Recently Detroit Summer took a road trip to New York to close out our exhibit at the Queens Museum of Art. Take at look at some of the awesome events we experienced and what we gained from the trip.
1st collector for Detroit Summmer in New York!
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Recently Detroit Summer took a road trip to New York to close out our exhibit at the Queens Museum of Art.
Take at look at some of the awesome events we experienced and what we gained from the trip.
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t-shirts at warp speed
To go along with our t-shirts the Detroit Summer youth wrote these pieces to explain the importance of the designs
school closing t-shirt
School Closings and the Education Crisis
By: Keeya Williams
The “school issues” t-shirt design was created to reflect the monetary and authoritative problems, and lack of creativity in the Detroit Public School system today. Dozens of schools have been closed or privatized. An Emergency Financial Manager has been put in charge of our public school system, taking away the city residents’ voting power over school related decisions. Many students have dropped out or left the district, because they feel the schools system is failing them. Our design is displaying these different problems through the the people, materials and supplies, and money being dumped out from the closing school building. The hands that are squeezing the building were used to show how people in the community (students, their friends and families)are being drained of all possible hope because of a compassion-less agenda. We, Detroit Summer, as advocates for peace and justice, believe that something empowering needs to be done! To start the movement, we have decided to first expose the school issues to the youth through building relationships and conducting interviews. Next, we designed a t-shirt to illustrate injustices to those impacted most by the Detroit Public School system. Showing them that things may look bad, but it is important to ”Find the beauty in what’s left” by creating the education we want to see.
Wes, damoni, and Keeya learning how to print
Last summer Detroit Summer LAMP youth developed a T-shirt campaign around three core issues: Youth Self-Image, School Closings, and Environmental Justice. They interviewed youth all over the city about these issues, particularly youth who work with the Detroit Future Youth Network, which is a partnership of 12 Detroit youth social justice and media organizations: Detroit Summer, Ruth Ellis, Young Nation, Rosa Parks Youth Program, Capuchin Earth Works, Detroit Asian Youth Project, EMEAC, Vanguard, 5E/Heru, Real Media, Detroit Impact, Michigan Roundtable, and Feedom Freedom.
The carter brothers @ an interview
Detroit Summer LAMP youth then collectively designed and printed shirts based on the images and ideas that arose in the interviews. These shirts were created with support from community artist-in-residence Wesley Taylor of Emergence Print Shop (EPS) and EmergenceMedia.org.
check out this new recap of the Detroit Summer mural project from last year.
now appearing with our exhibit in the queens museum
This summer during our t-shirt design process we made poems inspired by the three topics we were investigating: school closing & issues, environmental justice, and youth self-image.
After listening to interviews and with the guidance of Angelique Nixon we produced these three amazing pieces.
the beauty of what’s left…
By: Keeya Williams
the beauty of what’s left… a legacy.
a life.
a story.
a dream.
a dream to be portrayed into something more real.
finally a ranting a seal on what one would call a can that never ever closed.
we never deserved it and neither did you.
but what did you say when “who” chooses you!?
you were blamed but so was she and when you wake up in the morning you’ll be on tv.
we’re trying to discover & yet…
uncover the beauty of whats left!
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