🛑 Truth Watch: All Youth Are Sacred Travels Across the State

For their next event, AYAS fellows took their exhibit and focus on local and statewide youth justice data and work to Fresno, CA. Partnering with several community organizations, we were lucky to also have former Next Generation Fellowship (NGF) fellow and local Fresno artist Mathew Ponce (aka Remainder Inners) as our host for the event. 

We know that community and culture is the medicine that our young people need in their life, not systems of punishment and surveillance. Holding culture and generational healing as values was a focus for the Fresno event, with partners from the Chicano Youth Center, Brown Issues, and more supporting the entire day. We are pleased to report we hosted over 80 people for this event! From generational indigenous dancers and drummers holding space for us, to performances by local youth and AYAS fellows, the event was filled with community and people power. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this space to make it as welcoming, informative, and engaging as it was. Please see below for photos. More photos of both events can also be found on our Instagram page.

We are also very encouraged to see how community interacts with our archive material. We are still living with the consequences of California’s youth prison systems, and working on uplifting the opportunities given with the closer of the DJJ last year. For more information on the timeline of California’s youth prison system, check out our research and publications.