YAM at LUNA Fête, New Orleans

A collaborative audio-visual poem by ten youth- mural artists of Young Artist Movement (YAM) with lead artists Carl Joe Williams and Andrew Wade Smith

Youth artist advocacy, education and public exhibition:

Over a series of workshops spanning 10 weeks, artist Carl Joe Williams led the group in the creation of new visual works (drawing, painting, collage) and contributed with a “painting performance” Additionally, Carl allowed for my “video reinterpretation” of his existing sculptural works.

As the lead for the digital media component of this project, I first emphasized for the young mural artists of YAM, the concepts and critical differences between “computer assisted art” and “computer-generated art”.

While guiding and documenting throughout the creation process, I pressed the idea to the group that …We will use digital media technology to amplify and arrange our handmade works in time, as we imagine and re- imagine Gallier Hall with our “virtual murals…”

Music and sound design:

Supporting the visual spectacle was a musical offering from Carl, and a new musical soundscape featuring the voice and poetry of YAM/ youth intern, Elijah Turk with the additional voice of YAM artist Shanti Broom.

Here you can listen to an excerpt of this work featuring music and sound design by Andrew: