Description:

Tele-Vecindario, was centered in the Manglano's own neighborhood, a predominantly lower-income, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central, and South American
neighborhood. Many problems—lack of jobs, high drop-out rate, crime, drugs, gangs, teen pregnancy, and AIDS—affect the area. Video emerged as "the very tool of the tertulia (conversation), the means by which a dialogue between peers and with adults could be facilitated." The project took the form of multiple video dialogues among neighbors, known cumulatively as Tele-Vecindario. A youth division of the project named Street-Level Video (S-LV) became a central force. A Street Level Video Block Party was an event encompassing one residential street, using seventy-five monitors, involving four rival gangs and S-LV members, with an audience of more than a thousand people. The event, both a block party and video installation, also included a stage with teen performers and a peace mural whose negotiated design involved S-LV, gang representatives, some neighbors, and graffiti artists. After Tele-vecindario was finished, S-LV became Street-Level Youth Media.

Goals:

«Using video and audio production, graphic design, digital photography, and the Internet, Street-Level youth address community issues, access advanced communication technology, and gain inclusion in our information-based society.»

Beneficial Outcomes:

«The original location was opened at the site where numerous gang lines converged; a number of projects created dialogues between rival gang members who had never spoken to one another.»

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