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.”