Richmond RYSing
This Pride Month, we share the loving reminder that RYSE lives and leads in the legacies and present day leadership of Black queer revolutionaries, in the power of Black and Brown queer and trans solidarity, and in protest and persistence to abolish the false and oppressive gender binary.
The future we all need is being created, conjured and called in by LGBTQIA+ youth. One year has passed since last spring when the RYSE Campus fully reopened for young people…
Photos of RYSE member and staff at the mural unveiling
Flowers for our Families is a tribute to the ways that working class Asian Americans have built power and made home in Contra Costa.
“We are daughters, sons, grandmothers, mothers, fathers and aunties. American-made wars tore our homes apart and made our families refugees. Bravery and sheer determination led us to cross oceans to find a different future for our families. Today, this determination allows us to show up at school, at city hall, and in our community to call for a Richmond with clean air, water, and land for us to live, work, play and thrive.
Together, we’ve painted this image of our journeys: across generations and nationalities, “Flowers for our Families,” represents the past, present, and our hopes for the future. The blue waters of the mural carry the boats of our ancestors fleeing for safety, even as it washes around the hands of elders holding a child at the center of the mural. At the top left, there is the Bay, representing a vision of our hopes for the future.
There are the national flowers of our homelands, including the dok champa, the white flowers that surround the images of our elders and decorate the hair of our youth, a reminder of Laos; the red and pink peony of China; the lotus of Vietnam; the coffea arabica of Yemen; the orchid of Singapore; and the golden cassia fistula or ratchaphruek of Thailand. They represent how we bring our culture and tradition to enrich this community and make it flourish.
We are grateful to the facilitation, vision and expertise of artists Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong of Twin Walls Mural Company for their help in guiding the mural process.
Elders and youth together, we brainstormed, planned and painted this mural – and we can do the same to build a safe, healthy community.”
-APEN Youth Leaders
November at RYSE is Land, Liberation, & Decolonization Month. As we return from the Thankstaking holiday and share our organization’s strides and moments of joy, we wish to honor the land and labor of tribal communities past and present, as well as all Black and Brown communities who have faced enslavement, violence, displacement, incarceration, or any other form of alienation in the formation of this country.
October marks RYSE's 14th birthday and the theme month, Youth Justice, Action, & Power. Both inspire us to reflect on where we were, where we are, where we are going, and the youth that have steered and continue to steer us toward liberation. In honor of this month, we are lifting up the work, vision, power, and joy that our young people have created in the space, and taking time to spotlight members and staff who have built our beloved RYSE community into what it is today. Read below some reflections as well as a peak into what's been happening at RYSE this past month!…
“I’m learning how to become me. My name is Jason, I’m from Richmond, CA. I’m still learning. It’s a process. But it’s a good, wonderful process. I’ve been at RYSE since 2016. RYSE and Richmond is two different places, to be honest. Richmond was crazy. It’s a lot of violence, a lot of things that go on like a lot of shootings, a lot of dudes trying to holler, or people snatching young girls and snatching young boys. My community at RYSE taught me how to love myself. RYSE staff helped me to build my self-esteem. Everybody’s different at RYSE, all the cool staff. Marissa was my counselor. But she was more than that. She was a sister, a friend, and a great person to talk to, for real. She made me feel comfortable being truly myself and I trusted her with my whole heart. She gave me permission to let the pain go…”
On September 6th, we began our Fall Program Season! Current workshops include: Tasty Tuesdays cooking workshops, Organizing Club, RYSing Arts Club, and media/fashion pop-up workshops. And as always, all members have access to hangout spaces, our outdoor courtyard, games, free food, and an open music studio / jam room. We are incredibly excited to welcome back Richmond youth as they move through the 22-23 school year!
RYSE recently welcomed anchor partner The Hidden Genius Project onto our new campus. Holding programming in RYSE’s renovated Legacy Building as well as the recently opened RYSE Commons building, The Hidden Genius Project exemplifies many of our values, with one in particular that feels especially pertinent: Youth Power.
Beloved Community,
This Fall season was and is one of RYSE’s most notable yet. Full of change and reflection, the season was accentuated by both RYSE’s 13th Birthday as well as staff returning to in-person work inside of a nearly completed, new RYSE building and ever-evolving RYSE Commons Campus. With the pandemic fast approaching the two year mark, we cocooned in the virtual space for over a year, preparing for seismic shifts in what RYSE looks like, how it operates, and what it has to offer. Inhabiting this physical space, while in its final stages of active construction, made the cocooning all the more real: we are here and this is happening…
CONTACT US
RYSE Center
3939 Bissell Ave
Richmond, CA 94805
Phone: (510)374-3401
Fax: (510) 374-3396
Email: info@rysecenter.org
