That's right, your two favorite youth-led projects, Misled Youth and the Young Eclectic Liberation Leaders are presenting a workshop this Saturday at the first ever NYC Anarchist Bookfair! The bookfair will be taking place on Sat. April 14th and Sunday April 15th at Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Square South).

Here is the description of our workshop:

Learning from the Inside Out: Collaborative and Peer-Based Education

This workshop will focus on popular education as we want to explore the curiosities, passions and skills we possess as individuals. We want to hear about the participants' experiences with self-teaching, collaborative learning, traditional or alternative schooling and the challenges or benefits they encountered. After this process of sharing, we will delve into different ways of learning from each other and how we can initiate spaces that encourages this form of egalitarian education.

This workshop will be presented by members of YELL (Young Eclectic Liberation Leaders) and the Misled Youth Network. We are two youth-led organizations focused on promoting collaboration, learning, and action amongst our peers. We believe that this presentation will give us an opportunity to help others realize these goals. The presentation will focus on enabling participants (and us) to form groups for learning and working on projects together. We plan to have a follow-up gathering soon after the book fair so we can keep our momentum going and solidify our plans together.

Set your alarm clocks, because our workshop starts at 11:15 in the morning. It will be taking place off-site at the Center for Constitutional Rights located at 666 Broadway, 7th floor. We will have some people at Judson to lead workshop participants over to our location. We'll also have a table with t-shirts, patches, flyers, buttons, and stickers at Judson Memorial Church.

For more info about the bookfair, check out their website: http://www.anarchistbookfair.net

Hope to see you there!!!

So several months ago, I decided to try and list everything i had learned since I was last attending school, as a HS senior. I wrote up what i could remember up until the present, last November at the time. Since then, I've made two more lists like that. I'm posting them here. I've also made tons of learning plans which I haven't really followed very thoroughly. I'll be blogging about all that too, and hopefully actually DOING it. i guess i have a lot to juggle. i need to work to live, and also try to advance Misled Youth on top of trying to expand my knowledge and experience. Anyway, here are the "learning evaluations" I wrote.

July 04 -- Nov 06

* July - August 04 -- traveling through Northeast

o what I learned -- gained experience hitchhiking, navigating through unfamiliar places, tried to be a good house guest, met members of the Beehive Collective, attended mass demonstrations, thought about pros and cons of these actions, decided that semi-aimless traveling didn't suit me at the time.

* August -- Nov 04 -- squatting at Casa del Sol

o what I learned -- first experience painting a mural, carved out living spaces in an abandoned building, tried to start an after school program which taught me about: race and class relationships in the south bronx, some of what is involved in arts education for children, how to assemble an art space in a squat, difficulties in outreach. I gained some experience in arts education with children by volunteering at The Point CDC twice a week. Through the eviction and arson of Casa del Sol, I learned about losing something important to me.

* Dec -- January 05 -- living at More Gardens! house
o what I learned -- more about the legal, cultural, biological, and political aspects of community gardens, the difficulty of living in a cramped communal space, internet research on behavior modification and similar programs, more serious work on our book, Teenage Lobotomy, more experience dealing with people suffering from depression and other mental illness. Also this was the time when we came up with the idea of the Misled Youth Network.

* Feb -- August 05 -- living in Staten Island

o what I learned -- in depth work on our book, collected personal stories from youth, covered subjects like mental illness, art therapy, self-education, and youth activism, started learning Photoshop, started becoming more comfortable with computers, created the info packet version of our book, developed more illustration and graphic design skills, did some figure drawing, started building the first misled youth website, got involved in planning a misled youth graphic novel, struggled with my mother's plans for me to go to college

* Sept -- Oct 05 -- Attending Hunter College

o what I learned -- I learned that I could only learn something if it made sense to me at the time, but not if it was imposed externally. When I began attending Hunter, it wasn't by my choice, so I couldn't relate to it. I was more interested in my own projects. this is not to say that none of the classes offered there were worthwhile, only that I couldn't relate them to my life at the time. Also, in September I attended a a Local JAM with the Global Youth Action Network, which opened my eyes more to the non-profit world and different opportunities.

* Nov 05 -- April 06 -- The Livewire Festival

o what I learned -- I gained experience in booking bands and performers, renting a space, facilitating meetings, dealing with a budget, fundraising, learned lessons about the interactions between people from different scenes and backgrounds, promoting an event, booking workshops, and working under a deadline. The main lesson from the festival was to not try to bring people from different communities together until you have built a strong base in those communities. I also attended a facilitation training with GYAN, and took an Urban Word workshop called New Skool Journalism.

* May -- July 06 -- Our first youth group, starting work at CREDD

o what I learned -- We met with a group of between 4 - 8 HS students 1-2x a week. I learned that it was hard to help the troubled kids because they had a lot of problems to deal with, and the really successful kids may be too busy to sustain involvement. I struggled more with facilitation and leadership issues, trying to help young people start and commit to collaborative projects, being a good example, etc. I got some more experience in silkscreening. I started working at an organization called CREDD doing Participatory Action Research. I administered surveys, learned more about research, and started working with a diverse group of youth during this time.

* August -- Nov 06 -- Rebuilding our website, working with other groups, CREDD

o what I learned -- I continued working with CREDD, facilitated a focus group, helped write a grant application, wrote for a PAR book, and started making a map of my educational experience as part of my job. We renovated our new room, so I learned to sheetrock and plaster, remove a carpet, and got more practice painting and sanding. We decided to focus on building a really interactive and extensive website, which entails a lot of work and thought. I learned more about content management systems, gleaned a peripheral understanding of coding, but mostly did a lot of thinking and writing about how to build an online learning community. Now I am thinking about pursuing self-education in an organized fashion, using the infrastructure misled youth is building, setting goals, making a plan, and culminating my learning into a project. I want to try and make all aspects of my life a learning experience.

Dec 06-Jan 07

One of the first things I did was read the book Head First with HTML and CSS. I read a chapter a day and finished it in three weeks. I understand what I read pretty well, though I still haven’t applied that knowledge in any real way. Most of the work that needs to get done on the website involved understanding Drupal and PHP more than anything else. Those things have been much harder for me to learn, though I did struggle through several chapters of a PHP book without absorbing much. Recently we decided to start promoting our site and organization event though all the fancy web features haven’t been built yet. So I guess I learned something about biting off more than I can chew.

The other thing I taught myself is Illustrator. I got a library book and got though it in a few weeks. It was part of a series called “Teach Yourself Visually”, which worked really well for me. I would like to learn InDesign next.

I finished the Self Directed Learning Handbook shortly after I started this attempt. I wrote up a 3500 word Guide to SDL based on the book. I’ve revised it quite a few times, though it probably still needs more work.

I read and took note on Wordsmithery: A Guide to Working at Writing. I thought it offered a lot of useful advice for going through the writing process.

I’m about 100 pages into The New Diary, but haven’t really tried out the exercises yet.

I also just finished Mind of My Mind by Octavia Butler, which I really enjoyed.

I wrote a number of pieces for Misled Youth, including the Community Support intro and the Get Involved intro, and co-wrote the short pieces in “about this website”.

I painted a small self-portrait for Fly that I was pretty happy with, using a photo reference.

I plan to start a garden in our backyard this spring, and have done a lot of research into growing various vegetables and herbs, improving the soil, starting seeds indoors, etc. I hope that it all works out.

I quit working at CREDD because they weren’t paying me for anything. They acted like there was something wrong with that. I learned that money and activism are a bad mix.

I needed a job and Fly suggested that I do art modeling. I practiced posing for Nick for a few days and went to a tryout at Spring Studio. Minerva gave me 4 bookings and I have an interview to work at SVA. So I’m learning a skill there. Also I started a job in an office that’s full time till the end of the month. I’m learning how to use Excel.

I’ve been exercising (mostly with weights) pretty consistently (at least two thirds of the days) this month, and I think it’s starting to make a difference.

Feb 07

ok, i don't feel like i have a whole lot of learning stuff for this month. I guess I was working a lot this month. I don't think my work was very educational. I got further dissillustioned with the mainstream "art world". I had my first experience doing paid art modeling. I'll be doing more in March.

I've been getting pretty good at working on the site and adding pages and books and stuff. I made my first pinata this month (a skull filled with candy and condoms)for a benefit party for a friend. I'd like to do more, they're a lot of fun.

I've been moving ahead on the garden, i started some seeds indoors several days ago, which have yet to sprout.

I went to a friend's art show which was really inspiring -- not only her work but all the music and poetry performances and the sense of community. I did some more thinking about how i want to learn and do art.

I stupidly cut my finger open and had to get 4 stitches. I removed them myself, am healing up fine. live and learn.

I finished reading The New Diary, but still haven't really applied it. Actually i didn't write much in my journal this month. Also i hardly exercised except for riding my bike. Probably undid a month's worth of working out like that.

I've been listening to the old british anarcho-punk bands like crass and conflict, which i sorta overlooked when i was younger. Filling in the gaps in my music knowledge.

We also had a bunch of people over last sunday and talked a lot about things for misled youth and yell. i don't know if i "learned" anything, but it was productive.

well that's all. not so impressive, i know. I hope i do better in march.

wow, you really read this far?? My life must be pretty exciting...

I've had a love/hate relationship with the words "art" and "artists" since I was a little kid. From a young age, I knew i wanted to be some kind of artists. I just really enjoyed making things. Arranging things, assembling things, giving them color and form always gave me satisfaction. I loved the way light hit certain objects, and the patterns i saw in natural and man-made forms, and tried to recreate my perceptions. I enjoyed trying to depict visions from my imagination, to make them a bit more real and communicate them with others. I drew inspiration from many kinds of artists. However, much of the "art world" that I've experienced has left me feeling alienated, confused, almost betrayed. So much of it struck me as pointless, cynical, disorienting entertainment for the rich and elite.

At the same time, as I got older, it became clear to me that being an activist and doing work to reach and empower people would be a major part of my life. I met and was influenced by a number of political artists (particularly those based on the lower east side) like Fly, Seth Tobocman, Eric Drooker, and others. I also met lots of political artists working in mediums like music, poetry, and theater. Their work and ways of working contrasted sharply with those of many artists represented by museums and mainstream galleries. The intersecting worlds of art, punk, and activism formed some semblance of an artistic community for me. However, I don't feel that I have the day-to-day feedback, inspiration, and support that I would if i was truly a part of this kind of community -- something that served as both anchor and sustenance for me.

One of the things i want to do is learn more about the history and current events of radical art in many forms. I'd like to brainstorm a list of topics, read books, research on the internet, go to events, write about this stuff, and share it with others. That will help me to find my place in one or more of these worlds, and not feel alienated, lost, or confused.