Cultural & Communications Program
Every Friday fifty children 5-12 gather in a worn social hall to produce their weekly “Holla' Back” Program. Alex Avila – Garifuna Director of CCLM's Cultural/ Communications Department – invites young performers to the stage. They take the microphone and begin their raps and poems. Some dance. Some sing. Their peers cheer and applaud. All learn the importance of self-expression and overcome a number of fears as they take the stage to perform.
An older group of forty youth gathers on Tuesday nights for an “open mic” as part of the Mission 's weekly HIP HOP JAZZ MASS. “Pieces” are critiqued by others in attendance. During the week, smaller groups of the youth attend local coffee shop venues to perform in Riverside and Los Angeles . Youth believe in their right to self-expression. The Mission believes that self-expression is a therapeutic moment for youth living who are hard to reach and at risk in a neighborhood torn apart by poverty and gang violence.
Many of our youth have either witnessed or been the victims of violence. Post traumatic stress syndrome and symptoms or pre-natal substance use exist at higher rates among our youth. Studies have shown that activities that encourage self-expression can help a child's in overcoming these developmental challenges. Our program uses many forms of the arts to involve youth in creative activities that stimulate the areas of the brain that assists in the overcoming of these early child challenges. Theatre, poetry, dance, rap and music are important elements in an urban community and need to reflect the urban culture that gives our youth their life and energy. As the Mission moves more deeply into a four-building holistic health care construction project, plans also include an outdoor amphitheatre which will help make real a dream our young organizers have.
Our proposed cultural center – using state-of-the-art acoustics and an outdoor amphitheatre – can provide a year-round context for urban cultural development. Open mic's, weekly “holla' backs,” monthly cultural events, Mexican folkloric dance groups will have a home and a point to organize around in an urban area that has been described by Zero Population Growth as America's least kid friendly city in America – cultural accessibility and educational opportunities were factors in that determination.
In addition, the Cultural Center will be linked to the H Street Clinic. Aerobic exercises, pre-natal and post-natal exercise programs, yoga, tai chi and other physical fitness programs will be offered for the neighborhood so that healthy bodies and healthy minds become a part of our community's culture for life.
Our youth seek to turn that report for our city around as they build with us their own cultural expressions using an urban context and genre. The projected amphitheatre becomes the instrument that enable youth in waiting – 38% of our population is 18 years of age or under – to express themselves using the tools of their culture and urban roots.
