week two roof is on fire

In this documentary, we see the youth of Oakland gathering on a rooftop downtown gearing up to perform candid conversations surrounding the portrayal of said marginalized youths. The students were tired of being placed in boxes by the media and never given the opportunity or chance to be seen or heard as multidimensional, normal teens. In “the Roof is on Fire” Suzanne Lacy and the collaborators utilized many strategies when trying to paint a full picture for the audience. They gave community members a space to actually have these conversations (in this case, the rooftop garage, which facilitated an open-air conversation between students at which other residents and media representatives could also congregate to hear them speak.) This project was also followed by other community engagement initiatives centered around the same objective: to partake in a six-week long series of discussions between high school students and the Oakland police department. Through this, they were also giving them the space to properly represent themselves and take control of their image. By encouraging these dialogues, the project was, in my opinion, a huge success.