Dennis Flores is a Nuyorican multimedia artist, activist and educator born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. He is the co-founder of El Grito de Sunset Park, a grassroots community-based organization that advocates around issues of discriminatory policing and housing rights. Dennis is also the lead organizer of the Sunset Park Puerto Rican Day Parade, which, entering its third year, has created a celebration of Puerto Rican culture safe from police harassment.
As a teaching artist for over ten years, educating city youth on multimedia art and documentary film-making, Dennis’ work often focuses on youth empowerment, Afro-Diaspora cultural traditions as well as racial and social justice. In the mid-1990s, influenced by The Young Lords Party, he and the street organization he belonged to – deemed a “gang” by law enforcement officials – began organizing around social justice issues. He and others began to organize with families of victims of the police amid the political unrest of the Rudy Giuliani era in New York City.
One of the pioneers of the modern day cop watch movement in New York, Dennis began to organize patrols of everyday people to film and document police misconduct beginning in 1999. The use of video to not only expose police brutality, but to help exonerate those who were arrested and criminally charged, laid the foundation for the growing police accountability movement seen across the country today. Today, Dennis is a frequent speaker, commentator and well-regarded community advocate.