SAYA Youth Participate in Queens Museum Art Projects

On Saturday, April 24th, SAYA youth took part in a day-long art project with the Queens Museum's Queens Teens program in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Alongside staff members from the South Queens Women's March (SQWM), youth chalked quotes, phrases and messages on the sidewalk outside of the Museum to raise awareness about gender-based violence and street harassment. Following this, they took part in a poetry session that covered gender and environmental justice, also led by SQWM. 

Two of our youth shared reflections on participating in the event:

“On Saturday, many of us went to the museum. We [took part in an icebreaker] activity that was used to let us all get to know each other, and it worked splendidly. After that, we used chalk to write out messages. We made scriptures and images of messages that tried to show meaning for sexual harassment awareness. Then we went into the museum to do the next activity: the black out poem. [With a piece of] writing, we were to find any words on it that spoke to us and circle or highlight them. Afterwards we went back to the SAYA center to hang out and recharge.” 
- Deepto

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience getting to work with the girls from South Queens Women's March. It was fun being able to express my artistic self while writing out these quotes and drawing flowers. I loved that I got to talk to more of my SAYA siblings during this event. I hope there will be more like this in the future!”
- Lucky