From VICE, LAist Studios and iHeartMedia’s My Cultura Podcast Network, New Limited Series Launches March 14

WHAT: For many Latinx kids in the 2000s, 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, police raids, and many adults saw it as gang-adjacent. The media fueled negative stereotypes of out-of-control kids. One of the teens who got caught in that narrative was Emmery Muñoz, who was murdered in 2006.

In the early 2000s, Janice Llamoca was a member of an all-girl party crew called the Lustful Laydeez. Although she left that world behind as an adult, learning about Emmery’s story quickly pulled her back.

In Party Crews: The Untold Story, Janice goes on a Y2K-filled journey back 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. 

WHEN: Party Crews: The Untold Story premieres on March 14, 2023. Listen to the official trailer now, here.

WHERE: Listeners can follow Party Crews: The Untold Story on the iHeartRadio app and all other podcast platforms.

WHO: Host Janice Llamoca is an award-winning journalist and senior podcast producer with VICE. As an audio journalist, Janice explores topics of history, identity, language access, culture, and covers stories that range from LA’s Chicano Movement to profiles of emerging Latinx musicians to the Black TikTok strike. She humanizes her stories with compelling voices from communities of color.

Janice’s work has been featured in Latino USA, VICE News, The New York Times, NPR’s Code Switch, El hilo, NPR’s Weekly Edition, Remezcla and more. In 2020, Janice was a recipient of a Gracie Award and a Livingston Award finalist. Growing up as the child of immigrants in the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles, Janice identifies as Peruvian American of Quechua descent.

Party Crews: The Untold Story is distributed by iHeartPodcasts. 

ABOUT VICE WORLD NEWS

VICE World News is VICE Media Group's international news network, producing hundreds of hours of television, digital and audio news programming for a global audience. VICE World News redefines what it means to be a global news organization for the next generation by focusing on groundbreaking content and plugging into key outlets where youth are receiving their news. VICE World News has received countless accolades, including Emmys, Peabodys, GLAAD Media Awards, Overseas Press Club Awards, and SOPA Awards for content spanning everything from international sports docuseries, to TikTok coverage of the war in Ukraine that surpassed hundreds of millions of views. 

ABOUT VICE AUDIO

VICE AUDIO is an award winning immersive, investigative, narrative podcast studio, since 2016.

About LAist Studios

LAist is committed to serving audiences in Greater Los Angeles, Orange County, and the Inland Empire. Its award-winning work reaches more than seven million people per month on LAist.com and social media platforms. In 2019, the brand grew to include LAist Studios , a dedicated podcast development and production studio. Furthering SCPR’s commitment to premium on-demand audio storytelling, podcasts from LAist Studios aim to reflect the ethos of Los Angeles — a forward-looking community built upon unmatched diversity, inclusion, and drive—going beyond geographical borders to connect with listeners around the globe who share the LA state of mind.

Southern California Public Radio (www.scpr.org) is a member-supported multi-platform public media organization that has garnered more than 500 journalistic honors since 1999. Recognized as a national leader in public service journalism and community engagement, SCPR’s flagship radio station, LAist 89.3, is LA’s #1 NPR station. The network’s five stations (LAist 89.3, LAist 89.1 KUOR-FM, LAist 90.3 KVLA-FM, LAist 89.5 KJAI-FM and LAist 89.9 Santa Barbara) deliver award-winning local stories to the communities of the region, including a robust slate of signature programs from NPR, APM, the BBC, and PRI.