Changeist Media Magazine - Spring 2024

YOUTH EXPERIENCES FROM LOS ANGELES AND STOCKTON

INSIGHTS WITH POETS AND LOCAL ORGANIZERS

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY, VISUAL ART, AND POETRY

MAGAZINE

ART BY JUELZ MEJIA

A collective of people that is passionate about an issue in their community.

-Sheikh Alam

High School Team Leader

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Intro Community

What is Changeist?

At Changeist we build community and create a space where young people ages 11-26 transform into social change makers. Young changeists actively participate and express their gratitude to their communities through their acts of service. A Changeist is a young person who utilizes their personal agency to create a more just society. Young people find their space in ChangeIST through the 8-month program that allows them to pick a social issue

Changeist builds pathways for young people to explore social issues occurring in and around their community Teams of 10-15 youth focus on one specific issue that they all have interest in learning about and addressing

“A Little League of CIVIC ACTION”

COMMUNITY

INSIGHTS MATYOS KIDANE

Edited by Chano L.

This year of Changeist Media members have talked to many community leaders and organizers. Here we’ve cataloged some amazing community members who helped us better understand our communities' intersectional issues.

Stop LAPD Spying Coalition is an organization engaged in monitoring the surveillance of the police state.

On April 20th, 2024 the Changeist Public and Mental Health team along with Changeist Media traveled to Stop LAPD Spying Coalition headquartered at LACAN in Skidrow to learn more about current challenges youth face concerning public & mental health. The media team was able to interview Matyos Kidane, who organizes initiatives to bring awareness and fight against surveillance programs that target youth, primarily BIPOC and lower-income youth in Los Angeles.

Changeist media member Juelz Mejia asked Matyos for his definition of the term “police state” and Matyos stressed the structure of our current institutions and their intentions of regulating instead of caring for the general public. Police, following in lockstep with institutions, “Everything I think we've pointed out has been in service of controlling a population, not nurturing a population And that's what policing’s function is It's to control, to incarcerate, to imprison and to banish…”

Regarding the interlacing theme of institutional desire for regulation when he asks about the organization's tie with the city of Los Angeles. In response Matyos elaborates on the lawsuit filed by the city of Los Angeles itself and how police are the mere force mechanism of the institutional system as he stated, “It was actually a journalist, Ben Camacho, that got these public records. And we got a hold of these public records, which everyone can have. And we made this great community resource called Watch the Watchers with it. And, you know, the city kind of was threatened by that. Police were threatened by that…”, “And so they're suing us to get those records back that we got legally that are already online And I feel like that's an episode or an instance that really is emblematic of, one, their intentions of trying to control the population from getting this education and this information ”

Juelz then questions the reasons for why police would want to reallocate so much time and resources to spying on specific communities

Matyos answers by explaining how there is a need to maintain this sort of surveillance for the means of protecting capital, not the people, as he described, “ police have very special relationships with certain subsets of the community where they have violent relationships with black, brown, and poor communities, especially in South Central and East L.A. They have very friendly and cozy relationships with corporations. In 2020 with the George Floyd protests going on, the Target Corporation was emailing the LAPD Chief Moore, one on one saying, hey, we need you to protect our stores. And Chief Moore delivered.”

One of the final questions Juelz asked was regarding predictive policing and whether its legacy still affects BIPOC communities. Matyos relates that not only have these programs had a horrible effect, but still do to this day under a different moniker, “people are you know, people are dead like people are missing family members

People are no longer in their neighborhoods because of these predictive policing programs

Even if those programs are in name gone Those people are still missing Their loved ones still miss them and they're probably not in their homes anymore. The other thing the LAPD does is, when the community delegitimizes these predictive policing programs, pointed out as racist and removed, they just replaced it with a similar program with a different name before it was called PredPol and Laser Predictive policing. Now it's called informed community-focused policing.”

This question of institutional power leads to one concerning “privacy”, and the lack thereof for citizens and the means of how its used to maintain oversight on its population in the opinion of Matyos. He elaborates by bringing up a modern example of the lack of privacy, “Right. That's also kind of a great way to think about surveillance. Right? So surveillance, our information gathering, just regular data gathering, whether it's the data that you plug into your phone for Instagram or whatever is being used for those two reasons to control you To make sure you're not crossing any boundaries by engaging in behavior that the state doesn't necessarily like, but also to commodify you, to turn you into data point that they can sell, that they can market to then sell more property, the property that the police then protect.”

To stay up to date with Stop LAPD Spying Coalitions work, visit their website stoplapdspying.org, or visit their Instagram: @stoplapdspying

ALYESHA WISE-HERNANDEZ

Alyesha Wise-Hernandez is a community organizer and Director of Program Intergration at Street poets. Inc, which focuses on inspiring kids to hone their artistic talents. Alyesha grew up in Camden, New Jersey. It was in Philadelphia however where she gained an appreciation for community organizing where she co-founded poetry spaces.

Alyesha shared that her personal and professional are closely intertwined as she grabs inspiration for her professional life from her personal experiences, as she explains, “I think the personal and the collective work is super tied together. Like I need to work on myself, I need to be able to tell my story. I need to be able to unfold in order to be a bit better for the community… Because one of the things, you know, somebody like me growing up in Camden or any city that reflects like mirrors of my own life, one of the biggest issues and

Poetry as a medium is often viewed and portrayed by the younger generations as boring and uninteresting. While influential in its own right it's often difficult for younger students to engage with something that has no apparent cultural relevance to them. Alyesha however ties in current social and cultural trends to engage her students. Alyesha gives her insight on how she believes in the intersection of poetry and love and her wish to instill that connection to her students, she expressed, “Poetry is everywhere. So I get excited when I present poetry. I think what helps students listen is trying to be as exciting as possible. I love listening to hip-hop. I love listening to wordplay.”

of teaching y of rap and word, to her p for lyricism akes us feel deep feeling hip hop, first hinking of rap the faces of it comes to frica, and I'm is means for he drum is a cation. All of

Alyesha shares the moment when the artist she admired, Prince noticed one of her poems; it was one of her favorite moments from her professional career. Getting recognized by the artist she most respected. “Prince is my favorite artist of all time. I wrote a poem about him, my first quote unquote, funny pranks…I said, okay, I'm going to write a funny poem And I wrote a poem about Prince, who I admire and love, and I did it at a slam It scored really well And Prince apparently heard it, tweeted about it I talked to his representative But yeah, I sold my poem to Prince and Prince knew who I was”

To stay up to date with Street Poet’s work, visit their website www.streetpoetsinc.com or visit their instragram: @streetpoetsinc

SAN JOAQUIN EMERGENCY FOOD BANK

24, Stockton Changeists an Joaquin Emergency dle school, high school, ers showed up eager to nce. The team worked elped the staff out by nizing bags of food. The ne will assist San Joaquin ess to healthy food and ntribute to building a r community.

A DAY OF CHANGEIST

At 9:00am we meet at Echo Park and join our team. We form a circle so that we can see each other and share our experiences This is a way to warm up and get started with the day. Once we are done with our circle we gather up as one community and talk about social issues around the world. This is a time to bring awareness and inform ourselves. Before finishing the gather up, we take a look at the weekly article with the word of the day, a question and wish happy birthdays We then proceed to the morning activity!

At 12 we have our lunch break. This a time to talk about anything and relax. After lunch, we get ready to explore LA. Each team goes to a different place, historic monuments, organizations, parks, or other places that address the group ' s specific issue track.

After exploring, we head back to Echo Park and gather up to update each other about future events and talk about what we learned at our site visits We then do a final circle with our team and final check-in before going home.

C h a n g e i s t D a y i n t h e L i f e

Team Huddle: this is a time to check in, say hi, and connect with each other before the day’s activities really kicks off

Icebreaker: an activity that incorporates the whole team and helps us get to know each other a little better

Learning Session: an educational experience - in 2024, we had learning sessions on writing poetry, using kites in advocacy, and harm reduction.

Lunch: nourishing our bodies and brains while taking a break

Fun in the Sun: usually, we spend some time enjoying nature at sites like Fremont Park, Edible Schoolyard, and HATCH Workshop!

Debrief / Reflection: we talk about our highlights of the day and have a constructive dialogue on how to improve programming!

Closing: after a busy day of learning, exploring, and being in community, we head home

Photography in LA: Oceanwide Plaza

Photography in LA: Boyle Heights

Photographed by Juelz Mejia

Juelz is a high school senior at Rise Kohyang High who is passionate about the arts and photography. In Changeist Media, his goal to document events occurring in LA and provide creative insight to his fellow members This year, Juelz has illustrated the cover of the magazine with the intent to represent the changeist’s logo colors being curiosity, teamwork, empathy, and adventure!

Despite being known now as the graffiti towers in Downtown LA, Oceanwide Plaza stands as a reminder of a failed project that was made to make money rather than help the people of LA. According to news sources like the LA Times, the project had halted construction in 2019 and has been vacant ever since. The building is currently for sale and awaits a new owner to finish its construction. However, it's important to point out that reporting on the Oceanwide Plaza only occurred when the building started being tagged with graffiti This cannot be considered a coincidence because it was the result of the graffiti that brought attention to the building This incident has now made residents more aware of the actions that the LA City Council makes discreetly The LA Dodgers Gondola project is another plan to promote tourism in LA further without asking for the opinion of the public

Photographed by Eli Grijalva

I'm 15 years old, and I go to Mendez High School Photography has just been something that I think has always been a part of my life

I think photography matters because it can expose people to different people's lives and show different perspectives If you ' re not living in a certain area or a different country, viewing other people's photography, I think could show it.

Especially because I feel like photography holds a lot of emotions that can be shown with, the image’s subject matter and the colors or the way the photo is taken. So I think you can learn different stories through photography, and it's just a cool way to express yourself and have an outlet for different emotions and feelings.

“Mourning Mother” by Isa / Dani Reynosa

by Liz De Los Santos

Isa / Dani is a member of the Stockton Changeist Media team, Team Bisan. The team is named after Bisan Owda, a Palestinian filmmaker, activist, and journalist best known for her current work documenting the ongoing violence in Gaza inflicted by the Israeli Occupational Forces. As young people involved in advocacy and media, the Changeist Media team in Stockton decided to honor her in the work they do by naming their team after her.

My Year with Changeist

It begins with a hole in the wall

Where three rabbits huddled for cover

And in their tired, nestled pile

A bond between them discovered

As the revelation, friendship formed

They shared abundance, warmth, affection

A joy came swifter than the wind

Grounded in their care and connection

Rabbits are lucky in my mother’s country

So I've been told this sometimes arises

But I think it is not plain and simply luck

But a blessing, now recognized

Blessed be the way each rabbit found another two

Three Rabbits.

“This poem, in its simplicity, is a musing on blessings. I came to know the blessings in question through the circumstance of Changeist. To the other two rabbits - you know who you are, and I cherish you. ”

Blessed be the path I walked that led me to know you

Written and submitted anonymously

Three Ladybugs

by Adria Vidales

3 ladybugs crawl gently up the tule

The Sun glimmers off their young red backs

They have not yet formed their dots

3 ladybugs whisper stories into the wind Into each others’ hearts

No one speaks their language but the feeling is universal

3 ladybugs laugh harder than seagulls

The soft spiral of time brought them together

Gently unraveling and unfurling spirits

Every day a little closer to something that did not exist before

3 ladybugs flew into my heart

They buzz around and eat at my worries, while the lake water laps up my pain, leaving me cool and clean

3 ladybugs I love you so much

Thank you for being my friends

BEHIND THE SCENES

This year a collective of six high school and middle school participants planned and directed a Changeist promotional video highlighting the diverse experiences of program participants in Los Angeles.

The Changeist Media was tasked with setup and planning filming from selecting the location, set up, and directing the action!

The purpose and challenges of making the Promotional Video

“The main purpose of the video is to enourage young people to join Changeist When I tried convincing my friend to join Changeist I had no idea how to tell her to join So then I thought ‘What’s the best way to encourage people to join Changeist’ So then I thought to make a Promotional Video to bring people into Changeist as I never saw a Promotional Video that brought both enthusiasm and purpose into Changeist ”

How was the process to creating the video?

“Brainstorming,I feel like it took the most time because it’s hard to know what you want, and you can’t start making something without knowing what you actually want to make ” - Ariana B & Mariana B

Changeist is a Saturday program that brings together 11-26 year olds to learn a common civic language, engage in dialogue, and build community to investigate local and global social justice issues

Visit www.changeist.org for more information.