“Facing the Fire” reflects on the murder of George Floyd, police brutality, and the civil unrest of 2020. Originally presented in the fall of 2022 on East Lake Street in the Longfellow neighborhood, “Facing the Fire” was composed of seven performances of projection art and sound conducted on abandoned and damaged properties all along Lake Street. Local composer and musician Queen Drea created a full-length original sound score to accompany the projections, incorporating the voices of several local spoken word artists.

It was at that first performance here at the ruins of the former 3rd Precinct where Paul met Chris Mozena, board member of Longfellow Rising, who then pitched the idea of remounting Facing the Fire, with a deeper focus on social justice and the municipal neglect of the property. The site remains a persistent reminder of the horrific events of that summer and an ever-present eyesore that magnifies the City's longstanding inability to address community needs.

The projection art in Facing the Fire is composed of hundreds of images sourced from local and international media, street art from around the nation, graphs charting violence perpetrated against local communities by outside radical fascist groups, archival images documenting civil unrest along Lake Street dating back to the early 1900s, recent photographs of destroyed neighborhood buildings, images of citizens protesting during the summer of 2020, and images of children for whom we must build a better future.

For more info visit: FUTURE PROJECTIONS