Liberation in schools has been a big discussion, the main goal is to offer a curriculum that is lacking at a lot of high schools. This is to expose a more wide variety of subjects to the students. They plan to add different workshops such as meditation and art to the schools. The main goal is to center on learning growth and less about competing for the best grades. With many of these criteria’s met and advocated for, there can be more possible changes to occur that can help suffice the people and youth of the U.S. as well as NYC, bringing fourth social progression. High school students had the chance to join a meeting that covers this discussion. I encourage you to take a look at these reports or if possible, a little research of your own.

In the integrated nyc meeting, we tackled many concepts that centered around collective power. My colleagues and I noted the many initiatives that youth like ourselves can take to help push for more changes to be presented to the public of NYC as the election draws near. Not only that, but also the many expectations that the youth of our cities need for our upcoming future president that wins the 2020 election. There were various important requests and adjustments listed that are needed for people to have more social progress as the next 4 years tie over.

Firstly, it was stated in this meeting that there should be a set of things that the youth should be able to obtain through policy and litigation. For instance, it was stated within one of the slides presented to us that “ students drive unprecedented litigation, legislation, and policy to: shift material resources to support and educate youth(real integration) as well as increase youth autonomy in legal systems(youth abolition). These are necessary goals implemented for the youth to be able to reach as they begin to advocate and take more direct action into establishing more social progress in NYC. Additionally, one more goal for youth “peer defense projects” was for an “elevated institutional power of NYC youth”. This mainly insinuates how there should be more advocacy for youth voting rights in ways that make it more eligible for people of young age to be included and take action with less requirements that limit their voice. Not only that, but we had also established ground rules that should be presented to our future president as a way for them to understand what must be in place to allow for the citizens and youth of the U.S. to feel protected and have social progress. It was stated that the inner city youth are pushing for “abolition, liberation of all people & authentic and sustainable social progress.” They also strongly aspire for “joy and unapologetic self-love are radical practices of resistance.” To conclude, as shown from the Liberation lesson meeting it is evident that with many of these criteria’s met and advocated for, there can be more possible changes to occur that can help suffice the people and youth of the U.S. as well as NYC, bringing fourth social progression.

By: Gbenga Akinrosoye

During this zoom call we talked about what we thought was going to happen in the election tomorrow. There were people who said they were afraid of what was going to happen and how it was going to impact us. We then watched a video about their campaigns. We then met Shesheena Bray who made us do some breathing exercises. This made us less stressed and more comfortable. After that we had Danielle speak to us about liberation in schools. The main goal was to offer a curriculum that was lacking at a lot of high schools. This was to expose a more wide variety of subjects. They added different workshops such as meditation and art. The main goal was to center on learning growth and less about competing for the best grades. Next we had another speaker named Emma who talked to us about a campaign called our future for president. She talked about how the election doesn't offer an opportunity to address urgent issues and offer more tangible change in the form of policy. Rather than focus on any particular political candidate we will push people to vote with our futures in mind. She also said that this will demand that the voices and priorities of young people are present in political conversations. She then said how our future president is not just about making changes in policy but about building the power of people so that they can control their own narrative and decision-making process.Our next speaker was Fria who talked about how to get the youth voice heard. She said how the power of social media has allowed us to show that young people can and should have a say in all these issues. We would be able to create a strong organization of youth to work together around issues that matter to us and our organization would allow us to teach each other about these important issues and continue to spread our message to more people. Our last speaker was Aneth and she talked to us about the peer defense project. This was to gain resources to support and educate the youth. She also talked about elevating institutional power of the youth and increasing youth autonomy in the legal systems. I learned a lot from this meeting and I agree with what they stand for.

By: Gabriel Moreau