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2014 Humanitarian Aid & Social Justice Calendar by Michael Hyatt and Fellow Photographers

Calendar is approximately 12" by 8.5" and includes dates of interest to the social justice community.

Three years after publishing the 2011 calendar, little has changed regarding migrant deaths in the Arizona desert. The proportion of deaths to number of apprehensions has actually increased. So humanitarian groups continue to provide aid. Developments of concern since 2011 include cross-border killing of Mexican citizens by Border Patrol agents. The death of 16-year old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez is one tragic example. Increases militarization of the border has led to more agents and drones, and talk of more walls needed to placate immigration reform foes. Operation Streamline criminalizes 70 migrants at Tucson's federal courthouse each weekday enriching prison profiteers to the tune of $600,000+ tax dollars each day. Activists working to oppose this dehumanizing system shut down Streamline for a day on October 10, 2013. Earlier in the year activists gathered at Senator John McCain's Tucson office to protest his push for more walls regardless of habitat and environmental destruction. Fellow photographers will continue to address border issues. Social justice dates of interest and quotes by humanitarian leaders round out the focus of this 2014 calendar.

In 2011 Michael Hyatt had this to say:

I am an artist/activist who's been documenting the immigration crisis on the Arizona/Sonora border since 2002. That year I began noticing the dramatic increase in migrant deaths in Arizona and became aware of humanitarian efforts by HUMANE BORDERS & SAMARITANS to save innocent lives. I began volunteering with them and for NO MORE DEATHS when it formed. Thus I am able to directly participate in life saving efforts and continue exercising my passion for documentary photography inspired by my mentors Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Russell Lee. Their compelling photographs in the 1930s & 1940s showed destitute American migrants struggling to survive. That work helped change public sentiment & government policies. It is my hope that the photographs and information in this calendar will inspire social action leading to humane immigration policies that eliminate suffering and death along the migrant trail. Partial proceeds benefit Arizona humanitarian efforts.

Since 1968, Michael Hyatt's work has ranged from street photography in Boston, Los Angeles, Mexico and Ireland to documenting the performances and backstage activities of prominent punk rock and roots rock bands in Los Angeles from 1980 to 1986. After moving to Arizona in late 1986, his camerawork focused on a variety of subjects including the U.S./Mexico borderlands. For twenty years from 1987 to 2007, Michael also hosted the country roots radio show Route 66 on KXCI, Tucson. In 1997 he began producing the critically acclaimed Classic Railroad Songs series for Rounder Records.

Item Special Note

Winning bidder must pick up at the KXCI studios or pay for shipping.