Invincible

A project of Detroit Summer, the Live Arts Media Project takes the ideas youth have about struggles in their city and their lives and uses art and media to propose creative, sustainable solutions to those problems. LAMP uses art and media as popular education tools in classrooms and youth centers to spark dialogue with other youth. LAMP currently focuses on the education crisis facing Detroit, where over 50% of young people drop out of school. In its recently completed CD project, "Rising Up from the Ashes: Chronicles of the Drop-out," LAMP uses hip-hop, spoken word and interviews to ask questions such as: "How does the criminalization of youth affect the drop-out rate?" "How can communities and schools work to transform each other?" and "Who has the power to create change? " Working with the same group of youth, artists, organizers and mentors who produced the CD, LAMP has developed a curriculum for youth-led popular education workshops to further explore the ideas raised in the CD. In addition to being an impressive work of art, the LAMP CD is an educational tool and an organizing tool. In every step of this process, from the production of the CD to the distribution of it, the Detroit Summer Live Arts Media Project is building community, growing youth leadership, and creating outstanding media resources.