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Roof Is on Fire

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Roof Is on Fire

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Faculty	Lacy, Suzanne
Title	Roof Is on Fire
Department	Fine Arts Graduate Studies-Public Practice
Other Creators	Jacoby, Annice Johnson, Chris
Date	1994
Series	Oakland Projects
Project	Suzanne Lacy, Annice Jacoby, Chris Johnson (Oakland 1993-4)<p> In June, Oakland teenagers made national news twice in one week. The first was a youth “riot” after the city’s annual summer festival. Windows were broken, stones thrown, and cans of mace sprayed. Later investigation revealed the role of the police in escalating what began as a minor incident, but an enduring legacy was a television news clip of a youth putting his foot through a plate glass window -- an instant replay that captured the imagination of a country afraid of its own offspring.<p> One week later, national television again trained its cameras on Oakland, but this time young people were in control of the message. The Roof Is On Fire, TEAM’s first large-scale performance art event, featured 220 public high school students in unscripted and unedited conversations on family, sexuality, drugs, music, neighborhoods and the future as they sat in 100 cars parked on a rooftop garage. With cameras rolling and audience members roaming from car to car to listen, the production had the haunting familiarity of images on the evening news. But unlike the typical newscast, this story had a different twist: youth represented themselves. The Roof Is On Fire was aired as a one-hour documentary by the Bay Area’s local NBC affiliate and was covered extensively on local news and national CNN.
Medium	Performance
Site	Oakland, CA
Notes	Performance with 220 teenagers
Culture	U.S.
URL	http://www.suzannelacy.com/1990soakland_roof_overview.htm
Rights	Suzanne Lacy
Collection	Faculty Work

Faculty	Lacy, Suzanne
Title	Roof Is on Fire
ImageID	otisfaclacy71
View	On a rooftop garage in downtown Oakland
Project	On a rooftop garage in downtown Oakland, an audience of 1,000 and press eavesdrop on 220 teenagers talking in parked cars about critical issues of urban life, an opportunity to reconstruct their identity in the media.
Rights	photo: Nakamoto
Collection	Faculty Work

Roof Is on Fire

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Roof Is on Fire

Roof Is on Fire