Local Art Association Partners With International Youth Literacy Program

In the last couple of years, the art scene in Union City and its dedication to community empowerment has grown tremendously. Recently, I had the opportunity to sit with , president of the Art Association of the East Bay, to discuss the organization’s current accomplishments and aspirations.

The AAEB is a non-profit organization that, in its simplest form, focuses on providing access to the arts in the local community. It does this by facilitating productive outlets for youth, offering scholarships for excelling art students, and providing educational programs led by artists. It has also put on an art and wine festival and group art shows and facilitates community/school murals. 

The AAEB has recently has linked up with global nonprofit Algarabía Literacy Project to direct awareness and support toward international youth empowerment through the reclamation of individual language and critical thinking. The program supports youth through literacy in marginalized communities in Latin American and the Caribbean.  

The ALP is six months into their program in the Dominican Republic. They continue to facilitate workshops and aim to implement traveling cultural programs and to begin the editorial process to later print a youth anthology and distribute it through communities in the Dominican Republic. ALP is also in the process of finalizing their 2013 work agenda in Guatemala, Liberia, Cuba, California and Mexico.  In order to accomplish their goal, the ALP needs the support of people who believe in investing in the creation of youth projects that facilitate leadership, empowerment, and sustainability efforts within communities. On Aug. 20, they began a 30 day fundraiser to fund this vision. 

As a perk for contributions, the AAEB has donated to the ALP posters of the AAEB’s most recent mural. The poster reads: “This mural is a collaborative project created by a group of students from Conley Caraballo Alternative High School and Art Association of the East Bay’s president and local artist, Lilia Reynoso.  The combined images, colors, and symbols that make up this mural are a definition for the concept of knowledge, as critically imagined by these young artists.  At least one idea from each participant was used to generate this final image.  This mural is an offering to our community and the barrios that Proyecto Algarabia serves and is testament to the power behind youth solidarity networks.”

The student participants brainstormed by coming up with words, colors, and images that represented what knowledge meant to them. Reynoso then created a cohesive image that includes one idea from each student. Some students viewed knowledge as gained through culture and ancestors. Others remind us that knowledge is for everybody. Reynoso says that the contributions she received were a lot more extensive than what she expected and was impressed by the collective deep perspective.

The mural is now up for viewing and loving at Century 25 Theaters in Union Landing, until the end of this month. 

To learn more about the The Algarabía Literacy Project, please visit www.proyectoalgarabia.org. To support the fundraiser, visit www.indiegogo.com/ProyectoAlgarabia.

Here is a video that shows the project’s vision in more depth: http://youtu.be/QMkrKsm4yQk.