Jason Montgomery
Jason R. Montgomery, or JRM, is a Chicano of Indigenous Californian/Mexican descent writer, painter, community artist and engagement artist from El Centro, California. In 2016, along with Poet Alexandra Woolner, and illustrator Jen Wagner, JRM founded Attack Bear Press in Easthampton, MA. Jason’s work engages the cross-section of Chicano/Indigenous identity, cultural hybridization, post-colonial reconstruction, and political agency. His writing and visual art bridges the aesthetics and feel from the early cubist collage movement and the Russian abstract movement of the 1920s with living and historical Transborder Indigenous and Chicano art traditions to explore the Post-colonial narrative through active synthesis and guided (re)construction. JRM’s work has appeared in Split Lip Magazine, Storm Cellar, Ilanot Review, Cosmonauts Avenue and other publications. Jason is one of 2021 Newell Flather Awards for Leadership in Public Art outstanding nominees and 2021-2023 Easthampton Poets Laureate. Jason is also the co-founder of the police abolition group “A Knee is Not Enough” (AKINE) in Easthampton, MA. They are also the founder of the annual Holyoke Community Ofrenda, the police transformation group A Knee is Not Enough (AKINE), and various public engagement projects.
JRM PROJECTS
"The Death of Lake Cahuilla" delves into the historical and ecological transformation of Lake Cahuilla, now known as the Salton Sea in California's Imperial Valley. Through a diverse range of mediums such as painting, digital art, sculpture, and multimedia installations, the exhibit captures the emotional weight of the lake's transformation, shedding light on the impact of colonization and environmental degradation on the land and its indigenous communities.
In the United States of America (USA) and Canada, Native children en masse were forcibly removed from their homes [and placed in Boarding schools] as a way to address the “Indian” problem. The policy was “save the man; kill the Indian.” - Andrea Smith - Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools: a comparative study prepared for the UN.
Save the Man: memorial Art installation and community Poetry reflection on native residential schools in the USA and Canada
The discovery of the bodies of nearly 8,000 native children at former residential school sites in Canada has provided evidence of the systematic brutality of the residential school program in the USA and Canada. This installation was created by artist Jason Montgomery to remember and honor the children who never returned home from residential schools. This art installation is composed of 3 free standing collaged wooden structures and 2000 orange flags. the memorial remembers, honors, and acknowledges those children who died while attending a residential school in the USA and Canada. From 1879 to the present day, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of Native Americans attended Indian boarding schools as children. even following the passage of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, The US still operates over 2 dozen off-reservation boarding schools and has yet to investigate a single us residential school site.
This piece also asks the community to reflect and leave a word or phrase in the boxes provided. These community contributions will be used by Easthampton Poets Laurate Alexandra Woolner and Jason Montgomery to craft one poem per week. these poems will be shared with the community and sent to lawmakers calling for the investigation into the US residential school sites.
The artists of this project honor and remember the children taken and the parents left behind. We recognize that every child matters.
We mourn the lives lost.
We demand justice for the lives taken.
Located at the Baustein Building, Eastworks, and 33 Hawley in Northampton: [de]RANGE seeks to draw attention to gun violence during the month of June. Some content may be distributing for some audiences.
[de]range was created by Attack Bear Press lead artist Jason R. Montgomery (JRM) to engage and highlight the facts and potential solutions to the gun violence epidemic in the US. As an artist, gun owner and a survivor of gun violence JRM fully recognizes the complexity of the issue and how deeply rooted it is in our culture. Further, we firmly support those in the BIPOC community who believe that in the face of systemic racism their lives are made safer because of gun ownership. We have chosen with this exhibition to take the stance that gun violence is a public health issue. We hope to help our audience recognize that a comprehensive public health approach is needed to address this growing crisis. For the sake of this exhibition we agree with the American Public Health Association (APHA) statement regarding gun violence as a public health issue:
“A public health approach to preventing gun violence recognizes that violence is contagious and can become epidemic within a society. Primary prevention involves the use of core public health activities to interrupt the transmission of violence: (1) conducting surveillance to track gun-related deaths and injuries, gain insight into the causes of gun violence and assess the impact of interventions; (2) identifying risk factors associated with gun violence (e.g., poverty and depression) and resilience or protective factors that guard against gun violence (e.g., youth access to trusted adults); (3) developing, implementing and evaluating interventions to reduce risk factors and build resilience; and (4) institutionalizing successful prevention strategies.”
-- APHA Advocacy Fact Sheet for Gun Violence Prevention
This project is funded in part by a generous grant from the Northampton Arts Council and Masscultural Council. We would also like to thank the Northampton Arts Trust, the Readywipe Gallery, and A.P.E Gallery.
Attack Bear Press’ new public poetry project from 2021 Newell Flather Awards for Leadership in Public Art Outstanding Nominee and 2021-2023 Poet Laureate, Jason Montgomery the project consists of poetry broadsides (18" x 24" illustrated posters with poems on them) placed in windows of businesses in the Cottage Cultural district in Easthampton, and Main St. Northampton, MA. Each broadside also has a QR code so that you can hear Union St. Record's No-No Project's musical soundscape of the poem.
This project is supported through a generous grant from the Northampton Arts Council and the Northampton Chamber of Commerce.
HousePoems is an Attack Bear Press collaboration with the Wistariahurst Museum and Radioplasma.
Following the example put forward by NPR’s “Tiny Desk Concerts” series, we bring you an intimate performance web series that showcases the work of poets, both local and traveling, recorded in various locations in the Wistariahurst Museum.
Special thanks to the Holyoke Local Cultural Council for a grant to help support this project through Mass Cultural Council, and to Brittany Arita Designs for donating awesome graphic design services for logos and materials.
Annual Holyoke Community Ofrenda
In 2019 Jason Montgomery from Attack Bear Press along with Neftali Duran and other members of the indigenous and Latinx community in Western Massachusetts constructed a community ofrenda at the Readywipe Gallery in Holyoke. This was not the first community ofrenda in the city for Day of the Dead, but the first in which Attack Bear Press contributors took part, and the foundation for what has become a yearly project for us. 2021 will be the 3rd year of the Holyoke Community Ofrenda and it will take place across numerous neighborhoods in Holyoke.
Calaveras de Coronavirus
Calaveras de Coronavirus is a stationary installation art piece composed of thousands of paper postcards depicting calaveras skulls, each representing 15 people in the USA who have lost their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally this exhibit was created in conjunction with the 2020 Holyoke Community Ofrenda at the Baustein Building’s Readywipe Gallery space.
memories of my life: A Walking Myth
Attack Bear Press is proud to announce the debut of our new project “Memories of My Life: A Walking Myth”. This three part visual art project chronicles the life of Virginia Favela Gomez, the great-grandmother of Attack Bear Press Co-Founder Jason Montgomery. “Memories of My Life: A Walking Myth” presents a translation of Virginia's oral history, and immigration story from Sierra Mojada, Mexico to El Centro, California. Mixed media images created by Jason Montgomery feature on a series of posters in various public venues throughout New England.
Atravesadas Project
Artist Jason Montgomery and his 7 year old son started the Artavesada Project on 1/12/19 at the Border Fence in El Centro, California. Over 3 days the pair covered 96 miles of the border fence and the surrounding area from the Calexico/Mexicali crossing to the Tecate Border station with Atravesadas signs and food/water care packages .If you encounter one of these posters in the wild we encourage you to take it, create on it and return it. For all artists in the Imperial Valley (Calexico, El Centro, Imperial, Brawely, Holtville, Mexicali etc.) if you would like posters to create on for your work in the Valley DM us and we will make arrangements.
enclosure.
enclosure is a site specific mixed media installation project. Constructed with found objects the enclosure installations appear in public areas across New England.
The No-No Project
The No-No Project, whose name is inspired by one of Steven Jesse Bernstein’s poems, follows the legacy of his work with Subpop recordings. Local Poets from across the Pioneer Valley will be invited to come and record their work at the home studios of Union St. Records. The artists at Union St. Records, with the permission of the poet, will use the recordings to create musical soundscapes of their own. The resulting piece will be featured weekly here on the No-No Project Web-page and social media platforms.
Aquí Y Allá
Existing in the space between here and there, Aquí Y Allá explores the Post-colonial narrative through active synthesis and guided (re)construction. This show features new work from our enclosure project, excerpts and reworkings from our “memories of my life: Walking Book” and other community art.
