This piece originally appeared in the GuildNotes, Issue 1, 2021

Community arts educators cannot authentically amplify youth voice and leadership without intentionally working to dismantle adultism in their programs, organizations, and collective action efforts. Adultism is the systematic mistreatment and disrespect of young people which in turn disregards their power and rights as full human-beings.
Too often, young people are shut out of or erased from policy and programming conversations and decision-making processes that directly affect their lives. Young people not only need a “seat at the table,” they need the holistic support of adult accomplices to create their own tables. In December 2020, young artists from the Creative Youth Development Partnership’s National Youth Network and Detroit’s CYD local network presented “Adultism,” a youth panel discussion on adultism and its impact on youth and adult spaces. The panel was organized by Paula Ortega, the Partnership’s National Youth Coordinator and core team member of Re:Frame Youth Arts Center (Phoenix), and Tanykia “Diamond” Davis, youth representative for the Detroit CYD Network and Living Arts (Detroit). They were joined in conversation by Mario Pauldon, poet and vocalist (Illinois); Sam Marcial, poet and dancer (California), Quinn Pursell, theatre artist (Arizona); and Brianna Bryant, engineer and applied artist (Michigan).
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