In a love letter to the Bay Area, two teenage artists spend a day in creative and community fellowship.

HELPFUL CONCEPTS:

gentrification – The socioeconomic process whereby people who are of a higher income level, education-level, and/or racial make-up move into lower-income neighborhoods and cause increased rents and prices, changes to community character and culture, and the departure of many long-term residents, many of whom are people of color

intersectionality – a term coined by scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw that highlights the overlap between forms of oppression based on multiple identities (e.g., race and gender)

FILM PARTICIPANTS:

Leila Mottley and Ajai Kasim – two Oakland teenagers who share a love of writing and music and spend their time exploring their city and creating art together

NOTE TO TEACHERS:

This assignment invites students to explore their own identities and creative forms of expression. Writing in this way can be an intimate exercise in vulnerability, so it is important that you have established a safe, non-judgmental, and respectful learning environment. Remind students that writing and being creative is sometimes a risky task and that they should be encouraging and supportive of one another.

FRAMING QUESTIONS (10 min.)
Select questions that are most relevant to your learning community

1. In what way can social factors shape a person’s identity?
2. In what ways can cultural factors shape a person’s identity?
3. Is identity something that you decide for yourself or someone decides for you? Can it be both?
4. How are identities informed by communities and the places people call home (or an experience a person has with “home”)?
5. In what ways can communities have identities?
6. What are some creative ways people can explore and express their identities?
7. Can art help us discover the dynamic aspects of identity? In what ways?

SCREEN FILM (15 min.)

You can find When I Write It here.

As students watch the short film, ask them to take notes about how Ajai and Leila talk about themselves, their community, their families, and their own identities.

REFLECTION (30 min.)

In small groups, or as a whole class, explore the following questions:

1. What does Leila mean when she refers to herself and Ajai as “the last generation of Oakland kids who are gonna remember what it was like”? Which communities does gentrification disproportionately affect? How does the gentrification impact feelings of belonging?
2. How can artistic expression open up conversations around race, class, identity and broader social issues? How can art—in the words of Leila and Ajai—hold, share, save, preserve, and mourn culture? In what ways does it represent the overlap between the personal and political?
3. What is vulnerability? In what ways is it important to be vulnerable? Is vulnerability political?
   1. Conversely, is vulnerability ever a burden? Are certain groups of individuals, based on their intersecting identities, asked to shoulder the burden of vulnerability more than others? If so, for what purpose and for whom?
4. What is healing work? How can healing work take shape? Does healing work happen alone? How can healing work operate at the level of individuals, relationships, and communities?
5. How do aspects such as race, class, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, sexuality, religion, and heritage shape Ajai and Leila’s identities? How do these aspects of identity intersect with the city they live in and their relationships to it?

Writing Exercise

NOTE: This activity invites you to research local artists ahead of the lesson. If your students are having trouble discovering local artists, it would be helpful if you have a list of people they can choose from.

Assign students to research and select a local writer, author, poet, and/or artist whose works they admire. Have them do the following take-home activity:

• Write a brief description of the artist. Mention the elements (tone, language, form, voice, poetics) that drew you to the artist’s work and which of those elements stuck with you the most. Reflect on why this artist’s work and style were relatable to you. Did the connection between you and the artist have anything to do with shared identities or experiences? Describe those in detail.
• After writing the description, take a short break. Then, return to what you have written. Turn on some music that helps you relax, and select one of the following prompts to creatively respond to for 20 minutes (set a timer and keep your pen to the page, or your fingers on the keyboard for the entire time).
  
  Prompts:
  • Where I come from...
  • Why I write it...
  • When I write it…

There is no particular form in which you should write. Let whatever thoughts you have, whatever words, sentiments, feelings, take whatever shape they require. This means you could write a poem, a story, a journal or diary entry, call-and-response, spoken-word, or a description of a scene. Most importantly, give yourself permission and room to find out what you discover about your own creative voice by drawing on your source of inspiration.

Optional Follow-Up Activity: Have students share their description of the work with the class or in small groups.

Lesson Plan Producer, POV

Courtney Cook, Education Manager

Chrissy Greismer, POV Education Assistant

This resource was created, in part, with the generous support of the Open Society Foundation.