Front Lines: A Lifetime of Drawing Resistance

This book is a blueprint for artists looking to engage with activist movements with a persistent longevity and a reminder that art has the power to be more dangerous than words.

Front Lines: A Lifetime of Drawing Resistance is Susan Simensky Bietila's story of her six decades as a movement artist and activist and a lifetime of artistic collaborations rooted in her activist experience. Growing up during McCarthyism, she rejected the nationalist masculinity of elite art and conformist culture and found feminism and collectivism as new forms of resistance. She became an artist in the New Left, creating illustrations for radical underground publications including RAT, Subterranean News, and comics for the anarchic World War 3 Illustrated.

With more than one hundred images, Front Lines documents her art on the page and in action featuring protest banners and giant puppets of birds and fish carried in the streets, masks of notorious dictators for street theater, posters pasted on walls and hung in radical spaces, community art builds, and more. Visual storytelling and detailed captions contextualize and bring to life her work with movements including antiwar protests during the Viet Nam era, Indigenous led antimine and antipipeline struggles, water protection, immigrant rights, anticorporate globalization convening, protests against the state and capital, Palestinian liberation actions, and collaborations with groups throughout the Great Lakes region and beyond. She agitates from the roots and the front lines to this day.

Praise

“Art is not simply about what you create, it is where you situate your art and where you form community. Most artists look to the ‘art world’—a location that largely serves the 1 percent. Not Susan Simensky Bietila. She has placed her art at the front lines of social justice movements since the 1960s. She is an ally in the truest sense. Front Lines is remarkable, and her path is a blueprint for other artists looking to do the same.”
—Nicolas Lampert, author of A People’s Art History of the United States: 250 Years of Activist Art and Artists Working in Social Justice Movements

“I have known Susan Simensky Bietila for basically my entire adult life, but until I read this book, I did not fully understand how amazing her life has been. Front Lines is an artistic autobiography of a lifetime of activist adventures, but it is so much more than this. Sue vividly narrates dozens of social struggles over the past six decades—antiwar, antiracist, feminist, working class, health care, educational, environmental, anarchist, Indigenous sovereignty, antigentrification, and beyond—centering the efforts of multiple generations of the greatest artist-activists you’ve probably never heard of. With vibrant prose and even more powerful images, this book provides essential history lessons and bold inspiration for our collective struggle to build a free society.”
—Michael Staudenmaier, coauthor of We Go Where They Go: The Story of Anti-Racist Action

“I met Susan Simensky Bietila in 1970, when a handful of radical women came together to take over RAT newspaper. Sue’s artistic talent bowled us over. Those were the heady days of the second wave of feminism, when women declared that biological sex could not circumscribe our lives, could not determine how we dressed or behaved, or what careers we could aspire to. But we at RAT weren’t just careerists—we were driven to pursue social and economic justice. And even after the newspaper folded, many of us continued in that pursuit. Especially Sue, who never flagged, never gave up. This book will be an inspiration to all of us.”
—Martha Shelley, author of We Set the Night on Fire: Igniting the Gay Revolution

“Susan Simensky Bietila's art has been part of the fabric that has been elemental in expressing what they call radical ideas and communicating to the broader world about the possibilities for humanity. This is true, and will continue to be true, whether anyone knows Susan's name or not. But those who do know her name, and become familiar with more of her work, and her fascinating personal story that's in the pages of this book, will be glad that they did.”
—David Rovics, author of Sing for Your Supper: A DIY Guide to Playing Music, Writing Songs, and Booking Your Own Gigs

“For over thirty years, Susan Simensky Bietila’s art has informed the public about the significant, but underreported grassroots struggles to protect Upper Midwest Indigenous and rural communities from dangerous mining and fossil fuel pipeline projects. Her richly detailed drawings in Front Lines remind people that their stories are life-affirming and need to be passed on to the next generation of water protectors. Her art has consistently celebrated the marginalized voices of Indigenous peoples and the rights of rivers, forests and the region’s sacred wild rice beds to be protected from exploitation and industrial pollution. Her puppets of the Sturgeon and Heron have been carried on the shores of Lake Superior, the Menominee River and wherever grassroots movements have resisted corporate assaults on the environment. This is how art energizes social movements.”
—Al Gedicks, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Resources Protection

“By weaving a narrative of life story and art, Susan Simensky Bietila reminds us how critical it is to learn the history of social movements through the words of activists themselves. Front Lines is an inspiration to build community, to lean into our own strengths and skills, and to harness the power of art for activism. As Bietila notes, everything has a story arc; the through lines that Sue draws between the activism of her student years to our present moment illuminate the long trajectory and intersectionality of all our struggles.”
—Jen Hoyer, author of The Social Movement Archive

“Front Lines isn't just the fascinating memoir of force-of-nature cartoonist, painter, and activist Susan Simensky Bietila, it is also a handy manual for anyone looking for inspiration on how to align their artistic practice with their political ideals in a truly meaningful way. Absolute essential reading for those of us who want to use our creative power to enact change in the real world.”
—Cris Siqueira, cartoonist and co-owner of Lion's Tooth Bookstore

“For the first time in many years, a sacred fire was lit on Stephenson Island. Many people were gathered along the shore in prayer for the Menominee River, now threatened by the proposed Back 40 mine. In the crowd, floating above everyone were beautiful painted fish created by Susan. Her brilliance has shined in our movement in so many wonderful ways. Through her creative and inspiring artwork our movement to Save the Menominee River became more visible. Thanks to Susan's innumerable hours of work, there were some many more avenues to reach people and get our message out to the world.”
—Regina Chaltry, organizer with Coalition to Save the Menominee River

“Susan's artwork and community work have been such an important part of the environment, climate, and justice work shared by many in the Great Lakes region. Her designs have been spread far and wide by button, shirt, tote and more, and her puppets have become a staple at anti-Line 5 events, uplifting (literally) all the critters who are put at risk when fossil fuel infrastructure like Line 5 continue to operate. People from communities near and far have been inspired by Susan's creativity and have learned how to make an impact with their own artwork at art builds she’s led.”
—Jadine Sonoda, organizer with Sierra Club Wisconsin

“Creative expression is a balm for the body and soul. Our brains are wired to secrete ‘feel-good’ hormones when we engage in any type of expressive activity. Susan Simensky Bietila’s political cartoons reflect on the state of humanity, the state of our kinship with each other, and the natural world. As readers facing many threats to our sense of integrity, we find we are not alone. Susan’s work in Front Lines affirms our shared values and support our search for equity and a vital community/ecosystem. In that we stand in solidarity.”
—Jan Penn, fifth-generation Wisconsin activist and organizer against the Enbridge Line 5

“Susan Simensky Bietila is not one of those self-important ‘meeting activists.’ She is a hands-on artist, on the front lines with communities she’s organizing with. In the old days, we’d say she was cadre level. Nowadays young activists would call her fire. Follow Sue in the pages of Front Lines through her six-decades political odyssey in the art of activism.”
—Rick Whaley, coauthor of Walleye Warriors: The Chippewa Treaty Rights Story

About the Author

Susan Simensky Bietila is based in Wisconsin and works with Indigenous water protectors and allies to stop toxic mines and oil pipelines by organizing art builds and creating banners, puppets, and masks. She works with social justice movements including Voces de la Frontera, Jewish Voice for Peace, Communities United by Water, and many others. She was a coeditor and collective member of RAT—the pioneering second-wave feminist newspaper—and later joined the World War 3 Illustrated collective, where she continues to create graphic nonfiction rooted in her activist experience. Her work has appeared in the streets and halls of power to galleries and magazines, including Fifth Estate, The Nation, and In These Times, and in books, including Anarchy and Art: From the Paris Commune to the Fall of the Berlin Wall; Wobblies: A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World; and World War 3 Illustrated: 1979–2014.

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