ALBANY PARK — A new creative workshop opens in April in a neighborhood with limited resources for the arts.
"Be You(th), Be Free" at Centro Autonomo de Albany Park, 3460 W. Lawrence Ave., invites teens ages 14-18 for twice-weekly art workshops to explore themes of race and immigration.
"For this project, people will come to work through their own struggles and learn from the struggles of others," said workshop facilitator, artist and graduate student in education Ariel Claborn.
Space is available for 15 students on a first-come, first-served basis, with preference to youths of color and undocumented immigrants — or "people who come from below," as stated in Centro's mission about the immigrant communities it serves.
The deadline to register is Monday. Applicants can visit the Centro's Facebook page, and e-mail registration applications to Claborn at ariel@mexicosolidarity.org.
Students attend workshops from 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesdays and 2-4 p.m. Saturdays between April 4-28.
Students study one theme and medium per week. Workshops will cover poetry, acrylic, banner and poster making, stencils, do-it-yourself projects and other artforms.
Tuition is free. All materials, venue space and light snacks will be provided by the Centro.
Writer and youth activist Stephanie Camba joins Claborn as volunteer workshop coordinators and will be employing "liberatory learning" in their teaching.
"Liberatory learning" is a hefty term coined by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire in his "pedagogy of the oppressed" philosophy.
"Liberatory learning believes in consent to create our curriculum. It is based on the idea of shared power and knowledge and non-hierarchical learning and teaching," Camba said.
Camba is an outspoken critic of current immigration policies and uses her experience as an undocumented immigrant from the Philippines in her spoken word poetry and art.
Claborn and Camba said the workshops are put together from the grassroots and will be collaborations between themselves and the students.
"We will share different artforms and have curriculum outlined, but will also be flexible to where our youth are at. It'll be a curriculum based on our interactions," Camba said.
The workshops are the first of its kind by the Centro that Camba and Claborn hope to develop for future workshops with other organizations.
Claborn hopes the workshop will give undocumented immigrant youth an opportunity to build relationships with peers from the same background.
"Particularly with undocumented youth, I hope that this creates an environment for them to realize that they are not alone in what challenges them," Claborn said.
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