“If we really care about our young people then that means you care about protecting the future, that they’re going to be here longer than we will.”
– Adrienne Ayers
Adrienne Ayers and Nia Barnes from Afrofuture Youth Detroit and Melissa Regalado and Vanessa Sanchez from Yollocalli Arts Reach (based in Chicago) discuss how young people are developing their influence within their communities and look forward to a brighter future in which the autonomy of youth is recognized. They reflect on how adult support allowed them to flourish creatively as well as share how they are creating youth-empowering media in their own communities. Adrienne and Nia discuss Afrofuture Youth’s Sonic Safe Space project and Melissa shares her podcast “Cruel Public Schooling”, which illustrates inequity in the Chicago Public School system.
ASL interpretation and speech-to-text provided. This event was recorded as part of Bloom on April 29, 2021.
For Spanish language video, click here.
Questions
- What is the importance of empowering young people in order to create a better future?
- How do we rid ourselves of the idea that older people are inherently more trustworthy or intelligent than young people?