Clarion Alley Mural Project announces the largest exhibition organized in its 32-year history, Manifest Differently, on view February 1–March 16, 2024, at Minnesota Street Project and Clarion Alley. This exhibition features the work of 19 visual artists and 19 poets, all connected to California. Manifest Differently is a rare opportunity to engage with intergenerational artists whose works underscore issues of place and history and embody resistance. Together they represent more than 14 Native American tribes (including Chukchansi/Miwok, Diné/Navajo, Powhatan Confederacy, Tongva-Ajachmem, Tsalagi/Cherokee, and Ohlone); American Descendants of Slavery; and those connected to Burma, China, Columbia, Hawai’i, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, the Jewish diaspora; Mexico, Palestine, Okinawa, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Taiwan, Tonga, and Western Europe.
  
Manifest Differently was jointly developed and curated by Kim Shuck and Megan Wilson, in direct response to this time of great social injustice, political turmoil, and post-pandemic instabilities. “I believe that the most important step towards peace and equity is listening to each other,” comments Shuck, “This is artwork that speaks to pain and hope.”

Recognizing the context of this moment — from the ongoing genocide in Gaza to the attacks on American democracy — Manifest Differently invited artists to highlight, reflect on, and talk back to the troubling history, legacy, and contemporary expressions of this nation’s white supremacist origins. Through literary, visual, and media arts storytelling, in conjunction with public programming, this project presents artists who are committed to manifesting a new future by challenging and interrogating American exceptionalism and considering the impacts of Manifest Destiny on their individual lives, and on the wellbeing of their communities.

Manifest Destiny
"The American claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of liberty and federative self-government entrusted to us. It is a right such as that of the tree to the space of air and earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth..."
—John L. O Sullivan, New York Morning News, December 27, 1845

John L. O Sullivan co-authored the early tenets of American expansionism alongside other white intellectuals and politicians in the 1840s. The ideology of Manifest Destiny became the bedrock upon which U.S. history was formed from the 19th century onward—from western expansion across the North American continent to the genocide and displacement of indigenous people, the ecocide of the natural environment, extension of slavery, and subsequent claims to the Pacific Islands. It is from this position that recognizes the histories and experiences of those who have not benefited from the legacies of Manifest Destiny, that Manifest Differently begins.

Exhibition Overview
Manifest Differently reflects on a complex web of issues including: inaccurate and outdated perceptions of indigenous peoples; the impact of the U.S. government’s bureaucracy and policy decisions on indigenous communities in the Americas, Pacific Islands, SWANA nations, and the Global South; post-colonial Latin America’s ecological crises, regional conflicts, narco-trafficking, and gender struggles; calls for reparations for slavery in the United States; and how local and global communities can move forward from positions of compassion, education, and organizing/action.

“As recognized in Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons in 1983, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, and others that have followed, we must acknowledge and witness the impacts of our history before we can move forward and ensure that the same injustices are not repeated,” says Megan Wilson, adding, “Storytelling is a powerful tool to help provide deep witness, compassion, and inspiration to manifest differently.”

Poets include: Aileen Cassinetto, Avotcja Jiltonilro, Clara Hsu, Dena Rod, E.K. Keith, Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, Genny Lim, Josiahluis Alderete, Kim Shuck, Lauren Ito, Linda Noel, Lourdes Figueroa, Mahnaz Badihian, Maw Shein Win, Mk Chavez, Stephen Meadows, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Tureeda Mikell, and Voulette Hatta.

Visual and Media Artists include: Adrian Arias, Afatasi The Artist, Amy Berk, Anita Chang, Artivate, Barbara Mumby-Huerta, Biko Eisen-Martin, Carolyn Castaño, Chris Gazaleh, Katayoun Bahrami, Kim Shuck, l. frank manriquez, Marcel Pardo Ariza, Megan Wilson, Rene Yung, Shaghayegh Cyrous, Shonna Alexander, Vaimoana Niumeitolu, and Victoria Canby.

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE
All free and open to the public

Opening Reception
Saturday, February 3, 5:00–7:00 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street

Manifest Destiny: Its Origins and Persistence
Saturday, February 17, 12:00–2:00 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street
Maristella (Mari) Tapia, Chicanx social justice and inclusion advocate with twenty years of experience in higher education, in conversation with Jen Myhre, community organizer, documentarian, sociologist and director of the podcast, 1500 Stories, about the origins of manifest destiny as a colonial narrative that continues to shape our cultural and social relations today. Tapia and Myhre will explore ways in which the historical narrative of Manifest Destiny is being disrupted by local and global movements and ways that allies can “manifest differently” in our communities and worlds.

Sovereignty
Saturday, February 17, 3:00–5:00 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street
Mary Jean Robertson, host of KPOO’s weekly program Voices of the Native Nations for the past 50 years, will lead this panel discussion on the relationship between the U.S. Federal Government and Tribal Nations with guests Rose Aguilar, KALW radio host, journalist and author of ed Highways: A Liberal's Journey into the Heartland; Greg Castro, Culture Director, the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone; Christina Azocar, Professor of Journalism, San Francisco State University, and Alexa Koenig, co-Faculty Director of UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center and an Adjunct Professor at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Pasifika/Oceania Activism & Art Talanoa
Thursday, February 22, 12:30–2:30 pm
San Francisco State University, Ethnic Studies/Psychology, Room 116
Kim Shuck Cherokee Nation Poet, San Francisco Poet Laureate Emerita, Lee Kava PhD (Tongan) Poet, Musician, Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University, Ponipate Rokolekutu Ph.D. (Fijian) Story-teller, Assistant Professor at San Francisco State University, Jean Melesaine (Samoan) Photographer and Artist, Loa Niumeitolu (Tongan) Farmer, Poet, Community Organizer, and High School Teacher. Moderator: Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu (PhD) Story-teller, Community Organizer, and Assistant Professor at University of California, Santa Cruz. Songs and Offerings by San Francisco State University Pacific Islander Student Association (PISA) Club.

Trans Labor & Practice
Saturday, March 2, 3:00–5:00 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street
Artist and curator Marcel Pardo Ariza will lead a conversation with a group of social justice activists and artists to talk about trans inclusion and best practices for transgender folks in the workplace. This panel is also an invitation for hiring managers, executives, and professionals who want to learn and create a more inclusive workplace.

Manifesting Radical Solidarity in the Age of Machine-Generated Everything
Saturday, March 16, 12:00–2:00 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street
Dr. David A.M. Goldberg, independent scholar, media critic, and product designer will present a multimedia critique of contemporary cultural expectations, catastrophes, and miracles refracted through the lens of machine learning and so-called artificial intelligence algorithms.

Next Gen Speaks Out
Saturday, March 16, 3:00–4:30 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street
Artivate youth artists Alex De La Cruz, Daria Belle, and others talk about their Manifest Differently prints and what is currently on the minds of teens today.

Closing Reception
Saturday, March 16, 4:30–6:00 pm
Minnesota Street Project, 1275 Minnesota Street

Clarion Alley Mural Project