Food Politics.
Spoken word.
Teenage activism.
Put them together and you have my introduction to the Ya-Ya Network.
The Ya-Ya Network is a citywide anti-racist, anti-sexist organization that allies with the LGBTQ community and is staffed by young activists aged 15-19.
My friend Michael and I sat our extremely old 30 something selves in the back of row at Bluestockings, a radical bookstore and activist center on the Lower East Side. We were surrounded mostly by 18 year olds.
First a few words about Bluestockings, which is the BEST bookstore in NYC for alternative titles…
Bluestockings has ironic and politically motivated T-shirts, a slew of books on topics including anarchy, gender studies, class & labor relations, race/cultural studies and sexuality along with scads of events for all demographics and a free trade café to boot!
Now, back to the Ya-Ya’s.
Sharmin Hossain, Jennifer Lee and another teen led the food politics discussion getting the young audience to debate hard questions such as:
Where does my food come from?
Why can’t I find healthy food in certain neighborhoods?
What role does the government play in our food supply?
Why is fast food cheap and organic produce expensive?
What international issues affect our food supply?
The teens and young adults shared their challenges with food, money, and making the right choices about what to eat. For the teen visiting from upstate NY, she can get good produce from her local farmers market. The teen raised in Canada could get better quality meet than in the U.S. And the teens in Jamaica, Bed Stuy, and South Bronx know there are larger socio-economic factors at play that explain why they are surrounded by bodegas and fast food.
Once the discussion was done, it was time for spoken word performances. A veteran spoken word performer spit into the mic, Jennifer gave an acoustic performance of a Joni Mitchell song, and Mustafa and two other Ya-Ya members read some original poetry.
Spoken word.
Teenage activism.
Put them together and you have my introduction to the Ya-Ya Network.
The Ya-Ya Network is a citywide anti-racist, anti-sexist organization that allies with the LGBTQ community and is staffed by young activists aged 15-19.
My friend Michael and I sat our extremely old 30 something selves in the back of row at Bluestockings, a radical bookstore and activist center on the Lower East Side. We were surrounded mostly by 18 year olds.
First a few words about Bluestockings, which is the BEST bookstore in NYC for alternative titles…
Bluestockings has ironic and politically motivated T-shirts, a slew of books on topics including anarchy, gender studies, class & labor relations, race/cultural studies and sexuality along with scads of events for all demographics and a free trade café to boot!
Now, back to the Ya-Ya’s.
Sharmin Hossain, Jennifer Lee and another teen led the food politics discussion getting the young audience to debate hard questions such as:
Where does my food come from?
Why can’t I find healthy food in certain neighborhoods?
What role does the government play in our food supply?
Why is fast food cheap and organic produce expensive?
What international issues affect our food supply?
The teens and young adults shared their challenges with food, money, and making the right choices about what to eat. For the teen visiting from upstate NY, she can get good produce from her local farmers market. The teen raised in Canada could get better quality meet than in the U.S. And the teens in Jamaica, Bed Stuy, and South Bronx know there are larger socio-economic factors at play that explain why they are surrounded by bodegas and fast food.
Once the discussion was done, it was time for spoken word performances. A veteran spoken word performer spit into the mic, Jennifer gave an acoustic performance of a Joni Mitchell song, and Mustafa and two other Ya-Ya members read some original poetry.
All in all it was a good night.
For more information on the Ya-Ya’s click here. You have to give them a big round of applause for being one of the few groups made up primarily of youth of color who are active in the counter-military recruitment movement.
For more information on Bluestockings click here.
For more information on the Ya-Ya’s click here. You have to give them a big round of applause for being one of the few groups made up primarily of youth of color who are active in the counter-military recruitment movement.
For more information on Bluestockings click here.
1 comments: