The VOICES extend……..
Here is a joint proposal between the VOICES team and the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council—looking for artists to participate! Email for more information:
PROPOSAL
for
VOICES FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD:
Autobiography of a Neighborhood
Dear Ms. Abeyta and Mr. Miller,
VOICES FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD will connect the neighborhood council with the people who live there, thus narrowing the focus of the neighborhood council by going to directly to the source. Now, some members feel they are imposing their vision onto this neighborhood instead of deriving their vision from voices within the neighborhood.
The East Hollywood Neighborhood Council has invited the creators of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL to participate in a lengthy partnership that would regularly culminate in opening the council’s doors to a symposium with the people-and specifically children-who live there.
VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL is a play that has been running in various locations in Los Angeles since early 2006—the piece breathes life into real peoples’ stories in an accessible way to any audience. It creates a narrative out of transcripts of about fifty interviews and creates a cohesive story.
Why is it such a powerful experience? The key is that the play is taken from actual words from real people - derived from the experiences of witnesses to the event. We will use a similar process to creating VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL in East Hollywood and share our work and transcripts with the Easy Hollywood Neighborhood Council.
The Fluxus show at Barnsdall would jumpstart this long term project that shows how art can change your part of the world, your neighborhood. Part of the reason that art is dying in low to middle income neighborhoods is because it loses relevance. Using art as an agent of change will not only fling open many doors to the community’s governing bodies, but also bring the neighborhood to the exhibit and in many cases serve as a resident’s first introduction to live art. We believe this first experience will stick because instead of art reflecting life, it is art integrated with life.
How will this all happen?
We will put out all the web media and let people take it in any direction they want. We will present a series of questions and various methods of submitting your answers—school essay and art contests, teaming up with local filmmakers to do “Man on the street” interviews, facebook posts/pictures/videos. Residents can submit a song, a poem, a picture, essay, blogging—we will partner with local businesses for open mic nights and schoolteachers to be sure the students are represented. The only restriction is that you must be currently living in East Hollywood.
An idea of the questions to springboard submissions would be:
~What do you see when you look outside your windows?
~If you could have anything in the world, what would you want in your neighborhood?
~How would you like your neighborhood to change?
This will give the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council a beginning database for focusing our neighborhood’s vision.
There are opportunities for either a rotating or permanent exhibit of our submissions that could change weekly, depending on space.
By intersecting VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL and VOICES FROM EAST HOLLYWOOD, we will hand the story-the plot of the neighborhood’s improvements-to the people living in the settings. Starting a political dialogue has been difficult in East Hollywood; a major challenge to the neighborhood council is bridging the gap between residents and their government, where they can have a voice. A major challenge to live art is relevance–creating an environment in which anyone can participate and understand the different avenues through which they can channel their voice. We feel it is an ideal match.
A demo of the play can be found at http://voicesfromchornobyl
Sincerely,
Cindy Marie Jenkins
Creator & Director of VOICES FROM CHORNOBYL