Raise It Up! brings art to young people

Raise It Up! Youth Arts and Awareness Program Director Lyndava Williams and her daughter, Natasha Thomas-Jackson, executive director and nationally acclaimed poet, have put their philosophies on social activism and art-centered empowerment into practice for young people around Flint.

Raise It Up! workshops have been used in schools, churches and other locations to engage with issues of  financial literacy, body image, youth organizing or conflict resolution. Each one of the 10 available programs is tailored to what the schools or other organizations request.

Williams said schools usually choose the theme of identity for their first workshop with the group.

"The schools don't address everyday problems students are facing and do not provide an outlet to face them," Williams said. "It is important to have a place to address it and put it into some kind of work, be it artistic performance or work in the community."

While young people are the primary focus of the organization, it also has programs tailored for parents and children.

Kuumba family workshops are also available to help families express their individuality together through games and dialogues. This program's goal is to expand and improve how the family members communicate with each other. Kuumba is Swahili for creativity. The workshops have been used with the Families of Murdered Children and others local groups.

Raise It Up! has other programs which also promote the arts and social leadership through creativity.

The Youth Organizer Program trains students to be leaders in the organization and the community. Williams said they feel there should be an ongoing approach to working with the kids as opposed to one that goes for only so long and then offers them nothing. Youth organizers volunteered to distribute information around the Second Ward about last year's town hall meetings. They also performed for events such as the annual Community Cultural Arts Festival held in August at the Urban League of Flint.

Raise it Up! is organizing a group to serve on a youth advisory committee that will work with the Genesee County Healthy Sexuality Coalition, an organization that deals with pregnancy, rape and sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

The group sent a team of young poets July 20 to July 23 representing Flint to this year's 14th Annual Brave New Voices International Slam Festival in San Francisco. The team made it all the way to the semi-finals top 20 teams alongside heavy hitters such as Detroit, New York City, Denver and Philadelphia — this year's champion.

The competition was first founded as the National Youth Poetry Slam in 1998. There were 750 young people from more than 50 cities who attended last year.

Williams said that the six Flint students trained five hours a week on their pieces, stage presence and performance with Raise It Up! since they were selected in early February after a series of local qualifying slams. Each student must compete in a slam in order to join a city team, according to the festival rules.

The Brave New Voices team organized and performed fundraisers to help cover the $10,000 cost for airfare, food and registration. Small poetry shows held at the Greater Flint Arts Council, Brown Sugar Cafe, UM-Flint, Odyssey House and other venues helped raise part of the expense. The rest was raised by grants and donations.

Williams believes it is important to reach out to young people because they can use their talent to not only better themselves but also their community.

The organization works with the UM-Flint production Embers: Flint Fire Verbatim Theatre Project, about the city arsons since 2010. The show will be performed around Flint through August and early September. A 2011 Arts in Citizenship grant winner, Embers includes selections from interviews with several Raise It Up! students. Williams thinks the project is going well. She said that a lot of people don't have time to let issues such as arson affect them, but that the project can help people relive these events and heal.

She also appreciated the college students reaching out to the younger kids in the program because it is an important bridge to gap and can be beneficial for both groups.

Williams said they would like to expand their family workshops and she is seeking grant funding to be able to pay this year's Brave New Voices team members to train new competitors next year.

Raise It Up! was established in 2004 and has been funded by the Ruth Mott Foundation since 2009. The organization is currently housed at the Urban League, 5005 Cloverlawn Dr. The organization serves young people, 12 to 24 years old.

Call the office at (810) 789-7923 for more information.