Now in our 6th year of collaboration with Rensselaer County Summer Youth Employment, Uptown Summer begins. Uptown Summer is a 5-week program that gives voice to North Troy’s teens. Our ten students work as Neighborhood Storytellers and Environmental Stewards. Each day, we hold a planning meeting, then spend the morning working greening our block in the Collard City Growers gardens. At lunch we eat healthy meals that feature our urban homegrown harvest, and our afternoons are spent producing original media…

This summer, youth created documentaries on abandoned buildings, which were featured in the public art project Breathing Lights.

Documentaries

“Jerry’s House,” by Kai Griffin, Bryanna Mangual, Diajah Grier, Milan Miles, and Andrew Pintro, tells the story of a family forced out of a deteriorating rental “now abandoned”, with a happy ending of owning a home.

“Safer than Yemen?” by Bryan Mangual, Rachel Lord, and Arianna Young, explores violence through the lens of a corner bodega, opened by 1920s Italian immigrants, now transferred to Yemeni owners.

“Orange and Lex,” by Shatora Buckman, Jahsendah Dann, and Ayisha Menko, shares a razed childhood neighborhood.

“Sadie’s Grandma’s House,” by Sadie Anson, recounts restoring a vacant building into a loving home.

“Abandoned Building Haikus” were also created, in collaboration with the “Breathing These Words” poetry workshop. Produced by Media Mentors Jamel Mosely, Kathy High, and Branda Miller.

About our youth employees

For many of our teens, Uptown Summer is their first workplace experience and they are confronted with adult professional expectations for the first time (arriving on time, working effectively, communicating clearly, etc.). Our youth work side-by-side with community leaders, media professionals, renowned artists, college professors, urban gardeners, nutritionists, local volunteers, and others. We work together to repair the environmental damage done to this block through years of neglect and industrial pollutants and to tell homegrown stories of hope and justice. We build confidence and broaden perspective. Our Uptown Summer participants are positive examples to their younger peers and able to invest what they learn back into their community.

This summer, Uptown Summer stories include:

• Youth Media Sanctuary “Breathing Lights” workshop
• Community PSAs (Drug Free Community Coalition)
• North Troy People’s History Museum, with StoryCandles (NEA ARTWORKS “Urban Art Reclamations: Our Upper Hudson Heritage” with Brenda Ann Kenneally)
• Public art works around environmental justice in North Troy
• Spanish in the Gardens

We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.