A ten-year series of installations, performances and political activism with youth in Oakland, California. Oakland, Californiaβwith its history of political activism, diversity and cultureβ was the site of a developing youth culture and politics in the s.
Between , Suzanne Lacy worked with scores of youth and adult collaborators to produce lengthy and large-scale public projects that included workshops and classes for youth, media intervention, and institutional program and policy development. The Oakland Projects are one of the most developed explorations of community, youth leadership, and public policy in current visual and public arts practice.
The work was distributed on television, through lectures, in galleries, on documentary videos, and in articles and books. The Oakland Projects consists of eight major works, listed below in chronological order.
Please visit The Oakland Projects website for further in-depth descriptions, videos, photos, news articles, planning documents, and graphics of each work. Additionally, Suzanne Lacy's Vimeo site, contains a dedicated channel of videos documenting The Oakland Projects , including extensive behind the scenes footage, participant interviews and several broadcast news segments.
The Roof Is On Fire featured public high school students in unscripted and unedited conversations on family, sexuality, drugs, culture, education, and the future as they sat in cars parked on a rooftop garage with over Oakland residents listening in.
