Fly Orr "Steve Cannon Peop" T
About: This shirt features original artwork by Fly Orr; a portrait, or, ‘PEOP” of Tribes’ late founder, poet, playwright, novelist, professor, and prolific mentor, Steve Cannon. Steve Sat for this portrait in 2007. The text included on the t-shirt is a transcript of Steve’s recollection of his own life, recounted during the PEOP-creation session.
What is a PEOP? PEOPs are a series of portraits stories by artist Fly Orr – each one contains a new face surrounded by words – for the most part the words are a story that the person tells about themselves while sitting for their portrait.
In Fly’s words: “It’s all about my interaction with the person while I’m drawing them. The idea for PEOPs happened while I was touring the world in a band called God is My Co-Pilot. Sometimes we would be in a new place almost every day there was usually time between setting up equipment and the show to get to know the locals. I always had my sketchbook and would draw people just out of habit the conversations were very interesting because many time people were speaking english as a second language so the way that they phrased things was often very poetic beautiful. so, i would write down the conversations at some point i realized i had a collection of drawings of people stories i thought it would make a great zine. After that, i started going after people, making them sit for me and tell me stories. The format became much more structured. The important thing for me in doing these portraits is the idea of a documentation of a hidden history of everyday life of all the people i have met; artists, activists, writers, travelers, anarchists, poets, cartoonists, pilots, musicians, psychologists, moms, kids, dads, grandparents, punks, dykes, drug dealers, teachers, squatters… you get the idea. Everyone has an incredible story to tell, and everyone deserves a voice. Everyone deserves to be listened to.”
This memorial shirt was produced jointly as a collaboration between Steve Cannon’s Estate and A Gathering of the Tribes.
Fly Orr is a comics artist, zinester, writer, activist and teacher in the Lower East Side of New York City. is a comic book artist, illustrator, activist, and teacher whose art has been published in various magazines and fanzines, including Slug and Lettuce, Maximum Rock 'N' Roll, World War 3 Illustrated, and The Village Voice, among others. She is also a former member of New York queercore punk band God Is My Co-Pilot.
Fly came to New York in the late 1980s, and got involved with ABC No Rio, a social center for punks and artists located at 156 Rivington street in New York City's Lower East Side. She is a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective,[5] and a contributor to the anthology Juicy Mother 2, edited by Jennifer Camper, which was published by Manic D Press in 2007.
In 2003, Fly exhibited her art at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, California. She has also produced cover artwork for Hungry March Band, Adeline Records and Geykido Comet Records. Aside from freelance cover artwork, she has printed many photocopy zines of her artwork and published books. In 1998, Fly had her first book, CHRON!IC!RIOTS!PA!SM!, published by Autonomedia. In 2003, she published a graphic novel-style book named PEOPS, a collection of portraits and stories about people Fly has met. The book was released by Soft Skull Press, and subtitled "Portraits and Stories of People". In 2006, she was invited as a guest speaker at the Victoria International Arts Symposium.[8] In December this same year, Fly appeared at the Grace Comics showcase alongside Elizabeth Merrick.
Aside from visual arts, Fly also engages in the spoken word and musical collage art of her band Zero Content (named after one of her comic strips) which can be heard on several Geykido Comet Records Compilations. Previously, she played bass and sang for several years with Craig Flanagin in the band God Is My Co-Pilot, with which she went on tours in the 1990s.
As of 2020, Fly’s zine archive has been acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of ArtsThe Minneapolis Institute of Art recently acquired the Fly Zine Archive, dubbed the “FZA,” including approximately 2,000 zines. There is currently a curated exhibition on view at the MIA until April 24, 2022.