Seeing Is Believing: "It is critical to understand that the roots of culture stem from artistic movement. If creators dedicate themselves to exposing the truth, we can incite a social revolution. It has happened time and time again, and today, we are ripe for change. Images matter. Art matters.".

• Author: Rudin, Alex

AS A MULTIMEDIA ARTIST based in New York, the majority of my work focuses on what it means to be a woman in 2020. In light of the current state of the world, I have been further spurred to create politically focused art. One cannot comment on the feminine experience without addressing our current political situation. While the Tramp Administration continues to attack women's rights, promote violence, fan the flames of racism, and deny the seriousness of COVID-19,1 find myself driven to create work examining the challenges we face not only as women, but as a nation.

Lady Liberty has welcomed hundreds of thousands of nation builders. On her person, emblazoned into the psyche of American ideology, lies Emma Lazarus' awe inspiring "The New Colossus." Once a promise to the American people, her words now sting. We are the "tired poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free." We are the "homeless, tempest-tost." The light beside the golden door flickers on the verge of extinguishment.

Our country literally and figuratively is on fire. We are at a crossroads--a tipping point. Our people are angry and scared--and dying. While the current Administration shirks off any and all responsibility, the world's oldest democracy inches further and further towards authoritarian rale. While we may be at an unprecedented point in the history of the U.S., it is crucial to embolden and galvanize people to rise up and stand for justice, equality, science, facts, and truth. We the people are the answer. That means all people.

The U.S. was founded on the principle that "All men are created equal." However, we have not been treated as such. From day one, "we the people" omitted those of color, women, and the poor. While the Fifteenth Amendment granted African-American men the right to vote and participate in elections, the reprisal was voter suppression. This all but ensured that black men would be unable to use their newly gained rights.

Fifty years later, the Nineteenth Amendment allowed women to join the ranks of the "people." In 1924, Native Americans were granted voting rights with the adoption of the Indian Citizenship Act. In 1971, the Twenty-sixth Amendment passed, lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

While it took nearly 250 years for all U.S. citizens to get the vote, it is crucial to understand that the right to vote and being able to exercise that right are two very different realities.

A deep history of racial disenfranchisement has plagued this...