April was an abundant month at RYSE.
To set the tone, it was both RYSE’s International Worker’s Movement theme for April and California’s Arts, Culture, & Creativity Month. This also happened to coincide with our art-heavy Leadership Institute, the 4 week audition period for our in-house multimedia theatrical production The Land of Sankofa, and arts collaborations with our partners, including WCCUSD. Arts workers were on the brain this month: an irreplaceable yet grossly undervalued piece of our community at large. Many other valuable and valued fields (there’s a difference!) are those with a more easily quantifiable return: math can build a building, science can save a life and so on. So a field based on and fueled by feelings gets far less attention, consideration, funding, and time despite society itself being based on and fueled by feelings.
Art not only alters the way we feel, it changes the way we perceive life itself while also affecting all facets of life: art, too, builds buildings and saves lives. A recent study found that the arts result in a 66% improvement in individuals experiencing depression, 50% improvement in anxiety symptoms, and an 83% decrease of stress. Art changes communities and can be a source of healing, dreaming, visioning, and storytelling. And in that is a liberation RYSE takes pride in facilitating. Two Visual Arts AMP (Advanced Media Producer) interns, Joann and Hadassah, shared that creating artworks that speak on Black love and being Black and educated provides a narrative that does not stigmatize young black people and also encourages narratives like love and higher education. They shift the perception of what it means to be young and Black through their art. And when they create art, they feel heard, valued, and believe that their stories matter. Our Media, Arts, & Culture department elevates youth voice by providing access to industry-standard media equipment, loving and talented teaching artists, and professional development training in the areas of music, video production, visual arts, and performing arts.
When asked to describe a world without art, some of the RYSE youth interns replied “meaningless” and “nothing would be unique and humanity would suffer emotionally and psychologically.”
Art is the expression, conduction, and examination of being. For something so unquantifiable, it is undeniable the way art, music, poetry, film, and other mediums become us: shaping our sense of self and even the trajectory of our lives. That said, art and arts workers are the theme of this blog post. Please enjoy a recap of the art works, workshops, events, projects, collaborations, and writing RYSE took on during the month of April.
RYSE Leadership Institute
Every year, RYSE hosts a week-long Youth Leadership Institute, engaging youth leaders in workshops covering youth power, social justice, gender justice, restorative justice, organizing, movement building, art-ivism and personal and community healing practices. This year’s Leadership Institute, rooted in our values, centered on the opening of RYSE Commons. Young peoples’ voices and dreams drove the evolution and planning for RYSE Commons and this years Institute provided space for youth leaders to envision themselves and their peers in the space, starting with an in-person tour of the soon to be completed campus.
RYSE members took their first tour of the RYSE Commons construction site since dreaming it up 4 years prior. The day kicked off the week of the Leadership Institute and members walked away with a swag bag with hard hats and other goodies for the week!
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In celebration and anticipation of the opening of RYSE Commons, the RYSE community was invited to paint self-portraits in the style of artist, Mickalene Thomas. Portraiture can foster critical dialogue, reconnect relationships to place, reduce stigma, encourage empathy, and make visible the strength and power of a community. These portraits will be installed in a grid within RYSE Commons that includes members, staff, partners, and families.
During the Leadership Institute, members participated in a photo booth project!
Artwork By RYSE AMP Interns
Visual Arts AMP (Advanced Media Producers) is an internship opportunity run under RYSE Youth Center for young folx with a passion for Visual Arts. Our goal is to provide a safe space for RYSING Leaders with an opportunity to cultivate and support their artistic journey as a lens to explore themselves, their lived experience, and the larger systems around us.
Artwork by RYSE AMP intern Nyree.
Visual Arts AMP interns developed a graphic logo for Bay Area Air Quality’s new air quality testing vehicle for Richmond and San Pablo, CA.
scroll to view full comic strip
Artwork by RYSE AMP intern Tearra.
RYSE Events & Collaborations
RYSE started our long-awaited auditions for the youth-driven production The Land of Sankofa. In this Richmond adaptation of The Wiz, our youth playwright Sukari cultivates a world of fantasy, discovery, culture, light, and love: where following your own frequency is the norm and shining is inevitable. The month of April was spent auditioning actors, singers, dancers, and production assistants.
Asian Pacific Environmental Network has teamed up with RYSE to turn our new Commons building into a climate resilience hub: a safe space for youth in Richmond and the surrounding area to gather, organize, and access resilience-building social services on a daily basis, and provide response and recovery services in disaster situations.
Young artists and activists from RYSE and youth leaders from Re:Frame Youth Arts Center of Phoenix, AZ held a series of conversations to discuss Creative Youth Development (CYD) from 2019-2020. Creative Youth Development is a commitment to supporting young people’s stories, ideas, and dreams through creative expression and honoring their lived experience. The groups met over video calls to discuss how they define CYD values, what CYD looks like in practice, and their expectations of adult partners in CYD spaces. A series of graphics emerged from these conversations to help guide adult practitioners and spark larger conversations with youth and adults in the field of CYD. These three graphics articulate CYD’s values.
In 2019, Arts, Culture and Creativity Month was declared by the California Senate in a concurrent resolution to be every April in California to recognize and celebrate the significant impact the arts have in California. Activations occurred throughout the state including city and county proclamations, op-eds, special events, performances, round tables and more. The goal of the month-long campaign was to elevate public awareness of the value of the arts and the collective impact the arts bring to our communities and state. RYSE was happy to support.
Sick of White Supremacy: Medical Racism, Vaccine Inequity, Prioritizing BIPOC Immunity was a conversation for and by BIPOC to affirm our humanity, acknowledge the continued flagrancy of health systems, and address questions about COVID and the vaccines. We were grateful to host a panel with 3 doctors (Dr. Rhea Boyd, MD, MPH, Dr. Flojaune Cofer, PhD, MPH, and Dr. Janina Jeff, PhD, MS) who are building righteous and racially just systems. Below is footage of the Zoom call both in English and Spanish (password: RYSE31721) as well as a graphic facilitation of the call in slide form to the left.
Richmond Rapid Response Fund (R3F)
Now more than ever, stable housing is a fundamental determinant of health--for individuals, families, and entire communities. According to a recent KQED article, Contra Costa County had the second highest number of evictions between March and December 2020 out of the nine Bay Area counties. The Richmond Rapid Response Fund (R3F) was launched in May 2020 by the West Contra Costa Covid-19 Community Care Coalition (WCC Care Coalition), which includes over 100 cross-sector partners, agencies, and stakeholders. The R3F seeks to respond to the current and ongoing housing crisis by providing resources to secure and stabilize housing and shelter for individuals and families. This includes a Rent Relief Program for Displacement and Homelessness Prevention to provide greater financial resources to individuals and households at risk of becoming homeless. To date, over $130,000 has been disbursed to Richmond housing providers on behalf of 27 renter households to ensure they remain housed through the Covid-19 pandemic. Your generous support allows us to continue the important work of keeping our Richmond neighbors stay housed, and the roots of our Richmond community remain healthy and strong.
Join us in supporting the community. To learn more about the R3F, or to make a donation, please visit https://www.richmondresponsefund.org.
Education for Liberation Cohort Survey & Interviews
This survey has the purpose of collecting data around the mental health of high school students in the WCCUSD. More importantly, it will help us hear other high school students experiences and are also conducting individual interviews with students about their social emotional well being.
SPANISH
ENGLISH
#JUSTICEFOR
To read RYSE’s statements on these recent acts of police violence click on the images below
Upcoming At RYSE
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The Culture Builder Internship is for youth between the ages of 16-21. Culture Builder interns will go through a series of training that will provide a skill set in building culture by supporting youth in upholding the House agreements/signs of physical affection, signing youth up to become members and once RYSE Commons is fully open provide tours and orientations,. Youth who participate in the internship will go through workshops that will support them with exploring their identities, being a leader in RYSE, and running their own set of programming. This position requires a lot of dedication to growth and leadership. As Culture Builders not only will you be the face of RYSE but interns will set a foundation for RYSE Culture to other youth in the space.
Join us for an evening of celebrating our love for home from the Bay to Michigan for this youth-hosted dialogue! Our young folks have been crafting excellence to share with the world the beauty and the power that our cities possess. Click the link to register! When? May 25th, 2021 1:30pm PST!
This workshop will focus on storytelling, and the craft of rewriting and envisioning a future educational system, from the material taught, to the unspoken education many of us are taught. We will explore what it means to have access to culturally relevant content, speak to racial equity, and dream into fruition the education that young folks of color deserve. Participants will have the chance to write their own pieces elevating their hopes and dreams for our schools- and to submit these to be used as part of our efforts to win a Restorative Restart.
During Mental Health Matters Month thousands of individuals, organizations, and communities join together to show their support and bring awareness to the topic of mental health by engaging in a range of activities, from sharing on social media to hosting events that are virtual or follow local health guidelines. The theme for this year’s Mental Health Matters Month Activation Kit is “Hope for Change”. This theme reminds us to spread and rely on the hope that carried us through a year of change!
APEN (Asian Pacific Environmental Network) is holding youth meetings to discuss how we will use data from the survey to influence the solar battery and storage design of the RYSE Commons Resilience Hub: a space where community gathers, organizes, and accesses social services on a daily basis in addition to addressing critical needs during disaster response and recovery. This includes cooling and heating, electricity access, food, water, medical supplies, information and communications access, and partner coordination. Folks joining will receive a $15 Grubhub meal credit.