This slightly different version was done for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA)
'Faces of the Grassroots / Environmental Justice Movement' video contest.
The Welcome To The NeighborHOOD project shows us how youth are part of the environmental justice movement in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco. They have been working with artists to explore the issues in their neighborhood in order to present them to their community and beyond.
Wendy Testu -Filming, Editing, Project Creator, Multimedia Artist
Monica Jensen - Photographer
Taylor Neaman Goudey - Lead Artist
Literacy For Environmental Justice - Community Partner
This video is a behind the scenes look at the work the youth have created with one of the artists, Taylor Neaman Goudey. She spent eight weeks with six youth from the non-profit Literacy For Environmental Justice (LEJ) in order to create this work. LEJ has been in the community for over ten years and has worked with youth and community members to get the PG&E Power Plant shut down. They accomplished this in 2006. Currently LEJ is building the EcoCenter next to the former PG&E site. The EcoCenter will be San Franciscos first %100 of-the-grid public building and an environmental education center. The community is also dealing with re-development and gentrification issues. The housing developer, Lennar, is building 10,000 housing units on top of a Super Fund site (one of the worst toxic waste sites in the country).
The graphics the youth created reflect and explore local issues. These topics guided them to show how creativity can be used to look critically at mans effects on the environment, and how found objects and images can show the opposing forces of man vs. nature. The group started with a tour to take photos of Herons Head Park (where the EcoCenter, is being built). They also looked at slides of other artists work and discussed questions including: What are some signifiers of industry and nature? How do we create images that represent these opposing forces? What is our story, what do we want our audience to know? The youth developed concepts for their images and learned how to manipulate them in Photoshop in order to create printable screens. Garments were scavenged from the streets, washed, and prepared for printing. They printed their first round of screens at Native Graphix Print House, a social enterprise of H.O.M.E.Y (Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth; a community-based anti-violence organization). Then they went to Oakland to Taylors print studio (Patchwerk Press) where they finished printing garments for themselves and for two installation pieces: a 'Tented Shelter' and a braided ladder entitled 'The Ladder of Family Ties.
This is a cut of just one small piece of a two year community engagement project by Wendy Testu to document the entire Welcome To The NeighborHOOD project; A collaboration with six artists and 16 youth from the non-profit Literacy For Environmental Justice. This video piece has been shown in several gallery exhibits next to the actual art pieces that were created by the youth. Visitors to these exhibitions were encouraged to create dialogue around their family ties, the environment and social justice issues as they sat under the Tented Shelter and added braids to the Ladder Of Family Ties.
Soon this cut will be reworked with the other segments into a full-length documentary film. A documentary photo book is available on line:
http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/1206220
Stay Tuned for more...
This project has been made possible with the generous support from:
The San Francisco Arts Commission
The LEF Foundation
The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation
The San Francisco Foundations-Koshland Program
T-Mobile
Motorola
Literacy For Environmental Justice
The EcoCenter
The African American Arts And Culture Complex; Sargent Johnson Gallery
ART 94124 Gallery
Zeum: San Francisco's Children's Museum
And many generous volunteers
Thank you, each and every one of you
For more information, please visit:
The Project: http://welcometotheneighborhood.us/
Literacy For Environmental Justice: http://lejyouth.org/
Loading...
5:27
HEAN Fight for Environmental Justice - Documentary Short - Part Iby HispanicNews886 views
Link to this comment:
Video Responses
All Comments (0)