Artist and organizer Leslie Dreyer is working with the Coalition on Homelessness to create a series of pop-up exhibits, public dialogues, a film, and creative actions. She also will produce a ‘zine titled Stolen Belonging: A Collective Reclamation.
This project builds upon oral histories collected from individuals who have lost possessions in the San Francisco Department of Public Works’ homeless sweeps. For the exhibits, Dreyer will produce photo-based works and sculptural objects etched, screen-printed, or embedded with personal stories of the confiscated items. Six homeless or formerly homeless Coalition on Homelessness members will be paid to assist in creative campaigns. The artworks will become part of public installations in multiple neighborhoods where the collaborating team members will engage housed neighbors in a game of trading places — friendly, recorded dialogues navigating the steps they would take if their most prized possessions were destroyed by city workers.
Artist Leslie Dreyer has been producing collaborative social justice art projects in the Bay Area since 2011. Stolen Belonging aims to build empathy, accountability, and collective pathways to reclaim dignity for those denied their right to belong in the city.
Founded in 1987, the Coalition on Homelessness is a grassroots organization dedicated to eliminating homelessness and its social, political, and economic causes.