Suzanne Lacy, Annice Jacoby, Chris Johnson (Oakland 1993-4)

In June, Oakland teenagers made national news twice in one week. The first was a youth “riot” after the city’s annual summer festival. Windows were broken, stones thrown, and cans of mace sprayed. Later investigation revealed the role of the police in escalating what began as a minor incident, but an enduring legacy was a television news clip of a youth putting his foot through a plate glass window -- an instant replay that captured the imagination of a country afraid of its own offspring.

One week later, national television again trained its cameras on Oakland, but this time young people were in control of the message. The Roof Is On Fire, TEAM’s first large-scale performance art event, featured 220 public high school students in unscripted and unedited conversations on family, sexuality, drugs, music, neighborhoods and the future as they sat in 100 cars parked on a rooftop garage. With cameras rolling and audience members roaming from car to car to listen, the production had the haunting familiarity of images on the evening news. But unlike the typical newscast, this story had a different twist: youth represented themselves. The Roof Is On Fire was aired as a one-hour documentary by the Bay Area’s local NBC affiliate and was covered extensively on local news and national CNN.