SHOULDER TO SHOULDER ON THE STREETS ON LOS ANGELES
Conversations between a 100 Los Angeles 14 Year old Young People
Sponsored by the Human Relations Commission and SPARC
SPARC’s Shoulder to Shoulder Project co-sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Human Relations Coalition. In a summer program for 14 year olds from the Los Angeles City schools 100 youth were brought to SPARC for a weeklong residency in the Digital Mural Lab. There art education curriculum was developed by UCLA Professor Judith Baca and UCLA alumni of Beyond the Mexican Mural courses in Chicano/a Studies and World Arts and Cultures to partner these youth across race and class and address the issues of: violence in the schools, bullying, stereo typing, families and other issues facing middle school youth in Los Angeles resulting in violence. Visual artists, writers, theater artists participated in presenting workshops to the youth during the all day youth workshops held in the SPARC facilities. Issues affecting the youth were raised daily through work in the arts through writing, theater techniques, computer graphics, and painting. The conclusion of the children’s discussions resulted in a 100’s of banners exhibited citywide on city streets with students works and dialogues memorialized in giant graphic banners. “Out of the mouths of children” came profound insights into their concerns and conceptions of power and their proposals for change.