Community Leadership for Liberation: Transformative Justice and the Art of Creative Storytelling
Saturday, April 15, session 2
1:30 - 3:00 PM PST
The law is too often utilized to tell the parts of a story that have the consequence of justifying systemic harms and outcomes of shame, punishment and isolation. Art, on the other hand, is a powerful tool that allows young people to take agency of their true story and to present complicated narratives in creative ways. When we really hear, see and feel a person, and learn about their identities, gifts, struggles, vision, etc., we are practicing Transformative Justice and we are creating collective safety as a powerful alternative to mass criminalization and incarceration.
Participants in the workshop will be invited to practice transformative justice by reclaiming and repairing narratives that systems and society utilize to legitimize punishment of young people by telling the stories that reflect our true and whole selves and that invite compassionate accountability. We will view 3 short video clips that are examples of Creative Storytelling from a young person’s perspective and prompt participants to identify 1. What they Hear 2. What they See and 3. What they Feel. The young people highlighted in the videos will facilitate a process for participants to then spend time practicing creative storytelling related to their own personal narrative.
Julian Harris
Julian Harris is the Director of Youth Leadership for the Arts for Healing and Justice Network(AHJN). Coming from humble beginnings, Julian’s biggest inspiration is his mother who works on securing housing for homeless communities in central Florida. Prior to moving to Los Angeles, Julian worked as the My Brother’s Keeper Coordinator for the City of Orlando. He currently leads the Our True Colors youth development space for AHJN.
Mora Geer
Mora joined AHJN’s youth programming in 2018. Since that time, she has been in a play, made a podcast, and had an increasing leadership role in advocacy spaces. She joined the staff of AHJN in 2020 and currently facilitates the Movement Building Youth Fellowship.
Mainor Xuncax
Mainor is a youth policy advocate that utilizes his own direct experience to prevent other Black and Brown youth from being impacted by the system. He graduated from a continuation high school in South Central in 2019. He joined AHJN youth programming while incarcerated in Los Angeles’ juvenile injustice system and has since increased his leadership role in advocacy spaces. Mainor joined the staff of AHJN in 2020 and currently facilitates the Movement Building Youth Fellowship.
Agustin Herrera
Agustin is the Youth Engagement Specialist at AHJN. He helps to facilitate the re-entry program and uses his lived experience as a system-impacted young person to support other youth. Agustin lives in Los Angeles and collects fitted hats as a side hobby. He also likes to play video games and do graphic designing.
Edin Madrid
Edin is a UCLA student, community leader, and youth mentor that returned home in 2021 after nearly 14 years incarcerated after being charged as an adult at the age of 16. He describes his time in prison as a place that he navigated alone beginning in childhood, a place where harsh punishments and past traumas rose to the surface giving rise to a lot of fear and hopelessness. While incarcerated Edin cleared a path for his own healing and entered college in 2018. He has continued to forge this pathway and attributes much of this to the support of his family, social network and community-based organizations.