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[New York Close Up]

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[Whitney Independent Study Program--Lower Manhattan]

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I am a citizen and an artist from Braddock, Pennsylvania.

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I had decided when I was a teenager

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that I had to make work that was socially and

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politically conscious.

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["LaToya Ruby Frazier Takes On Levi's"]

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I had all these questions.

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I always questioned the authority.

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I always questioned the government.

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I always questioned what the media was showing.

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I never really believed what I was seeing

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because I was experiencing something that was

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totally different.

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[LaToya has been making pictures of Braddock, PA since she was 16 years old.]

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Making the work on Braddock is really me

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talking about American history and

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the impact of the Industrial Revolution

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the part that people won't tell.

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You know, people, always, are very proud of

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America being the creator of steel, but they don't

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ever highlight the backside to it or what

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happened once the steel mills left the country

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and closed.

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Braddock is one of the most toxic places

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in America.

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We're all dying there from cancer,

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asthma,

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illnesses like lupus.

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The CEO of Levi's

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decided that they wanted to use Braddock for their

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new denim campaign

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and they decided to use it because it has this

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gritty realism and it could be hip and it could

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be profitable to sell their jeans.

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And it's really insidious when you put a black man

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in a photograph and then you slap on top of it

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"everybody's work is equally important"

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especially when you know the history of the

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steel mills in Braddock.

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They didn't want to employ us.

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They barely employed us.

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Levi's went with the idea that Braddock is the

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new frontier.

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And to call Braddock the new frontier,

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that's like cowboys and indians,

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slavery, this brings up a lot of things

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that resonate in the darker side of

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American history.

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[As part of its "Ready to Work Go Forth" campaign, Levi's opened a public photo studio in SoHo.]

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[LaToya created a performance in response.]

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[sound of denim rubbing against the sidewalk]

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[Liz Magic Laser--Artist]

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I think it's funny that the Levi ads came out

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across the world saying "everyone's work is

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equally important" when

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University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

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decided to abandon our town because it said

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that it wasn't making enough profit off of us.

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Like, I'm watching my mother wither away while

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the hospital is being torn down and she lives

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right next to the hospital.

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Like, does the American public know that?

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While everybody's work is equally important

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that our top employer, Braddock UPMC Hospital,

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abandoned our town and fired over 600 people.

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So we... Not only do we not have health care,

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we don't have jobs, but we do have the Levi's

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ad campaign that says,

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"go forth."

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And I would like to know,

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go forth where?

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You know, it's my job as an artist,

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I can ask those questions.

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It's my job to ask those questions--

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that's what an artist should do.

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What I feel an urgency to do at this moment

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is to really return back home and to really do

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something--not as the artist, LaToya Ruby Frazier,

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but as the citizen of

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Braddock, Pennsylvania, LaToya Ruby Fraizer.

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As a citizen, do something about what they've done

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to my community.