Project Remember - Bring The Troops Home!

Leba is taking his street art to the next level. Leba is using his street art to launch a project called 'Project Remember: Bring The Troops Home!'

Project Remember aims to call attention to the 1700+ soldiers who have died fighting the wars in Iraq and Afganistan. Leba plans to release a balloon over the skies of Los Angeles for every single soldier who has passed away in the line of duty. The event is scheduled for downtown Los Angeles and aims to coincide with the downtown art walk.

Sounds like a very cool project. Impressive to see how Leba is reaching beyond his personal art to make this a public event. Project Remember is sponsored by The Site Unseen, and more info can be found on their website.

Below is the press release.
You are cordially invited to the launch of artist LEBA's "PROJECT: REMEMBER, Giving the fallen soldiers of the Afghanistan war a voice" on October 13th, 2011 at The Downtown LA Art Walk.

The project, PROJECT: REMEMBER, kicks off during The Downtown LA Art Walk atop five of Gallery Row's tallest buildings and was created to raise awareness to and honor the lives of US soldiers lost in Afghanistan.

Artist LEBA will lead five groups of volunteers in the evening hours of October 13th to release 1700+ balloons, each lit and tagged with the name of a fallen solider, from the rooftops of downtown LA. The impressively sized project is aimed at raising public awareness of the over 1,700 lives lost in war in Afghanistan, and also encourage public action to support the return of troops still in Afghanistan.

LEBA, one of LA's most politically aware and responsible artists, states his concerns and why he was motivated to create The Remember Project,

“It has taken 10 years, 1600 United States military dead, and over 1 million civilians killed, to kill one man, Osama Bin Laden. Now that we've got him, it's time to heal our country. Let’s support our troops by bringing them home, to their families and lives, before we add one more balloon to the sky.”

In preparation of the event, we have launched a Kickstarter to help fund this project. You can help us make the evening happen by visiting the Kickstarter page and donating HERE.

Any extra proceeds raised will go to the Wounded Warriors foundation.

Interested parties can also support the cause by simply visiting the PROJECT: REMEMBER Website and sign a petition that will be sent to Congress to request the return of our troops to home soil.

*An Eco-Friendly Project: PROJECT: REMEMBER has been designed to be as eco-friendly as possible. Each balloon will be released with only enough helium to reach a height just above the buildings we are releasing them from in order to ensure they drop in populated areas, most desirably at the ArtWalk grounds where over 6,000 people are expected to attend. Each balloon is designed to be a "piece of art" in and of itself, complete with all the project's information and links so that when falling to the ground, people will want to pick it up, retrieve the info upon it and participate. Our balloons are biodegradable and we are using natural and recycled materials where possible.*