Drink & Draw [VIRTUAL]: Drawing Our Alternatives for Chicago’s $1.7 Billion Police Budget

Guest Artists: Ruby Figueroa & Anders Zanichkowsky

The Chicago Police Department receives $1.7 Billion every year, which Black Lives Matter Chicago has pointed out is 40% of the entire city budget, and hugely disproportionate to services that keep people healthy and safe. At this Drink & Draw, we will use art and poetry to envision what our city would look like if we spent that money on things like housing, health care, and education. What inventive community resources would you like to see our city invest in? This kind of collective imagining is a powerful and necessary tool for conjuring a new reality that could make policing obsolete. Not from Chicago? Please join us to work on a new vision for your own community that answers the call from the Movement for Black Lives to defund police, and invest in the people.

Anders Zanichkowsky will lead us in some drawing prompts and Ruby Figueroa will take us through word-mapping exercises to write our way to a different future. Using any drawing, painting, or writing materials that you have on hand, you could make postcards to send to Mayor Lightfoot or your Alderperson, start drafting a larger artwork or poem, or simply use this process to clarify your own thoughts on this issue and have better conversations with friends and family.

To R.S.V.P. e-mail anders@spudnikpress.org.
Zoom Meeting info will be shared prior to the event.

Suggested Materials:

  • Drawing or painting materials (pencils, pens, crayons, paints, paper, sketchbooks, fabric, etc.)
  • Thicker paper or cardboard for postcards

Drink & Draw [Virtual] is a low-key drop-in social workshop devoted to staying creative from home. There are no pretensions and newcomers are always welcome, so invite your friends to join! Each Drink & Draw [Virtual] features a new guest artist and a new theme or project that uses pencil, paper, and everyday household supplies. Don’t have a sketchbook? Hosts will help you improvise. Events are currently scheduled each Wednesday through May 6. Find us on Zoom, a free app for your phone or computer. And of course: BYOB! 

Love the experience? Pitch in to our Venmo Tip Jar(@spudnikpress). This week’s donations will directly support Spudnik Press Cooperative and Black Trans Femme Collective.