"Love and Rage"
RYSE Youth & East Bay Getting to Zero
Click below to learn more about young people’s design process, our collaborators, and all of the important pieces of the RYSE Commons mural.
Garden Recipe
Sheila McKinney
-
Step 1: Make Good use of your location
They told me to make good use of my location
As if my location wasn’t good enough
We breed the finest, everyday people
That can relate to people from all backgrounds
Different personalities and styles but connecting on deep levels
That is success
Histories paved in the richest gold
Burn rubber marks act as storytellers of
laughter and excitement
recipes cooked alongside ancestors
I’m getting a little carried away
So Breathe and let the fresh air caress your lungs
Because once you enter this garden
Talent and love meet you at the gate
Step 2: The layout
The layout of nature itself is art
The rage of growing trees
The fierce smell of lavender
The green grass
that the sun favors
The bushes that hide in plain sight
Our garden is rooted in the creativity that nature brings
Along with the layout that was created so our garden
can be unique and comforting
Step 3: What we grow
In this garden, we grow
Powerful citrus that lets the world know they demand to be seen
Yea lemons are bigger than limes
but working together towards an end goal is not a crime
It sets examples of how two different things
from the same place can come together and aspire change
We grow a rainbow of roses and lilies
that fill the garden
with aromas that please your nose like perfume
Safe spaces for the seeds to birth colorful fruits & veggies
A heart full of the nutritious lettuce
That feeds our body the protection we need
So when virus attacks we will do everything but concede
In this garden, there is nothing we don't have
From hibiscus to beets from zucchini to ghost orchid (or-ked)
God created each fruit, each flower, each vegetable,
each insect in that garden to be themselves
because that is what the garden is
Step 4: Take care of your soil
This soil breathes life into lost souls
this soil welcomes ancestors to parties
and so we rejoice like there’s no tomorrow
This soil fills brains with memories that stick
like gum on the bottom of my shoe
This soil in the garden is centered in healing
A foundation that has saved many lives
Step 5: Keep out weeds
Weeds suck out nutrients in plants
like the education system does with youth
The legal system/health system and really
almost every system is against BIPOC folks
Against the lgbtq+ community
This disgusting patriarchal society is against women
The fat-shaming and bullying and catcalling with plus size/ curvy women
The highly intense, very unfair standards the world holds with Black and Latina women
These weeds aren’t welcomed in this garden
Here we
Make good use of our location
Admire the layout
Grow freely
Tend to the soil
Here, we plant home
Rooted and Rysing
Adriana Avalos, Jordan Daniel, Sheila McKinney, and Kylaa Prejean
-
Started off as dirt as a first layer
thrown in some bricks and wood to hold it all up
put in some windows and fresh paint to
make it open and lively
It was something I’d never seen
something so vibrant,
colors dance on walls
Something so joyful
Clouds of laughter hover over rooms
Something so free
No more being another person
i got finally got people that match my energy
16 years breathing is when I laid eyes on RYSE
A space so true to keeping our talent safe
And now I’m rooted in expressing myself
expressing who I was
who I am (Sheila + Jordan)
and who i aim to be
Healing from trauma
The desire to learn new things
The desperate need of young
people to express themselves
Is what made me.
What made us.
We saw a woman
smile bigger than the sun
& voice of a lion
must not forget she is a leo
she is my mother
poetic & proud
The words “what you think” flowed out of mama cici’s mouth
confusion spread across my face like
yo momma tryna figure out who you talking to
And in the sweetest tone
she asked us again
What do YOU think
That’s when I realized I got used to adult supremacy
And always substituted the words I really had to say with “ok”(Roll off)
Almost never asked
instead demanded
She was showing me how the world supposed to be
It’s supposed to uplift youth voices
Supposed to be centered in love
Supposed to be grounded in freedom
And here is where it exists
The cry’s of laughter when you walk into the building
The purest form of love
and joy that you see on people’s faces
This is what made us.
i blew my candle out
and in March my dreams came true
I became apart of a community that taught
us to stand up for ourselves
Instead of speaking for us
to guide us to choices
instead of control us
My names been pronounced wrong my whole life &
I’ve just been going along with it
Until I walked into a building full of laughter
& eyes of YOU ARE SEEN
My first thought was how come they spelled it wrong?
there’s an I in rise but here it’s us
this place showed me more home than i’ve ever known
compliments left & right
when i first set foot in here
they said my name
but this time it was different
they pronounced it like i never heard before correct
along came other nicknames
adri , giggles, & now i go by youth poet laureate of richmond california
PERIODT
& when I hear, “IT’S JUST JORDAN!!” I know I’m home
I know I’m crowned in safety
So I blossom even more into the dancer,
singer, artist, and POET that I am.
& When I hear, Sha sha sha SHEILA,
it’s time for a celebration of my people
To honor that I became the FIRST EVER Youth Poet Laureate (SAY THAT)
Performed on the news & co-led a series of workshops on a national level
We dream here
We make them real here
& we honor our journey here
Im rooted in the plan God had for me
To become part of this beautiful family
RYSE is the foundation that made us blossom
That made us expand
That made us stay
That could never be broken.
The building is a base but love is the foundation.
We’re rooted with love
We’re rooted with compassion
We’re rooted from the soles of our feet to the tips
of our tongues that so graciously speaks
about the injustices and poverty
that our people face in this society
We’re rooted with resilience we make
the changes that those who came before us couldn’t
Our name is a recipe for greatness:
R- for resilience
Y- for youth power
S for solidarity and
E for empowered.
We are RYSE
and we will keep RYSING
UNTIL THE END
OF TIME
For Richmond, For RYSE
Adriana Avalos
-
This space is filled
with land & labor acknowledgments
no room for colonizers & their children
i painted a mural with my tongue
land of Ohlone and chevron skies
maybe this place isn’t the problem
it’s the people taking it away
gentrification is the reason
i’m spitting rhymes at the bart station
livin n leavin
breathin n bein
community invalidated and thoughts forgotten
painted blacklivesmatter on the street
only for a white woman to cover it up
This is my ode to my rebellion
Against amerikkka with k’s
because that's what they’re rooted in
To protests & radical healing
people in presence of
ancestral remedies
breaking generational curses
& creating a heaven for youth
not one mind alike
Richmond
poets, rappers, artist spit
painting causes us to heal
thin lines on cracked sidewalks
opportunities come with community
& I met some of the best people in my life here
loud youth & uplifting humanization
RYSE is more than a home
RYSE is my prayer
& lemme tell you I be getting paid
cuz my art is worth it
my life is on the way
To abundance & opportunities to follow my dreams
I once wrote that feminism was the way to go
but who knew
it turned into a prayer for the white woman
listen
i'm right woman
since I am a woman
everything I know is more than valid
because being a chicana in Richmond
means i’m never alone
baby my tongue is painted on murals
my back is shown in the sun
scars are so deep
But we are the future
not meant to be caged
freedom is near
when my words flow
my ancestors scream
mi abuelita
querida y fuerte
ella no tiene miedo
mi mariposa con cara de sol
ella me crio
soy una nina de mi familia
tenemos cholos y chulas
no hay naide mejor que nosotros
soy una bebida mixlcada
cuando me ves
no soy conocida por algo
Soy reconocida como alguien.
I speak for my people
I speak for myself
because when I said justicia I meant that shit
we are more than statistics
called minorities but we are more than majority
we are Richmond & RYSing
rooted in memories & moonlight
I write to RYSE
I write to Richmond
& I spell ryse with a y
because I can’t stop asking
why didn’t I come sooner?
E&J PhotoVoice Exhibition
RYSE Visual Arts AMP Dance Animation Video
From vision to reality.
2017 – 2018: Youth and staff dream and envision what RYSE Commons could be in a series of ideation sessions, workshops, and focus groups.
2018 – 2019: Early architect concepts and designs based on youth and staff input.
2022: RYSE Commons becomes a reality.
Here are a few highlights of RYSE youth and staff dreaming up and creating what RYSE Commons is today – all the way from our first ideation session.
