DISMANTLED

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Premiering during the 2009-2010 California college tuition hike protests, DISMANTLED employed outdoor projection and performance to address the privatization of schools and query what the future holds when our institutions of learning are no longer shaped by the core principles of exceptional and affordable education for all. The project acknowledged California's unique history and the 1960 Master Plan of Higher Education. It examined the severe cutbacks in funding and financial aid, access to education, students burdened by debt, affirmative action, diminishing transfer options, migrant education and charter schools. 

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Students in the Graduate Public Practice Program at Otis College of Art and Design and Krista Caballero were collaborators. The project integrated interviews from a cross‐section of Californians with historical footage from Brown VS The Board of Education, University of California protests. Included in the video are refrains, such as "I learned to question from Angela Davis, Langston Hughes, Buddha, Arundhati Roy and Jeopardy" and "I learned courage from the Zapatistas, Gandhi, Dolores Huerta, the Black Panthers and the Power Puff girls."

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Special thanks to Peter McLaren, Gilda Haas, Janna Shaddock Hernandez and Ricardo Dominguez.