POST CODE CRIMINALS Sept. 13th – Oct. 20th 2012 International Collaboration with Artist Dread Scott, Filmmaker Joan Kushner, and the youth from Liverpool, UK and Brownsville, Brooklyn. Opening Reception Sept. 13th, 6-8pm Closing Performance and Discussion Oct. 20th 3-5pm Last year New York police stopped 686,000 people as part of their “Stop and Frisk” policy. Post Code Criminals is an artistic collaboration between Dread Scott, a Brooklyn based artist, Joann Kushner an artist in Liverpool UK, and young adults in Brooklyn and Liverpool whom they have been working with since Fall, 2011. In 1996 NY police chief William Bratton met with his counterpart Ray Mallon in the UK to share zero tolerance policing strategy. The result was that youth in Liverpool and in New York were further criminalized based on where they live—their post code (the UK zip code). Youth on either side of the Atlantic have been drawn into an unusual symmetry by police and governmental forces. Kushner, Scott and the young adults from Brooklyn NY and Liverpool UK are using cameras to address the effects of this police intervention in their lives and their communities. Over the past year Kushner and Scott have led a series of workshops for young adults in communities of Liverpool and East New York, Brooklyn. Each artist worked with youth (aged 14-22), teaching them photography and how to show their world through their lens. The aim was to highlight Stop and Search/Stop and Frisk through art and exhibitions, providing a platform for youth and communities to engage a public dialogue. The exhibition at Rush arts Gallery will be the first viewing of this work in the US. The project has worked with over 125 young people in both cities. For several months, Scott worked with youth from Man Up, Inc. a community organization based in East New York Brooklyn. Kushner’s workshops were centered at Norris Green, Toxteth and Everton in Liverpool. The artists arranged trans-Atlantic Skype video calls so that the young adults from Liverpool and Brooklyn could share their experience. The participants researched the issue and collected stories. They captured, through film, photography, collage and poetry the realities of life for young people and communities who live in areas where stop and frisk has become the norm. The artwork will be presented at Rush Arts Gallery, opening September 13, 2012. The exhibition will include: • Cell phone photographs made by young adults documenting their East New York Brooklyn neighborhood. • Street photographs from Liverpool youth. • Collages made by Liverpool youth about the effects that Stop and Search has had on the way young people feel about how they live. • Photographic portraits of Liverpool youth, modeled after Renaissance paintings. • Kushner’s interviews with youth about Post Code with young adults who participated in the project. • “Stop,” a video installation by Scott that features portraits of youth from both countries as each recounts the multiple times that they have been stopped by the police.