On the eve of this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, a dexterous group of artists from around the country convened, all of them aiming to express an undying patriotic support for art and the political process. They’ve gathered here thanks to one man, and while the Democratic hopeful Barack Obama is the first to come to mind, this creative venture is thanks to Yosi Sergant—the Art Curator of Manifest Hope. Sergant is infamous as a guerrilla PR producer and is known for his street-savvy tactics as a publicist. He was a key organizer that mobilized much of the West Coast movement in the earliest stages of the Obama campaign.

His vision for Manifest Hope was an art exhibition inspired by Barack Obama’s candidacy at the DNC, and the installation has come together beautifully, and manifested more organically than he first imagined. Somehow barely exhausted from producing his own artistic feat, it occurred to Shepard Fairey- the notorious street artist turned entrepreneur of OBEY- that it might be time for a break. Sweat dripping off his face, he asked friend Scot Lefavor if he was down to join him. But this wasn’t a typical cigarette break. The objective was to promote the upcoming show in the only manner they knew how—slapping posters on the concrete walls of downtown Denver with wheat paste—and doing it in record time. Once Shepard had asked, there was no saying no.

Fairey and Lefavor gathered their respective crews and took to the polished streets of Denver, which were meticulously cleaned for the DNC. Fairey’s publicist was filming a documentary that night, and when she heard they were leaving for a quick run she knew that she had to get the footage. She was soon recording the two artists at work as they festooned the concrete walls with their trademark posters. Fairey, with wheat paste all over his clothes, kept checking his watch. With countless posters up, it was about midnight when they dropped the bucket on 16th Avenue and Sherman Street. “I guess we got a little too close to the hot zone downtown,” says Fairey. That’s when Lefavor looked down the alley and saw five shadowed figures approaching. “Oh, shit…”

Fairey saw they were completely suited in riot gear and when they suddenly started running the group took off in the opposite direction. “We decided to run down the alley and thought we could run away,” he says. “And then [another] five came—with drawn guns—to the end of the alley and were like, ‘Get on the fucking ground, or we’re gonna kick you in the fucking head!’”

The artists had to comply with the officers and were quickly zip-tied with riot cuffs, then taken to jail for the next sixteen hours. Charged with interference and posting unauthorized posters, they were all released and hit with a $140 fine. Regardless, getting hauled off to jail for the sake of art is still part of job in Fairey’s opinion—his fourteenth arrest to date. The week of the DNC, Denver police reported arresting 154 people. Fairey and company sat in jail that night eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with anarchists, activists and patriots of all sorts. The DNC’s loudest and most passionate attendees were all doing time for blowing their tops.

“Look, I’m a patriot,” says Sergant with an austere look in his eye. He nudges his glasses against his face as if to prepare for something big to say. “I even wear a button that says ‘I’m a patriot.’ I think we’re redefining what it means to be a patriot in this country and that’s awesome to be a part of.”

The idea of a new form of patriotism is reflected across all the artwork at Manifest HOPE. Most of it is independently created, and in some cases clandestinely distributed through some niche creative circles. For once in the history of American graffiti, and the history of American politics, a new and creative patriot has been able to fuse the countercultural mindset of a progressive and perhaps frustrated constituency with a mainstream political cause.

“Man, it’s so obvious,” says Eddy James, an infamous artist known for one of the most iconic images of the indie-Obama campaign. James’ Obama poster is found all across the United States in alleys and town squares along with those of Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Ray Noland, the Date Farmers and countless others. “If you go and Google ‘McCain Art’ you’ll find little, and there’s a reason for that,” he says. “It’s called a lack of interest,” says James.

Discussing politics and patriotism with Sergant, Fairey, and Ron English—creator of the Abraham-Obama piece—redefines the nature of art and politics. With all the loose language of political discourse over the last few centuries, English recalls that artists have always been the silent observers who wait patiently to express themselves when the time is right, and he knows that the time has come to politically engage artists.

“There have been times when artists have become super-super political,” says English, citing abstract expressionists Diego Rivera and Picasso. “But this generation now has been easily pegged as [the] ‘apathetic generation,’ and as it turns out that that’s not what they are.”

Today these artists and anthropologists speak on behalf of a new creative generation in this country. They speak with choice words, because their cultural understanding words, because their cultural understanding allows them to transcend the literal propaganda of the last two hundred years. Art has the ability to do that, and Obama knows it. He has the creative-intellectual base under his wing, and it aims to get his political message across in good fashion and with an authentic urban feel. It’s the epitome of grass-rooted effort. These artists want the “new American patriot” engaged now, more than ever. Early on, Yosi Sergant and his business partners at Evolutionary media became Obama’s first media advisers on the West Coast. Sergant coordinated a great deal of the official campaign for the first six months before realizing his efforts for the campaign were best suited outside the confines of official campaigning. That epiphany took place in February 2008, when he first met Fairey. They talked art and shop, but Sergant quickly picked Fairey’s brain for an opinion about the upcoming election. Sergant soon asked if he was thinking about doing anything in support of Obama. The immediate answer that night was a humble but friendly no, and the conversation went on. The next day, Fairey called Sergant asking if he thought the Obama camp would like a piece of his art for campaign use.

“When he called and asked me that, I was like, fuck yeah Obama wants your help. Who better to get the message out than people who spend their lives getting messages out,” says Sergant.

“I mean, what people don’t think about is that these artists, Shepard in particular, have been getting the word out about socially conscious issues for more than twenty years now.”

The urban art peanut gallery might label this pro-mainstream political venture as “selling out,” but Fairey’s real objectives couldn’t be any clearer. Asked of the talking heads that remain faithfully nihilistic and anti-institutional, he could care less about them and his “street-cred” reputation—because it’s untouchable. A night before the Obama event at Milk, Fairey sold out, quite literally, on the opening night of his latest exhibition, The Duality of Humanity. Installed at the White Walls Gallery on Larkin Street, it’s home base for his art in San Francisco. Within the first few hours of the private showing, Fairey grossed over half a million dollars.

“I think people tend to categorize things in a very lazy way,” says Fairey. “So you can call things ‘counter culture’ based on sort of a rebel pose, but when you look at Obama’s viewpoints and his ascent, it’s somewhat of an amazing coup. It’s revolutionary in my opinion. And not recognizing the opportunity to work an inside-outside strategy is the failing of most counter-culture. The whole idea of creating stuff from the sidelines is to prime a broader audience for change. So once the opportunity to put someone like Obama in office, whose ideas are perfectly aligned with mine as someone who has never felt like they could ever participate meaningfully in mainstream politics—I jumped at it because, like I said, it is a coup and I’m really disappointed that a lot of people don’t recognize that… But a lot of other people do and that inspires me,” says Fairey.

Fairey is talking about people like Sergant and every American that is living some sort of alternative reality in terms of politics. He’s talking about the youthful, energized, organized and forward-minded constituency, creatively at work, realizing that as we approach election day. History is being made. It’s the swift approach of a revolutionary political base—with a strong effort to reach Washington and begin saving the last
bit of what it means to be a dignified American citizen.

“I am done with the Malboro man, cowboy hat, bolo-tie-wearing, claiming to be a patriot—that somehow considers my rights to being a patriot deemed somehow second tier. I mean my American experience, my vegan, hipster, short pant-wearing, graffiti-loving, freaky, indie rock, computer generation experience in America is just as valid, and just as American, as any other experience,” says Sergant.

“And for me not to participate; and not take ownership; and not involve myself in the very bowels of my country is me giving away my rights; is me not living to my fullest American experience. It’s me not passing on the pride of my American experience to those around me,” Sergant says.