By Robyn Gee, Turnstyle News

The presidential campaigning has brought the debate about immigration reform into hyper focus recently. But for some, the debate is too narrow, leaving out the roughly 50% of undocumented youth who don’t finish high school and therefore would not qualify for the proposed federal DREAM Act, according to Pablo Paredes, founder of the organization 67 Sueños (67 Dreams).

Paredes said that focusing on undocumented youth who graduate high school and are college or military bound leaves out 67 percent of undocumented youth.

His group, based in the Bay Area in California, is small and he works with just seven students at Oakland public schools between the ages of 15 – 18. Four of them are undocumented, and the other three come from “mixed-status” families. Their goal is to change the immigration conversation from focusing only on the exceptionally talented immigrants who “deserve” legalization, and instead acknowledge that every undocumented young person deserves a path to legalization.

Paredes and his group organized a huge public art display in San Francisco on the wall of a building in an abandoned lot and Turnstyle spoke with Paredes about the project.

Turnstyle: What does 67 Sueños stand for?

Paredes: 67 Sueños is a group that supports the radical notion that every undocumented person, whether they go to college or not, has a dream worth pursuing. We focus on youth who are not on the pathway to college, to create pathways for them to legalize.

Turnstyle: Where did the idea for the images in the mural come from? Did famous artists help?

Paredes: We gathered stories. Stories are an important way to change dialogue and legislation. We partnered with NPR’s StoryCorps. They have a project that tries to tell stories of Latinos. They were very excited to tell stories of undocumented youth especially those not on the path to college.

We did 21 interviews with undocumented youth out of Oakland public high schools… Even if they have trouble in high school, they still have rights.

I wanted to be a gang member until my cousin got killed.

by Anonymous

This story was originally published by LA Youth. The writer's name is withheld to protect her identity. Names have been changed.

Growing up, every house in my neighborhood seemed like it had one or two gang members. My cousin Ricky was in a gang, too. And his gang ruled the neighborhood. In 1994, Ricky was paralyzed after getting shot in a drive-by. After that he tried to get out of the gang, but a couple months later he was hanging out with his gang friends almost every day and they were planning to get revenge. This made me think that gangs would be there to protect you.

I loved the way people treated my cousin and his friends in the gang. They got free food at restaurants and people in the neighborhood would give them money for protection from rival gangs. So as I got older my dream was to join a gang.

In sixth grade some of my friends and I started a tagging crew, which is what some kids join if they’re too young to join a gang. A crew is a group of people who tag walls to mark their territory. To join, each person had to let the others in the crew hit them for 60 seconds without hitting back. This is one of the requirements for joining gangs, and since most of us had family members who were in gangs, we wanted to model ourselves after them. This was called getting “jumped in.”

I got punched and kicked all over my body, face, arms and legs. The pain hurt like fire, but I wasn’t allowed to cry. If I cried or fought back the minute would start over. Not crying was how I proved I would be strong enough to fight anyone for my crew. After the minute was over, I felt strong and that I could handle any pain without crying.

When I got home, I hid my bruises under the sweater I was wearing. I stayed in my room all night, listening to music and lying completely still in bed. I was in so much pain that I didn’t want to move.

What the heck is a “mobile social check-in service?” This is a longer term for the smartphone app, Foursquare, described by many as digital graffiti.

The app allows you to tag geographical locations with bits of information, like advice, historical information, or even personal information. As you walk around a city or a college campus with your smartphone, users of Foursquare will be able to look at all of the tags that people have left there. For example, as you walk by a famous restaurant, a tag might pop up and say, “@the restaurant Bill Murray loves to eat seafood.” Or as you walk by a historic building, “@the original house of George Washington.”

An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education explains, “Here's how it works. Foursquare players see a list of nearby places. They can "check in" to any of them, and, if they want, have their arrival broadcast to "friends" on Foursquare and other networks like Facebook and Twitter. They can create new places and leave public "tips" about existing ones, like the "free Wi-Fi" at the Charlotte library. They earn "badges"—for example, "gym rat"—for checking in at various spots. If they check in at one spot often enough, the app crowns them "mayor."

The article also expresses some fears that college campuses have about Foursquare gaining popularity. “Maybe [a prospective student’s mother] goes on to a dorm, and perhaps its residents have left other goodies online. The teacher they loathed. The room they smoked pot in. The couch they had sex on.”
T. M. I.!

While street graffiti may still be outside the law, it is definitely within mainstream youth culture. Sprayground, a clothing and accessory company, created by the artist David Ben David, produces a line of graffiti clothing that youth are snapping up.

The first day of school approaches, and all of us want to look our best, as we suffer through name-games and ice-breakers. Check out Sprayground’s “Hello My Name Is” backpack and shirt. This creative clothing saves you the trouble and anxiety of introducing yourself! The colorful, elaborate designs will ensure you don't get ignored walking down the hallway.

Sprayground was originally a company that gave artists the opportunity to come in and paint on blank items with paint pens - designing their own bags and shirts. Now, it uses street art as a main component of its design.

UPDATE May 12, 2010: The 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition winners have been announced and thanks to our supporters, Youth Radio/YMI has won a $200,000 grant for our Mobile Action Lab! Check out all the details here.

Original post follows...

As heard on WABE, Atlanta.

By: Mason Gepp

Each time I walk into the bathroom at my high school, I am greeted by newly scribbled remarks from my peers. The underground practice of writing graffiti is obviously a popular pastime.

Many of the postings are vulgar, some appear to be gang-related, and others simply detail what someone intends to do after school that day. Many of the authors apparently need to work on their penmanship, because it’s hard to read their handwriting.

Our poor custodian works hard to paint a coat of white paint over each of the musings, but he has a daunting challenge. Even after a fresh paint job, I often see new remarks written on top of the damp walls. It makes me wonder how much money taxpayers have spent on all the gallons of paint that are needed to combat the cycle of graffiti.

Though I don’t condone my classmates damaging school property, I will admit that I find their messages entertaining. Trips to the bathroom are quite humorous. I can live vicariously through the postings of some punk and laugh at his latest “accomplishments.”

Nowhere else in my school do students seem so uninhibited than on our bathroom walls.

 Previously:

• Is Graffiti Gang-Related?
• San Francisco's New Solution To Graffiti
• Life of an Artist

Usually I sit in my room and think about different ideas that I can add to a piece I am working on in my black book. Ever since I started to get real experience with spray can. I have been doing this since I was eleven years old. I started out drawing any thing I saw with any writing utensil that I could find. Now I hit up my name on every obstacle that I can find with any tool.

The Bay Area is surrounded by graffiti and its colorful styles. Unfortunately, people have a problem admiring the work because of its connection to gang violence.
If you are like me, we assume that almost every tag represents a name, color, or a gang’s territory.