H2O Youth traveled to New York to present to students at Eastside Community High School. They presented a summation of three years of research around health disparities, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) & Toxic Stress, and even their newest research on cultural appropriation, gentrification and hegemony.
Read more below about H2O Youth's newest YPAR projects:
Description of Various Art-Based YPAR Projects:
Graphic Novel: Students will use photography as a thermometer to diagnose society. The project will ask: How can we use photography to better understand pressing issues within our society? Next, students will take their work and post pictures on social media sites (i.e. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) to gather data from their peers. They will use their peers’ commentary/responses to draft an analysis of the world we live in. Finally, students will publish their art work to produce a graphic novel and convert their photography into an ebook for kindle.
Literacy Mixtape: There are many songs that have shaped who we are and define us, and in turn influence our understanding of hegemony and counter-hegemony. Music also marks time and memory for us and ultimately informs our identities. For this project you will create a mixtape that represents YOU and your understanding of hegemony and counter-hegemony. (You will learn about both terms during the project) Your mixtape should include songs that: 1) You actually listen to mark a significant memory or period of time for you. 2) Shaped your understanding of Hegemony or Counter Hegemony. Consider songs that define or examine humanization, dehumanization, oppression, racism, gender roles, femininity, masculinity, relationships, resistance, etc. 3) Connect/Resonate with you on a deeper level and show your process. The projects asks: How does popular music reflect the health of our society?
Social Media Literacy: Students will recruit a group of young people to analyze snapshots from twitter as a means to better understand our society. The project will ask: How do the complex and even sometimes contradicting posts within a twitter newsfeed, reflect our society? How do young people interpret our world through social media?
Self, Attitudes & Behavior: This project seeks to better understand the ways in which social media impacts our understanding of self. This project asks: How do posts on social media sites impact how I feel about myself? Can social media impact/alter my perception of self and society?
Clothing As a Political Strategy: Students will participate in an ontological study of fashion as a representative of society. The project will analyze fashion as a form of meaning making. Students will create a website with the last fashion and use theory to analyze forms of literacy and meaning making that are manifested through fashion. The project will ask: How does fashion impact agency? Who owns the production of meaning? How does fashion reflect issues within our larger society?