Direct Message

Direct Message.teen art exhibition

Direct Message

Thas it, right there

That goin' be the name, direct message right there

Box that one, that's the name

Hashtag

Who like Direct Message? Raise yo hand!

How you goin' say it?

Black lives matter

Cuz look, we got a message, and it's gonna be direct

We sendin' a message to show how people can come together and work on a project and get it done

There we go, yeah!

It's a direct message to society of the misconception that they have on us young black minorities

Looking at teen exhibit from outside Central Library's main entrance.

Exhibition was on display at Madison's Central Library, May-August 2016. [SEE MAP]

Daytime: larger than life power pose exhibit outside of the main entrance.
Nighttime: shadow projection show on the outside of the 2nd Floor windows, above the main entrance.
Listen to Faisal Abdu'Allah discuss the project on Madison's local WORT 8 O'CLOCK BUZZ.

Direct Message was an exhibit created by teens through Madison Public Library's Bubbler program, which tapped community resources to foster this 15-week project in hands-on, peer-supported learning and digital literacy. Bubbler teens were addressing the nation's widest black/white educational opportunity gap and highest per capita black juvenile arrest and incarceration rate in Dane County, Wisconsin, with this semester-long project allowing them to explore and redefine their own public image.

Thank you FAISAL ABDU'ALLAH and the many other artists, educators and activists who have made this exhibit possible, including:

Johanna Boyle

Rob Dz

Kay DeWaide

Matt Feifarek

Institute of Museum and Library Services

Dana Johnson

Richard Jones

Just Bakery

Madison Graphics

Claire Mason

Morgridge Center for Public Service

Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment

Nazka Serrano

Meg Sill

UW-Madison School of Library & Information Studies

Manon van de Water

Albert Watson

Jeremy Wineberg

Orion Wells

Faisal's WORT Interview

Shadow Exhibit

Projected on white paper draped over the two 8ft windows that create the 2nd Floor corner jutting over the corner of Mifflin and Fairchild, this exhibit was only visible during the night and Madison's Central Library looked to have a live teen performance every evening during the summer of 2016.

KO

KO says:

It was cool.

I thought this was gonna be lame, but it wasn’t. It was cool. Cooler than I thought it was gonna be.

Chillin' at the Central Library teen section

Tracing a photograph for an exhibition mock up

Brown paper silhouettes, KO and Bossz

Finesse

Finesse says:

There's more to us...

Direct Message is literally a direct message to all the people with the misconception of us minorities and the stereotypical perceptions and how people portray us. There's more to us ... And you know, people don’t really try to go in too deep into why we do this or why we do that. How we act. You know, why we act the way we act. Where we come from. People just go based off what they see when truly they really don’t know. And I just feel like Direct Message is a way for us to have our voice be heard.