JUST YELL/ POETRY as SELF DEFENSE
The innovative artist and educator Cheryl Pope engages with issues of violence and gun violence in Chicago and beyond in her collaborative performative and installation work, JUST YELL. Borrowing themes and tactile relics of American high school culture, Pope evokes the voices of the survivors of violence, a social epidemic that continues to claim the lives of young Chicagoans and people nationwide. Project& and Pope are undertaking a larger collaboration to develop a multi-faceted, city-wide, and national initiative that strives to more effectively and democratically discuss the issues of violence that have lasting effects on individuals, communities and future lives.
To create evocative dialogues and spaces that encourage interaction, Pope incorporates excerpts of poetry from Chicago school youth, often collaborating with students on live, site-specific initiatives. Working with Pope Project& engaged Just Yell around the city and with institutions. Then, In collaboration with Nathan Diamond, young poets from Chicago and Washington DC, Project& and Pope were invited to take JUST YELL/POETRY as SELF DEFENSE to The White House in honor of 2015’s National Juvenile Justice Awareness Month for a day-long multi-disciplinary creative engagement. Pope and Diamond designed a daylong event titled Justice and Opportunity: The Power of the Arts: A Focus on Juvenile Justice.