DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A new alternative sentencing program aims to empower youth offenders through storytelling and performance art.
Instead of jail time, offenders between the ages of 16 and 20 facing misdemeanor charges will get the chance to enroll in Assembly, a four-week arts program organized by art collective Recess and Brooklyn Justice Initiatives.
The program will operate out of a new gallery space at 370 Schermerhorn St., which was donated to Recess rent-free by Alloy Development, starting in January.
If a teen successfully completes the program, prosecutors can decide to close and seal the case and it wouldn't appear on the teen’s adult record.
Teens will be required to meet for weekly, two-hour sessions at Assembly for performance-based workshops led by artist Shaun Leonardo.
During the workshops, the teens will be given a series of prompts that will help them reframe their own narratives, according to Recess founder Allison Freedman Weisberg.
One of the exercises, for example, involves splitting off into pairs and telling a story to a partner, who will then retell the story to the group using actions instead of words.
“The story will be stripped down to its emotional core,” Weisberg said. “It’s less about the acts and actions that transpired, and more to do with the underlying emotions that dominate narrative.”
Weisberg said teens will be challenged to think about what led them to make particular decisions.
“The goal at the end of the program for them to say, ‘I am the one controlling my own narrative and these are the ways I can do so,’” Weisberg said.
After the first four weeks, teens can opt to stay in the program for another four-week session. They'll get the chance to put on a final exhibition that will appear in the Assembly gallery space.
Teens who stay on for the additional four weeks will be paid a stipend and will be able to use their experience curating and creating art as a resume-builder.
The work they create will also help prosecutors and others in the justice system see them as people first, according to Weisberg.
“We’re hoping that the more active participation that stakeholders at the court level see from these participants, the more they begin to understand them as individuals caught up in a complex system rather than statistics and numbers,” Weisberg said.
For the duration of the nine-month pilot program, the gallery will also feature a rotating gallery of work from three resident Recess artists: Leonardo, Salome Asega and Sable Elyse Smith.
The gallery will be open to the public Thursday through Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.
