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Westword spoke with Rodriguez about her creative practice, social justice and sexual liberation.

Asian and Latino Artists Weigh In On a Changing America Four artists of color featured at Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian share their work--and their vision of what it means to be American.

Rapper Pharrell Williams’ “i am OTHER” YouTube channel released a three-part documentary series Monday titled “Migration Is Beautiful”, that aims to upend negative views of immigrants. Adopting the butterfly as its symbol, the film instead portrays migration as the result of corporate greed.

Whether it's plastered across buses, screened on t-shirts or painted on billboards, the monarch has spread quickly thanks in large part to a group of West Coast artists -- including Melanie Cervantes, Cesar Maxit, Jesus Barraza, Ernesto Yerena, Julio Salgado and Favianna Rodriguez.

Oakland artist Favianna Rodriguez, merging activism and art is something that comes natural. The curly-haired industrious champion of the disenfranchised is unafraid to speak her mind, verbally or through her colorful prints and digital art. Although she’s won many awards, Rodriguez has a genuine humility and calmness about her that belies her firebrand spirit and her in-your-face work.

Jeff Chang and Favianna Rodriguez are artist-organizers and the initiators of Culture Strike, an ongoing project that began in 2010 as a protest of Arizona’s SB 1070 law. Culture Strike aims to raise consciousness about immigration issues among artists.