May was all about youth platforms, with the multiple youth-led workshops and open mics, as well as opportunities, with internships and workshops delving into life after high school. May was also AAPI Heritage Month. Representing the AAPI community and the spirit of the multiple RYSE youth who displayed their power this month, here is a forward by Ann Guiam, former RYSE member and current RYSE staff!
“eternal flame (in behalf of youth)”
by Ann Giuam
P.S.A.
Push. Start. Action.
To others the flame has only begun.
But for us?
We ignited the fire.
Known to be a generation of “kids” who develop fear while waiting in line at a grocery store.
We never feel the same fear when we are standing in line for the lives of our people.
We are now the kids to open the conversations and arguments with our own bloodline.
There is more to us than reaching “goals” only leading us to capitalism.
Through discomfort and talk backs.
Along with words coming from our hearts, out of our mouths, which are nothing but the truth cannot be taken.
To them we’re too loud.
To them we’re too chaotic.
To them we’re destructive.
To them the stomps of our feet as we walk to justice is nothing but a shake?
Our reality is for you to shake...
Shake into your own reality.
Shake into the fear once felt.
Into the change happening now.
Into all we have dealt.
We will swallow our pride once you feed yourself with the thoughts and feelings meant for you to have.
As for you are the ones who tend to spit out what you never want to hear or know.
We will stay.
We will fight from the bottom of our hearts.
Yell out with all the anger translating to love.
Letting this fire grow is not our main concern.
We will use the same fire to burn down the built systems never meant for us, scatter the ashes along the trails of tears that were shed.
This may be beginning of the fire to some
Just know it’ll never burn out.
RYSE Youth Hosted Workshops!
The Richmond Youth Organizing Team ( RYOT) Interns and DLCAPS Fellows closed out this years program by hosting youth-led workshops. RYOT Interns are grounded in social justice principles and values and participate in leadership training, exploring issues in their communities, developing community organizing skills, and coordinate events to educate their peers.
DLCAPS Fellows are the youth representatives on the District Local Control Accountability Plan for Parents and Students Committee. The role of the DLCAPS Fellows is to ensure youth voice and opinions are implemented in the Local Control Accountability Plan at the end of the year. They work together with and advocate for their peers in school, holding space for students to share their needs and plan together.
That said, youth-led workshops are part of our Youth Organizing internship model. All youth interns in our department prepare + train throughout the year to develop and facilitate a workshop at the end of their internship on a topic of their choice and they do it in partnership with another youth leaders or a community organization. They create their own flyers, curriculum, outreach plan, and facilitate their workshops at the end of the year. All workshop sessions are open to all youth ages 13-21.
To learn more about RYOT, contact diana@rysecenter.org
RYOT Intern Jaky facilitated a beautiful and needed workshop. She opened the space with a meditation, talked about Mental health Awareness Month, discussed depression & anxiety for students during distance learning & guided youth into an art activity. As a note, feelings of depression and anxiety can present itself in many forms that don’t simply look or feel like sadness, especially for BIPOC communities. RYSE recognizes many diagnoses individuals in historically oppressed communities receive are normal responses to injustice, oppression, and trauma; responses to very real, very valid factors outside of the person.
Yolanda opened the space with a check in, shared a video on the history of ICE and its harmful impacts on community pre-and during COVID. She led a Kahoot game with information and facts on ICE & immigration, closed us out with a session on how to defend & protect yourself from ICE and offered resources. Yolanda’s dream is to become an Immigration Defense Lawyer to support undocumented immigrants.
RYOT Intern Malaika & DLCAPS Fellows Michelle and Stephanie hosted an amazing youth-led workshop on Food Justice with 10 youth participants & 4 adults allies.
DLCAPS Fellow Luis facilitated his first youth-led workshop! He showed us a video elevating experiences of unhoused folks, created a kahoot game with statistics and data on housing inequities, guided us into a padlet activity for youth to share how they/RYSE can support and closed us out with a call to action through a petition.
RYSing Artist & Youth Leadership Opportunities
This open mic was in honor of YOUTH POWER, YOUTH VOICE, and most importantly, YOUTH. HEALING all while in the midst of a pandemic. It featured poetry, singing, dancing, or speaking from the heart. It was Richmond Poet Laureate Shiela Mckinney’s FIRST TIME hosting an open mic!
Odes to Home was an evening of celebrating our love for home from the Bay to Michigan in a youth-hosted dialogue! It featured award-winning writer Kiese Laymon!
The Culture Builder Internship is for youth between the ages of 16-21. Culture Builder interns will go through workshops that will support them with exploring their identities, being a leader in RYSE, and running their own set of programming. Culture Builders will not only be the face of RYSE but also set a foundation for RYSE Culture to other youth in the space. Interns will also have the opportunity to apply for RYSE Commons planning groups and receive an extra stipend for doing so, learning new skills in planning, coordinating, data gathering, and much more. The last day to register is June 11th!
Life After High School seeks to share the different opportunities, skills and pathways that youth can take after high school or even during college! Some of the topics covered include entrepreneurship, launching your business, college panels, LinkedIn and more! Register here for the June 9th workshop. Additional dates are June 23rd and July 7th!
Click the image to view the full video.
RYSE and John Muir Health partnered together to continue to lift up the most up to date information on Physical Wellness, Emotional Support and Sexual Health needs for youth and our community. In May's edition of our collaborative Ask- A-Doc program, Dr. Sway Wu, a 3rd year resident from John Muir Health shared with us current information on how to stay COVID19 safe by answering questions related to masks, vaccines, and CDC guidelines.
RYSE Has Space!
RYSE has space! RYSE Commons is part of young people’s powerful vision for the future of Richmond. Renovating our existing center into a 45,000 square foot campus will expand youth program and partnership space by nearly 300%.
As you can see, the original RYSE building, like the rest of the Commons campus, is currently under (re)construction and will be a hub for healing, personal development, play, expression, incubating ideas, performances, art, launching businesses, exploring technology, connecting with universities and partners. Follow the link to learn more about RYSE Commons and see some exciting building updates.
RYSE is Hiring!
JOB OPENINGS
YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES
Upcoming At RYSE
Let our measures of success be how much we rested.
Rest is part of our liberation. Rest is our birthright. Rest is disruption to supremacy. Rest reminds us we are worth it, unconditionally, unapologetically. Rest makes our freedom dreams come true.
RYSE will be resting the week of June 7th. Resting to exhale and metabolize ongoing state violence and systems harm. Resting to get ready to realize our dream two decades in the imagining and making – RYSE Commons - where will continue to lead with love and rage. And fighting for all of our righteous resting.
We will be back Monday, June 14th. If you are a young person and seeking support while we are closed, please call us at 510-255-1940. We will get back to you.
For our adult partners, if you have an urgent matter that cannot wait, please contact Kanwarpal Dhaliwal, Associate Director at 510-579-1922.
"Through the month of June, you can join RYSE as a champion for a visible and vibrant PRYDE Month and for safe liberation-bound space where queer BIPOC youth feel loved every day. Give to the RYSE Give OUT Day campaign! Learn more here."
JUNE HAS ARRIVED, and we would like to invite everyone to come play some games and build community as we honor Juneteenth! Join us on June 17th, at 4pm.
June is RYSE’s PRYDE 2021 and the calendar will be packed with activities, history, community builders, workshops, and events!
RIP George Floyd (October 14, 1973 - May 25th 2020)
At the marker of one year passing since George Floyd’s murder, we reflect. A normal man became a movement. Quick selfies he took on any ordinary day became symbols used to galvanize the world. And as per tradition in America, in this Black man’s death, his story became debated this way or that way depending on the motives of who insisted on telling it, resulting in a mass consumption of his life and image. While the man, his life, and one of the most consequential 8 minutes and 46 seconds we’ve witnessed did affect us all for what they symbolized, let us never lose grasp on this individual’s humanity; his very real, very normal, very everyday, flesh and blood. This past month we remembered George Perry Floyd Jr.
Mural by Xena Goldman, Greta McLain, and Cadex Herrera