"Exit Wounds,” is the story of a collaborative,
relational art project between formerly gang-involved youth of Homeboy
Industries and Los Angeles artist Nancy Baker Cahill.
Participants in the project tell their stories through their own
photographs, original art, text and unconventional objects. Baker Cahill
then shoots the works with a .45 caliber handgun. Hauntingly fragile
poppy blossoms painted around the ‘exit wounds’ suggest that healing and
hope can co-exist with violence and despair.
Homeboy Industries is a youth program founded in 1992by Father Greg
Boyle, S.J. following the work of the Christian base communities at
Dolores Mission Church. The program is intended to assist high-risk
youth, former gang members and the recently incarcerated with a variety
of free programs, such as mental health counseling, legal services,
tattoo removal, curriculum and education classes, work-readiness
training, and employment services.
The most distinctive feature of Homeboy Industries is its social
enterprises/small businesses, which gives hard-to-place individuals an
opportunity for employment in transitional jobs in a safe, supportive
environment where they can learn both concrete and soft job skills.
Among the businesses are the Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café &
Catering, Homeboy/Girl Merchandise, Homeboy Farmers Markets, The Homeboy
Diner at City Hall, Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery, Homeboy
Grocery and the soon-to-open Homeboy Cafe & Bakery in the American
Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.
homeboyindustries.org/wanderlustindustries.org
facebook.com/theamericandollar
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