Miriam Neptune
Neighborhood: Bedford-Stuyvesant
Medium: Film/Video

Miriam's 2006 video, The Birthright Crisis, relates not only to violence against Haitians in the Dominican Republic but to the larger climate of xenophobia, anti-immigration policies, and historical amnesia plaguing our planet. When Miriam directed the video, which was commissioned by the organization Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, she wanted to start a conversation among as many people as possible. With the support of The Laundromat Project she was able to take the documentary to places people already gather: coin-ops.
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Rudy Shepherd
Neighborhood: Harlem
Medium: Sculpture/Drawing

Rudy built a larger than life ‘drawing cart’ of sorts, which he rolled into a parking space outside a busy laundromat in Harlem. Certain they would be embarrassed by a lack of drawing skills, many of Rudy’s neighbors declined his invitation to sit down and draw with him. They did, however, stop and chat-- with him, with each other…It’s not everyday that we are reminded we have permission to play: fun and freedom are closely related.
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Shinique Smith
Neighborhood: Clinton Hill
Medium: Mixed Media

Smith’s best known works may be her colorful bales of discarded clothing, or the graffiti-meets-calligraphy forms that jump from the wall to the floor. Perhaps less discussed, but clearly present throughout her art, is a thread of meditation and Zen philosophy. For her 2006 Create Change project, Shinique created a small artist book-- spilling her inner-workings onto pages left behind for her neighbors to collect. If meditation requires us to empty our minds of all thoughts, Shinique’s small tract shows us the fallout.
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