Student Voice Revealed
“Equality is my main thing.”
Maria Castro is in the seventh grade at Hamilton Grange Middle School and a participant in Creative Art Works in-school digital art program, where she has been creating posters that promote social justice issues that matter to her. Maria says her opinions have been shaped by her family and her teachers, but she has also been influenced by the social upheaval happening around the world in recent years.
Maria’s family emigrated from Venezuela to Coral Springs, Florida, three years ago and moved to New York City five months ago. She had exactly one month of in-person instruction at Hamilton Grange before all NYC public schools went back to remote learning due to a rise in COVID cases. Her in-school art class has provided her with a forum to express her ideas.
Maria says, “I love having the opportunity to express myself. There have been times when I didn’t see a way to use what we were learning in class to express my interests, but I could talk to Ms. Alinna [CAW Teaching Artist Alinna Diaz-Porro] and she would help me come up with a way that I could use what we were learning and still do my own thing.”
Students at Hamilton Grange are learning to use Pixlr, a free photo editing and composition program that works on any platform.
Maria had read about the civil rights movement in school, but then the Black Lives Matter movement took over the public conversation in May.
Maria is also an ally for the LGBTQ+ community and a proponent of positive body image for all women.
“I’ve been educated about the Black Lives Matter movement and I think everybody should be, too. Last year, I did a school project about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and I learned how he struggled for equality. When George Floyd was killed, it reminded me of Dr. King’s quote, that we should judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.”
“We all deserve respect and we are all equal no matter what our sexual orientation is. Love is love. It’s not a choice to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, but it is a choice to hate on people. You don’t have to love everybody, but you have to be respectful.”
“I am a girl, so I have already experienced stereotypes of beauty. I didn’t pay attention to it so much as a little girl, but as I grew up I started to notice these things. My parents started to talk to me about body positivity. Society has built up this image of what it is to be beautiful – you have to be skinny and blond and tall. Beauty is something we all have. All bodies are beautiful, all colors are beautiful.”
Equality is not just the central theme of Maria’s art, it has become the central motivation for her career choice.
“I want to study law and perhaps become a judge. It would be really awesome if I could speak up for people who feel they don’t have options or maybe they don’t know their rights.”
At CAW, you could say that art education with a youth development focus is OUR main thing. Working in collaboration with our program partners and Teaching Artists, we strive not only to instruct but to mentor students and offer them tools that will allow them to pave the way for their own future.
“Take Charge of Your Own Learning: We learn best when creating our own understanding.”
“I was so happy Maria felt comfortable enough to let me know that she did not feel my assignment allowed her to express herself as much as she wanted. Working together, we found a way for her to follow all the requirements, but still make it her own.”