TEENS TALK, from page 1 Downbeat 720 gives teens a voice
By Daily Press Staff Writer
MAIN LIBRARY When Desiré Johnson moved to Santa Monica last year, the 15-year-old, naturally, was a bit nervous and somewhat withdrawn. She knew she would be attending a new school, have to make new friends and find her way in a strange city.
Writing since she was 11, the budding poet suddenly shut down.
“I stopped writing after a while because I felt there was no need,” said Johnson, who came to Santa Monica via the Bay area.
Then she heard about a performing arts program at the Miles Playhouse called Downbeat 720, where twice a month teens are allowed to speak, sing, dance or act in a safe, structured and positive environment.
“Once I got to Downbeat and got on the stage, I had this really emotional poem that I wanted to get out and I thought people were going to laugh at me,” Johnson said. “But at the end, I looked up and people were crying. That’s when I realized I could finally connect with people.
“I realized that I have something important to say.” Johnson joined several other teens on Saturday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium for a mutli-media presentation on the importance of self-expression, courtesy of the Santa Monica Teen Advisory Council.
For the past three months, the council, comprised of 15 Santa Monica High School students, has researched ways in which teens communicate, concentrating on two of the most popular art forms — spoken word and urban art, or graffiti. Students interviewed fellow teens at local open mic sessions at the Miles Playhouse and at the Virginia Avenue Park Center and the Pico Youth & Family Center, the latter two providing art classes and lessons on recording music, allowing kids to create their own albums.
Teen council members learned the importance of spoken word and graffiti art as means of self-expression for their peers, as well as research and presentation skills, such as how to conduct an interview, how to document their research with photography and video, and how to combine that information into a multi-media presentation, according to Erica Tang, a city librarian specializing in young adults.
The council is funded by California Council for the Humanities, which has chosen just six libraries in the state for the youth-focused program entitled “How I See It.” Young people document what their lives are like, what they care about and what it’s like growing up in today’s California.
“How I See It” is the third major campaign of the council’s ongoing California Stories Initiative, which began in 2002.
Among the topics currently being documented are how teens are using the social networking Web site MySpace, the diversity of garage band music and the culture of hip-hop. In addition to Santa Monica, pilot programs are taking place in Berkeley, Fresno, Riverside, San Diego and Yuba City, concluding this summer.
“We are lucky to be one of six libraries to start this pilot project,” Tang said. “This is their (the youth) chance to talk about what they feel matters most.”
Following a video-presentation and a poem by Johnson, the teens held a forum for an audience of roughly 30 people, who asked a variety of questions about the culture of graffiti and spoken word. Justin Yoffe, the creator of Downbeat, and Angel Villasenor, a program specialist at Virginia Avenue Park, also testified to the power of the city’s youth programs.
“One of the great thrills of my job is to have kids who have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, up on stage and then, two years later, they are on a national poetry slam team winning awards,” Yoffe said. “Their confidence increases in terms of applying for college, in relating to others, in how they relate to their parents. It is really profound.
“It seems simple, but that act of getting up there and putting yourself out there, it is impressive. It empowers.”
In the case of graffiti art, defacing buildings can leave many youth on the wrong side of the law.
That is why more funding is needed to provide artists with canvases and other supplies, instead of having them using concrete walls and spraypaint as their medium, said Villasenor. At Virginia Avenue Park, teens are provided with canvases to create instead of committing acts of vandalism.
“It is important to have teenagers, kids, whomever, be able to express themselves, whether it be graffiti art, spoken word, music or dance... whatever it is, I think it is great that the city of Santa Monica has places for kids to go,” Villasenor said.
Part of the graffiti culture is to spread one’s name, Villasenor said, and this can lead to battles between artists and more vandalism. Instead, artists need to be given opportunities to showcase their skills, whether it be painting a barber shop or convenience store, or submitting works for exhibition at local galleries, such as those in Bergamot Station.
It is also up to established artists to take an interest in the youth and guide them towards a legitimate career in the art world.
“It’s hard for them to get the recognition as being an artist because so many are seen as being vandals, criminals,” Villasenor said. “Me, personally, growing up, I was arrested and it wasn’t a good experience. That’s when I asked (city staff) to set up some sort of a class to help us, and luckily they did.”
Among the artists interviewed by the teen council were those hoping to one day become an animator, a tattoo artist and a famous painter.
For Johnson, becoming the next great poet sounds good to her, and she has her mother’s support.
“People are always telling me that they area amazed when they hear her,” said DeeDee Joshua. “She makes me shiver, not because she’s my daughter, but because I can feel it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.