Randburg, South Africa
Check out a great feature article about the work of ex-pat Zimbabwean designer/educator Chaz Maviyane-Davies in the handsome online edition of DESIGN> magazine, here.
View a bunch of previous posts about Chaz and his graphic activism here.
Boston, Massachusetts
The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees will be awarding Chaz Maviyane-Davies an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Commencement Ceremony, to be held on Saturday, May 30, 2009. In their words (to Chaz): “The Board of Trustees is proud to bestow upon you their highest honor in recognition of your achievements as an international graphic designer who highlights vital social issues. Your commitment to combatting rights abuses in Africa as well as striving to eliminate racial, gender, religious and political discrimination around the world make you a leader in your profession, as well as a role model for countless others. Your courage, character and dedication to these important issues show us the way to succeed as both professionals and citizens.”
I couldn’t agree more… congratulations, and well deserved my friend!
Above, a 2005 photo of Chaz in Breda, NL by Guy Schockaert (via Ahn Sang-Soo’s blog); a sampling of Chaz’s posters below.
Boston, Massachusetts
Our friend Chaz Maviyane-Davies is featured in the current issue of the Utne Reader (#145, January/February 2008), under the heading “Graphic Activist—a Zimbabwean designer’s political posters hit you in the gut.” Chaz has been engaged as a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston for the past few years, as he continues tirelessly (or so it seems) in his prolific iteration of activist posters and visiual communications related to human rights and social justice. For a glimpse at Chaz’s prodigious and award-winning works, visit www.maviyane.com
Chaz Maviyane-Davies’ quote of the month.
‘Quote of the Month’ by Chaz Maviyane-Davies
“I am a battery hen. I live in a cage so small I cannot stretch my wings. I am forced to stand night and day on a sloping wire mesh floor that painfully cuts into my feet. The cage walls tear my feathers, forming blood blisters that never heal. The air is so full of ammonia that my lungs hurt and my eyes burn and I think I am going blind. As soon as I was born, a man grabbed me and sheared off part of my beak with a hot iron, and my little brothers were thrown into trash bags as useless alive.”
“My mind is alert and my body is sensitive and I should have been richly feathered. In nature or even a farmyard I would have had sociable, cleansing dust baths with my flock mates, a need so strong that I perform ‘vacuum’ dust bathing on the wire floor of my cage. Free, I would have ranged my ancestral jungles and fields with my mates, devouring plants, earthworms, and insects from sunrise to dusk. I would have exercised my body and expressed my nature, and I would have given, and received, pleasure as a whole being. I am only a year old, but I am already a ‘spent hen.’ Humans, I wish I were dead, and soon I will be dead. Look for pieces of my wounded flesh wherever chicken pies and soups are sold.”
―Karen Davis
(Thanks to Chaz Maviyane-Davies for the poster).
—Igbo (Nigeria) proverb
(Thanks to Chaz Maviyane-Davies for the truism).
(the latest from my friend Chaz Maviyane Davies)
(the lastest poster from my friend Chaz Maviyane-Davies)
