Streetside Productions wins big at 2009 Santa Monica Teen Film Festival!!  

 

Streetside Productions wins big at 2009 Santa Monica Teen Film Festival!!  Their documentary, I AIN'T LEAVING, won both "Best of the Festival" and "Best Documentary" at the film festival in July.

 

Congratulations to the youth filmmaking crew of Maria San, Daniella Rodrigues, Mercedes Hill, Jonathan Hall, Patrick Phanh, and Yen Phung, led by adult instructor CB Smith-Dahl!!

 

"Find Your Voice Youth Summit"

 

 

Recently, a small team of Streetside Productions youth travelled to Hawaii to attend the "Find Your Voice Youth Summit" aimed at addressing and preventing violence in our communities.  For 4-days, our team of young filmmakers Vincent Huergas and Maria San, led by Managing Director Peter Kim, participated in a series of workshops, activities, and discussions centered around the idea of reducing violence through open dialogue, critical self-reflection, skills development, and relationship building.  The summit brought together small teams of youth from New Zealand, Boston, and Oakland to join in solidarity with the Hawaiian youth from the small towns of Waimanalo, Kailua, and Kaneohe (on the island of Oahu), and amidst the intense experiences and powerful stories shared, new friendships were established and community bridges were formed.  

Held at Kailua High School, over 30 young people and adults committed to tackling the difficult issues of violence and its various forms, by speaking honestly about personal experiences and being open to new perspectives and opinions. On the first night of the summit, Vincent Huergas screened his own short documentary on how violence affects his community, touching on the murder of his close friend and of the recent tragic events surrounding Oscar Grant and Lovelle Mixon.  Afterwards, he explained, "It was really important to me to let folks know outside of Oakland about the violence that surrounds me, my friends, and my family, and how it can affect our outlook on life... but overall, its really about having hope for something better. It's on us, though." 

 

The second day of the summit included a trip to the State Capitol Building in Honolulu, where we first visited with Congresswoman Mazie Hirono's aide to discuss how the state of Hawaii is addressing violence in its communities.  Afterwards, the youth, armed with signs of protest against violence and encouraging peace, marched silently around the Capitol Building and then rallied in front along a main thoroughfare, soliciting support from passing cars and trucks.  Maria San expressed, "Here I am at the State Capitol Building in Hawaii, protesting violence and holding signs, when I've never done anything like this in my own state... I'm going home inspired to step my game up when I return to the Town!"

 

The third day consisted of a series of workshops led by professionals, community activists, and youth workers, on such topics as PhotoVoice (using photography to tell your story), Traditional Hawaiian Holistic Approaches to Conflict Mediation,  YouthSpeaks (using spoken word/poetry as a means of expression), Grafitti (looking at street art as a form of social messaging and activism), and Dramatic Arts (re-enacting scenes of violence, and then critical exploration of the emotions, reasons, and consequences).  Streetside Productions Director, Peter Kim, co-facilitated a workshop on Video Production, with the end result being a 15 minute video documenting the summit itself, including interviews with youth and adults, and highlights of the summit.

 

On the fourth and final day, the Summit culminated in a community showcase in Waimanalo, where the youth presented work that emerged from the previous day's workshops, including a community mural, the documentary on the summit, singing, poetry, dramatized scenes, and personal testimonies.  People from throughout Hawaii attended, and many offered praise, appreciation, and admiration for the youth and their commitment to improving their communities.

 

Overall, the summit was a first of its kind, bringing young people from around the world to talk about an issue that plagues all of our communities, and empowering them to use performance and digital arts to express their concerns and views.  For us from EBAYC, it was a definitely an experience of a lifetime, leaving us inspired and energized to continue the fight here at home!

 

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Full Circle Farms at Garfield Elementary

Photos by Tim Wagner for HEAC, May 21, 2008

 

Farmers market workers Rosa Vicente, Christine Cherdboonmuang and Patricia Medina at Garfield Elementary School. Cherdboonmuang buys and transports affordable organic produce organizes to the school once a week during the academic year. She also co-teaches an after-school cooking class to help students make sense of the fruits and vegetables they see at the stand.

 

 

 

Rosa Vicente helps Victoria Jimenez buy several containers of fresh strawberries at a farmer's market. The stand offers affordable largely organic produce once a week in front of Garfield Elementary School's entrance during the academic year.

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After-School Program Helps Franklin Elementary Succeed

That means the majority of the students speak another language besides English at home. Their families come from Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Laos, and, most recently, Burma.

For many of these immigrant parents, who face language barriers themselves, it can be difficult to help their children with homework.

“When kids do homework, new immigrant parents mostly don’t know any English,” said JinXia Liu, whose son is in the fifth grade. “So when they finish their homework under the supervision of high school students, we don’t have to rack our brains,” she said.

An after-school learning center run by the nonprofit East Bay Asian Youth Center aims to address these challenges in a culturally sensitive manner. EBAYC has five other after-school learning centers in Oakland. Operating with 250 kids, nearly a third of the student body participates. There are about 700 students at Franklin this year.....  read more

 

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