Poster Design
The Education House
The mural in front of the house painted by students of UHD’s Center for Critical Race Studies, and designed by me.
teaching the embattled history of critical race theory
This was a really significant project for me. When Danielle Burns Wilson, curator at Project Row Houses, reached out to me and said that UHD’s Center for Critical Race Studies needed a graphic designer to help them create an exhibit on Critical Race Theory – just three short months after Texas SB3 had passed and banned its teaching in schools – I did not hesitate to open up my calendar, despite being on a short time frame of three weeks.
I was humbled to be chosen to help the CCRS bring their vision of a genuine classroom to life. Having already sourced books, desks, and chairs, they wanted large posters to tell the story and depict the key players in the history of Critical Race Theory throughout their classroom-style exhibit. Having requested a bright color palette and approachable fonts to dissuade any possible tension in the inherently charged subject matter, the folks from CCRS allowed me to get creative with the illustrations and layout of each poster.
Throughout the project, I actually learned a great deal about CRT myself. I was unaware of the role that Latinx scholars played in the creation and acceptance of the theory, and I was also sadly unaware of how many individuals oppose including it in curriculum because they believe it is inherently racist. But on opening day, the Education House was full of people eager to learn and understand the theory on a deeper level.
As a video played describing the history of UHD’s Center for Critical Race Studies, interested visitors walked through the house and learned about the key beliefs of Critical Race Theory, along with the challenges of teaching it being faced by concerned teachers today. And although the fate of CRT in Texas schools remains uncertain to say the least, I left PRH that day feeling uplifted knowing that people came to learn, and left with valuable knowledge to inform their decisions in the future.
