“Aware of our collective burnout and disillusionment, we decided to pivot towards each other and ourselves ”
-Cyrah Dardas
Centering Care in Activism:
Older folks look to young people to change the future but aren't holding space for them to cope, process and decompress from the taxing nature of organizing. While our previous 482Forward partnerships focused on activating research through art, the overwhelm, exhaustion and trauma experienced over the last two years demanded prioritizing a more living and breathing response to the plight they were facing. At the start of summer, Lead Teaching Artist Cryah Dardas and the young people named the burn out they were enduring from organizing and seeing no change while adjusting to the ever changing transitions of COVID schooling. After naming the burn out they decided to turn towards one another. Cyrah, joined by guest teaching artist saylem celeste, focused on pouring into the young people in the way they have selflessly poured into their communities by carefully creating space to process and curating special care kits for the youth organizers.
Communal recharge through care kits and art making:
The assembling of the care kits itself was a communal effort. Groups such as Earthkin Herbal, Flower Press and 313 Liberation Zone contributed essential care items to the kits. Each kit included herbal tinctures and tea blends, manifestation cards, zines, and stickers and coloring books for the revolution. This kit was then woven together with beautiful hand dyed fabrics dyed with naturally handmade dyes with materials graciously gifted by Arts & Scraps. What makes this project so special is it fostered exactly what Cyrah sensed the young people really required, community. From the building of the kits, to gifting of them and their impact, this year's project fostered communal support while still providing the artistic space to heal and explore. The youth were able to reshape the way they engage with their activism and reframe organizer culture by pouring into themselves while engaging in activism efforts.
The gifting on the care kits included a communal dinner and of course a reflective art making offering. Over nourishing food and art making, youth enjoyed space to connect as humans, in person- something that has been dearly missing. By recognizing and tending to the youth organizers' need to decompress they pushed back on urgency culture. It nurtured those who needed it the most and provided them with the community and connection they’ve been deprived of over the last two years due to COVID. This year was a practice in ‘being the change we want to see” in our schools not only advocating for the healthy and healing schools youth deserve.