It’s been a time of transformation. Walking through the construction site hits almost all of the senses, which come together to highlight this transformation. Touring RYSE’s new campus this past July reunited a community that was and still is cocooning in the virtual space: some that hadn’t seen each other face-to-face in a year and a half and some that hadn’t seen each other face-to-face at all. Being an organization founded on lifting up the imaginations of the Richmond’s youth and turning those imaginations into something the hands can feel and eyes can see, the new RYSE building is one of the latest manifestations of that mission.
The youth dreamt this building up and are now physically walking inside of it. This transition is part of what summer 2021 feels like at RYSE.
Come Spring the building and its accompanying campus will hold space for everything under the sun. A theater, a music studio, an art studio, a computer lab, a yoga space, a garden, a basketball court, and many more components make up RYSE Commons. New RYSE member Mandeep said it best: “I think this building leads to many paths that [the youth] can take and kind of explore that on their own. It’s like a journey within the building … I can see how everyone will add their parts to this building and I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about helping build these communities.” RYSE youth imagined a certain openness, a feeling of light and boundless possibilities sparked out of community, and the building reflects this. RYSE intern Seeyade echoed this saying “I can already feel the love … the close relationships with everybody in this space, so I just feel like once we’re able to get back to normal and back in-person I just envision this space being a big happy family.”
The hope and imagination of what’s to come isn’t without the transition’s resulting grief and challenge. “Being in that space and kind of contextualizing what was and what is going to become also comes with the idea of honoring what used to be and really looking toward the future and carrying that with us. Which is painful. Transitions are always painful. But also really beautiful and exciting,” said Webster, a former RYSE intern and current staff member. RYSE being an organization so centered around community and human contact, the virtual space provided its hurdles, as former RYSE member, youth intern, and current staff member Eddy would explain. “Virtually, for many of us it was a challenge … once the pandemic kicked off there was a lot of uncertainty … we didn’t know what was gonna happen.” So being in physical community was important in and of itself, let alone taking the first steps into this new chapter. Sharing physical space got the gears turning in ways they couldn’t before, as Eddy went on to say “knowing that we’re coming back to a new building, a new kitchen...that’s exciting too, being able to share our foods, our cultures, I think that’s a beautiful thing as well.”
The grief is also literal. While old members of the RYSE community transitioned out and new ones entered the fold, there is also a sense of mourning over folks no longer with us. In speaking about all of this newness, it comes with a heaviness. “We lost Marissa...that was my counselor. We was talking about the new building...and thinking about that, it’s a little weird,” said Destiny, long-time RYSE member speaking on RYSE’s Clinical Director Marissa Snoddy who passed away just months ago. As the walls on the building develop, as do plans to use one of them for a mural dedicated to Marissa.
Transition has to be the word of the season. And as we feel through it in a myriad of ways, we get closer and closer to being in community with each other again. The building symbolizes this.
This summer RYSE switched to exclusively closed intern-based work with those that signed up for our Summer Cohorts! Our cohorts are engaging in a hybrid learning model, both online and in-person with COVID protocols, attending workshops as well as being central in crafting the culture and guidelines of RYSE Commons.
Below is a sample of some of the work those groups have done so far!
PERFORMING ARTS AMP
Performing Arts AMP (Advanced Media Producers) is an internship focused on Spoken Word and Performance as a tool for healing and liberation. This group are the main editors of our SPEAK Poet Anthology, will put together their own mini MAC Spoken Word Showcase touching on themes most pressing for our youth and co-facilitate our SPEAK Poet virtual workshops. Below are some excerpts from the Anthology!
COVID-19
Rights were disappearing long before COVID-19
That is,
if they ever existed
My community needed rights since the founding of America
That is,
if we were ever considered humans & not property
Clean air was disappearing long before COVID-19
That is,
before colonization & enslavement
My community needed love since the beginning of time
That is,
if others ever deemed us lovable
Black joy was disappearing long before COVID-19
That is,
if we were allowed to seek and personify joy at one point in America
-Mahogany
Grief & Joy
The reality is that joy and grief need each other
We'd not know to value or appreciate joy
If it weren't for grief
This I truly believe
The grief and sadness of what was is often
Followed by gratitude for what is
-Julian
This is an ode to Black skin.
I write to you because you tell a story. No matter how much crap you take, no one can say they saw you break. Terrible things might litter you, but shea butter kisses and coconut oil wash over your memories, your scars, making it easier to remember, or softer to take in since the worst ones are faded. To my Black strong skin, my quilt of history, you don't try to ignore history when you make your scars fade. You remember the hurt vividly. Though as it fades, some scars, some stories are easier to tell than others. Some scars you may not want other people to know. Something that pierced not just you but the soul underneath so you cover up with a coat. That's what shea butter is for. It makes you smooth to the touch, but it's use is better as a softener for the truth than a crutch used so much you forgot who you were before. To my Black skin...pulsating history wrapped around me. I learned from you...to express not to repress and stay true to myself. No matter how many stories within you are pushed to the back of the shelf. Though sharp, I run my fingers over them sometimes, to make sure they're still there.
-Nyree
Loving Me
Loving me is a bold act
Only the brave step to it
Letting go of fear
Fear of really being loved
Of a forgiving understanding love
A love that isn’t condemning but comforting
A reminder of your own strength
Love that makes you believe in real love again
Loving me is a bold act
That I don’t expect many to accomplish
This is a love many don’t experience
In a another dimension
Only select energies enter here
In synchronized rhythm with self and another spirit
This is a bold act
That many won’t accomplish
-Sunny
YOUNG MEN’S GROUP
Young Men’s Group is about intentionally building healthy relationships among young men by creating an empowering space with storytelling, healthy conversations, and activities such as creative writing, virtual ice breakers, and meditation practices. Below are such activities, one on affirmations and the other on our concept of love!
MUSIC AMP
Music AMP (online music production) is a closed cohort internship that creates an artistic musical space for youth ages 13-21 to engage in music education. OMP is an online focus group specializing in music production, songwriting, artist development, and media literacy courses through the lens of public health and social justice. This will primarily focus on the basics of music production, music history, and artist development with the hopes of creating a small RYSE Group Beat tape with each participant's instrumentals at the end of the program. Below is an activity our studio technician Khairee held among members and staff that tasked them with collaborating on a composition for a few minutes!
Education Justice Action Research
Education Justice Action Research (EJAR) is a collaborative space for youth to develop and implement action research projects that build youth power and education justice. Young peope will learn and practice action research methods, continue ongoing projects, and develop youth-led actions. In one of their first sessions the group was tasked with brainstorming affirmations for themselves. Read them below!
VISUAL ARTS AMP
Visual Arts AMP 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. Our Visual Arts AMP intern Bri is conducting a series of arts-based interviews with young artists from the Bay Area, the first of which she held with Ethan. Read the interview below!
Bri: Why did you start making art? / What were your inspirations?
Ethan: I began making art at the age of 5 years old after falling in love with cartoons. I remember being so amazed seeing my older brother be able to recreate on paper what we watched on the tv screen. I’d ask him over and over again to draw my favorite characters for me. After he refused to draw the Powerpuff Girls for the 100th time, I knew it was up to me to learn on my own.
Bri: How has your art helped you develop and grow as a person?
Ethan: Art has definitely had an impact on how i perceive myself growing up. I knew that even if I wasn’t the best at sports or academics, as long as I could make my little cartoons I’d could be happy and contempt with life. Being able to draw my silly little anime doodles really gave me a sense of accomplishment.
Bri: As a young person/POC, how do you use your art to voice your passions?
Ethan: Growing up I never realized how much of an impact art has on the world around me. Because even though I valued it myself, there have been a plentitude of well meaning adults who’ve wanted to push me away from it because they didn’t see in it the same importance that I and many young artist do. But after making posters, infographics, and even selling art to donate to important social movements like BLM I recognize just how powerful art is. It has the power to inform, uplift, fund, and shed a spotlight on so many marginalized communities. It’s a really priceless tool, so I try not to forget that.
Bri: How can you use your art to uplift others and give back to your community?
Ethan: Use your art to inform and shed light on important things happening in your community and all around the word. Use it to uplift others and create representation for those around you who seem to be overlooked by society.
Bri: Any other final remarks or advice to young people?
Ethan: You don’t have to create everyday. It doesn’t matter if you don’t create for months or even years at a time. But if you see some type of injustice that fuels you to make art, something you cant ignore, something you know you can use your skills and creativity to make an impact on then do it! Whatever the medium, your art is your voice and it does matter, it can make a difference. So keep creating forever( when you can). Might as well!
RICHMOND YOUTH FOR ABOLITION
The Richmond Youth for Abolition Cohort at RYSE is learning about the roots and core values of abolition, centering Richmond’s hxstory, art, culture, healing and resilience as key principles for creating our freedom futures. As they learn how policies are created and implemented they will develop a transformative campaign that will meet the needs of a social justice issue in Richmond. Youth abolitionists are also developing core values for youth power models, accountability and ways to resolve, de-escalate, and decrease conflict and harm.
HEALING JUSTICE: TODAY, TOMORROW, & FOREVER
Community Health Department’s central framework is Healing Justice. Healing justice is the radical approach of fighting for the health and wellness deserved and owed to BIPOC youth and their communities. It requires communities to heal on an individual, communal, and systemic level to create healthier environments and outcomes for future generations. Additionally it also includes the right to reclaim ancestral, indigenous, and tribal practices of resilience. These practices often incorporate plant medicine, spiritual acknowledgement and holistic ways of returning to our generational humanity. The healing justice framework is a tenet of the RYSE’s Theory of Liberation which focuses on lived experiences of youth and adults that engage in inquiry, connection and the ability to reclaim what healing, looks like, feels like and how it’s expressed in practice.
In the Community Health Departments: Healing Justice Cohort, cohort member and Azusa Pacific Freshman, Autumn Jacobs offers a short video by Youtuber GirlBoss SA that provides an educational glimpse into the Healing power of Crystals. As a cohort we discovered how crystals have been used throughout history and religion to enhance beauty, health and a status of wealth. In present day healing crystals are commonly used in everyday use to bring in positive energy, balance chakras and support mood enhancement.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
RYSE Commons represents the bold vision that every young person in our community is loved, seen and valued. We are grateful to Bank of America for supporting meaningful spaces where young people can thrive and recognize their unique gifts and potential - key to neighborhood and community transformation. Appreciating Bank of America’s initiative to help advance racial equality and economic opportunity.
RYSE celebrated our 5th annual Night Out for Safety & Liberation! As community members nationwide define safety & liberation for their city, folks here in Richmond are doing the same. One of the main groups redefining safety & liberation here is Reimagine Richmond. We want to take the opportunity to uplift some of the amazing organizing that’s been happening here in our city.