Like in London, stickers of various kinds are ubiquitous in New York.
A few months ago, I visited New York on an undergraduate field trip. As I explored the city, I took pictures of protest stickers as I do in London. This post is about some of the stickers that I saw. At first I thought that explicitly political stickers were less common in New York than London, as it took me quite a while to find any. However I discovered that in some areas, such as the East Village in Manhattan, protest stickers are just as common as in London.
I spotted this sticker in several locations around the city. It is advertising a demonstration that was due to take place several weeks after I was in New York. The treatment of the city’s citizens, especially black citizens, by police has resurfaced as a contentious issue in recent months.
Some issues that are common subjects of protest stickers in London also occur in New York, like this one advocating a boycott of Israeli produced goods.
Other issues are unique to the US, such as this sticker declaring that 9/11 was the result of a conspiracy. It looks as if it has been scratched with a key or something similar in an attempt to obscure the image, suggesting the controversy of this kind of opinion.
This Occupy sticker plays on the iconic posters from Obama’s campaign during the last election, but replaces the image of Obama with that of a protester in a V for Vendetta mask.
This sticker also refers to Obama. I saw sever different issues of ‘The Shadow’ whilst in New York.
Anti-fascism was not such a common topic of protest stickers in New York as London, but it is there.
This sticker was produced by an organisation called Truth Move, which also produced the anti-fascist sticker above. Anti-fascism and environmental issues are not usually tackled by the same social movement groups; Truth Move is an organisation that argues that equality and democracy come from equal access to knowledge and facts.
This sticker is handmade, it looks as if a postage label has been painted over.
I know I am cheating a little bit with this one, it is in the collection in the Interference Archive rather than on the streets. But I liked it too much to leave out!
I like the design of this sticker, and it’s topic, mental health, is also unusual.
This sticker, advertising a climate march, could also be found in Spanish, a language with is widely spoken in America and New York.
I love the politeness of this anti-racist sticker in the East Village.
Although I do not agree with the sentiment of this sticker, I can’t help but admire it’s wit.
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