For Freedoms: Another Justice By Any Medium Necessary

Assembly x For Freedoms x Shaun Leonardo

Recess Assembly, *Imagine Community Safety*, 2022

Date:
May - June 2022

Assembly youth fellows Amir Akram, Geremia Romain, Latham Butler and Darrell Santana with the mentorship of Artist & Co-Director Shaun Leonardo

Since the summer of 2020, Assembly youth fellows Amir Akram, Geremia Romain, Latham Butler, Darrell Santana, under the mentorship of artist and Co-Director Shaun Leonardo, have developed a series of visualization and embodiment exercises, inviting us to challenge our preconceived notions, while developing a historical understanding, of policing. By collectively imagining and learning solutions for conflict, we hope to create a community that is able to establish safety without the use of coercion, policing and violence.

For Freedoms is an artist-led organization that centers art as a catalyst for creative civic engagement, discourse and direct action. Founded in 2016 by a coalition of artists including Hank Willis Thomas, Eric Gottesman, Michelle Woo, and Wyatt Gallery, For Freedoms is dedicated to fostering an environment of listening, healing, and justice through a wide range of creative engagement. For Freedoms works closely with a variety of artists, organizations, institutions and brands to expand what participation in a democracy looks like and reshape conversations about politics.

About the artist

Assembly

Artists

Ana Teresa Rodríguez (she/her) is an illustrator and artist from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She specializes in drawing, painting, and murals. The imagery in many of Ana's works are directly inspired by the confusion and uncertainty she feels when facing the socioeconomic and political reality of her homeland, Puerto Rico. Some themes explored in her personal work are the connection between beings and nature, the contrast between what is industrial and natural, and the human sentiment.

Wow Quisqueya (they/them) is a Brooklyn born and bred multifaceted artist with the mission of bringing light to color, sound and touch in relation to each other to share their unique and often relatable experiences. Their physical and visual art is often aligned or accompanied by poetry, thoughts and/or sounds. Wow works with acrylic paints, watercolors, ceramics, waste materials, and voice to embrace all 6 senses.

Clay Floyd (he/him) is a novelist, hip hop artist and multi instrumentalist as well as fellow in Recess focused on the creation of worlds, stories, and characters meant to inspire the viewer. Clay is also the accountant/ a member of 3LS3WH3R, a music collective out of New York City.

Hoshy (he/him) is a stylist and visual artist based in New York City born and raised in Ethiopia. As a passionate visual artist and stylist, he navigates the intersection of creativity and style, transforming visions into tangible expressions through photography, storytelling, and fashion.

Grim (she/her) is a digital artist, tattoo artist, and print shop lead at Recess Art based in Brooklyn NY. Specializing in technical printing as well as digital illustration, Grim creates dynamic designs and works - a deep passion since 2nd grade.

Tai Lee (he/him) is a native NYC based artist, musician, and designer working primarily with text based paintings and designs. From a young age, Tai has been drawn to the way creativity and language intersect and how it can be used to convey complex emotions and ideas around identity through both lyrics as a musician, and lines as a painter and designer. Working primarily in painting, Tai creates intricate pieces that are both visually stunning, emotionally charged, and full of his own personality and experience.

Baruch Bourdeau (he/him) Baruch is an experienced musician, studio engineer, photographer & aspiring actor with a strong taste for detail and a passion for capturing beautiful sounds and images. Baruch is skilled in both traditional and digital photography, proficient in post-processing, sound production, software engineering as well as being a community organizer and band leader.

Founded in 2016, Assembly offers system-impacted young people aged 18-26 an inroad to art and connections to working artists, while serving as an alternative to incarceration and its intersecting systems of oppression. The curriculum empowers young people to take charge of their own life story and envision a future through art. The program diverts both misdemeanor and felony charges and in 2020 expanded to include a peer-to-peer referral model, allowing us to broaden our reach.