Tatyana Fazlalizadeh facts for kids

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (born 1985) is an American artist and activist. She is also a freelance illustrator. She is most famous for creating the art project called Stop Telling Women to Smile.

About Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Her mother was an artist and art teacher. However, Tatyana did not start making her own art until she was in high school. She moved to Philadelphia to study at the University of the Arts. She graduated in 2007 with a special degree in Fine Arts. Tatyana has both Black and Iranian family roots.

Her Art and Projects

Art Style and Public Work

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh mainly uses oil paints in her art. Some of her paintings of former President Barack Obama were featured in a book. This book was called Art For Obama: Designing Manifest Hope and the Campaign for Change.

Besides painting, Tatyana is also a street artist. Most of her public art pieces are posters. These are like the ones you can see in her Stop Telling Women to Smile project. Many of Tatyana's public artworks are meant to be temporary. This is because they are put up with a special glue called wheatpaste. Over time, the weather and natural wear cause the posters to fall apart. Because her art is in public places and often talks about important topics, it is sometimes damaged by others.

The Stop Telling Women to Smile Campaign

In 2012, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh became well-known. She started using street art to speak out against people bothering women in public. This is called street harassment. Each poster in her campaign shows a picture of a woman. Next to the picture, there is a message about her experiences. Some messages include "My outfit is not an invitation" and "No, you can't talk to me for a minute." This project helps women feel like they can stand up to people who bother them.

The first Stop Telling Women to Smile posters were put up in Tatyana's neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. Later, Tatyana used Kickstarter to raise money. This helped her bring the Stop Telling Women to Smile posters to other cities across the United States.

In 2015, Fazlalizadeh took her project to Mexico. In April 2015, she started "International Wheat Pasting Day." This was another part of the Stop Telling Women to Smile campaign. On April 17, 2015, people around the world joined in. They worked in groups to put up Tatyana's art in many different languages. People could also share their plans and what they did on the project's website. Through this, Tatyana wanted her art and message to reach more people. She also wanted her supporters to be part of her art.

In 2020, a book was published called Stop Telling Women to Smile: Stories of Street Harassment and How We're Taking Back Our Power. This book shares the story of Tatyana's street art project. It includes parts of the original interviews and pictures from the campaign. The book shows how Tatyana creates her art. It also helps with important discussions about unfair treatment.

Recent Artworks

After the 2016 United States presidential election, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh wanted to create art in her home state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma has a history of supporting the Republican Party. Her artwork included text like, "America is black. It is Native. It wears hijab. It is Spanish speaking tongue. It is migrant. It is a woman. Has been here. And it's not going anywhere." For Tatyana, where the art was placed in Oklahoma was as important as the message itself. Tatyana's art also appears in the Netflix TV show She's Gotta Have It.

In 2018, Fazlalizadeh was an artist at Project Row Houses in Houston. Her art display was called "The Personal as Political." It used stories from people who identify as Black, queer, or women to create political art.

In 2020, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh created a series of murals in New York City. These murals showed portraits of Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Tony McDade, and Nina Pop. This art was part of her work to address violence against Black and transgender people.