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SBL Youth Featured in The Toronto Star
Jane-Finch youth use voices and art to inspire change
Suviana Burey, 17, Kareem Bennett, 18, and Destiny Henry, 17, are among a group of students from Jane and Finch who have created works reflecting their lives, struggles and dreams for their community.
On display at York University, eight young artists created works based on their own lives, struggles and dreams for their community.
At a new art exhibit at York University, the walls do talk — with the voices of eight youth from Jane and Finch, who speak about their personal tragedies as they counter ’hood stereotypes.
“People don’t understand that it’s not a ‘jungle.’ It’s not a ‘war zone,’” said Suviana Burey, 18. She’s eager to say that “crime” should not be the noun that defines her part of the city.
She and seven other young artists, along with mentors, have been working together since October on the second floor of Westview Centennial Secondary School to create If We Ruled the World — an experimental exhibit that opened earlier this month at the Art Gallery of York University.
After first connecting at Success Beyond Limits, a mentoring and youth outreach centre housed at the high school, the young artists wrote spoken-word pieces, turned them into videos, and created drawings and paintings inspired by their own verses.
Their work collectively draws a sharp, fresh perspective on life in their community, where they find strength in spite of trauma and are building a better future in a place they are proud to call home.
“Basically, don’t let the casualties that we live in turn out how our reality becomes,” says the quiet, introspective Kareem Bennett, 18.
His poem walks through the dark places, where youth have met violent deaths, and reflects on how those tragedies have shaped him.
Through these walls, I put emphasis on my character /
Surrounded by concrete, I speak only to survive in these areas
Last year, four teens were shot and killed just blocks from Westview.
Last week marked one year since 15-year-old St. Aubyn Rodney was shot and killed inside his own apartment; afterwards, the students at Westview arrived at school wearing R.I.P. T-shirts to remember the one they knew as “Tubby.”
Bennett didn’t know those young men well. But their deaths reminded him of others he has known, who have also been taken from the community.
“I carry the good memories of that person,” he says of the friend he wrote about, Stackz — better known as 15-year-old Jordan Manners, who was gunned down in a stairwell at nearby C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in 2007. “They help shape my attitude today.”
Within these tunnels, I see death in different perspectives /
People judge off misconception / Never offer to question / But I still feel his presence
Typically, the violence is the only story people outside this community hear about, the students said.
“They’d be surprised by the many capabilities and talents that the people have here,” said Destiny Henry, 17. “No one comes to look for the talent.”
Their new work is not only about struggle, Henry said.
“It’s things that we saw, things that have impacted us. Things that we want to change,” said Henry, whose piece shows an eagle and dove flying over a cracking heart. “You have to choose life over death . . . I choose to soar. I choose to rise.”
Abdul Nur — better known to most as Moose — said his piece speaks of making the most of the time you have.
He rhymes: ’Cause every day when you be dodging the coffin / It’s good to know you’re doing what you love when you drop in
Gabriela Aguilera, 20, needed to put her feelings about death into words, with a stirringtribute to her mother, who passed away after living with multiple sclerosis.
“I had a lot to say,” she said.
In the white-walled gallery space, where their names are now printed and their work in watercolours and pastels hangs around the room, they dance and bop as a song they wrote together plays over the loudspeakers. Their voices find the words again:
A hundred million miles / Take a step into my shoes / Take a breath in through my nose / Use my eyes to see my views / Thirteen years up in this ’hood / Take a look up in my life / All this struggle and the strife / Man it cuts just like a knife / So I try to find a way out
“I personally wanted to leave,” said Burey, whose own piece — a highway with the artists’ names piled into a bowl labeled “hope” — is about young people leaving to learn enough so that they come back and make things better.
“We are all the hopes of this community.”
So how would they make things better if they were in charge?
“We’re already doing those things,” Henry said. Recently the younger students taught a class at York University about spoken word — so they could learn to use their own voices.
“That alone can change the world.”
If We Ruled the World runs at the Art Gallery of York University until March 2.
The artists in their own words:
Suviana Burey, 18
Jane and Finch in one word: Diversity
Role model: The Bible — “Right now I’m reading about the prophets and stuff. They had a pretty hard life.”
Kareem Bennett, 18
Jane and Finch in one word: Connected
Role model: Malcolm X — “He’s the definition of struggle and gain.”
Destiny Henry, 17
Jane and Finch in one word: Diverse
Role model: The Bible — “The word itself is the most inspiring . . . It’s like an opening of the eyes.”
Gabriela Aguilera, 20
Jane and Finch in one word: United
Role model: My brother (a sergeant in the Armed Forces) — “I . . . look up to him for guidance and everything.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/02/20/janefinch_youth_use_voices_and_art_to_inspire_change.html
If We Ruled The World
“If We Ruled The World” – a youth-led collaborative song
In August of 2013 a number of our mentors successfully applied to the Youth Action Grant offered by Toronto Community Housing.
One of the ideas from Kareem was to pull together some of the talent in Success Beyond Limits to create an original song.
Seeing an overlap, Kareem’s project was included in the multi-media art project that he was a part of titled “If We Ruled The World”, being delivered through a partnership through the Art Gallery of York University and SBL.
“If We Ruled The World” is finally complete. Take in the talent and wisdom of SBL Mentors Aliyah, Kareem, Moose, Deshawn and Destiny.
Opening: Aliyah
Verse 1: Moose
Verse 2: Kareem
Verse 3: Deshawn
Chorus: Destiny
You can download the track by clicking on the link below.
SBL Mentors- If We Ruled The World (Produced by Octave aka Stel Bomber)
If We Ruled The World – Youth Art Installation @ Art Gallery of York University FEB 5 @ 6pm
What Up T.O!
We are proud and pleased to invite Toronto and the GTA out to the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU) on Tuesday, February 5th at 6pm to join us for the launch of a collaborative installation titled “If I Ruled The World”.
The project has been put together by 8 youth artists from Jane and Finch who are working with 3 professional artists in order present a multi-media art installation at the Art Gallery of York University. Led by the Art Gallery of York University in collaboration with Success Beyond Limits, this project is another step in the deep commitment from the gallery to youth and community.
Success Beyond Limits is an after-school educational support program and The AGYU, through this collaboration, are offering youth in Jane and Finch the opportunity to participate in stimulating and enriching arts and cultural workshops led by the city’s leading artists. If I Ruled the World, is providing youth in our community with the invaluable opportunity to collaborate with Mark “Kurupt” Stoddart and The M.A.D Poet, to create art works that explore and develop an urban spatial imaginary.
Looking at the architecture, landscape, and urban plan of their neighbourhood, youth artists are employing visual art and spoken word poetry to explore the impact that spatial inequality and injustice has had on their lives. Moreover, they will use painting, drawing and spoken work poetry as a means of envisioning urban transformation that will result from a more socially just and equitable neighbourhood and spatial structure.
The installation will be followed up with a two-day design charette with ArchTEXT that will explore urban planning through the eyes of youth artists in the community.
The Art Gallery of York University has done a remarkable job in providing this remarkable opportunity.
SBL’s Top 10 List of 2013
TOP 10 List
Right about this time of year there are Top 10 lists everywhere you turn. In that vein, we have a list of our own (in NO particular order).
10. New Team Members: adding Bryan Brown (Youth Outreach Worker) and Toota Hassanien (After School Supervisor). Two exceptional new members of the SBL family!
9. Collaboration: we can not list them all here, but the people, committees, organizations, agencies, funders, ministries, advisors, and partners that have stood with us in ways great and small define so much of what is possible through organic, authentic collaboration.
8. Space (217 and Osgoode): We have been growing into our amazing space at Westview Centennial and we were welcomed into the beautifully renovated Osgoode Hall Law School at York U. It’s not just having space, but the type of space that makes the difference.
7. Coming Together Through Difficult Times: one only needs to have turned on the news this past year to know how many young people in the Jane and Finch community lost their lives tragically. What was not shared across the city was how youth, mentors, and caring-adults came together and found strength in the bonds and love shared.
6. Sharing Knowledge and Experience: our staff and mentors make a point of sharing our model and experiences wherever possible with the hope that other communities can learn from and take from what we have been a part of in Jane and Finch. This past summer a community collective launched a summer program for youth in Malvern after inviting us to come out and share what we do and how we do it.
5. A Special Graduation: SBL as an organization was founded in June of 2010, and one of the major forces behind this were the students that were in grade 9 that year. This past June we witnessed many of those students take their final steps as Westview students across the stage to mark their secondary school graduation.
4. Our Mentees: Every summer we feel like our new grade 9s come in and make the program the best that it’s ever been. Well that’s how we felt again this year.
3. Our Mentors: when the grade 9s come in, we know they will become mentors one day (but it is hard to imagine). This year we really saw the inverse of that: mentees that had become mentors and shown so much growth that it was hard to remember them as grade 9s.
2. Our Parents: our programming is focused on youth and you want find much on our website about parents. That said, a great deal of the work of our staff is meeting with parents, taking/making calls, and partnering on supporting students through barriers and towards success. Many of the most touching moments of this past year were between parents, our staff and our students.
1. Our Teachers: every year we assemble a phenomenal team of eight Toronto District School Board teachers (via Continuing Education). These are teachers that motivate 100+ thirteen and fourteen years olds to be on a school bus at 8am for six-weeks, who partner with senior high school students as mentors in the delivery of the credit, who build long-lasting relationships, and who embrace the power of community and school partnerships in empowering students.
Meet Our Youth Outreach Worker
Bryan Brown is committed to youth succeeding in all areas of their lives. You aren’t likely to hear him say it, but watch him for a day and it is obvious. His dedication to youth and community and his deep history in the North-West end of Toronto are among the reasons why Success Beyond Limits is so excited to have him as our first ever Youth Outreach Worker.
He joined our team in November, and dove right into the role adding another supportive face to our space and programming. His ability to convey high expectations and deep caring in his interactions broke the ice of being ‘new’ right away. His years of experience working with the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and his extensive experience as a youth basketball coach have given him phenomenal skills for the position.
His focus will be expanding the reach of our programs and supports in the community, engaging youth facing significant barriers, and supporting them in identifying and making positive changes.
Bryan Brown can be reached at b.brown@successbl.com
Post-Secondary Education Workhops
SBL has been in existence since 2010 and since that time hundreds of students have completed our various social and academic programs – all based on our our growth model where students progress from mentee (in 8th and 9th grade) to volunteer (in 10th grade) and to mentor in their latter years of high school. Students are supported by SBL just before the start of high school and throughout these important and formative years. The relationships staff have with SBL alumni does not end when students go on to Post-Secondary Education, many come back in various capacities (board members, paid tutors, volunteers, recreational staff, staff members).
On Saturday January, 4, 2014, SBL will bring together previous mentors that are now in college and university for a day full of workshops, food and fun activities. The purpose will be to explore some of the success and challenges that mentors have faced in their first year of post-secondary education. The day will focus on how SBL can further support their educational goals. Workshops will be conducted that examine funding, time management, social life and networking, course load, and life after post-secondary education. The workshops will be facilitated by SBL teacher Samuel Tecle and SBL Teacher/Academic and Social Co-ordinator Tesfai Mengesha.
Summer Report
The summer is an exciting time for SBL. Our 6-week summer program takes place at York University, where students going into grade 9 receive their first high school credit. This year the summer program was hosted in the stunningly beautiful Osgoode Hall Law School. For a full recap you can download our summer report below.
NABSE Conference in Detroit
SBL Program Manager, Kaneka Watkins is currently attending the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE) in Detroit. The conference brings together NABSE members, superintendents, principals, school board members, education human resource professionals, deans, professors, education department heads, administrative/educational support staff, teachers, parents, curriculum specialists and students for various education workshops and tours of schools in Detroit. Below are some pictures of the conference.
See the agenda here:
http://www.cvent.com/events/national-alliance-of-black-school-educators-41st-annual-conference/agenda-c2f6da49609a447b8ec38750ac5b05c3.aspx
SBL Teacher Receives Urban Hero Award
York University graduate student and SBL teacher Sam Tecle has been honoured with the North York Mirror’s Urban Hero Award, for his notable contribution to education and for being a role model for youth living in the Jane and Finch community.
“I am blessed, honoured and humbled by this award. The recognition serves as a validation of my work and motivation to continue on,” says Tecle who is a doctoral candidate in sociology, in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies.
“For me, it was always an idea that where I lived and the community I was part of, that giving back was important. And for me, that was always through education,” Tecle told The Mirror, upon receiving the award.
“I am thrilled that Sam is a recipient of this respected award, which honours grassroots level heroes for their efforts, sacrifices and contributions, having positive impact on our communities,” says York Faculty of Education Professor Carl James, who is Tecle’s PhD supervisor and nominator for the award. “Sam is an example of the many students doing exemplary work through involvement in neighbourhood community initiatives at York University.”
This summer, Tecle taught Grade 9 students from the Jane and Finch community attending a six-week program, Success Beyond Limits. The program is a joint initiative of York University and Jays Care Foundation, in partnership with the Toronto District School Board. Sponsored by the Faculty of Education, the program was conducted in technology enhanced classrooms of Osgoode Hall Law School.
The Sudanese-born immigrant of Eritrean descent has been a youth facilitator, focusing on educational attainment, sex education, as well as personal and career development with many community organizations across the Greater Toronto Area. Tecle was among the 16 recipients, in the categories of arts and culture, health and science, education, sports, environment, business and community, who received their awards at a ceremony, Nov. 5.
http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2013/11/12/york-university-student-is-celebrated-as-an-urban-hero/