The Man of Eighteen (Produced By: illwright)
The rioting and protest in Montreal following the August 2008 police shooting of 18 year-old Fredy Villanueva highlights the overt sense of marginalization and alienation that youth and particularly people of colour feel in society. Inadequate schools, high unemployment, police brutality, harassment, violence and institutional racism define much of their existence.
Between 2001 and 2007, a report shows the frequency of police identification checks on individuals increased by 126 per cent in the Montreal North borough and 91 per cent in St-Michel. This “alarming” increase “touched primarily blacks” such that by 2006 and 2007 between 30 and 40 per cent of young black men in these areas faced police identity checks, compared to 5 to 6 per cent of whites.
Henri Lefebvre questioned, “What exactly is the mode of existence of social relationships? He states that the study of space offers an answer according to which the social relations of production have a social existence to the extent that they have a spatial existence; they project themselves into a space, becoming inscribed there; and in the process producing that ‘space’.
If hip hop has taught me anything, it’s that there is a need to understand expression and identity. To critically examine our environments and use artistic measures to define them. Expression of identity should be an unrestricted right. Graffiti art has been a catalyst of identifying the image and representation of those who claim space. But how do you preserve a form of expression when it becomes regulated and criminalized?
In the wake up Fredy Villanueva’s death, those who claimed public space to express were labelled as vandals by the Montreal Police Department. Those responsible would be prosecuted…
Written By: illwright
Duration : 0:1:23
