East West is a collaboration with Rancho Cielo, a 100-acre campus in East Salinas, offering educational/vocational training and recreation for under-served young adults in Monterey County. Based on interviews with those who live in parts of our community where gangs are prevalent, East West shines a light on why youth are attracted to gangs, the devastating impact of gang violence on communities, the brutal reality of gangs in prison, and how people find way out of gangs. With rap and classical music, urban and contemporary dance, visual images and spoken word, East West looks at the circumstances that bread gangs and gives voice to an under-represented populations and affirms their role in the fabric of our community. It is ultimately the story of transformation and hope.
CreativeDirector & Lead Artist: Fran Spector Atkins
Media Artist William Roden
RapArtist: Baba Brinkman Music:Zoe Keating, Ethel Ensemble, Paul Jebanassam
Performers: Jones Welsh Talmadge, Anne-Marie Talmadge, Colton Sterling, Phillip Wainwright
Photographs:Robert Yager, William Roden Advisors Luis Rodriguez (award-winning author and poet)
