By Inobe~ The Roof is on Fire (1993-1994)

By Inobe~

The Roof is on Fire (1993-1994)

Suzanne Lacy, Annice Jacoby, and Chris Johnson

1. CONTEXT: The roof is on fire 1993-1994 was one of the ten installations from the Oakland Projects. African-American youth in Oakland was being negatively portrayed in the media. The youth started participating in Teen Age Living Room; a small performance at California College of Arts that became the vision for The Roof is on Fire.  The performance art was used to lift the voices of youth examining serious issues they faced day-to-day surrounding teen identity and politics. It was a chance for them to be heard by their families, the community, and the nation.

2. CONTENT: Issue: The media's negative portrayal of African-American youth in the news, movies, etc. They addressed how they are viewed as villains, troublemakers, uneducated, and at high-risk for teen pregnancy.  Suzanne Lacy and Chris Johnson wanted to, address these issue by teaming up with some of Oakland’s high school teachers to create a media literacy curriculum involving youth in media and productions so they could use their voices to reflect on their lives, and how they are viewed.

3: FORM: Performance arts and media were the mediums used for this project. They used the media inreturn (which was clever) ensuring the performance and project were covered. The community and others heard the youth voices. It explored what they were dealing with internally and externally because of the deep-rooted history of racism and social injustices against people of color and the poor. The government made housing maps and projects to keep African-Americans separate and impoverished, so the Oakland projects are just one of many housing projects across the country with youth suffering still today in great numbers, which is contributing to the mass incarceration problems.

4. STAKEHOLDERS:

➢    Suzanne Lacy and Chris Johnson the creators of Oakland Projects

➢    The teachers that were involved in rolling out the curriculum

➢    The city constituents and community involvement in the success of the project  rolling

➢    The students involved in the performance telling their story

5. AUDIENCE: The audience was the community, society, their peers, themselves, and anyone that would listen to the hearts of the youth. Including us years later reviewing this documentary and future viewers.

6. ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Some engagement strategies were through funding of the project, building the curriculum, training the teachers and students, providing a platform and encouraging the youth to speak their unapologetic truths with the camera rolling. Another interesting engagement was the creative vision to have the community audience actively listening to the youth without interruptions. Having 100 cars was beneficial. The audience had many cars to choose from so the youth could get lost in their discussions extending beyond a performance to their reality.

7. GOAL: The goal was to address teen identity and politics with youth sharing their perspective on certain issues using performance arts and the media to do so.

8. VALUES: From what I gathered the core principle was about coalition building, youth development, and arts education. The youth were encouraged to use their voices to share their opinions on certain topics. Suzanne made it clear her role was to get the best shots, movement, and results while filming to tell their story.

9. RESOURCES: To name a few things:

➢    Student, parent, and teachers involved

➢    An entire creative and production team to execute the project and performance

➢    Educators Herb Kohl and sociologists Todd Gitlin and Troy Duster worked with teachers to develop and apply media literacy lessons. Created an advanced training program for teachers from eight Oakland public high schools

➢    220 students total used for the performance. Forty students from various schools attended bi-monthly after-school planning sessions for the performance.

➢    Students were trained in all aspects of the production and media coverage.

➢    100 cars parked on a rooftop garage

➢    Grants

➢    Marketing and media plan

➢    Co-sponsored by The Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Sharing the Vision, Oakland, California.

10. OUTCOMES: Outcomes were extensive media coverage including CNN, 1000+ community members discussing the performance, teens, and dialogue with others. Moreover, students echoed to themselves and one another authentic truths about their lives and how they are viewed. Oakland projects were distributed on television, through lectures, in galleries, on documentary videos, and in articles and books. The documentary is still being viewed today, which is excellent for current discussions because much hasn’t changed across the nation in housing projects and underprivileged neighborhoods.