In the aftermath of Derek Chauvin's conviction for murdering Houstonian George Floyd, the subject of what it means to interact with the cops has never been timelier. Enter Brooklyn artist Shaun Leonardo, who will be presenting a piece called “Your First Interaction With Police” at the University of Houston main campus. The work is a constantly evolving dialogue about how people from all walks of life experience meeting with cops.
“To portray and feel deeply a fuller self that is not contained within these projections or these stereotypes— that has been my mandate. That has been the very thing I want to offer to the world,” Leonardo said in a statement. “I wanted to pull more and more people into that exploration so it would not be contained [solely] to my own narrative.”