Exploring Identity Through Mask-Making with the YLC

By Samantha Lopez Charrizales, PICS intern, Academic Specialist B-SAFE 2021

As the B-SAFE summer program enters its final week, youth and staff have gotten to grow together and explore the program's theme for this year - "Brave Enough to Be It." Working as a new member of the Academic Team for the summer, I had been anxiously awaiting being able to share the curriculum our staff worked hard to put together for the youth. For weeks, we had been anticipating the summer, getting prepared for rotations that would be both fun and educational. After months of virtual schooling for the kids, we knew that there would be a lot of adjustments to be made in order for them to feel comfortable and excited to learn in person again. Taking the approach of “learning through play”, we planned lessons that would encourage the kids to get hands-on and creatively express themselves. 

For my curriculum, I sought to create culturally-centered lessons that would help our middle schoolers think critically about the world around them, how it shapes them, and how they shape it. After four weeks of program I have seen these lessons come to life with the vibrancy that the young people and the staff at the YLC bring every day. One of my favorite rotations this summer revolved around identity, tying into our weekly theme, "Brave Enough to Be You." 

We began with an activity about our “Circles of Influence”, which asked us to think about who we are in the context of different groups and social structures (our family, friend groups, schools, country, etc). With this in mind, we moved on to making art that expressed the multiple and dynamic aspects of our identities. The YLC was tasked with creating masks that would represent the parts of their identity that are associated with the communities they belong to, their collective identity, on the outside of their masks, and the parts of their identity that they define themselves, their individual self, on the inside of their masks. There was a lot of creative energy in the room during these rotations, as the kids took to painting everything from the flags of their heritage to their favorite anime. It was a colorful, albeit messy, time that allowed everyone at the YLC to get to know each other.

With B-SAFE ending soon, the masks remain great reminders of the memories we have made this summer as a diverse group full of enthusiastic personalities. As the youth reflect on their identities and the world that surrounds them, I hope that they feel empowered to take our theme outside of these walls - being brave enough to be unapologetically themselves, to try new things, to speak up, and to make a change. It has been a summer full of learning and fun for me personally, with the YLC truly showing me the purpose that drives youth work. I am inspired by the fact that, whether I turn to our Site Manager or our youngest fifth grader, I know that when I walk into 31 Lenox, I am walking into a room full of leaders.