DML2014: Ignite Talk - Armando Somoza
0How do you engage young people to become active participants and changemakers in their community utilizing digital media and the arts? You allow them to become stakeholders in the issues that impact them the most. New Yorkers were stopped by the NYPD over half a million times in 2012 and 5 million stops have been made throughout the Bloomberg administration as a part of the controversial Stop&Frisk policy. 90% of those stopped were Black and Latino between the ages of 14-24 and 89% of those stopped were completely innocent, neither arrested nor issued a summons. In 2012, students from The Youth Leadership Network of LatinoJustice and the Academy at Urban Arts Partnership created a 15 minute documentary, original soundtrack and social media campaign called "More Than a Quota" examining the impact of Stop-and-Frisk on NYC youth. In December 2013, students presented "More Than A Quota: Our Experience, Our Story," a multimedia digital pop up exhibit at SOHO ARTHOUSE, 138 Sullivan Street, New York, NY 10012, to showcase creative responses to the experience of being stopped and frisked as a NYC youth. I want to share their story and tell you how we rocked police politics in NYC!