Artist and ACT lecturer Lara Baladi was recently awarded one of two 2021 Cantabrigia Awards by Orbis Editions. Baladi and another selected artist will each receive editorial and design support to realize their proposed publication projects in 2021 under the Orbis Editions imprint.

Baladi’s work, ABC: A Lesson in History, is an ABC primer of revolt. Turning on its head the language of Egyptian and Russian propagandist educational tools from the 1950s and beyond, its visuals are inspired by and refer to historical iconographies of protest, from the civil rights movement in the US to recent global movements.

Lara Baladi is an Egyptian-Lebanese multidisciplinary artist, archivist, and educator. ABC: A Lesson in History is part of her ongoing initiative Vox Populi: Tahrir Archives, which includes a series of media initiatives, artworks, publications and an open-source timeline and portal into web-based archives of the 2011 Egyptian revolution and other global social movements.

The Cantabrigia Award is made possible with the generous support of the Cambridge Arts Council and private donations.