by Sade Green — writer, activist
Dear New York City,
You are known as “the city that never sleeps.” You are always busy, always on the go, always believing that you have your finger on the pulse of what’s happening. However, this city has been sleeping—on our youth. I write this letter to ring the alarm, to tell you that the youth in this city are in dire need of resources that will keep them out of the criminal legal system and help them build bright, successful futures. I know this for a fact because I had the opportunity to meet and listen to some of the young people who are involved in this city’s criminal legal system.
These young people were participants in a program called The Story From Within, which was founded by artist and educator Keshad “Ife” Adeniyi. This program used storytelling and creative expression as a way to help students heal from the violence and trauma that they were experiencing while navigating the criminal legal system. Some of the participants were incarcerated while some of them were not. There were four sessions and each session was two hours long. During the first session, students were asked to paint a rose. The rose represented the young people themselves and helped them understand the program’s broader context. Students were also introduced to the True Colors exercise where they selected colors that best characterized their personality and temperament. The second session was a self-portrait class. Each student was photographed and their individual photo was used to create their own silhouette. Students were then asked to write a prayer, meditation, or poem inside of their silhouette. They painted around their silhouette with the colors that they selected from the True Colors exercise.
During the third session, students were introduced to Jean-Michel Basquiat, the late iconic Brooklyn artist who used symbolism in his art to communicate ideas and concepts. Students were given a chart of symbols and tasked with creating a garden. The symbols they drew inside of the garden represented things that they wanted to protect, and the symbols they drew outside of the garden represented things that they viewed as a threat to their growth. The fourth and final session was called “Grow Where You’re Planted.” Students listened to the song “FEAR.” by Kendrick Lamar and were asked to reflect on how Kendrick’s experience growing up in Compton might be similar to their own experiences growing up in their respective New York City boroughs. Students also identified and painted the resources or “water” that they needed in order to thrive in their environments.
Throughout these four sessions, students wrote letters to each other (the students who were incarcerated wrote letters to the students who were not in custody and vice versa). This letter-writing portion of the program was inspired by Soledad Brother, which is a collection of letters written by the late incarcerated revolutionary George Jackson. In the letters to his family and friends, George Jackson condemned America and its prison system and emphasized that collective action is crucial to Black liberation.
After the program was completed, I interviewed some of the students, looked at their artwork, and read their letters. The students clearly understood how their environments had impacted the trajectory of their lives. They cited poverty and unhealthy homes as some of the reasons why they’re currently ensnared in the carceral system. One student wrote, “...People do things that are bad because they either want something or need something and they can’t get that without money or resources.”
And even while understanding how their environments had influenced their decisions, the students took accountability for their mistakes. One student told his incarcerated peer that he admired his peer’s artwork because it revealed that “the greatest threat to your treasure is yourself.” Another student wrote to his incarcerated peer, “You don’t wanna be 40 doing the same thing. Push to make sure ya kids don’t gotta see this life.” I met and interviewed a student named Judah who said that he regrets the decision that he made and emphasized that he’s responsible for turning his life around. “I know what I can do; I just gotta put myself in that position. I just gotta work for it,” Judah said. “Even though everything is not in my favor…it is what it is; let me see what I can do.” Society has tried to dictate how life will be for these young people. But these young people are determined to take the paintbrush and be the artist of their own life.
When I spoke with some of the students, they said that they didn’t expect The Story From Within program to be so transformative. Judah stated that coming in early on a Saturday morning to express himself through art was "therapeutic" and gave him “something to look forward to.” The art exercises made him think, “What do I really want for myself?” Another student named Jacob, who had been incarcerated at Rikers Island prior to the program, called the program “freeing.” Jacob’s favorite parts of the program were writing letters to his incarcerated peers and writing the prayer within his silhouette. In fact, Jacob told me that he now recites that same prayer every morning. If that’s not a testament to how life-changing this program was for these students, then I don’t know what is.
I asked the students to identify aspects of the criminal legal system that they would like to see changed. It’s crucial to mention that all four of the students who I interviewed were young men of color and three of those four were young Black men. All of the young Black men mentioned that they would eliminate stop-and-frisk, which they’ve experienced at the hands of NYPD officers. “They see a Black kid walking and they get happy,” a student named Patrick said as he recalled a time when he was arrested for a crime that he claims he did not commit (he also claims the police didn’t even read him his rights). A student, who wishes to remain anonymous, agreed that stop-and-frisk is a problem and he has learned which routes to take in order to avoid being racially profiled by the police. Judah told me that even when someone’s not doing anything suspicious, the police feel the need to harass that person simply because that person is Black. He pointed out that society places a different kind of pressure on Black youth than it does on non-Black youth—and he’s absolutely right.
The students highlighted other issues with the carceral system such as the fact that young adults are placed with older adults in jails and prisons and the court system holds people for too long. As Judah said, these long cases will “take years from somebody’s life,” and that made me think of the late Kalief Browder, a Black boy who was forced to spend three years at Rikers waiting for a trial that eventually never happened.
I want to end this letter by returning to the garden metaphor that the students explored throughout this program. In order to grow and thrive, roses need well-drained soil, sunlight, and water. They need to be nurtured and cared for. The young people in this city are no different. They need resources such as money, mental health services, housing, and mentors in order to flourish and be the very best version of themselves. Here are a few actions that we can take as a community to invest in our youth and fight for youth justice:
Contact our New York State elected officials and tell them to pass important legislation such as the Youth Justice & Opportunities Act, which provides alternatives to incarceration and immediate record sealing for young people in New York State.
Advocate for the redistribution of city funds. We need to spend less money on incarceration and more money addressing the root causes of crime (i.e., poverty, lack of access to mental health services, homelessness, etc.). We can influence the city budget by showing up and testifying at New York City Council budget hearings, lobbying elected officials, participating in protests and rallies, and raising awareness on social media
Support organizations that are championing decarceration and investing in our youth such as exalt (the organization that some of the students from The Story Within program were involved with), Avenues for Justice, Youth Represent, The Osborne Association, and The Legal Aid Society.
So we know what our youth are facing, and we know what we need to do. Now let’s nurture and guide our young people so that they can bloom.
In solidarity,
Sade Green