Recent violence that’s sobered our community and country has left youth with mixed emotions they aren’t sure how to express. So Amanda King, a Case Western Reserve University third-year law student and Cleveland Community Police Commission member, is giving black youth a voice through an alternative medium: the camera. Ten students took home cameras and traveled to parts of Cleveland and East Cleveland to take pictures that spoke to them of children on the streets, trash, abandonment and homelessness. The project, titled Shooting Without Bullets, is on display at the NewBridge Center for Arts and Technology Oct. 10-24. King talks about what spurred the initiative and why it matters.
ON THE CATALYST FOR CHANGE // [As an editorial assistant at Conde Nast] I was working in the magazine industry, in fashion publications, when Trayvon Martin was killed. During my first semester at [CWRU as a law student], Tamir Rice was killed. So you have this weird, real relationship between art and social justice for me. I knew that I needed to be able to tell stories and to better represent the people in my community, because I knew that socially America was going to a different place – a place that my generation had not yet experienced.
ON WORKING WITH STUDENTS // It was an intense moment of community, an intergenerational forming of community. There’s a lot going on here in Cleveland. I think it was a moment of learning and processing for each of us, and I think it really went well. And the camera was that tool that got us to trust each other, because we’re teaching each other how to use a camera, seeing images from others’ perspectives and traveling around the city together.
ON THE IMAGES // Our photographs are tough. Our photographs are gritty. They’re portraits of Cleveland. They’re portraits that we’ve taken as we’ve traveled the RTA. There are basketball hoops where the net is coming off. There are toys outside of the projects, graffiti buildings, tombstones, abandoned boots and clothing, because that’s our reality right now. There’s a lot of pain, but there are glimpses of hope.
ON STUDENTS’ ARTISTIC RELEASE // They’re confident. [People are] listening to their voice. They’re seeing the struggle. That, I think, is incredibly rewarding to [the students]. So many times are young people demonized. They don’t get a lot of gratification, be it in school, at home, definitely not in the community. But here in this artistic space, in this uncensored space that we’ve created for them – and they’ve created for themselves— they have the potential to be agents, to say and express whatever they want.
3634 Euclid Ave., Suite 100, Cleveland, shootingwithoutbullets.org