Four KITS Films to Screen at homeLA & MoFundamentals Event, House of RESILIENCE, at The Box
Attend a Celebration of Foster Youth Voices in the Arts, See Performances and Films
On Saturday, November 19, homeLA presents The We in Me: House of RESILIENCE, a celebration of foster youth voices in the arts. The event takes place at The Box gallery’s parking lot. House of RESILIENCE is a creative platform by MoFundamentals to showcase perspectives on houselessness and resilience through art from foster youth through dance, films, music, and dialogue from and by current and former foster youth artists and advocates.
RSVP: https://bit.ly/house_of_resilience
DETAILS
What: The We in Me: House of RESILIENCE
Who: homeLA hosts, foster and transitional age youth and allies attend
When: Thursday, November 19, 2022, 2:30-7:00 p.m.
Where: The Box parking lot, 822 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Tickets: Free event. RSVP.
Vaccination and booster required. Masks indoors.
The festival-style event will include a panel, a dance and spoken word performance, a rap performance, and Kids In The Spotlight (KITS) film screenings, hosted by KITS youth, including The Inheritance and 2022 films Run, Rite of Passage, and The Good Life.
The event includes booths by food and coffee vendors, entrepreneurs, support organizations, and free sportswear giveaways for attending foster youth.
House of RESILIENCE will commence with a blessing by Lupita and Luz Rodriguez from Kalpulli Teocalli Ollin, to share ancestral medicine in community. Audiences are welcomed to enjoy music while they explore community partner booths by Project Q, a nonprofit organization that provides services and uses hair and self-empowerment as a form of social justice for at-risk and unhoused LGBTQIA+ youth; Rosebud Coffee, a nonprofit organization providing career opportunities and support for foster youth; Feed The People, former foster-operated vegan purveyors; The Eleven Shop by Diamond Evans, a former-foster operated candle-maker, prints for sale, and free live screen printing by Orphan Tongue, a quarterly zine focused on highlighting the work of foster youth and former foster youth. Free sportswear giveaways will be provided to attending foster youth courtesy of Brown Bag Lady and Young LA.
Programming will begin with a panel of foster-led leaders to explore the importance of foster youth voices in the art, facilitated by Bernard Brown, dance artist, choreographer, educator, and founder of bbmoves. The panel will include KITS Founder and Executive Director Tige Charity, rap artist and foster youth advocate for the Youth Justice Coalition and L.A. County Youth Commission “Blacctrophy” Jackson, and founder and director of MoFundamentals adoptee-led arts program Gabriel Gutierrez.
The festival will screen four KITS short films, presented by KITS alumni:
The Inheritance (2021), directed by Julia Verdin
Run (2022), directed by Brandon Broady and presented by screenwriter/actor Kyshawna J.
Rite of Passage (2022), directed by Grant Housley and presented by screenwriter/actor Daniel W. and 2022 KITS Film Awards Best Actor London J.
The Good Life (2022), directed by David Mahmoudieh and presented by screenwriter/actor Kion G. and screenwriter London J.
MoFundamentals will present a performance choreographed by Gutierrez in collaboration with three foster youth dancers and one poet: Remeuel Dupri, Victor Pinzon Gonzalez, Tauheedah Shakur, and Timothy Story. The evening will close with a performance of A Lil Louder and Showem by Blacctrophy.
This event is a part of The We in Me, homeLA’s public education program that considers homelessness through the lens of empathy and civic engagement, offering a variety of opportunities for support, public engagement, learning, awareness, and action around homelessness. The We in Me furthers homeLA’s mission to promote intersectionality and cultivate inclusivity through the embodied exchange of ideas around varied contextual imaginings of “home.” Onsite to serve as event videographers will be KITS alumni Joseph R. and Myah G.
The We in Me: House of RESILIENCE was created in part by MoFundamentals and is produced in partnership with The Box gallery. Funding for this event was made possible by California Arts Council.
House of RESILIENCE centers the talents and creativity of those impacted by the foster care system and provides foster youth with mentorship, creative professional art opportunities and pathways, and support through a foster-youth-centered approach to healing through the arts.