The collaborative project will be an ongoing poster series that aims to intervene in the Canada 150 conversation. We hope to encourage people to critically examine history in ways that can fuel our radical imaginations and support struggles for radical change in 2017 and beyond. Join us as we use activist art to remember, resist, and redraw our world with an eye to changing it for the better.

2016 produced a Trump presidency and witnessed the rise of the “alt-right” and increasing violence against women, workers, and Indigenous, LGBTQ2, and racialized peoples. 2016 also saw the approval of new pipelines, Brexit, and the deaths of pop culture legends like Prince, Phife Dawg, and David Bowie and revolutionary figures like Muhammad Ali and Fidel Castro.

It was RATM guitarist Tom Morello’s idea to form the Prophets of Rage to counter the current political climate, specifically in the United States. With Zack de le Rocha uninterested in a RATM reunion, Morello and the rest of the band reached out to legendary MCs Chuck D and B-Real to pool their collections of protest songs and launch an attack on the status quo. We should be glad they did.

It is a heavy responsibility that must be more equally shouldered by Canadians and Quebecers. Labour and activist groups from coast to coast should rally to support Indigenous land defenders. Because we share the Earth, we must also share in the struggles to defend it against the depredations of colonialism and capitalism.

The Pass System is an important documentary that is a must-watch for teachers, researchers, and activists of all kinds. In light of the Idle No More movement and ongoing pipeline protests, the film reminds us of the different ways in which the state, in the name of nation-building, tries to contain Indigenous resistance to facilitate capitalist accumulation by colonial dispossession.

A is for Activist is the most recent addition to the field of radical children’s literature, but it is by no means the first revolutionary children’s book. In fact, there is a long history of oppositional children’s storytelling, from socialist primers in the 1910s to the anti-authoritarian and contrarian sensibilities of stories from authors such as Dr. Seuss in the 1960s and 1970s.

Ryan McMahon’s path is an important one and, by sharing his experiences through his work, he is clearing the way for others interested in using humour to be heard and change the world with comedy. I recently had the chance to talk with the accomplished Anishinaabe comedian about the power of comedy and how it can be used to confront racism today.

Despite its many flaws, The Revenant provides a popular portrayal of the bloody birth of capitalism that can potentially spark critical conversations about the nature of capitalist accumulation by colonial dispossession in the past and present.

This list showcases elements of progressive popular culture from the past year that aim to change the world. There are a lot of great socialist, feminist, anti-racist, and decolonial works produced every year – but it is hard to keep track of them all.

Highway of Tears also calls on Canadians to demand a national inquiry and argues that Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples need to forge social movement alliances to effectively combat the root causes of the issue: poverty, racism, and gender discrimination. But time is of the essence. Justice delayed is justice denied.