Art Encounters Human Rights in Eagle Rock

A multi-medium, multicultural exhibit, “Get Up! Stand Up for Human Rights!” opens tomorrow, Friday, Jan. 14, at the . Sponsored by the human rights organization Habi Arts and a Filipino women's group, SiGAw, the show will feature the work of 14 artists as well as a group mural and live performances on opening night. 

The show’s co-curators, Liza Camba and Melissa Roxas, encouraged the artists during a three-month workshop across much of Southern California to explore human rights issues through performance, stenciling and documentary films. Founded by the internationally renowned Filipino American artist and activist Papo de Asis, who died in 2005, Habi Arts strives to unite all cultures through artistic expression. 

One of Habi Arts' main goals is to “reclaim Philippine identity, heritage, and traditions”—and the workshops and corresponding exhibit focus on issues of human rights, both in the Philippines and locally. 

“The Eagle Rock community responded enthusiastically,” says Liza Camba. “'Get Up! Stand Up!' generated a lot of interest in Eagle Rock as well as from the Greater Los Angeles area extending to Long Beach, Riverside, and San Diego.” The widespread support for the show is a sign that “there is a need and a desire within the Filipino community, Asian Pacific American community and Los Angeles to address issues affecting Filipinos, a fast-growing population here in Southern California,” adds Camba. 

The workshops attracted more than just the Filipino community, says Roxas. “The project included a diverse group of instructors and participants from the Filipino, Latino, Chinese, and Haitian communities—they were students, workers, professionals, teachers, artists, non-artists and human rights advocates.”

Roxas believes that human rights issues are inextricably connected on a global scale. “What is happening in one part of the world is not an isolated incident,” she points out. “It is both a product and the end result of what is happening in other parts of the world.”

Among the participants at the workshop were overseas Filipino workers who were brought to the United States from the Philippines and then were allegedly abused by their employers here, Roxas says. The workers, represented by a human rights group called Luha Ko, made local headlines in 2010 when their human trafficking scandal came to light. The Filipino American newspaper Asian Journal reported that the group consisted of 11 Filipinos who left their jobs at a hotel in Biloxi, MS, because of unfair treatment.

“Through the arts, we can engage the overall community with important and emerging issues,” says Camba. 

After several busy nights getting the exhibit finished for Friday, Camba and Roxas look forward to future programs.

“Considering we had overwhelming interest and were able to accomplish so much—and given this was an entirely volunteer-run grassroots effort with a modest budget—we are hopeful about future initiatives,” Camba says. 

“Get Up! Stand Up for Human Rights!” will have an opening reception at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock on Friday, Jan. 14, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. The exhibit concludes Feb. 5.