A group of anti-abortion activists crashed a feminist art parade held in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Vice President Kamala Harris, who would be the nation’s first woman president, is scheduled to accept the party’s nomination this evening.

Artists Michele Pred, Whitney Bradshaw, and Airco Caravan had organized the “Reproductive Freedom” event as a call to action, encouraging the public to cast their vote with women’s health in mind. But halfway through the procession, protestors barged in, bearing signs equating abortion with genocide, banging drums, and shouting on a megaphone.

“They literally infiltrated us—they marched ahead of us, in the middle of us, and behind us, and they were louder than us because they had drums,” Pred told me. “They harassed us and didn’t leave us alone.”

The march was part of “Into Action 2024,” a nonpartisan art exhibition coinciding with the DNC. Billed as a “festival of art, ideas, and the power of voting” from two creative agencies, Task Force and Drive Agency, it features over 200 artworks, curated by Yosi Sergant and Jessy Tolkan.

Yosi Sergant and Jessy Tolkan, curators of “Into Action 2024.” Photo courtesy of Into Action 2024.

“We believe that artists are integral and key in the process of change-making,” Sergant told me. “Art is by its very design supposed to challenge us and help us tackle very difficult and complex subject matter.”

The show includes pieces by noted activist artists such as Molly Crabapple, Favianna Rodriguez, and Shepard Fairey. (Sergant commissioned Fairey’s famous Barack Obama Hope poster while working as the campaign’s media consultant.) There’s also a 20-foot digital version of Keith Haring’s 90-foot-tall CityKids Speak on Liberty Banner banner Lady Liberty, reproduced with permission from the CityKids nonprofit as well as the late artist’s estate.

“We’d love to show the original, but unfortunately we don’t have the space or the ability to show it at that scale,” Sergant said, noting that “Into Action” is the 14th art show he’s organized in conjunctions with political conventions across the country since opening Task Force in 2010.

“Into Action 2024.” Photo courtesy of Into Action 2024.

He’s been a believer in the power of art to effect political and social change since his teens. Sergant credits a chance encounter with Los Angeles guerrilla poster artist Robbie Conal, known for his political work, for setting him on the path to staging shows like “Into Action.”

“The gallery has works that talk about all the harms of our history—who could participate and who was excluded from democracy, and the way that echoes into our current issues that we face as a society,” he added. “We have work in here about maternal mortality rates, about police violence, about voting by mail, about credit card debt.”

But what really caught the attention of conservative groups was a collaboration with Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which set up a van outside the exhibition offering free vasectomies and medical abortions. Anti-abortion protestors were quick to appear on the scene, attempting to discourage anyone from getting treatment there.

Michele Pred, Whitney Bradshaw, and Airco Caravan’s “Reproductive Freedom” march, part of the “Into Action 2024” exhibition timed to the DNC in Chicago, was targeted by anti-abortion protestors. Photo by Michelle Hartney.

“The price of healthcare shouldn’t be harassment,” Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, told me in an email. “Abortion is common lifesaving healthcare. We will continue to combat the hatred and judgement our patients are forced to endure with empathy and kindness.”

In addition to prompting breathless articles from Fox News and other right wing news outlets, the van also put “Into Action” on the radar for protestors who were in town for the DNC and eager to spread their anti-abortion views.

The plan for “Reproductive Freedom” was to march from the exhibition over toward the DNC and to circle back. When the protestors descended, Pred initially thought they would jeer at the parade then move on. But the anti-abortion group followed the artists all the way back to “Into Action,” where security had to stop them from entering the exhibition.

Michele Pred, Whitney Bradshaw, and Airco Caravan’s “Reproductive Freedom” march, part of the “Into Action 2024” exhibition timed to the DNC in Chicago, was targeted by anti-abortion protestors. Photo by Michelle Hartney.

“The artists were surrounded and felt overwhelmed,” Sergant said.

Pred has held 14 other feminist parades since 2017, and always warns participants not to engage with anyone with oppositional views who might be looking for a fight. This was the first time it’s ever come to that.

“This has never happened before, but it makes sense because it’s a super charged environment with people who come specifically to an event like this,” Pred said.

“The parades are always joyous and fun and happy, and this wasn’t any of those things. We just took the high road. We did not respond to them, and we just kept on marching,” she added. “What was most jarring was that these were young women in their 20s, both white women and BIPOC women. It was really disturbing to see such young women being anti abortion.”

Michele Pred and her inflatable sculpture Abortion is Healthcare (Mifepristone and Misoprostol). Photo courtesy of Michele Pred.

Inside the exhibition, Pred’s inflatable sculptures of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol were also a bit of a lightning rod for controversy. She’s touring two sets of the works around the country in an effort to educate women in states with abortion bans about the continued availability of medical abortions. They will be in New York on September 4 for “Body Freedom for Every(body),” which is kicking off with Times Square Arts and the Armory Show.

“A lot of people still don’t know how to get them, where to get them, how common they are, how many women get them,” Pred said about the pills. “You can get them by mail, even if you’re in a state where abortion is illegal.”

Works from Michele Pred’s series “Power of the Purse” on view in “Into Action 2024.” Photo courtesy of Michele Pred.

The show also featured a selection of her signature light-up “Power of the Purse” sculptures, vintage handbags emblazoned with feminist messages in electroluminescent wire. The latest entries in the series include two “Vote” purses in “Brat” green and one that says “we’re not going back,” quoting Harris. (Pred and Harris actually went to elementary school together in Berkeley, California, although the two were in different third grade classes.)

Other feminist works in the exhibition included Chicago artist Michelle Hartney‘s Mother’s Right. She worked with midwives, doulas, and other volunteers to sew 1,200 hospital gowns, one for each U.S. woman who died in childbirth in 2013. The fabric features silkscreen prints of medicinal herbs traditionally administered during labor.

Michelle Hartney with her piece Mother’s Right on view in “Into Action 2024.” Photo courtesy of Into Action 2024.

It’s work like this that Sergant hopes will help make clear that women’s healthcare should not be a partisan issue.

“Women’s reproductive health is a five-alarm fire,” Sergant said. “Artists are out here ringing the alarm right next to activists and people all over the country saying, ‘these are rights that are at risk and we’re here to stand up and make sure that people are aware that those are rights that are on the line.'”

“Into Action 2024” is on view at Resolution Studios Chicago, 2226 West Walnut Street, Chicago, Illinois, August 17–22, 2024.