Ricardo Levins Morales
Ricardo Levins Morales is an artist and organizer based in Minneapolis. He was born into the anti-colonial movement in his native Puerto Rico and was drawn into activism in Chicago when his family moved there in 1967. Ricardo left high school early and worked in various industries, and over time began to use his art as part of his movement work. This activism has included support work for the Black Panthers and Young Lords and participating in or acting in solidarity with farmers, environmental, labor, racial justice, antiwar and other struggles for peoples empowerment. He was a founding member of the Northland Poster Collective (1979-2009). Morales describes his work as medicinal, collective, and relational, and creates art to support grassroots organizing for social justice. As a form of political medicine, art is one tool Morales’ uses to support individual and collective healing from the injuries and ongoing reality of oppression. Morales’ art reframes individual, collective, and historical trauma as stories of resilience and transformation, what he calls the fruit of communities in motion. Morales is an active community leader and facilitates workshops on creative organizing, social justice strategy, sustainable activism, and mentorship. Community, justice, and healing are central themes to Morales’ prolific portfolio and his work is widely used by grassroots movements, organizations and communities.
Key Sites
Commentaries, Interviews, and Lectures
- Minnesota Portraits: A Conversation with Ricardo Levins Morales
- Ricardo Levins Morales Radical Community Artist
- Ricardo Levins Morales | Artist
- A Circle By The River: Ricardo Levins Morales
Academic References
- Lober, Brooke. "Everything’s Connected: An Interview with Aurora Levins Morales." Meridians 18.2 (2019): 372-393.
- Morales, Ricardo Levins. "The importance of being an artist." Peace Review 5.2 (1993): 143-152.
- Morales, Ricardo Levins. "Lihish’tah’weel." (2007).
- Morales, Ricardo Levins, and Mike Miller. "A Conversation on Building People Power for Transformative Change." Social Policy 40.4 (2011).
- Morales, Ricardo Levins. "The Drinking Gourd: Vision as Strategy." Socialism and Democracy 19.2 (2005): 124-132.
- Morales, Ricardo Levins. "Policing and Race in a Banker’s Paradise." ProudFlesh: New Afrikan Journal of Culture, Politics and Consciousness 10 (2014).
- Fernández, Johanna. The young lords: A radical history. UNC Press Books, 2019.
- Foner, Philip Sheldon, editor. The Black Panthers Speak. Introduction by Clayborne Carson, foreword by Barbara Ransby, Haymarket Books, 2014.
- Fujino, D., & Harmachis, M. (Eds.). (2020). Black power afterlives: The enduring significance of the black panther party. Haymarket Books.
