The artists reached out to teenagers which are the exact voice they want to hear from. They went to an “inner city” school and asked the teens if they would like to participate in this art where they just talk about their problems. This gave the community members a place to express themselves to a wider audience. Without this “stage” they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to voice these opinions.
The artists also focused on community moderation with a lot of the moderation coming from the teens themselves. On the one hand, it’s really important to allow your community to really express themselves. But, on the other hand, it’s crucial that you take measures to keep your community a safe space in which members respect each other’s opinions. The adult artists did a great job with keeping it a “safe” space and letting the only voices be heard be from the teens themselves and not from outside adults.
These strategies are highly effective and made the event overall very productive for both the teens and adult listeners. I do think it was interesting when some of the teens were arguing with the adults about how this is an event for teens to speak up but the adults were putting it all together and running it every second until the doors opened and the audience walked in. I would like to know what more kids thought about that experience, if they knew they should listen at the beginning so they could speak later or were just used to it after being in school for 10+ years. I also wonder how they feel about a white woman almost “using” an inner city school to show off her “art”. It seemed kinda strange to me but I have no idea what it is like in their shoes.
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