Trail Angels and Trail Magic on the Appalachian Trail

As thru-hikers backpack the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, people dedicated to assisting the hiking community volunteer their time to perform services to the hikers who need it most.

The Appalachian Trail in the fall. Nicholas T. CC BY 2.0.

Sporadically stationed along the Appalachian Trail (AT)—a hike that spans through 14 states starting in Maine and coming down through Georgia—volunteers dubbed “Trail Angels” set up to assist thru-hikers on their journey across the mountains.

The Appalachian Mountain Range has become one of the three major hiking trails in the U.S. and a welcome challenge for some of the most experienced backpackers in the country. The Appalachian Trail Conservatory (ATC) website states the trail is over 2,190 miles, and to do it in one trip “typically takes five to seven months.” Despite the challenge, thru-hikers travel in droves to attempt the AT every year, facing the physical and mental fatigue that accompanies months of full-day hikes, low calorie meals and poor sleeping and hygiene conditions. But in tests of true strength, a little help is always welcome, and the thru-hiking community shows an aptitude for providing some magic just when it’s needed most. 

A thru-hiker on his journey. @Zen. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Trail Angels are volunteers who provide free services to thru-hikers during their journey across the mountains, a fitting name for their selfless acts of kindness. Trail Angels typically provide what has been called Trail Magic. The Appalachian Trail Conservatory explains Trail Magic as “finding what you need most when you least expect it,” emulating why the work Trail Angels do is so special; it is an unexpected surprise in an environment where everyday is so monotonous - hiking, eating, camping and repeating the process for days on end. Further, in stretches of the Appalachian Trail where the terrain is most daunting, Trail Magic can make a world of difference to thru-hikers contemplating quitting or even more severely, thru-hikers in desperate, life-or-death need of food, water, or shelter.

The services Trail Angels provide generally reside within three realms: food services, ride and supply services, and general care. The ATC explains the phenomena of “hiker feeds”, which is when Angels set up a station along the trail or near trailheads and provide hot meals, beverages, fruit and more to help feed any ravenous backpackers. Additionally, Trail Angels will provide ride services into town for any much needed supplies, including food, propane tanks used for portable stoves and hygiene products. As well as providing Magic on the Trail, Angels occasionally facilitate off-trail services, allowing hikers to spend the night in their personal homes so they can get much needed sleep and hygienic care.

Trail Angel leaving some Magic. @Cyclotourist. CC BY-NC 2.0.

Chatrooms, Facebook groups and Twitter accounts have all been made to connect Trail Angels with thru-hikers in need. Although Trail Magic is typically an unexpected surprise, hikers can occasionally request help during their hike from those willing to give it. The Trail Angel List is a collective organization that specializes in connecting hikers with those wishing to help them. In their online forum, folks can be seen offering their services to the thru-hiking community. 

Most Trail Angels have personal connections, linking their service on the AT with experiences they or a family member has had while backpacking. On the forum, folks like Stan Mordensky write, “I became a Trail Angel well before the summer of 2013 when my son was a thru-hiker on the AT,” following up his post by saying he teaches high-adventure skills and drives around the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border area to help thru-hikers in need. Another thru-hiker, Megan Lynne, states “I have been an avid high-altitude climber…and would like to help with rides, meals…lodging, laundry, showers,” connecting her own past with hiking to her reasons for service to the AT community.

Alongside the veteran-hikers-turned-Trail-Angels, there are also numerous people on forums such as The Trail Angels List that do this work for no plausible reason at all. Maybe they enjoy volunteering in a community so thankful for any help they are given or they like inspiring hikers to continue on with their journey. Maybe they enjoy listening to the stories of the people they meet along the way. Regardless of the reason, no matter the motivation, it is undeniable that Trail Angels are at the heart of the thru-hiking community and demonstrate the power of selfless, genuine community service.

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Ava Mamary

Ava is an undergraduate student at the University of Illinois, double majoring in English and Communications. At school, she web writes about music for a student-run radio station. She is also an avid backpacker, which is where her passion for travel and the outdoors comes from. She is very passionate about social justice issues, specifically those involving women’s rights, and is excited to write content about social action across the globe.

Meet the Activist and Intersectional Storyteller Developing Data-Driven Humanitarian Tools

Melissa Jun Rowley is a journalist, entrepreneur and activist focused on the intersection of storytelling, technology and social justice.

As the founder and CEO of Humanise, Inc., Melissa Jun Rowley is developing TheToolbox.org, a data-driven humanitarian initiative created by acclaimed musician Peter Gabriel. CATALYST had the chance to catch up with Melissa to learn more about Humanise in Detroit and Melissa’s path to social entrepreneurship.

How did your experience with TheToolbox.org inspire you to develop Humanise, Inc.?

TheToolbox.org is an online destination, founded by Peter Gabriel, that connects people to apps that can help them improve their lives and become everyday activists. I first became involved as an editorial consultant, and was developing stories while curating tools that promote social impact.

For example, there’s an app you can scan over a product’s barcode to see if human trafficking was involved in the product chain. While apps like these are interesting and useful, they’re under-utilized given their lack of commercial and entertainment value. 

We came to the conclusion that the site itself is a valuable database of tools, but in order to have an impact, we need to go into the field and get people on the ground using the tools, and providing feedback about how they can be improved. That’s where Humanise comes in: It was created to function as the parent company of TheToolbox.org. The tools we curate are now one of three pillars. We’ve evolved into an organization that promotes human rights through technology, storytelling, AND collaboration with local communities.

Can you describe some of the projects that Humanise has initiated since its founding?

We decided to take Humanise to Detroit, primarily because there’s a lot of data-driven development unfolding in the city. Also, I grew up an hour outside of the D and am in love with the entrepreneurial community there. They’re so spirited. They’re the genuine article. 

While money is being directed to development in certain districts, such as downtown, the neighborhoods on the outskirts are tragically deprived of funding and resources. Forty percent of the people in Detroit don’t have Internet access, and 40 percent can’t pay their water bills. It’s a first world city crawling with third world problems! 

In the year 2015, there are no excuses for letting people in our own backyard suffer like this. We need to meet them where they are, not where we think they should be, and we need to collectively solve the problems from the ground up — not the top down. 

So we started thinking of ways we can work with technology providers to foster digital inclusion. We’ve been working closely with community activists in the Detroit neighborhood of Morningside to understand the neighborhood’s needs and aspirations. We’ve connected them with a smart city advisory to see if the area is eligible for some pretty revolutionary technology. Some of the Detroiters we know are going to use TheToolbox.org as their own citizen journalism platform, where they can publish stories about their neighborhood and discuss the tools they find the most empowering. 

If we’re able to provide connectivity for this neighborhood, we may be able to do the same thing in some of Detroit’s other hardest hits zones. 

Before developing Humanise, Inc., you spent much of your career as a journalist. How did working in journalism influence your interest in social entrepreneurship? 

Being a journalist is the way I became an entrepreneur, really. I worked in TV when I was younger, producing business news updates for CNN and then covering entertainment in Hollywood. The red carpet was my second home.  But eventually, I started to feel like I was losing my soul. I became a journalist because I wanted to help connect people through storytelling — not perpetuate the dumbing down of the country, which is what I felt like I was doing half the time, particularly when I was asked to start quoting TMZ in stories. I knew that was the end. 

I left Los Angeles, and I started focusing on nonprofits and social responsibility movements. I quickly discovered that I couldn’t make any money that way. Two years later, I began developing content for companies that have a social mission. This was when I started to view myself as more of an entrepreneur. But I’m always going to be a journalist at heart, always looking for the truth and humanity in every story. 

Do you have any advice for future journalists or entrepreneurs? 

These days, if you’re going to be a journalist, you have to be an entrepreneur. By that I mean, you need to think like an entrepreneur. You need to be constantly thinking of different strategies, who you can connect with, and how you can build your brand and business. It was this mindset that led me to TheToolbox.org and Peter Gabriel. 

A second piece of advice is that the best way to develop an idea is to collaborate and find some common core or level of connectivity in the heart of why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s only through that kind of commitment that you can build a business that has meaning. It’s not easy. But the people you meet along the way will change your life and expand your heart and mind in ways you’ve never dreamed of. I can promise you that. 

LEARN MORE ABOUT HUMANISE, INC. HERE.

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Sarah Sutphin

Sarah is an undergraduate at Yale University and a content editor for CATALYST. As a traveler who has visited 30 countries (and counting!), she feels passionate about international development through sustainable mechanisms. Sarah has taken an interest in the intersection between public health and theater, and hopes to create a program that utilizes these disciplines for community empowerment. She is a fluent Spanish speaker with plans to take residence in Latin American after graduation. 

Defunding the Police: What it Means and How it Works

Amid protests against racism and police brutality, Minneapolis has pledged to dismantle its police department and restructure its system of public safety. To further promote reform in the city of George Floyd’s murder, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey announced, “We need a new compact with police, one that centers around compassion and accountability, one that recognizes that the way things have been done for decades and decades is not acceptable. We need change." 

Cities across the United States have joined this movement to defund and downsize their police forces. Police departments currently oversee an array of services, including monitoring the homeless, resolving domestic disputes, receiving mental health calls, disciplining students, and addressing minor complaints like a counterfeit $20 bill, the accusation that led to George Floyd’s death. Many activists urge funds to be reallocated towards neglected social services, such as mental health, education and housing. By assisting underprivileged and overpoliced neighborhoods, these programs would alleviate the underlying causes of crime. Thus, defunding the police means a “divest and invest model: divesting money from local and state police budgets and reinvesting it into communities.” 

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 14 million students attend schools with police officers but no counselors, nurses, psychologists or social workers. With few behavioral resources, teachers and principals turn to law enforcement to discipline children. This results in an increased criminalization of minors, especially marginalized students of color. Black students are three times as likely to be arrested as their white counterparts, and black students with disabilities account for 12% of school arrests. The ACLU also found that roughly 25% of school police had no prior experience working with youth. Police are trained to arrest and detain, not to oversee the social and emotional well-being of minors. Schools with health and youth professionals see improved attendance, lower rates of disciplinary incidents and higher rates of graduation. 

Rather than funding police officers, Chicago Public Schools hires counselors from Alternatives, a multicultural youth development organization. Alternatives operates as a support system for more than 3,000 students in Chicago. Counselors promote “restorative justice,” teaching students leadership, responsibility, community-building and respect. Last year, in schools with Alternatives, reports of misconduct dropped by 31% and out-of-school suspensions dropped by 50%, showing that police may not be necessary in schools. 

A protester in Minneapolis holds a sign that explains defunding police. Featous. CC BY 2.0

Criminalization of drugs also drives violent encounters between police and citizens, like the tragic shooting of Breonna Taylor. Since the “War on Drugs” began in the 1970s, police have targeted black neighborhoods, implementing stop-and-frisk protocols to subject thousands of “suspicious” minorities to searches. Higher arrest and incarceration rates in these communities reflect oversurveillance, not increased drug use. In the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, about 17 million white people and 4 million black people reported using an illicit drug within the last month. However, black Americans are six times more likely to be incarcerated for drugs than whites. Prosecutors are also twice as likely to issue a mandatory minimum sentence for black people than for white people charged with the same offense. Those selling small amounts of drugs to support their addiction may face decades of jail time. Since prisons rarely offer addiction treatment, released convicts often endure a cycle of drug abuse and arrests. 

Oregon is at the forefront of decriminalizing drugs. In November, voters will review Initiative Petition 44, a measure to reduce possession of illegal drugs to a $100 citation. This citation could be waived if the person agrees to a health assessment at a drug recovery center. Drug trafficking and possession of large quantities of drugs would still result in criminal penalties. The initiative also includes $57 million a year for funding drug treatment programs. “We are trying to move policy towards treatment rather than prison beds,” former state senator Jackie Winters told the Washington Post in 2017 ahead of a similar bill. “We can't continue on the path of building more prisons when often the underlying root cause of the crime is substance use.”   

George Floyd protest in Miami. Mike Shaheen. CC BY 2.0

Every year, two million Americans with mental illnesses will be jailed. People living with mental illnesses are also 16 times more likely to die as a result of a police encounter compared to the general public. In 2017, one in four killed by police suffered from mental illness. These statistics prove that people experiencing a mental health crisis are more likely to encounter police than medical professionals. Although officers may receive crisis intervention training, police continually shoot and kill schizophrenic and mentally disabled people. 

To prevent these senseless killings, cities have diverted funding to mental health programs. Austin, Texas, recently revamped its public safety department by adding millions of dollars to its mental health budget. Now, 911 operators inquire whether the caller needs police, fire or mental health services. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) refers to a group of law enforcement officers specifically trained in mental health crises. CIT diverts patients from the criminal justice system, instead connecting them with mental health services. Eugene, Oregon, also launched a service called CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets) which deploys a medic and a mental health crisis worker to emergency calls. CAHOOTS avoids the need for law enforcement by providing immediate stabilization to urgent medical and psychological needs. 

While defunding the police may seem inconceivable, programs and initiatives across the country are already similarly preventing crime. By reducing the reliance on police, community-driven solutions can de-escalate situations that result in arrests and police violence. Globally, the U.S. has the highest rate of police brutality and the largest prison population, with black people constituting 34% of the total 6.8 million inmates. One in 13 black Americans are now denied the right to vote due to laws that disenfranchise people with felony convictions. To afford such mass incarceration, the U.S. spends an estimated $100 billion on their police forces annually and $80 billion on incarceration. Yet, social services remain underfunded. It’s evident that people of color experience discrimination at every stage of the criminal justice system. With police brutality and incarceration on the rise, activists urge the United States government to finally reimagine policing in America.

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Shannon Moran

Shannon is a Journalism major at the University of Georgia, minoring in English and Spanish. As a fluent Spanish speaker, she is passionate about languages, cultural immersion, and human rights activism. She has visited seven countries and thirty states and hopes to continue traveling the world in pursuit of compelling stories.

This School on a Bus Is Bringing Education to Everyone

Shelia Hill grew up in San Francisco’s Sunnydale Projects. It was a rough neighborhood. She got into trouble when she was young and dropped out of school. She thought it wasn’t for her. Hill’s attitude changed after she had her own children. One day, her son asked why he should bother going to school since she didn’t. It was a lightbulb moment. Hill realized that she had to do better for herself and her family. She learned how to read and got her high school diploma through Five Keys, an organization that gives members of underserved communities a chance to restart their education. Today, Hill works for Five Keys as community ambassador. She goes out into neighborhoods considered education deserts on the Five Keys bus and encourages residents to board the mobile classroom where they can study with a teacher and earn their GEDs. Hill doesn’t want anyone to feel ashamed for not finishing school. So she always makes sure to share her own story, letting people know there was a time when she couldn’t read. And she’s big on follow-up with potential students. “I’ll call them. I’ll bug them. I’ll text them. I’ll email ’em. Whatever it takes,” she says. “I just want you to get your education. That’s it.”

USA: One Stitch Closer with Veronika Scott

Get inspired by Veronika, CEO and founder of The Empowerment Plan, who empowers women to become more independent. #WomenInspire http://www.gap.com/onestitchcloser

Get inspired by Veronika Scott, the 24-year-old founder and CEO of The Empowerment Plan, a non-profit that empowers women to be live the lives they want to lead. 

UGANDA: Kids from This Slum Are Dancing Their Way Out of Poverty

Sitya loss Eddy Kenzo Leka Nzine Ghetto Kids Dancing Sitya Loss New Ugandan music 2014 DjDinTV

There are several aspects of human life I strongly believe unite the world. You don’t need to speak the same language or share the same background to connect on any of these and that’s awesome!

What are they?

Food, science, math, sports, and the most fun… music and dancing. Which is partly why this video is so inspiring and went viral with over 14 million views last year.

Yes, these kids should clearly be onstage with Beyoncé for their incredible dance moves. But that’s not the only reason this video is fantastic.

The kids dancing in this video are known as the Ghetto Kids. They are from the slums in Kampala, Uganda, and thanks to their math teacher Dauda Kavuma they train almost daily to improve their dance techniques and the quality of lives for their families.

The Ghetto Kids dance video has allowed some of the children in this video to afford school supplies, stay in school, and even provide better homes for their families.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much to improve the lives of those living in poverty. In this case— a great teacher and people like you willing to share how incredible these kids truly are can make a huge difference.

Update: The Ghetto Kids are now working on creating high production videos, continuing to dance and perform and most importantly continuing their education, according to BBC. I hope to see these kids onstage with Beyoncé at the next Global Citizen Festival (if it’s okay with their math teacher and parents first).

You can go to TAKE ACTION NOW and help kids get the education they need and deserve.

MEGHAN WERFT

@MWerft26

Meghan is a Digital Content Creator at Global Citizen. After studying International Political Economy at the University of Puget Sound she moved to New York. Originally from California she brings her love of yoga, kayaking and burritos to the big city. She is a firm believer that education and awareness on global issues has the power to create a more sustainable, equal world where poverty does not exist.

Billions in Change Solution: Free Electric Overview

Access to electrical power is the first step toward economic advancement for billions of people living in poverty. Free Electric can light their homes and shops, make food storage possible, and usher them into the 21st century. #BillionsinChange Join us & learn more at: www.BillionsInChange.com Let's chat: https://www.facebook.com/billionsinch... https://twitter.com/billionsnchange https://instagram.com/billionsinchange

Access to electric power is the first step toward economic advancement for billions of people in poverty. Free Electric can light their homes and shops, make food storage possible, and usher them into the 21st century. 

8 People Who Broke the Law to Change the World

1. Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is, hands down, one of the most important and celebrated figures of our lifetime.

Mandela represents equality, fairness, democracy and freedom in an often unequal, unfair and undemocratic world. But he wasn’t always seen like this…

Twenty-five years ago he was getting his first taste of freedom after being imprisoned for 27 years. Yes, you read that right. For what? What could he have done to get such a long sentence? Well, he stood up for what he believed. In 1942 he joined the African National Congress and fought against apartheid in South Africa, and was imprisoned for sabotage.

Without Nelson Mandela’s commitment to the abolition of apartheid in the face of oppression and imprisonment, the world could be a very different place. It is because of Mandela, and others like him, many more people live a free and fair life. 

To honor his bravery and determination, we take a look at 7 other brave and committed people who have been prosecuted or persecuted for standing up for what they believe in:

2. Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi has become an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.

Now the Burmese opposition politician and chairperson of the National League for Democracy in Burma, she spent 15 years under house arrest for advocating for democracy.

Suu Kyi, who was heavily influenced by Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent protest,  helped to found the National League for Democracy. Because of her campaign for democracy in military-ruled Myanmar (Burma), she was detained and kept imprisoned by the government, as it viewed her as someone “likely to undermine the community peace and stability” of the country.

She was offered freedom if she left the country, but she refused to let her party down and stayed in Mynanmar.

In one of her most famous speeches, she said: “It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”

3. Liu Xiaobo

Liu Xiaobo is a Chinese writer, professor, and human rights activist who called for political reforms and the end of communist single-party rule. He is a political prisoner.

Liu was detained in 2008 because of his work with the Charter 08 manifesto, which called for an independent legal system, freedom of association and the end of one-party rule.

He was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power”. He was sentenced to eleven years’ in jail and two years’ deprivation of political rights.

During his fourth prison term, he was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.”

He is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China and is the third person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany’s Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Aung San Suu Kyi (1991).

4. Mahatma Gandhi

India’s great independence leader first went to prison in 1922 for civil disobedience and sedition after a protest march turned violent, and resulted in the deaths of 22 people. The incident deeply affected Gandhi, who called it a “divine warning’.

He was released from prison after serving 5 years of his 6 year sentence, and went on to become the most famous advocate of peaceful protest and campaigning in the world.

Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km Dandi Salt March in 1930, for which he was imprisoned for a year without trial, and later lead the Quit India Movement, calling for Britain’s withdrawal.  He was arrested many times but never gave up. An advocate until the end, Gandhi sadly paid for his beliefs with his life when he was assassinated by a militant nationalist in 1948.

5. Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King had a seismic impact on race relations in the United States, as the face of the Civil-Rights movement in the 1950’s.

Through his activism, he played a pivotal role in ending the legal segregation of African-American citizens, as well as the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among several other honors.

King was arrested 5 times, and wrote his second most influential speech whilst in prison in 1963 for protesting against the treatment of the black community in Birmingham, Alabama. Letter From Birmingham Jail, which was written on the margins of a newspaper and smuggled out of the prison, defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism, arguing that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws.

Tragically, in 1968 he was assassinated in his hotel at the age of just 39.

6. Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was an African-American Civil Rights activist who became famous when she stood up for what she believed – by sitting down. On the evening of December 1, 1955, Parks was sat on a bus in Alabama, heading home after a long day of work.

During her journey she was asked by a conductor to give up her seat to a white passenger, but she refused, and she was arrested for disobeying an Alabama law requiring black people to relinquish seats to white people when the bus was full. Her arrest sparked a 381-day boycott of the Montgomery bus system. It also led to a 1956 Supreme Court decision banning segregation on public transportation.

7. Susan Brownell Anthony

Or Susan B as some gender studies students know her as, was an American social reformer and feminist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement.

Actively involved in social justice from a young age, Anthony and friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, founded the Women’s Loyal National League, which conducted the largest petition drive in the nation’s history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery.

In 1866, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans, and in 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and convicted in a widely publicised trial. Although she refused to pay the fine, the authorities declined to take further action. In 1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. Popularly known as the Anthony Amendment, it became the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920!

8. Roxana Saberi

Roxana Saberi is an American journalist who was arrested in Iran and detained for 100 days after being falsely accused of espionage. She had been living in Iran for six years, doing research for a book that she hoped would show a more complete and balanced picture of Iranian society. Under pressure and being threatened with a 10-20 year sentence or even execution, Roxana falsely confessed to being a spy. She quickly realized this was a mistake and recanted her confession – knowing this would jeopardize her freedom. Instead of freeing her, her case was sent to trial, sentencing her in eight years of prison.

 “I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free.”

After her trial, she began her hunger strike – only drinking water with sugar. After two weeks, Roxana’s attorney appealed her conviction. She was released from prison after an appeals court cut her jail term to a two-year suspended sentence.

 “I learned that maybe other people can hurt my body, maybe they could imprison me, but I did not need to fear those who hurt my body, because they could not hurt my soul, unless I let them.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON ONE.ORG 

CLEA GUY-ALLEN

@PerfectlyClea

Clea hails from Brighton, United Kingdom and was the UK Global Citizen Editor. Now she works as the digital coordinator for ONE, a campaigning and advocacy organization to end extreme poverty and preventable disease. 

MEXICO: The Enormous Mural That Made This Neighborhood 'Magical'

In the center of a small neighborhood located in the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo, the largest graffiti mural in all of Mexico, painted onto a canvas of 200 homes, was inaugurated this July. But the “macro mural” has done much more than simply give some color to the hillside district of Las Palmitas, a predominantly rural neighborhood with a certain degree of poverty and crime.

The collective effort has created jobs, reduced youth violence and instilled a sense of community spirit, turning Las Palmitas into what the project leaders have dubbed the “first magical neighborhood” — a play on the Mexican government’s separate initiative to promote “magical towns” (Pueblos Mágicos) as tourism destinations.

Leading the project was the independent Mexican collective the Germen Crew (Seed Crew), composed of urban artists specializing in graffiti art, mural painting and audiovisual documentary. A group which, through public and street art, aims to give new meaning to public spaces and restore social fabric for the benefit of communities. Their Facebook page reads as follows:

“Our work is an artistic offering for our cities. It is through colors, forms, textures, and mixed media that we share our way of making and understanding art. We seek to detonate the seed of possibility by strengthening the hearts and enthusiasm of those who live in the places we step into. We want to give new purpose to public spaces, making them more useful for their inhabitants, places that educate, motivate, and help to support and sprout new relationships with the surrounding citizens and the expressions that converge there.”

Beyond the collaboration of the local and federal government, which facilitated the materials needed, the project was fueled in large part by the active participation of the 452 families that live in Las Palmitas (about 1,808 people). The residents were consulted throughout the three months that the project lasted, and they also took part in various cultural activities that were held at the same time: workshops, lectures, and tours, all with the objective of reducing juvenile delinquency.

'So much harmony and coexistence'

taller dentro de las actividades con las personas de la colonia palmitas

In the above video documenting a workshop on lantern balloons, Las Palmitas residents remarked that the artistic activities were having a positive impact on the neighborhood:

“For us it is a festive day in our district, because we are experiencing things we had never experienced before.”

“I see so much harmony and coexistence, above all in our families. I believe that with these events my neighborhood will improve greatly and I don’t think there will be so much delinquency.”

In an interview with ideas magazine Planisferio, the Seed Crew explained that what makes their approach innovative is their focus on painting not institutional spaces, but rather public plazas, markets, and even marginalized areas with significant crime rates. At the same time, they said, their success is the fruit of their collective efforts and group dynamics.

'The first magical neighborhood of Mexico'

The statement “Color is magic” opens a brief video that documents the transformation of Las Palmitas to a vibrant, colorful community.

Bario de Palmitas en Pachuca, Hidalgo. El Macromural mas Grande de México por Germen Nuevo Muralismo. http://amorfo.com.mx/nodo/intervencion-en-palmitas/

With more than 13 years in existence, the Crew has undertaken projects in the Jamaican Market of Mexico City; in the esplanade of the new towns in Ecatepec in Mexico; and in Miravalle, Guadalajara, among many others. Now, they have achieved their aim of transforming Las Palmitas into what they call the “first magical neighborhood of Mexico,” and everything seems to indicate that there is still more to come.

More information about the work of Seed Crew can be found on their pages on Facebook and Instagram, and on their channel on YouTube.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON GLOBALVOICES 

GIOVANNA SALAZAR

@Giovanna_Sal

Although Giovanna is originally from Mexico City, she currently resides in Amsterdam as she works toward a masters in the study of new medias and digital culture. Her professional endeavors have always been motivated by a commitment to human rights, and hopes to combine knowledge about communication media with community activism and engagement.  

USA: Skateboarding with Lakota Youth

‘Skateboarding In Pine Ridge’ chronicles a skatepark build and the life of the Lakota youth in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. After watching it, we hope you are moved by the incredible work of the Stronghold Society - an organization dedicated to empowering youth through skateboarding, art and music. #skateboardingsaveslives www.levi.com/skateboarding Directed by Greg Hunt Original Score by David Pajo Additional Track by Cat Power Special thanks to Imprint Projects http://strongholdsociety.org

'Skateboarding in Pine Ridge' chronicles a skatepark build and the lives of Lakota youth in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The director hopes to put a spotlight the hard work of the Stronghold Society, an organization dedicated to empowering youth through skateboarding, art, and music.

LEARN MORE HERE

LEBANON: Spotlight on Yazan Halwani, Beirut's Street Artist

“To Beirut,
From my heart, I send peace to Beirut,
And kisses to the sea and homes,
To the Rock that is as the face of an old sailor.
She comes from the soul of the people, from wine,
She comes from their sweat, from jasmine.
Then how did her taste change to smoke and fire?”

So reads the translated lyrics of Fairuz's most famous song, “Li Beirut” (To Beirut). Today, the song is often cited as a symbol of Lebanon's history, full of sadness and suffering. But Fairuz also sings of Beirut and its people as being one -“You are mine, you are mine. Ah, hug me”- both in suffering and in hope.

In that spirit, Yazan Halwani is taking back the streets to make them more ‘Beiruti’. His weapon? Art. We sat down with this young Lebanese graffiti artist to see what makes him tick.

Yazan Halwani in front of the yet-unfinished Fairuz mural in Gemmayze. Source: Facebook.

Can you please introduce yourself?

My name is Yazan Halwani and I am a street artist and calligrapher from Beirut, Lebanon. I have been street painting for around seven years now, mainly in Beirut, the city that inspired it all, but also in Tunisia, Singapore, Dubai, France.

Can you describe your work?

My current work is a style I have developed myself over the past years. It combines Arabic calligraphy, oriental geometry and patterning and portraiture. I think that my work is also not only about mural painting but more about the relation of the wall to the people and the city it surrounds. For example the Feyrouz mural has become somewhat of a landmark for the people living around it. The owner of the several buildings around it called it:”The most photographed wall in the city”. One time when someone scribbled on the Fairuz mural, someone living next to the mural called me, without knowing who he is, and asked me if I could fix the mural.

Yazan's image of what the Lebanese 100,000 LL bill would look like with Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American poet and author of “The Prophet”. “Apparently someone suggested this currency design to the head of the Central Lebanese Bank, from what I heard it was as quickly dismissed because of complications that might arise from adding Gibran to the note,” Yazan said. Photo by Yazan Halwani.

What inspired you to do what you do?

I have developed over the years. I have started my work as a graffiti artist being inspired by the graffiti scene in Europe and the US, where graffiti artists write their name in flashy and colorful ways. After a few years of doing that, I started questioning the relationship the relation of my work within a city in the Middle-East: at the time, it was somewhat alien from its surroundings, I realized that writing my name was not really different than what political parties have been doing around the city. I needed to change direction.

One day, I stumbled across a book of the five main calligraphy scripts (Diwani, Koufi, Thuluth, Naqsh, etc.) and decided to change my style: instead of doing my “alias”, I would paint words, letters, images that fit much better within the city, the culture and the context. At this stage I thought that a good mural is one that talks to the citizens surrounding it: it becomes part of the city and it becomes theirs, not the artist's.

Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in Hamra, Beirut. This mural was vandalized and Yazan decided to repaint it in Tunisia, where Darwish spent a part of his life. On Darwish, he said: “I personally love Darwish for his stance on the conflict in Palestine as well as his poetry. The first time I painted him was near the Hamra street, in a street he probably walked in back when he was in Beirut. Unfortunately someone chose to throw paint on his face. Instead of repainting it in the same spot, I choose to repaint it away from any vandal. I took Darwish to the streets of Tunisia, a country that has also welcomed him. I used a poem from Darwish that says “How can we be cured from the love for Tunisia” for my calligraphy.”

This is why each mural tries to have a story that relates to the people living around it: Ali Abdallah‘s mural is a reminder of a homeless man who died from the cold and it tries to make people help or remember their social responsibilities.

Mural of Ali Abdallah, a homeless man who lived in the Hamra neighborhood. He died from the cold. Photo by Yazan Halwani.

Indeed, Yazan doesn't just paint famous people. The story of Ali Abdallah is a particularly striking one. In Yazan's words:

Some people told me that I “paint famous people”, this is not true. I paint faces that tell stories, and are part of our culture. One of my favorite murals is the one of “Ali Abdallah”, a homeless man living on Bliss street.

Ali's existence was surrounded by urban legends about how he became homeless. Some of them say he was a physics teacher that had a scaring experience during the Civil War. The one thing everyone agreed on was their love for Ali.

Despite that, on one of the coldest winter nights, Ali passed away. This tragedy triggered several short-lived initiatives to try to help the homeless in Beirut. After a few months everybody seemed to have forgotten about Ali's story. This is why I painted the mural to remind people of his friendly face, and also to remind people on an everyday basis of these short-lived initiatives.

Mural of Asmahan, the popular Syrian-Egyptian singer, actress and popular icon. Seen in Achrafieh, Beirut. Photo by Yazan Halwani.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON GLOBAL VOICES 

Joey Ayoub

@JoeyAyoub 

Joey is a Lebanese blogger, wanderluster and writer. You can check out his blog here.

The Peace Corps in Rwanda, Part 2

A Peace Corps Christmas in Rwanda

In my last update, I talked a bit about the path that led me to the Peace Corps and the basics of the three-month training program that was my day-to-day life. For a while, most of that remained unchanged. After returning from visiting my final site outside Nyungwe National Park, I was back to the grind of daily Kinyarwanda lessons; classroom management sessions, and any other miscellaneous bit of training that the Peace Corps deemed necessary for its education volunteers.

I mentioned in my first post how the community-based training program, while undeniably effective when it comes to integration and language acquisition, can quickly leave you desperate for just a small taste of the familiar. As soon as we had the chance, we all embraced that ideal wholeheartedly with the help of surprise birthday parties, pumpkin carving for Halloween, a massive collaborative Thanksgiving dinner, and most recently coming back together for Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

Admittedly, some of the days have felt long and drawn out, but it’s amazing how fast the weeks have flown by. As I write this, my training has finished and I have been officially sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. After three months of training as a group, we are now scattered around the country in the communities that we will be working in for the next two years. The whole transition is a somewhat bittersweet. While I’m experiencing a freedom that I haven’t had for what seems like an eternity, it also means separating myself from the people, both in my host family and training group, that I’ve grown close to over the past months. In addition, as an education volunteer, I was installed on site during the holiday break. This meant that for a while there was little for me to do but hang out in the school offices or walk around and introduce myself (a bit of a challenge since most of the people in the community assume, at first glance, that I’m the same volunteer that has been working here the past two years).

On top of the conflicts that come from simultaneous feelings of freedom, boredom, and missing friends, I’ve been finding that my site is in an unusual limbo of classic Peace Corps life and unexpected luxury. I can start my day with a bucket bath and hand washing a load of laundry, followed by browsing the web in my school’s modern offices. I can then head up a partially eroded hillside staircase past a couple troops of baboons and struggle to light a charcoal stove in order to cook dinner. I can lounge in my tile-floored house and watch a movie, only to be woken up in the middle of night to chase mice out of the room.

To be clear, none of these are meant as complaints; just the opposite. I was all set to be handling all these things and more, but my assignment here is most definitely not what I was expecting from the Peace Corps (in the best possible way). Just walking around the campus is an experience in itself, with forested hills stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see. 

I cannot wait to get started with my work here, although that still seems to be a long way off. While the semester for the rest of my colleagues started last week, I’m here to teach at a school for conservation and environmental management that has the students completing internships around the country for their first month. As a result, I’ve got a nice, long, and quite possibly cabin fever-inducing chunk of time off before I can begin teaching in February.

Thankfully, I’ve been able to stave off boredom by traveling for the holidays, visiting friends and getting to see a bit more of Rwanda in the process. The festivities made it a little more like home with the help of cheap Christmas decorations bought in the capital, a tiny plastic tree, and a can or two of white foam marketed as ‘fake snow’ (a surprisingly good substitute for a white Christmas, once you get past the lingering soap smell in the air). But now the holidays have come and gone and everyone is getting to work for the New Year, so it’s back to site for me. With any luck I’ll be able to find some projects to pass the time and supply me with some good stories moving forward.

READ SCOTT'S FIRST UPDATE ON THE PEACE CORPS IN RWANDA.

SCOTT JENKINS

Scott Jenkins grew up in Ridgewood, NJ and graduated from NYU in 2012 with a degree in Anthropology and Linguistics. His passion for travel, adventure, and helping others led him to apply to the Peace Corps in September of 2012. He was invited to teach in Rwanda, where he is currently serving for the next two years.