Black and Brown Art Convening

Our Black and Brown Solidarity Art Convening was a success! Over a hundred people came through and viewed our youth artist’s work. Our youth team, Adlemy, Amaryani, Jazmynn, Neidalis, Milo, and Savannah planned the entire event. Shoutout to them!

We started off our evening with a chance to view the art gallery. We had 14 art submissions, all by youth who live in the Proviso district. Their work ranged from digital art to drawings and photography. Before the presentations, Jazmynn and Amaryani led our guests through an icebreaker. Neighbors, community members, and guests shared their thoughts. Next, we had our spoken word youth, Jermaine from PMSA, present his piece. He talked about what good allyship looks like to continue to respect African American struggles. Then, Milo, Amaryani, Adlemy, and Jermaine, PMSA students, presented their video, which showed a day in the life of the Latina experience and the black experience. After, the youth team did a Q&A so the audience could learn more about the project.

After our presentations, there was more time to explore the space. We had Tacos Regio food truck making Tacos. Our drink table had aqua frescas and lemonade. We also had a table of black and brown cultural desserts from small businesses from the community (Borinken Cakes, Krazy Grapes, Kribi Coffee, Panaderia Pueblo, Sweet Tooth N Company, Yanira and Emilia's Taste of Puerto Rico).

Thank you so much to the youth team who put on this event. Also, we are so grateful for all our guests who came and supported the youth!

PMSA Mental Health Club Celebration

As the school year comes to a close, we finished our last mental health club with a celebration! All the students were invited to reflect and eat pizza. We learned their favorite workshops, key takeaways, and what we could do next school year. We finished up with a celebratory presentation of all the pictures we had taken throughout the year.

Thank you to the PMSA students, Ms. Gart, and our community partners for joining us this school year. We are so excited for what’s to come next semester.

Yoga | PMSA's Mental Health Club

Hey neighbors! This week was our last session of workshops with PMSA’s mental health club. For our last workshop, we spent it outside with Proviso native, Dasia. Dasia led the students through a relaxing yoga flow after school. Through the series of poses to the ending rest position, the students had fun! We are excited to celebrate all our 23-24 workshops with the facilitators and students!

Identity Frustrations and Expectations at PMSA's Mental Health Club

This week, we were back at PMSA’s mental health club with Sarah of Yo Soy Ella. You may recognize Sarah from our group therapy sessions as well as her Progress over Perfection workshop. In this session, Sarah focused on identity and how individualism matters. During these times, it may be hard to find your authentic self with the stress of family, peers, teachers, you name it! Sarah made sure to name that stress and attach the complications. The students were able to share freely what their identity frustrations look like. Overall, the students continue to make a safe space with one another.

Thanks, Sarah, for leading a necessary conversation!

Black and Brown Solidarity | Planning

After three brainstorming sessions, the black and brown dreaming solidarity project has commenced. The youth worked on their creative projects with their respective groups this week. One group is working on videography, another on spoken word, and all the youth are recruiting for an art project where other youth in the neighborhood submit their art supporting black and brown solidarity.

We are still recruiting for our art project! Know any youth who would want to submit their art to be displayed at our convening on June 5th and paid $20 for their submission. Fill out this link to submit a piece.