Be the Change!
By Tyanna J. Buie
About
The artwork
Tyanna J. Buie highlights the materials of civic life—bullhorns, ballots, petitions—as central subjects rather than background objects. Inspired in part by her participation, alongside then-U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama, in Chicago’s Bud Billiken Parade in 2004, the work reflects on how public events create space for community engagement and political voice. Built as a layered screenprint, it incorporates archival fragments and headlines from the Obama era, linking moments of personal memory to broader national change. The result is a work that frames activism as something built through collective, everyday action.
Location: Forum | Democracy in Action Lab
The artist
Tyanna J. Buie is an artist from Chicago’s South Side whose work draws from personal history, memory, and printmaking traditions. Her path into art began early, shaped by time spent in the foster care system where making became a way to process and connect. Buie earned a BFA from Western Illinois University and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and is currently an Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
