Valedictorian Speech From The Odyssey Project
Good Afternoon Friends, Family and Faculty. Thank you for taking time to celebrate with the 2010 Graduating class of the Odyssey Project. About 2-years ago I saw the Odyssey Program advertised in the...
View ArticleLocal Youth Talk Gay Marriage
On November 30, 2010, the Illinois Senate passed SB 1716, “Illinois Religious Freedom and Protection and Civil Union Act.” This law will grant legal recognition of same-sex couples. Governor Quinn has...
View Article2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. Essays
What is your dream for a Beloved Community? Since 2003, over 2200 local students have been challenged to examine the legacy of Dr. King in their lives, and their role in social justice. This year,...
View ArticleThe 1970 Student Strike in Protest of Kent State Killings
University of Illinois students and faculty went on strike 41 years ago this May in response to the killing of four students at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard. The killings at Kent State were...
View ArticleThe Tunisian Revolution: Dignity, Expression, Gender, and Religion
The Tunisian Revolution: Dignity, Expression, Gender, and Religion Dignity The Tunisian uprising that deposed dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is of enormous historical significance for the entire...
View ArticlePreparing Youth for Democracy
Preparing Youth for Democracy (edited) By Gary Storm My wife, Jamie, and I were recently invited to participate in an international conference sponsored by “Initiatives of Change” (IOC) in Panchgani,...
View ArticleThe Fruits of Our Labor: Champaign’s Summer Youth Jobs Program
Jelani Saadiq is a senior at Piney Woods School in Mississippi. He participated in Champaign’s summer youth employment program this summer. This summer I was bamboozled; I thought that the summer...
View ArticleMotivating High School Students to Become Future Builders
In 2007, I met Tanya Parker, now the publisher of the local magazine, Unity in Action, at a demonstration in front of the County Court House in Urbana. We were both protesting what we felt was racial...
View ArticleThe Economic and Political Context of Student Debt
Alan Collinge, author of “The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History and How We Can Fight Back,” recently spoke to students at Lincoln Hall on the UI campus. His argument is...
View ArticleChuco’s Justice Center in Los Angeles: Home of “College Prep, Not Prison Prep”
In August I travelled to California as part of my research into the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system. My first stop was a converted factory along the border between South...
View ArticleYouth Poetry
MY CURLY HAIR by Amina Alamin My curly hair can do anything it can be in big braids and in little braids and curled in to ringlets and many more things. Some people don’t like my hair and some people …...
View ArticleCity and IMC Announce $50,000 grant for creative placemaking from the NEA
Downtown Urbana is about to become a lot more creative – thanks to the vision of local youth, the City of Urbana, the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (IMC), and the National Endowment of the...
View ArticleIncarceration figures
Some figures compiled in the Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights Newsletter (April 2016). Reprinted with Permission. I. Number Incarcerated in U.S., 2014 1.5 million people at an annual per person cost of...
View ArticleTaking Applications for “Open Scene,” IMC’s Youth Media Project
The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center (UCIMC) and the City of Urbana are happy to launch Open Scene, a project to reimagine downtown Urbana through arts-based dialogues led by youth. Open Scene...
View ArticleHip-Hop and the Black Radical Tradition in CU
i must confess that waltzes do not move me. i have no sympathy for symphonies i guess i hummed the Blues too early, and spent too many midnights out wailing in the rain. Assata Shakur – Culture The...
View ArticleDoing SOLHOT as a Reliable Way of Life
“I remember the day I let go of the idea and held on to people it’s much riskier now I really wanna’ take care” – We Levitate, “Take Care”, How I Feel EP (2016) I am a lover/bandbae/dreamer/Black girl...
View Article1968 – Not Really So Long Ago or Far Away
“I want kids to see that it wasn’t just Martin Luther King making things happen in the 1960s, it was local folks here as well. Just as it is today.” Katie Snyder, Education Program Specialist, Museum...
View ArticleThe Fruits of Our Labor: Champaign’s Summer Youth Jobs Program
Jelani Saadiq is a senior at Piney Woods School in Mississippi. He participated in Champaign’s summer youth employment program this summer. This summer I was bamboozled; I thought that the summer...
View ArticleCountering Disinformation to Build a Just Society
We have heard a lot about disinformation during this past year, but learning more about how information is manipulated, distorted and deployed to shape social debates can help you recognize when you...
View ArticleJuneteenth 2022 at Randolph Street Garden
Seitu Ken Jones, a multidisciplinary artist who believes in the power of public art to link the past and present, spent 2020–21 as a visiting artist at the UIUC Center for Advanced Study. He returned...
View Article