WEBVTT

00:00:15.775 --> 00:00:19.383
I am a citizen and an artist from Braddock, Pennsylvania.

00:00:23.293 --> 00:00:25.361
I had decided when I was a teenager

00:00:25.361 --> 00:00:28.037
that I had to make work that was socially and

00:00:28.037 --> 00:00:29.286
politically conscious.

00:00:35.214 --> 00:00:36.851
I had all these questions.

00:00:36.851 --> 00:00:38.716
I always questioned the authority.

00:00:38.716 --> 00:00:39.945
I always questioned the government.

00:00:39.945 --> 00:00:43.868
I always questioned what the media was showing.

00:00:43.868 --> 00:00:48.054
I never really believed what I was seeing

00:00:48.054 --> 00:00:49.914
because I was experiencing something that was

00:00:49.914 --> 00:00:51.150
totally different.

00:00:59.702 --> 00:01:01.981
Making the work on Braddock is really me

00:01:01.981 --> 00:01:04.668
talking about American history and

00:01:04.668 --> 00:01:07.132
the impact of the Industrial Revolution

00:01:07.132 --> 00:01:08.801
the part that people won't tell.

00:01:15.993 --> 00:01:18.087
You know, people are always really proud of

00:01:18.087 --> 00:01:20.553
America being the creator of steel but they don't

00:01:20.553 --> 00:01:22.596
ever highlight the backside to it or what

00:01:22.596 --> 00:01:25.511
happened once the steel mills left the country

00:01:25.511 --> 00:01:26.741
and closed.

00:01:30.597 --> 00:01:33.771
Braddock is one of the most toxic places

00:01:33.771 --> 00:01:35.640
in America.

00:01:39.118 --> 00:01:41.489
We're all dying there from cancer,

00:01:41.489 --> 00:01:43.926
asthma,

00:01:43.926 --> 00:01:46.885
illnesses like lupus.

00:01:55.965 --> 00:01:59.017
The CEO of Levi's

00:01:59.017 --> 00:02:02.890
decided that they wanted to use Braddock for their

00:02:02.890 --> 00:02:06.420
new denim campaign

00:02:06.420 --> 00:02:09.152
and they decided to use it because it has this

00:02:09.152 --> 00:02:13.506
gritty realism and it could be hip and it could

00:02:13.506 --> 00:02:18.420
be profitable to sell their jeans.

00:02:18.420 --> 00:02:22.616
And it's really insidious when you put a black man

00:02:22.616 --> 00:02:26.250
in a photograph and then you slap on top of it

00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:29.743
everybody's work is equally important

00:02:29.743 --> 00:02:31.850
especially when you know this history of the

00:02:31.850 --> 00:02:33.290
steel mills in Braddock.

00:02:33.290 --> 00:02:34.707
They didn't want to employ us.

00:02:34.707 --> 00:02:35.879
They barely employed us.

00:02:39.047 --> 00:02:43.048
Levi's went with the idea that Braddock is the

00:02:43.048 --> 00:02:44.885
new frontier.

00:02:46.670 --> 00:02:51.892
And to call Braddock the new frontier,

00:02:51.892 --> 00:02:54.215
that's like cowboys and indians,

00:02:54.215 --> 00:02:57.850
slavery, this brings up a lot of things

00:02:57.850 --> 00:03:00.885
that resonate in the darker side of

00:03:00.885 --> 00:03:02.539
American history.

00:03:48.348 --> 00:03:52.185
I think it's funny that the Levi ads came out

00:03:52.185 --> 00:03:54.484
across the world saying everyone's work is

00:03:54.484 --> 00:03:55.908
equally important when

00:03:55.908 --> 00:03:58.053
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

00:03:58.053 --> 00:04:00.681
decided to abandon our town because it said

00:04:00.681 --> 00:04:03.647
it wasn't making enough profit off of us.

00:04:07.425 --> 00:04:10.650
Like, I'm watching my mother wither away while

00:04:10.650 --> 00:04:12.668
the hospital is being torn down and she lives

00:04:12.668 --> 00:04:14.486
right next to the hospital.

00:04:41.921 --> 00:04:43.382
Like, does the American public know that?

00:04:46.052 --> 00:04:47.935
While everybody's work is equally important

00:04:47.935 --> 00:04:51.975
that our top employer, Braddock UPMC Hospital

00:04:51.975 --> 00:04:55.664
abandoned our town and fired over 600 people.

00:04:59.324 --> 00:05:01.116
So we, not only do we not have health care,

00:05:01.116 --> 00:05:04.626
we don't have jobs but we do have the Levi's

00:05:04.626 --> 00:05:05.821
ad campaign that says,

00:05:05.821 --> 00:05:07.415
go forth.

00:05:07.415 --> 00:05:08.534
And I would like to know,

00:05:08.534 --> 00:05:09.972
go forth where?

00:05:22.262 --> 00:05:24.764
You know, it's my job as an artist,

00:05:24.764 --> 00:05:26.129
I can ask those questions.

00:05:27.545 --> 00:05:29.432
It's my job to ask my questions -

00:05:29.432 --> 00:05:31.306
that's what an artist should do.

00:05:43.516 --> 00:05:46.796
What I feel an urgency to do at this moment

00:05:46.796 --> 00:05:51.431
is to really turn back home and to really do

00:05:51.431 --> 00:05:53.955
something - not as the artist, LaToya Ruby Frazier

00:05:53.955 --> 00:05:56.336
but as the citizen of

00:05:56.336 --> 00:05:58.579
Braddock Pennsylvania, LaToya Ruby Fraizer.

00:05:58.579 --> 00:06:01.723
As a citizen do something about what they've done

00:06:01.723 --> 00:06:03.492
to my community.