Kickstarter

Informed by the spirit of Jacob Riis, Gordon Parks, and former NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) resident Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, journalist Rico Washington and photographer Shino Yanagawa aim to challenge popular stigmas and stereotypes applied to housing projects and the residents who live there. We The People culls from the very essence of sustainability, ingenuity, hope, perseverence, and transcendence through candid interviews and photo shoots with former and current residents of NYCHA's various housing projects. The culmination of the aforementioned photos and interviews is a prospective gallery exhibition in NYC featuring 50 photos, printed interview excerpts, and insightful essays. A prospective book project is also in the making. We The People features interviews from such noteable former NYCHA residents as author/ filmmaker/ cultural critic Nelson George, lauded photographer Jamel Shabazz, Young Lords co-founder/ original Last Poets member/ Emmy award-winning news reporter Felipe Luciano, venerable jazz musician/ recording artist Olu Dara, author/ Emmy award-winning filmmaker Dennis Watlington, seminal Hip-Hop icon Afrika Bambaataa, and more.

We The People is slated to be exhibited in amended form as part of the New York City Economic Development Corporation and Full Spectrum's collaborative city-wide exhibition Curate NYC this October. In addition, We The People has been accepted for exhibition at the Fesman 2010 world festival of Black arts being held in Dakar, Senegal this December. Your generous contributions will help us get to Fesman 2010 and further prepare for prospective 2011 exhibitions in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tokyo, Japan, and more!

A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of photos, essay booklets, and the prospective book project will be donated to community-based organizations that enrich and improve the lives of NYCHA residents such as Hoods To Woods and Chillin' On Da Corner & Beyond.

More information on Fesman 2010 here:
http://www.fesman2009.com/
and here:
http://blackworldfestival.com/wp/en/

More on Curate NYC here:
http://www.curatenyc.org/home.html

NOTE: All rewards are scheduled to become available for delivery by early Summer 2011.

For more information, visit our website:
www.debunkthemyth.net

and our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-The-People-The-Citizens-of-Nycha-in-Pictures-Words/145443688832424

Bios:

Rico “Superbizzee” Washington – Journalist

With an AA in writing and literature and a BA from Fordham Universityʼs African & African-American Studies program, 33-year-old Washington, D.C. native Rico “Superbizzee” Washingtonʼs career path comes as no surprise. As a journalist who has interviewed A-list celebrities such as Chris Rock, Vin Diesel, and the late Bernie Mac, his work has appeared in Rolling Out Weekly, New York Moves, Upscale, Wax Poetics and Wax Poetics-Japan. Aside from composing both CD liner notes for the likes of Grammy winning hip-hop artist DJ Jazzy Jeff and artist bios for record labels such as Jive Records, he has also served as music editor for Brooklyn-based Free Magazine and authored his own bi-monthly music tastemaker column, Downbeat Diaspora, in the internationally distributed XLR8R magazine since 2005. He lives and works in the East Village.

Shino Yanagawa – Photographer

Though she holds a BA in Economics from Japanʼs Hoesi University, 35-year- old Tokyo native Shino Yanagawa has been avidly pursuing her passion for photography for 10 years and counting. In addition to being a regular contributor to Japanese newspapers Nikkei and Sankei, her photos have also appeared in publications such as GQ-Japan, Harperʼs Bazaar-Japan, Sound and Record, Groove, and Blue Note-Japan. In 2000, her two-month sojourn to Nepal culminated in the solo photography exhibition The Wind In Nepal in her native Japan. A photo shoot with seminal Hip-Hop figure Large Professor this summer resulted in one of the images being licensed by Japanese street wear company Funny? T-Shirts for a limited edition run of T-shirts sold in Japan. A resident of New York City since 2005, she lives and works in Brooklyn.
More info:
www.shinogawa.com