Exploring the Idea of Radical Love

The Black Organizing Project’s Summer Youth Space Internship Program has traditionally been a space to engage our young Black minds within an interactive Black-centered learning environment. Our space kicked off this July 21st right in the heat of summer!  This year, our organizers have the pleasure of working with a group of 19 youth interns who have been submerged in a unique learning experience that will last for six weeks.

Now,  halfway into the program, we reached out to Brandie Bowen, one of the program facilitators, to help highlight exactly what BOP interns have been learning and how the program has been going so far.

“When we created the curriculum we wanted to work on a transformative pedagogy and wanted the kids to leave with a greater consciousness of themselves, each other, and the community,” said Brandie.

With the curriculum set and strong foundation in mind, week one and two of the program focused on community building and bonding, while also recognizing the vision they held of their own communities and why. Together with Lead Organizer and co-facilitator, Jessica Black, Brandie engaged in a variety of interactive activities to help engrain the theme of community to get the juices flowing!

One particular activity, The Radical Love Identity Box Activity, encouraged youth to look into themselves and critically think about the perceptions they have of themselves as well as the perceptions others have of them.

“The main purpose was to explore radical love. First, we talked about what radical means and  decided that it means going to the root or true nature,” said Brandie. “ We then combined that idea with love– so the idea behind the identity box is to explore the truest nature of ourselves, loving it– in hopes of extending that love to each other and eventually the community.”

For the activity the youth were instructed to make a small box from paper. The box itself was to represent things they radically loved about themselves as well as things they would like to grow in. The youth also explored perceptions they believed others held of them and determined which ones they would and would not accept.

“I liked it because I felt like I was able to talk about certain things that no one talks about and being able to communicate in a different way was cool too,” said one of our interns, Troiane Lewis.

According to Jessica, in order to get the youth to shift their paradigm around love of self while also  dismantling negative stereotypes  imposed on them,  community building is necessary. It is  important to  start with self before we ask our interns to take a look at coming together.

“I think the box was a cool way to relieve myself.  I learned that I can express my feelings in different forms,” said another intern, Arnasiyah Fortenberry.

It is our hope here at BOP, that within this Youth Space using activities such as the Radical Love Box amongst others, that we begin to cultivate our young Black minds. It is important that our youth start at the the root of their history and themselves in order to develop loving and positive perceptions about themselves. Negative imagery seamlessly infused in mass media, popular culture, and the education system, have been imposed on our psyches for centuries. Nevertheless,  Black people throughout history have proven our resilience by combatting and transforming the very systems built to destroy our minds, bodies and spirits. As our Brothers and Sisters who paved the way before us did,  we must continue the fight for Black Liberation and we do believe it starts with our youth. With a strong team and inspiring vision, we do believe that this is possible and it is our mission to see it through.