The 2014 Revolutionary Youth Construction, Arts/Media, Science & Permaculture Camp included several forms of media and writing as well as Youth-led WeSearch on Environmental Racism and Liberation. (click here to read their WeSearch findings) The following are the youth skolaz poetry from a youth empathy exercise we call SLAM BIOS. Which asks the youth to think of senses to describe themselves and then to speak a line about their "struggle"
Sahara Curley
My favorite color is purple. I like to eat ice cream. I like to smell candles. I like rap. My name is Sahara Curley. I am from Berkeley. My struggle is freedom
Dante
My name is Dante
I touch a lot
I taste food
and smell roses
My name is Dante
I'm from Oakland
I touch games and laptops
My struggle is I don't see my Uncle
Queena
Pink
honey bus
roses
cotton
jam
queena
ghetto
Nikolasi Niumeitolu
Color: Blue
Taste: sweet taste of mango
Smell: salty smell of ocean breeze
Touch: fur of a cat
Sound: the lapping of waves as they hit the shore
Name: Nikolasi Solomone Namoa Niumeitolu Sarafi (?)
Where are you from: I am a boy born in Tonga but raised and brought up in America and American culture.
A line about your struggle: Already dealing with my father’s death I struggle to find who I actually am. My mother and I struggle to find a home.
Janina Scislowski
Favorite color: blue/violet
Favorite scent: a rose
Favorite taste: the taste of a nice warm savory homemade sandwich
Favorite touch: the feeling of my cat’s soft fur
I am from Mexican, Native American, Polish, Irish, Scottish and Dutch people. I have been here and there, and I am from my mother who fights for the right thing and who takes care of me and my little sister, trying her hardest, and I am from my father who came from his country believing to have a better life when all he got was bloodstained shirts and broken bottles to the head because of where he was from and how he talked.
My mother was homeless with me for two years, my older sister four, and we built our lives back up after my father’s death. We’re never going to live on top of the world, but we manage.
Tiburcio
Color: Blue
Sound: Silence
Touch: my face
Taste: pizza
Smell: shampoo
Tibu is my name. That sound is my power. It’s always my enemy’s bane.
I am from the hospital in Mexico and here. My future and my past both are very austere. China, the Philippines, all over the place. When I’m eighteen, my past will plaster me in the face. Blue is my past’s color. Shampoo is my future’s smell, and my present just sorrowly fell.
Seven
Color: blue
Taste: Chicken
Smell: perfume
Touch: pillows
Sound: music
Name: seven
Where I’m from: Oakland and Africa and India
Joyous
Color: green
Taste: pizza
My favorite smell is when my mom is cooking
My favorite touch is my bed
My favorite sound is when my mom sings
My name is Joyous, I am from Oak & Pil.
We have moved so many times.
Iris
Colors: purple, pink, baby blue
Taste: pickles
Smell: Body scents
Touch: blankets
Sound: music
My name is Iris Ashanti Gantt
Daughter of Kimberly Swan and Brian Gantt.
Zosia
Color: Green
Taste: Buttered toast
Smell: Lavender
Touch: Leather
Sound: bell
From: Irish, Polish, Mexican
I saw my dad drink himself to death.
Solomon
color:purple
touch: soft
sound: silent
taste: sour candy
smell: fresh
Trew
taste: captain crunch
color: red
smell: candy
touch:pillow
sound: loud
The government thinks they can take everything but they can't. If being free is a crime I don't care. I'll fight for my freedom. Don't put me in the slammer I just begun.