SWD 19

Pavlos Fyssas, Greek anti-fascist rapper

The Sea Monsters & the Angry Chicken!! Homage to anti-Fascist Greek rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was slain by a far-right Golden Dawn member, Sept. 13, 2017.  

Art: 2014
Media: Ink, colored pencil, woodcut, drawing fragments from a mixed media artwork (dismantled in 2010) titled Homage to Pawiak Prison, Warsaw, 1984
Framed, 25 inches H x 41 W. [63.5 cm H x 104 W]

Born April 10, 1979, Fyssas was Greek.  (His name printed in Greek: Παύλος Φύσσας). As a rap singer and performer, he was well-known around Europe for anti-Fascist sentiments. On Sept. 13, 2017, Fyssas was stabbed in a district of Athens by a senior member of Golden Dawn, the far-right, xenophobic political party of contemporary Greece; Fyssas died in the hospital he was taken to.
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His stage name was Killah P. While I’m not a fan of rap music myself (I was a teenager in the 1960’s) I was dismayed when I heard the news that Fyssas had been senselessly, brutally and wantonly murdered.

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My drawing images of the sea monsters and the chicken were design with the goal of the drawing beng useful for teaching tolerance to young children. While children don’t innately know prejudice, they learn it from older siblings, older youth and adults, including some parents. Tolerance education promotes respect and dignity about peoples of diverse backgrounds, including languages, national backgrounds, religions, ethnicities, etc. and including refugees fleeing from war, genocide and conflict-ridden regions.

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An article in The Guardian, UK, pub. May 20, 2018, reports on the rise of fascism with the Golden Dawn party in Greece: 'Far-right thugs' attack mayor of Thessaloniki at remembrance event.”