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Party Crews: The Untold Story

For many Latinx kids in the ‘00s, the party crew scene was a safe space to express themselves as they came of age in the grit and glitter of Los Angeles. A space to make friends, forget about your problems and dance the night away. But the scene wasn’t always physically safe. There were shootings and police raids. Many adults saw the scene as gang-adjacent and the media fueled negative stereotypes of kids who were out of control. One of the teens who got caught in that easy narrative was Emmery Muñoz, after she was murdered in 2006. Host Janice Llamoca goes on a Y2K-filled journey back in time to her own party crew days to find out what this scene meant for teens like her and Emmery, and why – to this day – Emmery’s case remains unsolved. From iHeart, VICE, and LAist Studios in partnership with My Cultura Podcast Network

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Introducing: Party Crews: The Untold Story
00:03:00 2023-03-07
All episodes coming March 14, 2023. For many LA Latinx teens coming of age in the 2000s, flier parties and the party crew scene were an escape from the pressures from immigrant parents and the harsh realities of the world. From VICE and LAist Studios as p...
Ep. 1 Emmery
00:37:26 2023-03-14
Janice Llamoca was one of the hundreds of mostly Latinx kids that made up LA’s underground party crew scene in the 2000s. But as an adult, she thought she had left all that behind. Until one day when she learns of the unsolved case of Emmery Muñoz, a 1...
Ep. 2 Welcome to the Party
00:26:16 2023-03-14
Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley, Janice saw the party crew scene as a little slice of freedom, a place to let loose, and a break from her religious, immigrant household. But the scene was also complicated for her and holds painful memories.See omnyst...
Ep. 3 The Investigation
00:37:39 2023-03-14
Emmery was last seen on a Friday afternoon in January of 2006. In this episode, we delve into the investigation into Emmery’s unsolved murder. Emmery’s link to the party crew world was part of why her killing got a lot of media attention. But what evi...
Ep. 4 Anatomy of a Party
00:34:17 2023-03-14
We go behind-the-scenes in the making of a mid-2000s flier party with an entrepreneurial teen party crew promoter from South Central to understand how parties were major money makers, but more importantly how they were created by kids who wanted to be the...
Ep. 5 Cat & Mouse
00:33:08 2023-03-14
A year after Emmery’s death, a now-notorious Los Angeles City Council member became interested in her unsolved case and led a rallying cry for LA to crack down on party crews. But the battle between the city and party crews wasn’t new. In this episode...
Ep. 6 Searching for Digital Traces
00:32:51 2023-03-14
Before TikTok, Instagram and even – MySpace, party crew teens found ways to create communities online. One of these early social media sites was called Techno4.us — where Janice and Emmery both had profiles once upon a time. In T4’s heyday, party cr...
Ep. 7 Desahogar
00:30:24 2023-03-14
In 2022 – more than sixteen years later – we hear from Emmery’s entire family who gather and re-hash more than a decade’s worth of information when an investigator joins the case.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Ep. 8 Safe Space
00:35:36 2023-03-14
What does the party crew scene ultimately tell us about what it means to have a safe space - and how might that shape the way Emmery is remembered? Janice looks back and learns that the rosy memories are not the only ones worth remembering.See omnystudio....