her down any time soon.
“How we show up now, in these moments, shapes our future” isn’t just her artwork mantra; it’s a testament to how Trinidad leads her life.
Michelle Zacarias (she/her) is an award-winning journalist from Chicago, currently based out of Oakland. She has previously written for Teen Vogue, The TRiiBE, Latina Mag, People’s World and more. In 2020, Michelle was inducted into Chicago’s LGBT Hall of Fame for her contributions to the field, and community organizing work.
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