Source: Instagram
The Voices Summer Program also visited the Philadelphia Urban Creator’s Life Do Grow Urban farm in North Central Philadelphia. Youth leaders at PUC have organized around issues of nutrition, safe spaces, and now gentrification among other critical community issues. Students went to the farm to collaborate with other young people in examining what their communities need and how they can organize to achieve it!
By: Molly
By Patrece D.
This is what I would say if I were to be interviewed about the change and “improvements” of my community fifty years from now.
“Growing up I was convinced that it takes a life to learn how to live and that you never stop learning. Then I started to think, ‘Well, what is there to learn if the world never changes?’ That wasn’t true because I learned a lot about the world, probably more than myself. At sixteen I learned it early. Even after understanding, things were complicated. The opportunities were sparse. I was lost and still till this day I don’t think I truly found myself but I found who I want to be and everyday is based on just that: who and what I want to be. I had dreams and most importantly I had this desire to be something more than human. Maybe I’d have a better chance at changing the world that way. I didn’t want to be an actress; I did that everyday, pretending to be something else more exciting and extraordinary. I didn’t want to be a doctor because I didn’t have time helping others get better when my own shit wasn’t together. I wanted to be human and live while still feeling alive because I heard that was the best feeling. You can be alive and not feel alive. I wanted to live harmoniously in the world. I didn’t want to fall in love hopelessly because I did that all the time. In and out. Most of all I wanted to be apart of a community that wasn’t falling apart. Reaching a point of unity without the input of a new plaza across the street, seemed impossible. I’m now in my sixes and even in this generation it seems impossible.”
Gentrification in Philadelphia 