Bluefields Mural: Stand-up, Paint Back
Friends and family,
The day has finally come to ask for monetary contributions! I am looking to raise $500 dollars by August 6th in order to host a workshop for black youth and have them paint a mural in Bluefields, Nicaragua.
Indeed, I find myself in Nicaragua researching the criminalization of black youth due to the drug trade in the Atlantic Coast. For the first part of my project, I will be writing a final paper for which I will interview black, male, youth between the ages of 15-25 to gauge the effects of anti-drug campaigns that only target black, males in this region. Drugs are a problem for everyone--young or old, mestizo or black--here in Bluefields, but anti-drug efforts automatically criminalize black youth. The images found in anti-drug campaigns of blacks as criminals leaves no room for other, more positive images--no other alternatives.
For the second part of my project, I am asking for your $$$ to paint a mural. This mural will be designed by youth from black neighborhoods in Bluefields (those who I have the honor to interview), and the goal is for them to have a space where they can speak up against their criminalization and reimagine themselves through a different picture of them as students, office workers, members of their church, leaders of their community, etc. If 100 of you, friends, donate $5 each, then I will be able to raise the $500. The money will enable me, with the guidance of NGO Murales RAAS (look them up!), to host a worshop, buy materials, and guide these youths into designing and painting their mural. This will be their space to speak-up and paint back!
Friends, I hate injustices, but, most importantly, I love to create spaces where people can fight back against those injustices. No one should be criminalized by the way they look and everyone should have the space to imagine, to speak, to paint an alternative, more equal, more loving vision of this world. Thank you in advance, and expect a postcard with a picture of the final product!
Peace,
Andi Clark