Over 120 youth ages 12-18 gathered on January 16th to create large scale, city wide, community based, art and social justice projects.
Activities included:
Portable murals let by local aerosol artist Daniel "Chen" Bowman. These murals will be displayed at each of the PUC neighborhood centers as well as partner organizations and Elder Care Centers.
Stenciled yard signs displaying words and phrases of MLK's messages of hope and equality. Youth will distribute these signs to the neighborhoods surround PUC centers.
An intergenerational dialogue and lunch joined youth with community elders to discuss issues surrounding poverty and racism to expand the collective understanding of past generations.
Youth participating in MLK Day of Servicehad the opportunity to be a part of I Have a Dream - ReMix. Youth staged a collaborative poem using spoken word and digital beat-making. What resulted is a powerful and inspirational piece weaving together MLK's "I Have a Dream" and the voices of PUC Youth. Take a few moments to read these beautiful words. (Italicized portions taken from Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech.)
We Have a Dream……
(An interweaving of MLK’s “I Have a Dream” and the voices of PUC Youth)
We have a dream, that one day we’ll be –
United as one –
In PEACE and EQUALITY….
No longer will we live on a lonely island of poverty….
Where we endure hurt, pain and endless misery….
Searing in the flames of withering injustice; one hundred years later we still are not there….
We have to come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of NOW
NOW is the time to make real the promise of democracy….
NOW is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice…
NOW is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand’s of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood….
NOW is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children….
NOW is the time to come from the shadow of evil and show as a nation, as a people [that] we can make a change….
We, not only as Blacks but as Americans shall be granted the right of, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness….”
And if America is to be a great nation, this must be true.
In America, we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt – let’s be equal and not corrupt…
America seeks my eye
America seeks my mind
Fight for what you believe in
This is your time…
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal and will one day stand as one….
We are standing here today because we got something to say…now is the timeto risefrom the dark – put some light in this room; find ways to be smart…come together as one; open up your heart…..
Let freedom ring from every part of the world….
We all seek our own “Emancipation Proclamation,” but it comes with a price, a price that’s gone unpaid – leaving America putting the blame – on insufficient funds…
Insufficient funds….yeah, that’s what they label us – streets that have guns, drugs, thugs and poor people on the bus….
A check from our employer – the epitome of freedom…it would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment, the urgency of the time, the urgency of the movementand we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. This is the proof that Martin Luther King had a dream.
Over 120 youth ages 12-18 gathered on January 16th to create large scale, city wide, community based, art and social justice projects.
An intergenerational dialogue and lunch joined youth with community elders to discuss issues surrounding poverty and racism to expand the collective understanding of past generations.
