Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts With You

Description:	Letterpress. Edition of 15. This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalitions focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content. I was not too sure about who or what Al-Mutanabbi was when Professor Daley gave our class the option of doing a broadside for one of our assignments. But I was interested, and he gave me a packet of information. I did some further research on it, and certainly found out more than enough to get me inspired. I thought about the incident and reflected on what it all really meant. This was not just a place where books were sold, or merely a place where people could come together and trade. Al-Mutanabbi is a family—and what better way to help bind this family together and become a part of it than through art. I chose to make a broadside about Al-Mutanabbi that would be a multi-layered blend of meanings. I first picked out some memorable quotes and phrases that would help get my point across, and that all people could quickly identify with. Since the main piece in my broadside was “Al-Mutanabbi starts with you!,“ I decided to create a thread of overlapping phrases with striking colors, but not necessarily blatant and screaming. I chose red, yellow and green, signage colors, to represent the idea of the street—of slowing down, stopping, and starting over again. I hope my broadside poster gets the point across easily enough so that all people who don’t exactly know who or what Al-Mutanabbi is can gain a better understanding, and be curious enough to find out what really happened and what yet needs to be done.
Origin:	2009
Created By:	Blevins, Brandon
Contributor(s):	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Publisher:	Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia)
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/175
Collection:	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	broadsides letterpress printing art

Further information on this record can be found at its source.