OUR WORK

TRUST YOUR STRUGGLE

"Trust Your Struggle (TYS) is an artist collective of visual artists, educators, and cultural workers dedicated to social justice and community activism through the medium of art. Our work includes but is not limited to graphic design, printmaking, silk screening, photography, illustration, graffiti writing, and mural painting. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City we have produced gallery installations, live paintings, murals and arts education workshops with youth and community organizations since 2003. Our art continues the legacy of visual language, as we are contemporary storytellers influenced by graffiti art, comic books, political posters, religious spiritual icons, and our own indigenous traditions." 

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YOUTH SPEAKS

"Committed to a critical, youth-centered pedagogy, Youth Speaks places young people in control of their intellectual and artistic development. We are urgently driven by the belief that literacy is a need, not a want, and that literacy comes in various forms. As we move more deeply into the 21st Century, oral poetry is helping to define the new American Voice. By making the connection between poetry, spoken word, youth development and civic engagement, Youth Speaks aims to deconstruct dominant narratives in hopes of achieving a more inclusive, and active, culture. Believing that young people have the tools to take control of their lives through language, Youth Speaks encourages youth to express themselves using their own vernacular.

Youth Speaks believes that having knowledge, practice, and confidence in the written and spoken language is essential to the self-empowerment of an individual. We fill a need for creative approaches to literary arts education and literacy development; we believe it is crucial to provide spaces where youth can undergo a process of personal growth and transformation in a program that enriches their educational, professional, artistic and leadership skills."

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