NY2NO

During the summer at Our School at Blair Grocery, a new group of participants and organizers come through once a week. There are 10groups that have come through this summer from New York (NY2NO) andPhiladelphia (YCCA and PUC). On the second day of each week Nat Turner or someone on the staff takes the students on a levee tour, which is basically abreak down of the issues going on in the lower ninth ward and New Orleans. The tour is a great beginning for each trip and puts things into context for the participants on why we work the urban farm and school at OSBG. Each tour can be different based off of different factors such as weather, or who gives thetours, but each have the same concept. Turner has been taking the students to a Save A Lot on the second days of a trip, which is a cheap super market, and a Whole Foods on the third days. We usually buy food from both products to compare the differences in food which was what today’s workshop was on. Qasim Davis, an OSBG staff member, led the workshop about conscious consumer choices, starting off with brainstorming three different stores that the students went on during the levee tour- Whole Foods, Save A lot, and then a small bodega called Magnolia. Much of what was said had to do with the prices of the foodsin each store, the types of foods, where the food came from and the set up ofthe store. Afterward, we did around where each participant spoke in the circle pertaining to the types of supermarkets and stores we have in our communities back home. Next, an activitywas set up where tape is placed in the floor in the shape of a cross, and each point represented a choice. One choice was Whole Foods, one point was Save ALot, one point was locally grown food and one point was the ‘price’ of your receipt. The point of the activity was to have each participant stand wherehe/she felt was the best conscious choice of purchasing food. Qasim told us togo to the spot where you felt we should consider the most. For example, one person might stand on the Whole Foods point and argue the fact that we should only shop at Whole Foods because they sell organic and healthy food. Fromthere, each person took a standpoint for where they felt.

Later, organizers came together to think about a debrief activity and we collectively thought we should do something a bit different,and more engaging. The activity we came up with started out with a 5 minutefree write where participants would write words and phrases that stuck out tothem during the levee tour. We then had two scribes in the center of thecircle, and people would begin to project the words that meant the most tothem. After, with each word and phrase in front of us, we combined the wordsinto a collaborative poem.

Here is what we came up with:

ICE COLD MEDINA: Dangerously Dope.

Security dependence opportunity for youth empowerment.

Cheers for mortal saints ain't sustainability

Lack of clean water on some 3rd world shit.

Deserted, disconnected and displaced.

The fresh bougie slave ending up in jail or dead.

Ignored Okra Revolution. I did my part five years ago.

Different experiences. DI V I D E D and Conquered.

Highclass lunch tray conspiracy failure

Disconnected education, prison pipeline, can't fight stupid.

14 foot levee, 6 feet under

...Nomoney,  low class forgotton.

Workingass backwards

Capitalism set up for failure.

So WHAT’S GOINGON?

Tell-a-lievision, systematic erosion.

Creation of the elite monoculture. A system not equal.

Red Pill or Blue?

So what are you gonna do, when facing cancer valley, enviornmental terrorism and inequality?

Take flight during the summer of fire

ORGANIZE!

‘If not now, then when? If not me, then who?’

Katrina, she's a bad chick.

left with no home to go to. houseless, but not a bum.

The french quarter opened 2 days after Katrina,… GREED!

So, who's next?

You don't work with the army you want,

Change.

You work with the army you got,

Change.

Magnolia or Whole Foods?

Solve the root of the problem, food.

New solutions to old problems, justice.

The power of empowerment to vote 3 times a day.

Accesibility, inconvenience.

Help vs. Solidarity.

...NY2NO,  

                    AHO.

- Naima Noguera