Youth Organizers in MN lifted up that a significant part of the culture of over policing in the Twin Cities has been a result of excessive surveillance led by the superstore giant Target which is based in MN. Nearly every young person on the EYP team had a personal experience about being watched or followed while at Target. They wanted to create a piece lifting up the impact normalized surveillance has had on thousands of youth in Minneapolis. It was important to the young people that the art educated the public about the history of the Downtown100, a list of youth kept by Downtown Improvement District, a private police force funded by Target. The list largely targeted homeless young people who would spend time in the downtown area and served as an excuse for police to harass young people, pushing many of them into the system which impacts them to this day. In partnership with local journalist, Marjaan Sirdar we worked to illustrate how Target’s development of private surveillance and forensic systems have caused harm to young people in MN and beyond as they share their technology with police departments across the country.

In EYP’s research about the history of the DT100, they found a song to make the sculpture even more powerful. “Keep It 1hunnit” is a song written and produced by some of the young people who were on the DT100 list about their experiences. The idea was to play with Target’s retail imagery, create graphic t-shirts that show the true impact of Target on young people in MN along with their connection to private and local police.

The youth leaders at End Youth Prisons MN worked with performing Statistics to create a series of infographics illustrating the intersections of Indigenous youth experiences and the criminal legal system in Minnesota and the disproportionate rates of suspension and expulsion of Black students across the state.

Youth leaders from the End Youth Prisons MN campaign worked with Performing Statistics to co-write a poem that imagined a future where all youth are free, safe, and thriving. As NKIP viewers walked through the future section of the exhibit they moved between the beautiful silk portraits of youth leaders while the poem played from a speaker. The poem was co-created with youth leaders in the No Youth Prisons MN campaign.

Programming Builds Community Power

With input from the End Youth Prisons Mn campaign, #NoKidsInPrison in the Twin Cities had a series of programming events that were creative, impactful and centered multi-dimensional youth power. Highlights included screen printing by Nico Sardina and Abolitionist swag making with Amir Khadar. The youth leaders organized a Youth Ball hosted by Vogue Down MPLS, who taught attendees about the radical history of ballroom as a space for queer youth liberation. Markevius from Rumble Boxing got everyone moving during the final weekend and the The Minnesota Coalition for Youth Justice held an intergenerational circle to close the week.

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