A Conversation with the Young Lordes Collective
Last week, I had the pleasure of talking to an amazing group of people, 4 members of the Young Lords Collective (YLC), Sumaya Bouhbal, Anya Jiménez, Fredi G-P, and Alexis Simon. As described by the founder and director, Sumaya, the YLC had a similar origin story to the Outsiders Guide:
“Freshman year I just noticed that in a predominantly white art school the kids of color were deprived of resources, weren’t accelerated as artists, and their work wasn’t honored. In many ways I believed that we are and were the backbone of this school. I was like, ‘if they won’t give us our roses, we can get them on our own. We don’t need to seek acceptance from these white institutions.’ Then, I started working at the New York Historical Society and the idea started to include activism and history as well because of the work that I did and still do at NYHS. Then I met a bunch of people who all kind of fit the vision of what I had, especially one of those people being Jillian (Jillian Louie, Editor-In-Chief), and the idea started to come to fruition.”
Our conversation was peppered with references to art and movements by people of color, moments of true unfiltered artistic wisdom, and gave me a chance to witness the genuine sisterhood that holds this collective together. I started by hearing a bit from each of them as they described how they got involved in YLC and bit about their independent work and passions.
Anya Jiménez, the Head Writer, began. She describes herself as a performer: “I’m an actor and a singer and I dance if I have to. My other passion is writing, I’m a poet and a playwright, not necessarily in that order.” She has many goals as a writer, including (but not limited to) presenting and celebrating people of color, especially queer people of color, outside of the lens we are often shown through mainstream media, and exploring her own identity as a white-presenting mixed race woman. You can check out some of her work on her instagram!
When asked about her role and mission in the YLC, she said: “I think that I really am deeply inspired by the initiative to give students of color and artists of color a bigger platform, and it’s really incredible to see the historical references we’re pulling from as well. In the name alone, the Young Lordes Collective, we’re drawing on the Young Lords, we’re drawing on Audre Lorde herself, we’re talking about the Combahee River Collective, the Jane Collective– all of these activist groups. I’m really honored to be a part of this movement of the newest wave of social change and activism, because a lot of things have changed, but a lot of things have not. I think that I really really do believe in the power of art and its ability to touch people and create conversation and create real tangible changes in our community. We are in need of a lot of those changes and I think YLC is very prepared to start those things and continue those movements and I’m very excited to be a part of it.
Next, Alexis Simon, the Community Coordinator, spoke. Alexis has extensive community service hours (“they exceed like five to six hundred hours”), a passion for singing, and a deep respect for the artists who paved the way for and inspired her (“like with Billie Holiday, there were so many times that she wanted to sing Strange Fruit and she couldn’t because of what white people were saying, and they were literally trying to kill her for singing that song.”) She’s especially passionate about metal health, using her platform to be an advocate, and she was almost too modest to share an amazing accomplishment of hers: she runs a club at her high school called Black Girl Magic, that has been so successful that it’s having an event with the Queens Library this May. She has a special connection to the YLC motto: “Artists have such a powerful voice, and our motto is where activism meets artistry. Mixing the two gives you such a different sense of power.”
The artistic director, Fredi G-P, spoke next. They’re a multimedia artist, recently exploring a particular passion for collage: “I feel like I go through these phases of mediums within my art, like last year around this time I was very into oil painting and now I’m very very into collaging and poetry, writing, and also filmmaking. I think all of these things, all of these different mediums and different aspects of art can come together so beautifully when it comes to advocating for what I believe in and what people believe in. I think that it gives me a voice that I don’t normally have, to be able to speak on topics that I care about. Art has always given me that, the voice I didn’t feel like I had, because as a young woman of color, that is now identifying as nonbinary, I just feel like I’ve never had that voice. I’ve never been given that voice, and I think it’s really important for me and people like me to be able to have platforms and spaces in general to speak and give their goodness to the world.” She’s particularly passionate about the intersections of racial justice and the environment: “environmental racism is a very real thing!” they said, multiple times during the interview. If that’s a new term or concept for you, here are a couple good resources to check out.
In each story, every member mentioned how they first connected with Sumaya, and how she drew them into YLC. Sumaya, a musician and creative herself, nodded along and encouraged everyone to respond fully and confidently to each question. “I love hearing what everyone says so much, I really do” she said, “For me personally, part of the reason why I made the collective is to create a space where artists of color could promote each other and their work. I know that anything I create as an artist, now I can share it with this community that will share it and amplify it. In my own personal work I definitely want to start creating music, very soon (I don’t want to say anything too concrete in case something changes but, very soon). Music is definitely a very big goal of mine right now, but also exploring my abilities to be a leader and to be a creative leader. I’ve had so much fun mapping out what I think the zine is going to look like, so a lot of my creativity is YLC, so of course they’re interconnected in that way.
In terms of future plans and getting involved, she encourages our readers to follow their instagram @younglordescollective and keep an eye out for upcoming opportunities. There’s a lot to come, she mentioned a service project, free protection kits for black and brown trans people, a summer and spring zine, and a potential book club to read the texts the collective is inspired by.
To end our conversation, as I always do, I asked each of them to share a piece of advice or guidance they had for our audience.
“Just accept that you are enough and that you don’t have to be all things to all people.” Anya began, “This is something that I’ve struggled with a lot, and am literally struggling with today. I think that it’s so so easy to feel like you are not good enough, not smart enough, not talented enough, you’re not whatever enough –especially when the world is working against you and it feels like nobody is listening to you– but I promise there are people who are going to listen to you. It might take a minute to find those people, but they are worth the wait. You have to have the foundation of just knowing and trusting yourself enough to say, ‘alright, even if this isn’t my best, even if I don’t feel like I’m doing so good right now, I love myself I trust myself to keep going.’ Being able to care for yourself like that is so important otherwise you will just fall apart and there have been many times where I just completely broke down because I didn’t build that foundation for myself. Also, art is subjective. Art is weird, amazing, beautiful, and that means not everyone is going to love it or understand it or need it, but it comes from you and at the end of the day you just have to keep creating no matter what. Ten years from now you might look back and be like ‘damn, this is very bad,’ but the fact that you made it at all means that you’re an artist and that is enough to keep going.”
Alexis went next: “Being a black girl and being young is so traumatizing to be honest. There are so many things that I look back at and think ‘how the hell did I let that slide. How did I let someone tell me I wasn’t enough, or that I should only sing choir music even though I’ve never been in a church quire–like ok?’ My thing would be, no matter what happens don’t change who you are for anyone else. As easy as it may be, and as artists we’re easily influenced by other people’s pain, trauma, whatever someone is trying to tell you. No matter what you do you can’t change yourself for anyone else. That was part of my fear going into the music industry; there are so many people that go in there and completely lose themselves, and all of the sudden they have hundreds of scandals and dramas. Don’t change yourself, and remember that it’s okay to be daring. It’s okay to do stuff that other people may not understand, because you may be helping someone, you may be giving someone who needs it their voice. That’s the beautiful thing about art, there’s so many artists out here doing so many different things, translating their words into a beautiful piece of art. Don’t ever change or try to self sabotage. What is for you will not pass you, and you have a gift that so many people do not have, and with that gift comes so many blessings.”
Sumaya had a few pieces of wisdom to share: “1. If you can think of it, it can happen. If you can picture it, you can see it, it can happen. Thoughts don’t just come to us; I really believe that everything you think you see for a reason. Random thoughts are visions, poems, ideas, and you can’t just discard that. 2. As humans, we all have paths and purposes and so often those things are what we did in our childhood, and we grow up and think we can’t do it anymore. But if you talk to most artists they’ll tell you what they did as a kid and what made them know they wanted to do what they loved. I feel like my whole life I’ve known I’ve wanted to be an activist, even as a kid I was the one kid in the house talking back to my parents like, that’s not fair! I think it’s always been who I am, so if you ever feel lost, think about your inner child and what would make them feel the happiest, and know that nothing can stop you, but things take time.
Lastly, Fredi closed the conversation with a lovely piece of advice: I think my advice would just be to find joy and love and beauty in a lot of things. Especially as artists and activists of color I think that a lot of the time it feels like people are profiting off of your pain and trauma, or all of the bad things, and that just doesn’t fully encompass who I am, who we are as people. I think that focusing on joy and love and enjoying art in itself, within your art and within your activism, is so important. I would have told that to my younger self because I think that a lot of teachers wanted me to write something based off of my struggles, or create a piece of art that highlights all of the pain that me and my family have been through because we’re a mixed family and are of color. It’s a lot of pressure that white people put on people of color, all the time, and I think that it’s really important to find joy and exuberate all that is good about being of color.”
This was a lovely conversation, and I really suggest you follow their instagram and keep an eye of all the great things to come. Thank you again to Sumaya Bouhbal, Anya Jiménez, Fredi G-P, and Alexis Simon.
