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April 24, 2007 - June 16, 2007
Central Library, Lobby Gallery (branch info)
 click image to enlarge
People's Democratic Republic of Brooklyn consists of 111 passports originally
created as a personal and public conversation about urban redevelopment.
I have lived in cities for most of my life, studying homelessness, home-fullness and
social change. I have observed and experienced the pressures which cause migration
and border crossing. I want us each to take responsibility and authority for our
"legality" and our citizenship, while remembering those who came before us and
the choices they made. Collectively, we are the land and water we share. Poet Sekou
Sundiata said something to the effect of, "We are all homeless in time." Yet, we all
have a home in physical space. Perhaps, we are all owners of homemade passports
to self-authorized (?) destinations.
The passports displayed do not yet have owners. Each contains images of Brooklyn
through the decades. The dirt road is Ocean Parkway in 1923. The embossed image
reads "heart is where the home is" with two open hands. Empty pages are provided
so that each owner will personalize and transform them. Our lives and definitions
are quite literally in our hands.
 Youme Landowne studied cross-cultural communication through art at the New School
for Social Research and was a visiting student at the Nairobi and Kyoto campuses of
Friends World College. She has written and illustrated for Rainbow magazine in Kenya,
and has published illustrations for Girls Inc. and the Hague Agenda for Peace. Her first
book, Se La Vi (That is Life): A Haitian Story of Hope, was an ALA Notable Book and
won the Jane Addams Award, among others. Her picture book, Pitch Black, is scheduled
for a September 2007 release. She currently teaches in the Lang Mural Project at the New
School and is a lead muralist for Groundswell Murals in Brooklyn. She has painted murals
and led community art projects in Vietnam, Laos, Haiti, Santiago de Cuba, London,
San Francisco, New York and Miami.
To contact the artist: http://youme.landowne.org
All images © Youme Landowne.
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