1 00:00:00,615 --> 00:00:05,255 [New York Close Up] 2 00:00:10,704 --> 00:00:15,164 [Whitney Independent Study Program--Lower Manhattan] 3 00:00:15,682 --> 00:00:20,635 I am a citizen and an artist from Braddock, Pennsylvania. 4 00:00:23,093 --> 00:00:25,361 I had decided when I was a teenager 5 00:00:25,361 --> 00:00:28,037 that I had to make work that was socially and 6 00:00:28,037 --> 00:00:29,286 politically conscious. 7 00:00:32,193 --> 00:00:35,289 ["LaToya Ruby Frazier Takes On Levi's"] 8 00:00:35,289 --> 00:00:36,851 I had all these questions. 9 00:00:36,851 --> 00:00:38,716 I always questioned the authority. 10 00:00:38,716 --> 00:00:39,945 I always questioned the government. 11 00:00:39,945 --> 00:00:43,868 I always questioned what the media was showing. 12 00:00:43,868 --> 00:00:48,054 I never really believed what I was seeing 13 00:00:48,054 --> 00:00:49,914 because I was experiencing something that was 14 00:00:49,914 --> 00:00:51,150 totally different. 15 00:00:52,030 --> 00:00:58,631 [LaToya has been making pictures of Braddock, PA since she was 16 years old.] 16 00:00:59,610 --> 00:01:01,981 Making the work on Braddock is really me 17 00:01:01,981 --> 00:01:04,668 talking about American history and 18 00:01:04,668 --> 00:01:07,132 the impact of the Industrial Revolution 19 00:01:07,132 --> 00:01:08,801 the part that people won't tell. 20 00:01:15,993 --> 00:01:18,087 You know, people, always, are very proud of 21 00:01:18,087 --> 00:01:20,553 America being the creator of steel, but they don't 22 00:01:20,553 --> 00:01:22,596 ever highlight the backside to it or what 23 00:01:22,596 --> 00:01:25,511 happened once the steel mills left the country 24 00:01:25,511 --> 00:01:26,741 and closed. 25 00:01:30,597 --> 00:01:33,771 Braddock is one of the most toxic places 26 00:01:33,771 --> 00:01:35,640 in America. 27 00:01:39,118 --> 00:01:41,489 We're all dying there from cancer, 28 00:01:41,489 --> 00:01:43,926 asthma, 29 00:01:43,926 --> 00:01:46,885 illnesses like lupus. 30 00:01:55,965 --> 00:01:59,017 The CEO of Levi's 31 00:01:59,017 --> 00:02:02,890 decided that they wanted to use Braddock for their 32 00:02:02,890 --> 00:02:06,420 new denim campaign 33 00:02:06,420 --> 00:02:09,828 and they decided to use it because it has this 34 00:02:09,828 --> 00:02:13,506 gritty realism and it could be hip and it could 35 00:02:13,506 --> 00:02:17,312 be profitable to sell their jeans. 36 00:02:18,420 --> 00:02:22,616 And it's really insidious when you put a black man 37 00:02:22,616 --> 00:02:26,250 in a photograph and then you slap on top of it 38 00:02:26,250 --> 00:02:29,743 "everybody's work is equally important" 39 00:02:29,743 --> 00:02:31,850 especially when you know the history of the 40 00:02:31,850 --> 00:02:33,290 steel mills in Braddock. 41 00:02:33,290 --> 00:02:34,707 They didn't want to employ us. 42 00:02:34,707 --> 00:02:35,879 They barely employed us. 43 00:02:39,047 --> 00:02:43,048 Levi's went with the idea that Braddock is the 44 00:02:43,048 --> 00:02:44,885 new frontier. 45 00:02:46,670 --> 00:02:51,892 And to call Braddock the new frontier, 46 00:02:51,892 --> 00:02:54,215 that's like cowboys and indians, 47 00:02:54,215 --> 00:02:57,850 slavery, this brings up a lot of things 48 00:02:57,850 --> 00:03:00,885 that resonate in the darker side of 49 00:03:00,885 --> 00:03:02,539 American history. 50 00:03:03,401 --> 00:03:09,722 [As part of its "Ready to Work Go Forth" campaign, Levi's opened a public photo studio in SoHo.] 51 00:03:10,993 --> 00:03:16,007 [LaToya created a performance in response.] 52 00:03:17,243 --> 00:03:22,329 [sound of denim rubbing against the sidewalk] 53 00:03:41,525 --> 00:03:44,129 [Liz Magic Laser--Artist] 54 00:03:48,422 --> 00:03:52,185 I think it's funny that the Levi ads came out 55 00:03:52,185 --> 00:03:54,484 across the world saying "everyone's work is 56 00:03:54,484 --> 00:03:55,908 equally important" when 57 00:03:55,908 --> 00:03:58,053 University of Pittsburgh Medical Center 58 00:03:58,053 --> 00:04:00,681 decided to abandon our town because it said 59 00:04:00,681 --> 00:04:03,647 that it wasn't making enough profit off of us. 60 00:04:07,425 --> 00:04:10,650 Like, I'm watching my mother wither away while 61 00:04:10,650 --> 00:04:12,668 the hospital is being torn down and she lives 62 00:04:12,668 --> 00:04:14,486 right next to the hospital. 63 00:04:41,921 --> 00:04:43,382 Like, does the American public know that? 64 00:04:46,052 --> 00:04:47,935 While everybody's work is equally important 65 00:04:47,935 --> 00:04:51,975 that our top employer, Braddock UPMC Hospital, 66 00:04:51,975 --> 00:04:55,664 abandoned our town and fired over 600 people. 67 00:04:59,324 --> 00:05:01,116 So we... Not only do we not have health care, 68 00:05:01,116 --> 00:05:04,626 we don't have jobs, but we do have the Levi's 69 00:05:04,626 --> 00:05:05,821 ad campaign that says, 70 00:05:05,821 --> 00:05:07,415 "go forth." 71 00:05:07,415 --> 00:05:08,534 And I would like to know, 72 00:05:08,534 --> 00:05:09,972 go forth where? 73 00:05:22,262 --> 00:05:24,764 You know, it's my job as an artist, 74 00:05:24,764 --> 00:05:26,129 I can ask those questions. 75 00:05:27,545 --> 00:05:29,432 It's my job to ask those questions-- 76 00:05:29,432 --> 00:05:31,306 that's what an artist should do. 77 00:05:43,516 --> 00:05:46,796 What I feel an urgency to do at this moment 78 00:05:46,796 --> 00:05:51,431 is to really return back home and to really do 79 00:05:51,431 --> 00:05:53,955 something--not as the artist, LaToya Ruby Frazier, 80 00:05:53,955 --> 00:05:56,336 but as the citizen of 81 00:05:56,336 --> 00:05:58,579 Braddock, Pennsylvania, LaToya Ruby Fraizer. 82 00:05:58,579 --> 00:06:01,723 As a citizen, do something about what they've done 83 00:06:01,723 --> 00:06:03,492 to my community.