I was having a rough morning on September 30, 2020. The Biden/Trump Presidential Debate the night before had pummeled its way through 90 minutes only to showcase a bully at the top of his game and a defenseless political veteran unaccustomed to the lack of basic respect characteristic of debate. After 20 minutes and a couple F bombs, my middle school daughter’s friends went scurrying from her bedroom past me in the living room, a fortuitous departure as my language declined on a trajectory similar to the debate-spectacle. No policy discussion, no strategy for public health, housing and employment insecurity, none of that to be discussed at all. Only bullying and bulldozing, the hallmark of any witless clown. Until the end, when it came time to denounce white supremacy and the president of the United States recognized (and essentially endorsed) a white supremacist hate group. I wrote it down because I wanted to make a record for myself. “Proud boys stand back and stand by.” He truly said that.
I didn’t sleep much that night and mostly tossed around until the sun came up on Wednesday. I walked outside and could smell the fires. Small bits of ash fluttered through the air while the sun, a dab of orange yolk, seemed to struggle in the east. I walked my dog around the block and got back to the house in time to make my daughter breakfast before her seven-hour day of virtual learning. I’d become more despondent as the day went on. And yet, despondent or not, I owned that many of the social support systems I wanted to see our leaders discussing, essential for so many in this country, are not as essential for me. I am a beneficiary of bell hooks’ “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.” As such, my despondency includes a safety net woven by my whiteness, maleness and heterosexuality that so many people do not have.
T.S. Eliot wrote that the “only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’.” When I first learned about this concept with an English MA in progress, I flung the term around literary discussions and assignments. One of my professors asked me what the difference between the objective correlative and metaphor was. Human emotion, I’d eventually replied. Metaphor is a comparison between two things, while the objective correlative is a representation of a character’s feelings. I don’t recall having that argument confirmed or denied, but I was able, from that point, to read the tension in Toru Okada as he travelled between the pastoral alleys and gardens, his vacant house, and a barrenly empty well. I reread The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle during quarantine and discovered a vastly changed text than when I’d read it ten years ago. Okada’s context is not a comparison of himself; they are representations of his character’s emotions that he struggles to finally calibrate.
And so, like climbing into the well to try to make sense of things, to calibrate my own life with its occurrences, I logged in to a virtual webinar titled, At the Heart of the Matter: A New Generation of Good Troublemakers, hosted by the Colorado Health Foundation, and paying homage to Representative Lewis’ tweet for activists to engage in “good trouble, necessary trouble.” A panel of four Colorado youth activists responded to various questions posed by Karen McNeil-Miller, president and CEO of The Colorado Health Foundation, and the webinar participants.
The webinar began with a poem written and read by the author, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, which spoke of indigenous peoples’ colonization, environmental destruction, and a call to fight against systems of inequality and oppression, including the lines, “The power of the people / is more powerful / than the people in power.” The four youth activists, Mariem Dia, Rishika Kartik, Caleb Washington, and Kaliah Yizar, discussed the urgency for social change and the opportunity that technological platforms and continuous innovations present to influence such change. Each participant’s brilliance complemented the other’s. Kartik, when asked what question she would have asked at the debate, initially deferred to consider the question. After McNeil-Miller returned for her response, Kartik said, and I’m paraphrasing, that she would ask how each leader would honor diverse perspectives and intersectionality as part of the policy-making process. Dia spoke of the importance of education as a liberating journey, for self and to influence others, noting that “educate” is her favorite word. Yizar is the co-creator of the Know Justice, Know Peace podcast, which presents a four-panelist discussion of social issues related to black lives. Washington, when asked what politicians could be doing to better assist youth with social justice initiatives, referenced the famous political quote, “nothing about us without us,” to accentuate the diverse and collaborative grass-roots process that local political change entails.
90 minutes of debate-spectacle countered by 90 minutes of constructive, respectful social justice discussion conducted by youth under 18. It was a tonic for the national embarrassment I’d witnessed the night before.
It was early afternoon on September 30, 2020, and although I could still smell the smoke, the five youth I’d listened to challenged me to question my read of my own objective correlative. Was it the smoke of an apocalyptic environmental fire, or was it the dead wood leaving to be replaced by verdant new growth? If I were Toru Okada, I would have entered the well miss-calibrated, feeling the world on fire and our democratic system crumbling. But after climbing the ladder and emerging, I would be infused with hope and optimism.
Gloria Anzaldúa writes, “People who engage in alliances and are working toward certain goals want to keep their personal feelings out of it, but you can’t. You have to work out your personal problems while you are working out the problems of this particular community or this particular culture.” To me, this means that although it is important for me to know my truth and speak it as someone who has been the recipient of inequitable privilege, I also have a responsibility to avoid pitfalls that can inhibit or even derail the alliances I’ve formed. To be involved in social justice initiatives requires the terminal belief that change is always happening and relies on continuous support. In this sense, the trees are never burning to the scorched earth; they are making way for stronger growth.
There’s a scary part of Toru Okada’s story when the rope ladder he uses to enter the well vanishes, he thinks at the hands of his mischievous, young neighbor, May Kasahara. Donald Trump, a far worse character than May Kasahara, would probably do the same thing to me if he found me in that well. By the late afternoon of September 30, 2020, I imagined five young leaders’ heads, backlit by the sunlight, peering down through the top of the well to lower the rope ladder. For that, I owe these leaders and all of the many other social justice leaders more than just gratitude.
John Lyons
Posted: December 1, 2020 by admin
Congratulations, Kaylee!
The Abolitionist Teaching Network has awarded Kaylee a $500 grant to support her advocacy project at Aurora Central High School.
Join us at the virtual celebration on December 6th!
Last Updated: October 3, 2020 by admin
September 30, 2020
I was having a rough morning on September 30, 2020. The Biden/Trump Presidential Debate the night before had pummeled its way through 90 minutes only to showcase a bully at the top of his game and a defenseless political veteran unaccustomed to the lack of basic respect characteristic of debate. After 20 minutes and a couple F bombs, my middle school daughter’s friends went scurrying from her bedroom past me in the living room, a fortuitous departure as my language declined on a trajectory similar to the debate-spectacle. No policy discussion, no strategy for public health, housing and employment insecurity, none of that to be discussed at all. Only bullying and bulldozing, the hallmark of any witless clown. Until the end, when it came time to denounce white supremacy and the president of the United States recognized (and essentially endorsed) a white supremacist hate group. I wrote it down because I wanted to make a record for myself. “Proud boys stand back and stand by.” He truly said that.
I didn’t sleep much that night and mostly tossed around until the sun came up on Wednesday. I walked outside and could smell the fires. Small bits of ash fluttered through the air while the sun, a dab of orange yolk, seemed to struggle in the east. I walked my dog around the block and got back to the house in time to make my daughter breakfast before her seven-hour day of virtual learning. I’d become more despondent as the day went on. And yet, despondent or not, I owned that many of the social support systems I wanted to see our leaders discussing, essential for so many in this country, are not as essential for me. I am a beneficiary of bell hooks’ “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.” As such, my despondency includes a safety net woven by my whiteness, maleness and heterosexuality that so many people do not have.
T.S. Eliot wrote that the “only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’.” When I first learned about this concept with an English MA in progress, I flung the term around literary discussions and assignments. One of my professors asked me what the difference between the objective correlative and metaphor was. Human emotion, I’d eventually replied. Metaphor is a comparison between two things, while the objective correlative is a representation of a character’s feelings. I don’t recall having that argument confirmed or denied, but I was able, from that point, to read the tension in Toru Okada as he travelled between the pastoral alleys and gardens, his vacant house, and a barrenly empty well. I reread The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle during quarantine and discovered a vastly changed text than when I’d read it ten years ago. Okada’s context is not a comparison of himself; they are representations of his character’s emotions that he struggles to finally calibrate.
And so, like climbing into the well to try to make sense of things, to calibrate my own life with its occurrences, I logged in to a virtual webinar titled, At the Heart of the Matter: A New Generation of Good Troublemakers, hosted by the Colorado Health Foundation, and paying homage to Representative Lewis’ tweet for activists to engage in “good trouble, necessary trouble.” A panel of four Colorado youth activists responded to various questions posed by Karen McNeil-Miller, president and CEO of The Colorado Health Foundation, and the webinar participants.
The webinar began with a poem written and read by the author, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, which spoke of indigenous peoples’ colonization, environmental destruction, and a call to fight against systems of inequality and oppression, including the lines, “The power of the people / is more powerful / than the people in power.” The four youth activists, Mariem Dia, Rishika Kartik, Caleb Washington, and Kaliah Yizar, discussed the urgency for social change and the opportunity that technological platforms and continuous innovations present to influence such change. Each participant’s brilliance complemented the other’s. Kartik, when asked what question she would have asked at the debate, initially deferred to consider the question. After McNeil-Miller returned for her response, Kartik said, and I’m paraphrasing, that she would ask how each leader would honor diverse perspectives and intersectionality as part of the policy-making process. Dia spoke of the importance of education as a liberating journey, for self and to influence others, noting that “educate” is her favorite word. Yizar is the co-creator of the Know Justice, Know Peace podcast, which presents a four-panelist discussion of social issues related to black lives. Washington, when asked what politicians could be doing to better assist youth with social justice initiatives, referenced the famous political quote, “nothing about us without us,” to accentuate the diverse and collaborative grass-roots process that local political change entails.
90 minutes of debate-spectacle countered by 90 minutes of constructive, respectful social justice discussion conducted by youth under 18. It was a tonic for the national embarrassment I’d witnessed the night before.
It was early afternoon on September 30, 2020, and although I could still smell the smoke, the five youth I’d listened to challenged me to question my read of my own objective correlative. Was it the smoke of an apocalyptic environmental fire, or was it the dead wood leaving to be replaced by verdant new growth? If I were Toru Okada, I would have entered the well miss-calibrated, feeling the world on fire and our democratic system crumbling. But after climbing the ladder and emerging, I would be infused with hope and optimism.
Gloria Anzaldúa writes, “People who engage in alliances and are working toward certain goals want to keep their personal feelings out of it, but you can’t. You have to work out your personal problems while you are working out the problems of this particular community or this particular culture.” To me, this means that although it is important for me to know my truth and speak it as someone who has been the recipient of inequitable privilege, I also have a responsibility to avoid pitfalls that can inhibit or even derail the alliances I’ve formed. To be involved in social justice initiatives requires the terminal belief that change is always happening and relies on continuous support. In this sense, the trees are never burning to the scorched earth; they are making way for stronger growth.
There’s a scary part of Toru Okada’s story when the rope ladder he uses to enter the well vanishes, he thinks at the hands of his mischievous, young neighbor, May Kasahara. Donald Trump, a far worse character than May Kasahara, would probably do the same thing to me if he found me in that well. By the late afternoon of September 30, 2020, I imagined five young leaders’ heads, backlit by the sunlight, peering down through the top of the well to lower the rope ladder. For that, I owe these leaders and all of the many other social justice leaders more than just gratitude.
John Lyons
Last Updated: July 20, 2020 by admin
Spring 2020 Report Outs
Kaylee’s final presentation on school safety:
Kevin’s final presentation on his bullying advocacy project:
Posted: August 3, 2019 by admin
Apply for the 2019-20 student cohort
We are currently accepting applications for the 2019-20 school year. Click this link to apply to our program!
Posted: May 22, 2019 by admin
Join our Leaders at their end-of-year report out!
Click here to register for the end-of-year event
Posted: May 20, 2019 by admin
Project summary
Kevin Aguilera
Throughout the 12 weeks that I have been part of Colorado Change Agents, I have chosen the social issue of bullying and have been working on it since week 1. I made a work plan template to write down the goals I wanted to achieve by the end of the 15 weeks for Colorado Change Agents. The first thing I had to do was choose what I wanted to do about the issue and so I decided to be able to provide advocacy to the school. I came up with some ideas but only some were implemented due to the time frame and having to know how to properly bring advocacy to the social issue. I ended up with doing a mannequin project that represented placing mannequins inside the school to show a bullying situation and have responses from students through a comment box. Comments have been reviewed and analyzed. I began to make a survey for the students and teachers but didn’t get to implement the survey due to time constraint since barely any people would show up to school since it was reaching the end of the school (last week to be exact).
Last Updated: May 20, 2019 by admin
Project Summary
Laura Deras
During my time of participating with Colorado Change Agents, we started off very simple and small by planning out where we wanted to take our projects. We then progressed to actually taking action towards the projects we decided to work on, and my topic was suicide prevention which then lead into creating a support group at Aurora Central. On my end before I took action I decided to participate in challenge day to get a sense of how students at our school were feeling and how much they hide their personal life from us. I got in contact with the therapist provided through Aurora Mental health to talk about how to create and run a support group. I also talked to school counselors about what would be best for the students in this support group. Unfortunately it became too late in the year to start the support group so we decided to implement it next year. Next year we will also be implementing an organization that will come talk to students and teachers to teach about mental health, to help the school become more aware of their community. It’s been a tough ride to get through this project as the events of my friend Emmanuel were still hitting me and still are to this day, but because of him this project started and we can help schools get the awareness they need for their students.
Posted: May 13, 2019 by admin
Praislyn on A-Story
Praislyn recently contributed to Aurora Public School’s incredible literary program, A-Story.
Read Praislyn’s contribution to A-Story here!
Posted: May 13, 2019 by admin
Project Summary
Jose Jeres
The Colorado Change Agents Teen Homelessness Advocacy, a district collaboration between the organization and me, is looking into the best way to not create new resources but to bring attention to existing resources. As a part of this, we’ve been looking into the community of Aurora Central and their students to better understand how the students feel or view homelessness. How we’ve gone about this is by placing mannequins around the school depicting bullying and homelessness scenes with comment boxes to see how students interact with the mannequins and what responses they give. We’ve been nothing but amazed at all the positive feedback we have gotten. As for next steps, Praislyn and I are creating a way for students to self-identify themselves as homeless or someone who has experienced bullying in order to determine action steps for the 2019-20 school year.
Last Updated: May 13, 2019 by admin
Project Summary
Praislyn Andrew
Since further evaluating my original plan to host a community event with donation drives and resource connections, I have discussed a more subtle approach on my issue with community leaders and school administrators. Instead of going big right away, we (COCA members & directors) have decided to plan an outline for a“feeder” survey which we would implement in school first before taking it anywhere else. This “feeder” survey would essentially cover a larger ground in terms of all of the issues us COCA members focused on. This survey would ask questions surrounding homelessness, mental health, bullying, gun advocacy, & the need for more diversity in offered programs at school. By adding a variety of questions on this survey, the students taking it wouldn’t feel obligated to label themselves by answering a survey surrounding just one specific issue, but can answer to anything they need help with and still have sense of privacy. Through this survey each of us (COCA members) will be receiving data on our issues, basically feeding into each of our projects (hence the name) in which we can use that data in more active steps.