Welcome to the StoryBuilders Blog!
What is StoryBuilders?
StoryBuilders is a storytelling program led by staff and members of the Black Organizing Project. StoryBuilder interns learn to deconstruct mainstream narratives while developing a variety of multimedia storytelling skills that they can use to tell a new story about Black youth. The program was developed out of the fundamental belief that mainstream narratives about Black people, and Black youth more specifically, tell one-sided stories that don’t include the Black perspective, but are deeply influential in uplifting status quo beliefs and agendas.
On this blog, you can find stories, photos, poems, and more, produced by the two first-ever StoryBuilder interns as they connect with their experience as Black students in Oakland and explore issues of over-investment in harsh discipline practices and under investment in things that keep students engaged, like music and the arts.
Meet the StoryBuilders…
Kayla Humphreys
Kayla is 16 years old. She is from the Bottoms and she is a McClymolnds High School student. She is a member of The Black Organizing Project and StoryBuilder intern. She is a hard working person, she is funny, she is very lovable, she is loyal, and she respects herself and others around her. She loves to have fun and get money, it doesn’t matter how much as long as she’s getting some money so she can be independent. She loves her family, she loves her friends, she loves God, and she loves money. She learned a lot of things in BOP and story builders such as narratives, the danger of the single story, and so much more. She even learned that being on time is very important, because if she gets a real job when she gets older or even now and if she’s late for that job, that’s not acceptable at all. She also did a lot of projects, lessons, made her own interview, and is going on a study trip with StoryBuilders to New Orleans, Louisiana.
Ciara Smith
Ciara Denae’ Smith is a freshman at McClymonds high school. Go Warriors! She is an intern for the StoryBuilders program at BOP. She got involved with this program because of one of the other programs I am in called YOLO (Youth Organizing Leadership Opportunities). The BOP program was introduced to her while she was in a YOLO session. Our main focus here in StoryBuilders is telling the story of school pushout and how students are being put on a track called the school to prison pipeline. We are very much against it. If you didn’t know, school pushout is a system that pushes students out of school and into the prison system. In StoryBuilders we learn how to change the narratives that Black people as violent, unintelligent and poor. We use different forms of media to show our views and find the unsaid truths that aren’t acknowledged in more popular media websites, shows, articles, etc.