When people think of propaganda, they typically think of monotonous figures on posters with big arms toiling in fields or factories. In other words, they think of badly made art. But Cuban poster propaganda is anything but badly made. Abstract artists, designers, and other artists from all kinds of backgrounds created beautiful, imaginative posters about Cuba and the rest of the world. These artists were celebrating the new Cuba and supporting revolutionary movements across the world against imperialism.
Elisa Shoenberger, a scholar of Cuban posters, will showcase these vibrant posters, providing a brief history of Cuba and the Revolution. She will also present posters from her own collection, recently exhibited at West Shore Community College in Michigan, and other related artifacts. See how propaganda doesn’t have to mean bad art anymore.
Elisa Shoenberger is an academic out of academia. She has a BA in Latin American History from the University of Chicago, a MA in Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MBA from Loyola University Chicago. She recently curated the collection of posters that she owns for West Shore Community College in Scottville, Michigan. She is a freelance writer and journalist and has published articles with the Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Deadspin, Artsy, and others.
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