oh my, it's the end of week 7!

I've been meaning to write this post for the last 4 weeks, but the weeks have been passing too fast. Maybe you noticed that too.

Since the last post, pretty much everything has happened.
After going on a staff retreat in the catskills to plan out the structure of the entire summer, the young people came. At least 50 on the first day. We've been doing a lot of workshops, discussions, and we're starting some projects. But to give you a better idea, the following is a list of everything that has happened at Reach:


Boat exercise
Secrets exercise
Race/Ethnicity/Nationality/Culture discussion
Identity & social control discussion
Self-governance discussion
History of racism in America from an Asian American perspective
Individual race caucuses
Barbeque @ Prospect Park
Homophobia workshop
LGBTQ panel
Transgender panel
Journalmaking
Sewing
Drama
Our own Jerry Springer show, caught on camera
Driving up to Cornell and back down in one afternoon with Don to get 6 computers that CIT no longer uses. Thanks Kelly and Al!
4 fights broke out in one afternoon.
several young women and young men revealed that they had been sexually assauted.

We are going into week 4 of summer youth employment. Next week we will start the project areas in writing, filmmaking, web design, guerilla theater and guerilla art, all with a political focus of course. These were supposed to be the heart of the summer, but lately we've been having trouble with some of the young people, who are taking advantage of our intentional lax attitude (we don't have rules at project reach because 1. we expect that young people are mature and rational, and 2. the young people need to come up with their method of self-governance).
Some of them are very disrespectful of other participants' and staffs' voices, are disruptive, and tend to break down serious analytical discussion into jokes and disruptions. I want people to have a fun time too, but you know, there's a time and a place.

BUT, before I start going down that path too far, I really want to say how incredible it has been to work with all the young people. They all have incredible stories to tell about their lives. When we did the secrets exercise, an exercise where people anonymously posts a secret about themselve which nobody knows, they not only posted, but even had the courage to come out and talk about rape, anorexia, suicide, and being beaten. In workshops a lot of them were very engaged and analytical; they are very mindful of others, are strong and determined despite everything (and I mean Everything) they've faced, are incredibly creative, generous, and are just such great people to be with. It really warms my heart to think about them, and I think I'll have a really hard time leaving.

That has been the most incredible part of the summer. Having never worked with 14-20 year olds in such a setting, I really didn't know what to expect. For a while before the summer I was jaded with the way that our society was educating and producing its new generations of young people. This is based on my experience working with middle schoolers, and my personal experience in the public school system (refer back 2 posts). Mainstream media like MTV, Fox, movies like Bratz, conservative teachers and textbook publishing companies (like McGraw-Hill) and the highly controlled prison-like public schools young people go to are misinforming young people politically and personally. They teach us to accept the status quo (sickest part of all, to internalize and even rationalize the status quo), and to expect that we are entitled to everything - an expectation that crosses class lines. This is why I am even more impressed by the young people at Reach. I don't mean to idealize them because they aren't ideal, and at times I do wish that they were even more analytical and would find the voice and words to express exactly what it is that they're trying to say. But I think our role is also to facilitate that process for them, so that they find that voice through theater, writing, web publishing, or art.

I have so much more to write about and I've got pictures to post so check back soon!

-dk