Welcome to LILANGELES: Bridging Worlds Across the Atlantic

Christine's artist residency project is a video letter exchange, connecting HOLA youth with students at the Jean-Cocteau Cultural Center in Les Lilas, a suburb of Paris, France.

Introducing . . . Lilangeles (LI.LA.s), the city born from the meeting of two groups of teenagers, one in Los Angeles and one in Les Lilas, a suburb in Paris, France. Christine's artist residency project is the place of origin.

This project provides HOLA teens with the opportunity to communicate with teens at the Jean-Cocteau Cultural Center in Les Lilas through video letters shot with their mobile phones. It is a back-and-forth flow of sending and receiving videos – the students responding to each other. Through Christine's collaboration with Nelson Bourrec Carter, the artist in residence leading the students in Les Lilas, this new dialogue emerges. Born in Paris, Nelson is a Franco-African-American artist and director skilled in film, photography, and installation. At the Jean-Cocteau Cultural Center, where Nelson's artist residency is held, there is a variety of programming, from exhibitions to concerts to programs for Les Lilas youth. The Youth Service and The Théâtre du Grade Chasse are also helping with this project, coordinating with the youth and developing the educational curriculum around film and image.

With weeks of teaching and facilitating filmmaking, exhibition-building, language translation, video editing, and mailing overseas, these teaching artists keep this letter correspondence full of joy and community-building. They teach our students that visual art is a powerful way to connect with people, across cultural differences, around the world.

More on Nelson: http://www.nelsonbcarter.com/

More on the Jean-Cocteau Cultural Center: https://uk.tourisme93.com/centre-culturel-jean-cocteau.html